Enchanted Arms (Xbox 360) > Reviews (8)

Enchanted Arms

The game is apparently Xbox 360 only but it is on PS3 as well and the game is made by developers UbiSoft. Enchanted Arms is a turn based JRPG (Japanese role playing game) that has been released here in the UK and many other countries. You play the role as a feisty character named Atsuma. The game starts in Atsuma's home city called Yokohama and he is there with his two friends Mokoto and Toya, they are all students attending the university there and they're studying enchanting, so they can become one of the best Golem hunters in the world (Golems in the game are simply monsters that are under your command). However one day after waking up all three of them decide to skip class, little did they know things were about to take a sinister turn for the worse. What they think is an apparent earthquake soon turns out to be something much more destructive. As you go looking round town you realize the Golems have all gone berserk and have started attacking the city folk and they will also attack you. After doing what you can for the civilians you, Mokoto and Toya go rushing back to the university, then when there you find out that things are in a critical state as a 'Sealed Ward' has been opened, as you search through it you find a Devil Golem, The Queen Of Ice. Now you do fight her but your meant to lose as she is incredibly way to strong right now. After losing she takes Toya and drops loads of ice on Mokoto, leaving you to fend for yourself, but then when things look doomed and destined to end Atsuma's right arm starts talking to him and saying things he doesn't understand. Soon after Atsuma awakens and finds the City of Yokohama virtually destroyed by the queen of ice and his two friends gone.

Can Atsuma find the answers he desires about his arm? about the disappearance of his friends? and can he defeat the Queen Of Ice! That is basically the first 15 minutes of playing the game and the story just gets better and better as you get further, you encounter endless enemies that you fight and you acquire new allies that help you on your journey to finding the answers you so desperately need. On your journey you also find many Golems that you fight and if you win you get the core material to that Golem and at these small shop points (that are scattered throughout the whole game) you can synthesize them into Golems and make them fight with you on your journey. Can you save the world from utter destruction? or is it destined for doom!

Gameplay

The gameplay to Enchanted Arms is actually absolutely fantastic, this game has everything RPG fans can ask for. Its got a great story that drags you in and makes it that more enjoyable. You play as Atsuma and as your walking round you do get the full on effect of the game and the scenery at times is beautiful. The gameplay is great, there are a few downsides as there are too any JRPG and one of which is you get in way to many fights as your trying to get to your current goal, now to be fair you need the fights to level up right?

but I just think fight after fight after fight isn't what an RPG is, its about the story and everything else. Throughout the game you acquire many characters and golems that can fight by your side and you can pick a party of four for your fights but Atsuma must be one of them so pretty much you can pick three from either members that have joined or from golems you've acquired. You can change your four members anytime you want. There are absolutely loads of bosses and some of them just take your breath away because they are designed brilliantly. There are many heal points throughout the game and also where ever there is a heal point there is usually a shop somewhere near by (which looks very similar to the heal points) where you can buy many things such as, things to heal your wounds when in battle, new equipment to make you stronger, items to replenish other things such as EP which is basically to do with magic. You can even buy some Golems but not many appear in the shops until you get further into the game. There are so many aspects to the gameplay that make this a brilliant and top role playing game and another is that with your SP points earned from the fights you can learn new skills r even upgrade your stats which you will definitely need to do. Another point I must make is you can save your game at anytime when in free roam where your controlling the character. All you do is bring up the menu with one of your buttons and go down to save and save it. My favourite thing is throughout the game you don't even have to read about the story and all the talking because the game actually uses voices so its basically read out to you and it makes the game that so much easier and better.

