Enchanted Arms is yet another decent RPG that contines to be overlooked, which is a shame.
GAMEPLAY - 8 - Combat is a mixture of the familiar and a little bit of innovation. As you travel there will be random battles, and overall they tend to happen frequently. While most people don't like this feature it does have a saving grace in that you can actually have your characters auto-battle, and for random battles this works out fine because most of the basic enemies are quite easy to defeat. Naturally boss battles are more difficult and will require active participation and strategy. Battles are set up in a grid with your characters on one half and the enemies on the other, and the strategy involves placing your characters in the best spots to use their various attacks, as some will be better with ranged, others with close attacks etc. An unusual aspect is that characters automatically go back to full health after a battle. What has to be monitored is their Vitality Points, as some will be lost every time they take damage in a battle. When VP gets to zero the character is basically useless until either a recharging station is found or a VP potion is taken. Parties can have up to four active characters, and this is where the game's other distinguishing feature takes place. Throughout the game you will come across golems, which are basically robots. Golems can be created at shops or can be found at special locations and battled in order to add them to your party, and you can switch out one of your main characters with one of your golems if you wish. There are over 100 different golems in the game, and each one is very unique in their appearance and in their element based attacks. A few of the dungeons did require some puzzle solving to get from one end of the other but thankfully it never really became a chore. Overall the battles were enjoyable, especially since you can rush through the mundane encounters and work on your strategy for the tough enemies. The game does follow a rather linear path.
GRAPHICS - 8 - Overall the graphics were pleasant and certain areas, especially cities, tend to be highly detailed though the countryside can become rather plain. Character details were good and has been mentioned the numerous golems are all completely unique and most were highly detailed as well. Special magic attacks were usually impressive in a Final Fantasy kind of way. There weren't too many cut scenes, which was a bit disappointing because the few that occurred were very impressive. During typical conversations the game would use a setup where different characters were in their own windows with limited movement and expression to go with their talking, which was acceptable but seemed a bit out of date.
SOUND - 7 - The soundtrack is quite good, if not exactly memorable at least it isn't annoying. You do have have the option to use Japanese voices with English subtitles, and I highly recommend this. Admittedly I prefer using the original Japanese anyways but in this case it is much better due to the fact that the English actors just weren't very good and the Japanese voices were very entertaining with a lot of emotion. Sure, at times it was over the top but it was usually very amusing as well.
STORY - 8 - While the story won't blow you away it was enjoyable and intriguing enough that I always wanted to get to the next part to see what was going to happen next. It has its share of plot twists and mysterious characters to keep your interest, and fortunately has a sense of humor to go along with its dark moments.
VALUE - 8 - I basically reached the final boss area in about 46 hours, and then found out that my party was nowhere near strong enough for that. At that point I had to level grind for another 12 hours and give it another shot, at which point I was able to successfully complete the game. My final tally was just over 60 hours, a decent amount of time though I prefer the RPGs that can more or less let you continue to advance the story all the way to the conclusion w/o spending a lot of time level grinding. Obtaining golems for the most part is an option, you could probably complete the game w/o bothering to obtain any of them. However it is fun to collect them and to see how unique and how powerful some of them can be. There is actually an online golem battle available where you can pit your most powerful golems against other people. Anyone should be able to get this game for a decent price, I bought a used copy for $20 and certainly thought it was a good value.
SUMMARY - 7.8 - The game I played previous to this was Blue Dragon, and while it had some good moments I'd have to rate Enchanted arms as the more enjoyable of the two. The story was more interesting and it moved along at a much better rate. Perhaps most important the characters were much more interesting and entertaining to watch. I have not yet played either Eternal Sonata or Lost Odyssey so I can't compare it to those games but overall I can say that Enchanted arms is an enjoyable experience, and recommended for JRPG fans that own either a 360 or PS3.