Alter Code: F to be wilder

New details have emerged about Wild Arms Alter Code: F, SCEI's PlayStation 2 remake of the 1997 PlayStation classic. Unlike its predecessor, Alter Code: F will let players have more than three characters in their party. Along with new characters "Calamity" Jane Maxwell, McDullen Harts (Jane's butler) and Professor Emma Hetfield, players can enlist Rudy, Cecilia and Jack, the three heroes from the original Wild Arms.

Jane is an arms user similar to Rudy, McDullen is a swordsman similar to Jack, and Emma fights by using a gun with a boxing glove attached at the end. Like the three original characters, the new party members also have their own original skills. One example is Emma, who has a skill named "download" that allows her to copy an enemy's attack and use it against them.

In Alter Code: F's battle system, the player can select a set of two parties that each consist of three members. One party will be directly engaging in the battle, while the other party will be waiting in the background, off-screen, where they can recover life energy by consuming vitality points. The player can switch the fighting party and the background party at the beginning of any turn during the battle. However, when the enemies ambush from behind, the party in the background will have to fight instead of the foreground party.

Wild Arms Alter Code: F is scheduled for a November 27 release in Japan, at the retail price of ¥6,800 ($62). Preordered copies of the game will receive a free Wild Arms History disc, which includes illustrations and movie clips from past releases of the Wild Arms series.