Graphics

The graphics to Enchanted Arms are actually pretty good for a 2006 game. The characters are really well designed and look the part especially Atsuma who you play as and also Raigar looks fantastic. The scenery from trees to water to even mountains look pretty good as well, and are very well designed by the publishers. I was very impressed with the amount of places you visit and how they was all looking very different to each other in almost every aspect of the game. The places look stunning from each village looking completely different to other villages and cities. Also places such as dungeons and caves and other places like thats, they all look pretty good for an oldish game. The movies that are in the game are great and look almost life like and they make the game that much better. You can see the difference from this games graphics to many older RPG games as most was 2D back in the day but this is 3D so things are getting a lot better in that way, however this game is from 2006 and the newer games that are getting released have far better graphics than this game, but I believe they are worthy enough of making this a fantastic game and well worth playing just because of that. The graphics in my opinion are pretty good and only have a few downsides to it but to be honest don't really make this anything other than strong as an RPG.

Sound

I was deeply impressed with the sound category of the game. This is one of the reason I loved it so much. The characters are all voiced by people and when they are in dramatic scenes and sad scenes and many other scenes they simply take your breath away as it almost gives you the feeling your in the actual game and up against everything they have to face, its great. I also loved the music to the game, I actually own the soundtrack and its brilliant. All the music has different effects and make the game special in so many ways. Its got sad music for the bad times and has high tempo music for the rushed times. There are also music for the cities, dungeons, cave's and many more places its simply relaxing. Now another part of the sound I was impressed with was when your in battle the sounds are breathtaking. With each move you use and each skill you use all the sounds are different and have that vibrant effect. Even when your running through forest or villages or even up mountain paths you can hear the different types of footsteps that make the game special in the sound department. Even when your walking through water the sounds are magnificent and possibly the best sounds I have heard to any game. Each Golem has its own unique sounds. Some like dragons make dragon noises, there are werewolf Golems, Clown Golems and ever a Pizza face Golem and they all have their own unique sound that make this brilliant!

Characters

As I have stated you play the role as Atsuma and he has to be in your fighting party at all times because the story is constantly about him and centers around him. Atsuma is a young man from the city of Yokohama and he goes to the Enchant University, although he isn't as good as the other students that attend the same class as him, he does however have the ability to be able to draw ether and enchantment power from others through his right arm, this worries all the other students and they don't really get on well with him. Atsuma is the kind of guy that acts first and thinks later, he also has heterochromia (one eye being green while the other is violet). Atsuma in my opinion is the perfect character to play, strong, quick and smart at times.

Karin is one of your first official members and the story does revolve around her as well at times as she is basically Atsuma's love interest as you can tell throughout the game, even though they don't actually date or anything you can see the chemistry the developers have put between them. Karin is from London City and a bit like Atsuma she too has a problem, she doesn't act first but instead she has a mouth on her that doesn't want to be messed with, Atsuma is always getting in trouble for saying something that probably isn't even wrong. All in all shes a great character and her best aspect is her healing ability as she is actually rather weak when attacking.

Raigar is Karin's bodyguard and this guy is designed brilliantly, his voice is deep, he looks really strong and he is in fact very strong.

However he does have a great personality in the game and has really polite manners, probably something I didn't expect but all in all he is a fantastic character and is with you throughout the game and plays a formidable role in the story. He is more of a father figure to Karin and to Atsuma and even at times other characters, as I always say you can rely on Raigar at all times.

Yuki is the final of the actually members that travel with you and to be fair she really annoys me, shes like a tomboy but a rather annoying little brat of one. Shes really stuck up always think shes right and she also wears the most ridiculous outfit ever. She is dressed as a cowgirl, a cowgirl you say? yep thats right but the worst thing about it is her outfit is yellow and looks really ugly, she is in my eyes the worst character in the game, she is also very weak and to be honest I have no idea why she is there. You meet her in a tournament you are forced to enter and you beat her and she still says she is way better than you.

Now there are a lot more characters in the game that don't actually fight with you and their are a couple that fight in a couple of brawls but thats about it. Makoto is a guy that fancies Toya who is also a guy and hes basically his guardian, these two do start with you before everything that happens but after that you don't see or use them till the very end. Sayaka is one of the characters that doesn't fight for you and she is in fact going to be the future wife of Raigar. Throughout the game you will meet another guy that is known all the way through the game as Mysterious Man, he helps you quite a lot and you will be really surprised who he is at the end of the game when you find out...not! It is so obvious but I wont say just in case you don't click on who it is. Other characters include Josei which is Sayaka's father and he doesn't like Raigar because what has happened in the past, The Sage who is apparently 200 years old but looks 12 if hes lucky, hes very funny and looks like a bird to me. There are many more characters that you interact with but you will need to play the game to find out.

