Enchanted Arms is a lackluster RPG that is easily forgettable.
THE GOOD
-Unique battle system
-Golem hunting is fun
THE BAD
-Weak story
-Annoying characters (except for Toya)
-Way too many random battles
-Lots of maintenance
OVERVIEW
Enchanted Arms has a few instances of good character development, story telling and RPG gameplay. However, majority of the game offers an uninspiring plot, annoying dialog and many gameplay features that RPG gamers have grown to hate. The story takes place 1000 years after the Golem Wars, which were a series of battles between very powerful golems. Golems are either organic or inorganic creatures that have special powers. In the present time, most of the golems are man-made and are used to serve the general public and aren't a threat to anyone. This takes us to our main character, Atsuma, and his two friends Makoto and Toya. These three guys are students at the Enchanter's University in Yokohama City. They're here to study and become powerful enchanters which are sort of like magic users. Atsuma is basically a lazy moron that genuinely cares for other people. He also has a mysterious right arm that pains him from time to time. Our "dim-witted" Atsuma ends up being a very poor choice as the lead but you're stuck with him. Toya is by far the most interesting character and is best friends with Atsuma. He is calm, cool and collected. Toya is a self-less and very intelligent man for his age. Makoto is an absurd and self-centered kind of guy. He thinks lowly of Atsuma and definitely shows his discuss often. Makoto is a complainer and most of the conversations with him involve him whining about something. However, whenever Toya is around Makoto, being a transvestite, he is a completely different person.
Anyways, our three friends decide to skip class and attend a festival in Yokohama's town square. You'll meet another character in the golem battle tent. Yuki, the young and naïve golem hunter, with her squeaky little voice wants to become the number one golem hunter in the world just to collect lots of money. This little gold digger is very irritating at first and pretty much stays that way for the entire game. After enjoying themselves there an unexpected event happens. An earthquake startles everyone for a moment and then things get worse when all the golems start attacking humans. Atsuma and company fight there way back to the school to help out other fellow students when they discover a devil golem underneath the school. The devil golem Atsuma meets up with is the Queen of Ice. After a quick little skirmish, Toya is captured and Makoto seems lifeless after ice chunks fall on top of him leaving Atsuma to fend for himself. Atsuma, being directed by the voice of his arm, unleashes a huge attack with his right arm but it is not enough to stop the Queen. Atsuma collapses and the Queen of Ice completely destroys Yokohama city in a flash.
Atsuma wakes up in a prison cell with Karin in London City. Karin is a stubborn princess of London City that treats everyone like dirt, even the people that save her life. Karin with her bossy personality ends up being the type of woman that nobody likes to be around and there have been many times when I have yelled at the TV for Karin to shut up. The ungrateful princess is imprisoned with Atsuma because she is leading a resistance against her father. You see her father wants to resurrect the fire devil golem in London City to fight the Queen of Ice and Karin thinks that this is a bad idea. Anyways, after filling Atsuma in on the issues, her powerful bodyguard Raigar comes and helps the two escape. Raigar is the noble knight assigned to protect Lady Karin. Now Raigar is a great guy and all but the crap he takes from Karin is very disheartening. After the break out, the three of them (with Yuki meeting up with them shortly) find out more about the devil golems. They learn that the Queen of Ice has captured Toya and is controlling him as her magicore. You'll find out more about magicores and why the Queen of Ice wants to revive the other devil golems; the Emperor of Fire and Lord of Earth. Plus, you'll meet a Mystery Man and the voice behind Atsuma's right arm and find out each of their agendas in the whole ordeal.
Like I said before, pretty much all the characters have uninteresting personalities which coupled with a weak story ends up making the game more of a chore instead of a fun gaming experience.
GAMEPLAY
Alright enough story, now let's get into the gameplay. The battle system is one of the better features in Enchanted Arms. Once a battle is triggered two unique 3x4 grids appear with your party and enemies on opposite sides. The starting positions of all the characters in battle are random. Each side will get a chance to move each character on the grid and then perform an action. These actions include using an item, performing a skill, or unleashing a super attack (EX). Every action has a specific range of squares it will cover on the grid. For example, Karin's healing skill will heal herself and the squares to the right, left and forward. Another thing to keep in mind is that every single skill requires Ether Points (EP). This is sort of like your magic points in other standard RPGs. This adds plenty of strategy into every single battle which RPG gamers will enjoy.
When characters and enemies perish on the battlefield, their bodies remain in the occupied spots for three turns and then fade away so it is important to revive your friends sooner than later. Two very useful features are that you can speed up the actions of everyone in battle by holding down the "Y" button and you can have the computer choose the optimum actions for your characters to execute in one round using the "RT" button. This is very useful if you're sick of all the random battles and want to proceed quicker through them and also makes leveling up faster too. The thought put into this is well appreciated. Another nice feature is that all your characters start off with full hit points and ether points at the beginning of a battle. The only thing you have to worry about is replenishing your Vitality Points (VP). Battles will drain VP and if it drops to zero that character will start any battle with one HP and EP. There is one setback to the battle system, however, in that there are too many random battles. Enchanted Arms almost feels like an old school RPG like Final Fantasy (for the NES) with it's number of random fights which can get irritating especially if you make a wrong turn and have to back track.
The leveling system is mediocre compared to other RPGs. Atsuma and friends will earn Experience Points (EXP) and Skill Points (SP) from dispatching foes. After obtaining a certain amount of EXP your characters will gain levels and automatically increase slightly (and I mean a very disappointingly small amount) in six different parameters: HP, EP, Direct Damage, Ranged Damage, Support and Speed. However, you can use your SP to increase these attributes a little more. SP can also be used to learn new skills and supports (passive abilities). Five skills and supports is the most your characters can be equipped with at any time. This is kind of inadequate because it makes every fight seem boringly similar. Another gripe I have about Enchanted Arms is that there is a lot of maintenance to perform. This means that you have to go through too many menus in order to update your heroes. For instance, you'll have to go to one menu option to learn skills and then you need to back out and enter another menu option to equip the skill. Another example is when characters leave your party. This happens a few times during the course of the game and when they return you have to go back in and setup your party once again. This may not seem like much but when you have to do this hundreds of times it gets quite annoying.
There are a few extra things to do in Enchanted Arms but unfortunately only the Golem Hunting is worth your time. All throughout the game you'll not only fight golems but have the chance to capture them too. Typically the golems are located off the beaten path and once you defeat them they'll join your party. Golems can be fun to level up but it also means that you have to sub one of them in instead of your main characters. London City also offers a gambling casino with games like roulette but these games aren't really that much fun.
GRAPHICS & SOUND
The visuals are actually quite poor for Xbox 360 standards. This goes for the in-game graphics. The cut scenes look a little better; it's just a shame that there isn't too many of them.
The voice acting is good in Enchanted Arms, even though some of the characters have screeching (nails on a chalkboard) voices (like Yuki). The music and sound effects are nothing special, especially the uninspiring random battle music.
CONCLUSION
Enchanted Arms does a few things right but mostly this RPG experience has too many short comings. The dull story and characters is a real drag and makes it difficult to really get into the game. Not even the strategic battle system can save this game from escaping mediocrity. I wouldn't recommend purchasing this game and if I have to hear Yuki say that she is the number one golem hunter one more time I think I might blow my brains out.