Enchanted Arms
Posted September 14, 2006
Developed for Japanese gamers by FromSoftware, Enchanted Arms has been transposed by our friends at Ubisoft for North American consumption. This RPG is heavily entrenched in Japanese play style and holds very little similarities to recent Xbox 360 RPG's such as Oblivion. Gameplay aside, the presentation of Enchant is definitely molded around text conversations, but short videos at key dramatic points within the game provide a slight cinematic flavor to the story. 
At the outset of the tale, the narrative revolves around a group of students in a future where technology and magic have fused together to form a decidedly unstable world. Atsuma, Touya, and Makato are classmates at the Enchanting University before an impending catalyst sparks their epic quest. Specifically, an ancient creature known as a devil golem is freed, so it's up to Atsuma and his magic arm to prevent further disaster. The story is certainly entertaining and has a number of twists along the way, although far too obvious in some cases. Additionally, the linear nature of the story leaves little to the player in terms of decisions. Only the finality of the game provides a choice which alters the ending into two possible scenarios. It's disappointing FromSoftware didn't allow for more player decisions along the way to alter the direction of the story.
Gameplay:
The combat uses a turn based system that's seen in countless RPG titles. Heroes and enemies are each given a chance to inflict damage, heal teammates, or boost stats over each round. Also, players systematically choose a spot each round in a fifteen square grid to maximize their effectiveness. Characters with ranged attacks or weak hit points are better off sticking to the back while the opposite is true for stronger, melee characters. Battle continues until one side has been completely wiped out. Fortunately, the game provides for retrying battles that you lose without having to reload a save. Also, the game wonderfully eases players unfamiliar with the turn-based system into the style of fighting within the first ten minutes of the game.
Unfortunately, too much combat is a terrible thing. Enchanted Arms suffers from an overly hyperactive encounter rate. For those unfamiliar, an encounter rate determines the speed and quantity of battles that spontaneously occur within the game world. Enchanted Arms has an encounter rate that boggles the mind and frustrates to no end. Walking more than 10 steps within the game world is like living on borrowed time as the next free-spawning battle is just waiting to take you down. Additionally, the vitality rechargers are spread too thin along the way, which can cause massive personnel losses before that pertinent boss battle. Most distractingly, the storyline greatly suffers due the insane encounter rate. I'm willing to fight the occasional battle while digging into the narrative, but not at the expense of the story. This encounter frustration can easily turn away many RPG fans that have grown used to games like Oblivion and KOTOR.
While the encounter system drives you nuts, the amount of characters that can be switched out for powerless heroes is thankfully extensive. Besides the humans that accompany Atsuma on his quest to save the world, he has a large supply of robotic golems to assist the effort. Golems can be constructed from living cores (think Beast-Wars) and modeled into Rock 'em, Sock 'em fighting machines. Cores for golems can be purchased in the store and casino or can be recovered from fallen golems after a brawl. Golems cannot be taught new skills, but their stats can be boosted along the way. The predetermined skill set for golems focus on a certain section. For instance, a colorful gumdrop looking creature called EMO will suck enemy health and boost the stats of teammates while the Giant Hydra will use its many heads for a variety of large scale area attacks.
The puzzles are far too simple and sparsely laid out. Additionally, the game relies on heavily on collection or information quests. For instance, one quest in Junk City (a run-down desert town filled with miscreants) required me to speak to town members about a stolen item until I had enough information to proceed into a boss battle. This type of puzzle demanded nothing more than wandering around speaking to random people. Also, the conversation choice options border on moronic. Often, two out of three choices are painfully stupid and they make the real answer look pathetically obvious. Beyond these short gathering side quests, small puzzles, such as moving an object onto a platform, do not call for the slightest bit of brainpower.
The enemies are typically a bunch of pushovers, with the exception of the main devil golems. The opposing A.I. stupidly keeps all of the baddies within striking distance, regardless of the area limitations of the group. The A.I. does work together for combo hits and group healing though. For the most part, the lower level battles can be put on auto pilot assuming you are near a recharge station. The main boss battles are a completely different story though. For instance, the Earth devil golem has an absolutely insane level of damage resistance which makes that battle easily last 30 to 50 turns. Also, the final sequence of boss battles is extensively overbearing and tiresome to complete due to the high level of difficulty.
I was surprised to see multiplayer options for this RPG, but disappointed in the quality of the battles. Basically, the game allows for players to take a custom group of golems into the battles arena and duke it out. While the lag was nonexistent, battles became repetitious after I noticed Xbox Live players were continually using the same combination of golems to dominate me in the field. After switching up myself, I noticed that it became a matter of who hit first rather than a level of skill involved to win. Multiplayer battles are a quaint extra, but do not add tremendously to the replay value of the game.
