Wild Arms is a good game. Not too easy, not too hard. Not all that great, but nowhere near bad.
Yeah, it's a good RPG... not an overly original one, okay?
In fact, take 5 parts Final Fantasy IV, 5 parts Chrono Trigger, and 1 parts The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and you've got Wild Arms. What does Wild Arms bring to the table though? Why should you play it?
Well to tell you the truth, not much. The out-of-battle 2d graphics are pretty, but nothing spectacular, while the in-battle graphics are total blah 3d, which is now obviously just a ploy to say "hey! this game is modern!" back when the ps1 came out and 3d was all the rage. Yo yo yo.
There are pretty annoyingly random battles, a good enough share of freeze times and a pretty disjointed story. Seriously, it feels like the guys were writing this thing as they went along (more than likely, they were). There are very few surprises, except maybe Rudy's origin, and even then you can tell all the archetypes this is ripping from.
Still, Wild Arms probably didn't set out to rewrite the book on RPGs, but it did set out to be an enjoyably epic excursion. Not to mention boasting a pretty formidable learning curve and more than enough challenge for the RPG aficianodo. Its platforming-esque elements set the standard for the series to expand on, and were pretty interesting at the time indefinitely. A wealth of sidequests and helpful items to obtain. A story that somehow still keeps you going, even though it is at times hard to care about. A fairly open world with secrets, secrets galore.
Wild Arms is a good game. Not too easy, not too hard. Not all that great, but nowhere near bad. Why should you play this game? Well, if you're old school I guess. If you like RPGs. If you wanna waste some time. If you have a PSP. If you have 6 bucks to spare. All of the above.
Wild Arms is not and never was groundbreaking, but it is/was enjoyable, and that's all you need in a game... I hope.