This latest incarnation of the Wild ARMs series is a bit of a letdown.
The story is a good one, but we've heard it before. A kingdom is in turmoil, political upheavals and backroom schemings notwithstanding, and a young girl stumbles upon a series of events that will determine the whole of Filgaia (the premier, dying Wild ARMs world of yore) The characters are a standard lot of hero-types; armed with guns, swords and magical abilities. Formulaic dialogue and a slew of cliches hurt these characters, and I couldn't bring myself to care about them. I admire the story for trying to bring the Wild ARMs universe to a new standard, but the reason such an attempt fails is because it is too similar to most other games and can't pull its own weight, especially as it progresses. The plot twist, which I will not spoil here, jumps the pace a little, but it only delays the plight of generic mediocrity.
The hex-based tactical combat system is a good idea in practice, and makes for some engaging times. At its core, it is very much similar to other games--you move characters individually and everything is accordingly turn-based. Taking pages from Wild ARMs 4 and 5 before it, you traverse a hexagonal battlefield. It might take a little getting used to at first seeing how the view is isometric, but once you get the hang of it, you shouldn't have a lot of problems. I do like how you get to use different classes for individual characters--there are quite a variety of them each portending to their own unique abilities that set them apart from one another. But the problem I have here is that you do not get many opportunities to harvest your characters and classes, save for some free battles that do not reward a lot of EXP, and most Missions, divided into acts and chapters, ask that you continually change classes to suit the situations at hand. For example, a class known as the Gadgeteer is the only class able to use items on allies, and only the Fantastica are able to break and move obstacles on the playfield. The difficulty in many of these missions in lieu of the draconian rule base do not help matters. Granted, I give the battle system points for trying to make it challenging and different; for the truly dedicated gamer willing to overlook such challenges, it will not disappoint. For the rest of us, it will force many a casual or discerning gamer to almost throw their PSPs.
The voice acting is far from being the best in the world, and is as you'd expect of many anime dubs found today; overacted and dramatic when it need not be. Thankfully, there is a Japanese voice track option, or simply the choice of shutting it off. The music is pretty good, but I miss Michiko Naruke's excellent orchestrations--she did, however, have a hand in writing the opening theme song--which is sung in Japanese. The graphics are quite nice, and story scenes are displayed in hand-drawn artwork with miniscule frames of animation.
While there are some admirable qualities found in Wild ARMs XF, I was still left a little disheartened by the whole experience. I am not saying the Wild ARMS series is on the verge of decline--with faith, the franchise, having already spawned five games, has much room to invent itself. Sadly, Wild ARMs XF doesn't quite help in that endeavor. But if you insist on playing it, rent it first before you decide upon ownership--keeping in mind that there are better games of its kind out there for the PSP.