The achievements are split into 25 tasks that tally up to 1000 gamerscore points. All the achievements are awarded for single player tasks and strictly adhere to the storyline. Similar to King Kong, simply playing through the entire game is the method for gamerscore success. While none of the achievements are overly difficult, the developer requires a massive amount of time to rack up the full grand. Completing everything will take a minimum of 25 to 30 hours with a sufficient walkthrough, but can rapidly increase with treasure chest and golem exploration. FromSoftware didn't venture into creative depths when assigning points, but they did adequately spread the points out within the main storyline.
Graphics:
Visually, the game is aesthetically sharp, but absent of character or environmental detail to the extent seen in most Xbox 360 titles. The most impressive moments are within the actual battles as the explosion effects for special moves are a tremendous cacophony of colorful animations. Every character's special move is worth seeing at least once to admire the artistic effort that went into the design. Also, the videos are highly polished compared to the standard fare of in-game cinematic movies. Moving animations are much more complete as well as the facial expressions.
Sadly, the remaining visuals detract from the higher quality elements of the graphics engine. Most conversations use erratic character animations with only a small handful of actual poses. Characters will repeat the same, tired pose several times during any conversation. While the environmental textures and layouts are fairly scenic, the absence of life within the area makes me long for Oblivion. The only level environments that seem lifelike are the various towns due to a variety of moving characters.
Audio:
The English voice acting for the main characters ranges between horrific to eardrum-stabbingly awful. The voice actors aren't completely absent of talent, but the odd direction of the character attitudes borders on stereotypical garbage. One could also blame the translation as well. It's fairly obvious the translators were given little freedom in modifying the literal meaning into something understandable at many points in the dialogue. Many of the phrases are repeated ad nauseam and become grating on the ears after the umpteenth hour into the game.
The environmental sound effects are effective with a 5.1 DD system, although it's odd to listen to an environment that sounds lifelike when the visuals say otherwise. Listening to birds chirping and the wind blowing in the countryside is almost eerie with static backgrounds. The musical score isn't to the level heard in the recently released Ninety Nine Nights, but provides ample dramatic bravado to the battles and multitude of videos. The score is mostly comprised of driving classical music that heightens the level of tension at the correct moments.
Conclusion:
Even when taking account of the superlative qualities of Enchanted Arms, the game is still an extreme chore to play due the brutal encounter rate. Oddly enough, the game reminded me of watching an entire televised season of Smallville. You have to sit through a ton of poor writing, horrific acting, and pointless battles to get to the few, delightful story elements along the way. It's a trade-off that many North American gamers will shun as Japanese kookiness and take the game back to their local game store in a state of annoyance.
I can't recommend Enchanted Arms for purchase at any current price, but it may be worth renting if you dig the Eastern style of gameplay. If you do take the plunge, I advise you to turn off the poor English translations and stick to the original Japanese language with English subtitles. You may not understand what they are saying, but your sanity will be intact at the end of the 30 to 40 hour bout.
At the outset of the tale, the narrative revolves around a group of students in a future where technology and magic have fused together to form a decidedly unstable world. Atsuma, Touya, and Makato are classmates at the Enchanting University before an impending catalyst sparks their epic quest. Specifically, an ancient creature known as a devil golem is freed, so it's up to Atsuma and his magic arm to prevent further disaster. The story is certainly entertaining and has a number of twists along the way, although far too obvious in some cases. Additionally, the linear nature of the story leaves little to the player in terms of decisions. Only the finality of the game provides a choice which alters the ending into two possible scenarios. It's disappointing FromSoftware didn't allow for more player decisions along the way to alter the direction of the story.
Gameplay:
The combat uses a turn based system that's seen in countless RPG titles. Heroes and enemies are each given a chance to inflict damage, heal teammates, or boost stats over each round. Also, players systematically choose a spot each round in a fifteen square grid to maximize their effectiveness. Characters with ranged attacks or weak hit points are better off sticking to the back while the opposite is true for stronger, melee characters. Battle continues until one side has been completely wiped out. Fortunately, the game provides for retrying battles that you lose without having to reload a save. Also, the game wonderfully eases players unfamiliar with the turn-based system into the style of fighting within the first ten minutes of the game.
Unfortunately, too much combat is a terrible thing. Enchanted Arms suffers from an overly hyperactive encounter rate. For those unfamiliar, an encounter rate determines the speed and quantity of battles that spontaneously occur within the game world. Enchanted Arms has an encounter rate that boggles the mind and frustrates to no end. Walking more than 10 steps within the game world is like living on borrowed time as the next free-spawning battle is just waiting to take you down. Additionally, the vitality rechargers are spread too thin along the way, which can cause massive personnel losses before that pertinent boss battle. Most distractingly, the storyline greatly suffers due the insane encounter rate. I'm willing to fight the occasional battle while digging into the narrative, but not at the expense of the story. This encounter frustration can easily turn away many RPG fans that have grown used to games like Oblivion and KOTOR.
