Short but sweet.

User Rating: 7.8 | Wild Arms: The 4th Detonator PS2
This is my first Wild Arms game. The setting in a post-apocalyptic wild west world was intriguing to me and I was'nt disappointed with the experience.

The main characters are generic but the storyline is surprisingly entertaining. One thing that stands out in this JRPG is the lack of CGI cutscenes. Instead we have manga-like splitscreens to move the story along. These are done quite well imo.

The graphics are cell-shaded and clean with come nice textures. The environments depict a devastation of a post-apocalyptic world quite well. Unfortunately the envrironments also include some really dumb designs that destroy the sense of illusion it tried so hard to create.

This brings me to the most annoying and unnecessary aspect of this game. The jumping and the puzzles that go with it.

In the game, the main character has the ability to jump around better than an energizer bunny on a pogo stick. Thus, the designers of the environments HAD to make some ridiculous and unrealistic puzzles within the einvironment.

For example, in one part of the game you are on an airship. The only way to get from one side of the airship to the other is by jumping from on spring board to another ala supermario. I mean wtf??? The turnover rate for airmen must be tremendous, not to mention the fact that immersion in the world goes flying out the window.

Oh yeah, did I mention that there are more and more puzzles like this as the game progresses? There was one in a church that had me tearing my hair out.

Thankfully this is not the main part of the game. No, the saving grace is the hex battle system. Combining strategy boardgame and turn-based combat into one. Very nice and innovative.

Music is excellent I must say. I particularly like the world map music and the battle music.

Overall a good RPG, if a little short. I would rate it higher but the jumping puzzles pissed me off.