The story should be very familiar to those of you who have played Wild Arms. Even though the much of the story is ripped from the first game, the translation is completely different. For those of you who haven’t played the original, it starts out following a blue haired (you gotta have blue hair) boy named Rudy. Rudy is known as a Wonderer, someone who wanders from town to town as sort of a mercenary picking up jobs here and there. The action begins almost right away when a little boy from town disappears while exploring a forbidden cave. It’s up to Rudy to check out the cave for answers.

After you finish with Rudy’s little starter quest the game switches gears by introducing Jack, a treasure hunter who’s gotten himself into trouble. You control him through his ordeal before the game again shifts to another character, Cecilia. Only after completing all three scenarios will the three characters finally meet and join up to form an alliance. It’s here that we’re treated to a lengthy anime sequence, complete with the original’s opening music. This introductory video is all new and worth watching.

The look of the game is very much like Wild Arms 3 with a different filter in front of the camera. If you look closely, it almost looks like you are playing the game on old parchment. However, unlike Wild Arms 3, the game is not cell shaded. Graphically the game is inferior to most other recent RPGs released on the PS2, like Digital Devil Saga, Magna Carta, or Dragon Quest VIII. Still, they are a vast improvement over the original game and do the job nicely.

The battle system is pretty straight forward, and there is an in-game tutorial that pops up whenever you encounter something new for the first time. One nice aspect during battle is that after you input your commands to your characters, the enemies and your team wander around the battlefield simultaneously. This creates the illusion that a real battle is taking place instead of just lining up in a straight line and going at it one by one. There are two improvements to the battle system, first is that after you fight, you have a VIT gauge. The VIT gauge has a percentage, as long as you have some VIT gauge left at the end of the fight, your HP is recovered. In the second new aspect, there is the encounter gauge. Right before you enter an encounter, an exclamation point will appear over your head. As long as you have points in your encounter gauge, you can press the circle button and skip the fight entirely. The really nice part about this gauge is if the fight you are about to engage in is a really wimpy fight, the exclamation point will be green. If this happens, you can press the circle button to skip the fight without spending any points from your encounter gauge. Thus eliminating a lot of useless fighting later in the game.

The magic system is a little different from traditional RPGs. You still have the MP system, but you find items called Crest Graphs in your journeys. You use these Crest Graphs by combining two elements to them at a magic shop, thus creating a new magic spell. There are a total of 32 spells in the game, so naturally there are 32 Crest Graphs to locate. Creating a spell doesn’t mean that you have permanently lost the Crest Graph. You can remove the elements from the graphs at any time to reclaim a blank Crest Graph. Another big separation from most RPGs is the noticeable lack of equipment to buy. There are no armor or weapon stores, but you can still purchase items, magic, and arm upgrades. This streamlined method suits the game well and keeps the game going at a quick pace.

If you are a fan of RPGs this game is a must-have. It seamlessly combines a fantasy setting with a Wild West motif that makes the game enjoyable to play through. Fans of the original will be pleased to know that three extra characters become playable throughout the quest, creating some new story elements along the way. With an easy to learn battle system and fun game play, Wild Arms - Alter Code: F is a fantastic RPG that will be enjoyed by fans of the original and newcomers alike.