While the encounter system drives you nuts, the amount of characters that can be switched out for powerless heroes is thankfully extensive. Besides the humans that accompany Atsuma on his quest to save the world, he has a large supply of robotic golems to assist the effort. Golems can be constructed from living cores (think Beast-Wars) and modeled into Rock 'em, Sock 'em fighting machines. Cores for golems can be purchased in the store and casino or can be recovered from fallen golems after a brawl. Golems cannot be taught new skills, but their stats can be boosted along the way. The predetermined skill set for golems focus on a certain section. For instance, a colorful gumdrop looking creature called EMO will suck enemy health and boost the stats of teammates while the Giant Hydra will use its many heads for a variety of large scale area attacks.
The puzzles are far too simple and sparsely laid out. Additionally, the game relies on heavily on collection or information quests. For instance, one quest in Junk City (a run-down desert town filled with miscreants) required me to speak to town members about a stolen item until I had enough information to proceed into a boss battle. This type of puzzle demanded nothing more than wandering around speaking to random people. Also, the conversation choice options border on moronic. Often, two out of three choices are painfully stupid and they make the real answer look pathetically obvious. Beyond these short gathering side quests, small puzzles, such as moving an object onto a platform, do not call for the slightest bit of brainpower.
The enemies are typically a bunch of pushovers, with the exception of the main devil golems. The opposing A.I. stupidly keeps all of the baddies within striking distance, regardless of the area limitations of the group. The A.I. does work together for combo hits and group healing though. For the most part, the lower level battles can be put on auto pilot assuming you are near a recharge station. The main boss battles are a completely different story though. For instance, the Earth devil golem has an absolutely insane level of damage resistance which makes that battle easily last 30 to 50 turns. Also, the final sequence of boss battles is extensively overbearing and tiresome to complete due to the high level of difficulty.
I was surprised to see multiplayer options for this RPG, but disappointed in the quality of the battles. Basically, the game allows for players to take a custom group of golems into the battles arena and duke it out. While the lag was nonexistent, battles became repetitious after I noticed Xbox Live players were continually using the same combination of golems to dominate me in the field. After switching up myself, I noticed that it became a matter of who hit first rather than a level of skill involved to win. Multiplayer battles are a quaint extra, but do not add tremendously to the replay value of the game.
The achievements are split into 25 tasks that tally up to 1000 gamerscore points. All the achievements are awarded for single player tasks and strictly adhere to the storyline. Similar to King Kong, simply playing through the entire game is the method for gamerscore success. While none of the achievements are overly difficult, the developer requires a massive amount of time to rack up the full grand. Completing everything will take a minimum of 25 to 30 hours with a sufficient walkthrough, but can rapidly increase with treasure chest and golem exploration. FromSoftware didn't venture into creative depths when assigning points, but they did adequately spread the points out within the main storyline.
Graphics:
Visually, the game is aesthetically sharp, but absent of character or environmental detail to the extent seen in most Xbox 360 titles. The most impressive moments are within the actual battles as the explosion effects for special moves are a tremendous cacophony of colorful animations. Every character's special move is worth seeing at least once to admire the artistic effort that went into the design. Also, the videos are highly polished compared to the standard fare of in-game cinematic movies. Moving animations are much more complete as well as the facial expressions.
Sadly, the remaining visuals detract from the higher quality elements of the graphics engine. Most conversations use erratic character animations with only a small handful of actual poses. Characters will repeat the same, tired pose several times during any conversation. While the environmental textures and layouts are fairly scenic, the absence of life within the area makes me long for Oblivion. The only level environments that seem lifelike are the various towns due to a variety of moving characters.
Audio:
The English voice acting for the main characters ranges between horrific to eardrum-stabbingly awful. The voice actors aren't completely absent of talent, but the odd direction of the character attitudes borders on stereotypical garbage. One could also blame the translation as well. It's fairly obvious the translators were given little freedom in modifying the literal meaning into something understandable at many points in the dialogue. Many of the phrases are repeated ad nauseam and become grating on the ears after the umpteenth hour into the game.
The environmental sound effects are effective with a 5.1 DD system, although it's odd to listen to an environment that sounds lifelike when the visuals say otherwise. Listening to birds chirping and the wind blowing in the countryside is almost eerie with static backgrounds. The musical score isn't to the level heard in the recently released Ninety Nine Nights, but provides ample dramatic bravado to the battles and multitude of videos. The score is mostly comprised of driving classical music that heightens the level of tension at the correct moments.
Conclusion:
Even when taking account of the superlative qualities of Enchanted Arms, the game is still an extreme chore to play due the brutal encounter rate. Oddly enough, the game reminded me of watching an entire televised season of Smallville. You have to sit through a ton of poor writing, horrific acting, and pointless battles to get to the few, delightful story elements along the way. It's a trade-off that many North American gamers will shun as Japanese kookiness and take the game back to their local game store in a state of annoyance.
I can't recommend Enchanted Arms for purchase at any current price, but it may be worth renting if you dig the Eastern style of gameplay. If you do take the plunge, I advise you to turn off the poor English translations and stick to the original Japanese language with English subtitles. You may not understand what they are saying, but your sanity will be intact at the end of the 30 to 40 hour bout.