Wild Arms 2 was overlooked after its release, being poorly received by many game reviewers. This is what I too had in mind when I first switched it on. Fortunately, I was surprised.

Wild ARMs 2 has little in common with other 2000 release Playstation games, at least on the visual level. The game makes use of sprites on 3D maps, with full polygons for battle. The polygons were perhaps not the best choice, as they little resembled their animated counter-parts and had a fuzzy quality that was rather off-putting for a while. Fuzzy too was the text, and I probably missed a few things in the first few hours because I had trouble reading everything. Still, Wild ARMs 2 sported a few Anime cinemas and generally decent character and world design.

The audio experience was far better. In addition to the familiar classical feel that many RPGs favor, Wild ARMs 2 had a healthy amount of western-esque tunes. With one exception, the music ranged from decent to incredibly catchy and moving. The exception, however, is the worst one possible; the main battle theme. Even as I progressed, every time I'd start the game again and get into the first battle, I'd cringe the tiniest bit. Still, even this did not detract from the strength of the otherwise delightful soundtrack.

The story was enjoyable but not outstanding. Revolving around a tactical unit called ARMS and its leader Ashley Winchester, the plot is a contrast of cliché and uniqueness. For every occasion when a player can accurately guess an outcome half an hour or so in advance, something utterly unexpected and new will pop up. Plot twists are fairly plentiful, but presented in a way that seemed to kill the surprise. A twist would often be casually revealed during conversation, and no one paid particular attention to it. Still, the story moved evenly and surely, and never let the player get too detached or bored.

Marring this is a rather poor localization effort. Though offering no 'classically' bad lines like "Items being used", it is not uncommon for a bit of dialog to leave you staring at the screen wondering if you understood what was actually said.

This in mind, the cast was again enjoyable but unspectacular. Ashley develops well enough, and the characters were generally interesting, but the flawed dialog rendered seemingly important lines senseless. The biggest letdowns here are Lilka and Brad, the secondary main characters. However, a character encountered late in the game, Anastasia, was quite moving and 'real', a brilliant bright spot in the slight murk of cruddy translation.

Gameplay in Wild ARMs 2 has more to it than one would expect in a turn-based game. Combat is fairly simple, using FP acquired by attacking and taking damage to fuel abilities. Each character has some abilities which can be used as long as they have a certain amount of FP, and used repeatedly, and others that consume FP, costing either 25, 50, 75 or 100. Each of the characters has a unique set, but any character can take advantage of personal skills, which add things like status protection or regeneration. The execution of all this is quite simple, but battles are quick-paced and enjoyable. The game is perhaps a little too easy, but no less enjoyable for it.

Beyond combat, gameplay has a few other elements to keep things interesting. Wild ARMs 2 has good amount of puzzles, with each character gaining Tools throughout the game with which to solve them. Many of the puzzles were simply there, but a few were challenging enough to invoke a real sense of accomplishment for solving them. One or two were rendered nearly unsolvable by the translation, but overall did not dull the experience. Finally, although the game has random battles, Wild ARMs 2 has a system in which you are given a warning before entering battle. If the enemies are lower leveled than you, you can simply avoid the fight. I managed to get ahead in levels early on, so for three quarters of the game I seldom had to fight non-bosses. Wild ARMs 2 offers a plethora of extras. The world map is chock full of hidden items and locations. Map locations are hidden until you 'find' them with a certain ability, but this seldom hindered exploration and was a non-factor completely by the midpoint. There is also a hidden character and no fewer than 7 hidden uber-bosses for those who thought the main quest was lacking in difficulty.

I completed the game in about 30 hours, completing a good chunk of the side-quest, but by no means all. I tried only one uber-boss, and he happened to be susceptible to instant death. In all, Wild ARMs 2 is a fine game deserving more respect than it has received.

Final Grade: 82%