Difficulty & Complexity

Now I have seen many reviews saying this can be an easy game and it can be a seriously hard game and to be perfectly honest it is only easy if you know what your doing. Basically when I was an amateur RPG games player and i first played this I found it rather difficult because I didn't know about upgrading my stats like my strength, speed and all the others but having twigged on eventually things became that little easier, however you have to bide your time with the fights especially the bosses as some can be really complicated. For example don't go rushing straight in all out attacking because some of them can counter and literally almost kill you with a counter hit. There are some puzzles that do get your mind boggling and may take a while to solve, they too can be quite tricky. The complexity of the layouts of each maze are however fairly simple as you do have a map that you can check at any time by just pushing the back button on your controller, makes things a lot more easier I can promise you that.

All in all it can be tricky in places but its a fun game.

Longevity

Now this was a bit of a surprise as most RPG games don't usually last 20 hours, whilst Enchanted Arms I found myself hitting over 50 hours of gameplay by the time I had completed it. I was shocked at the length of the game but to be fair quite a lot of that time I spent leveling up and with the movies and the talking it all adds up but I do think its a very long game and you can go back to it after a year down the line and enjoy the story again and again, I believe RPG games can last you a lifetime as I think they can be played again and again. However I didn't constantly play this for 50 hours straight and I certainly didn't spread it out and finish it within a week. Ive had this game for a couple of years now and I finally finished it the other day and was very impressed and its definitely going to be kept. A very long game and will last you for ages, well worth buying.

Game Modes And Multiplayer

Now to be perfectly honest RPG games usually only have one mode and thats either new game as they call it but in this case I will name it story mode. Story mode is 50 hours long and has a great story and is an enjoyable game all the way through it. There is however another mode on this game and its basically the multiplayer mode as well, its basically just called Xbox Live and the aim of the mode is to load your file (preferably when your near the end of the game) and you basically have Golem battles with the Golems you have saved on your main story saved game file. Pretty good idea right? funnily enough its a terrible idea and a dreadful mode, it might of been great for the first two weeks when the game was released but I tried it the other day and found out I was the only person in the entire world that was trying it. No one plays it anymore, even if they ever did to be fair. That is basically all there is to say about the game modes but there is an options mode where you can change things about the game like the camera angle, you can turn the music off and other simple bits like that, I also have the subtitles on so I can read the writing as well as hearing them talk just in case I miss anything. All in all multiplayer mode/online mode is weak but story mode is amazing!

Packaging

The case to Enchanted Arms is a quite interesting case to say the least. The cover is rather good, especially the back cover. As its stated on the back of the case, 'The First True RPG Adventure Exclusively On Xbox 360' and to be honest its right. On the front cover you have the main four characters, Atsuma, Karin, Raigar and Yuki and just beyond them in the background is the Queen Of Ice but slightly faded out, looks great. The back cover is actually rather interesting as I have just noticed that it does actually say over 50 hours worth of gameplay and the screenshots on the back are simply special. There is a character on the back as well basically takes up half the cover and it is in fact Sayaka. The packaging when I bought this was great but its not as good now its been opened.

Its obviously in a green case as well because thats what they all come in. The disc cover just says Enchanted Arms in bold letters and has either Ice or a Sky behind it, most likely Ice.

Value For Money?

By far the best £5 I have ever spent in my life. Considering the game is retailing at a totally ridiculous price now of £44.98 brand new, over on Amazon. I am really glad I bought this a few years back and because they don't sell too many copies over here they only make a limited number of them. Japanese games that get released over here or in the U.S have a tendency to turn rare and hard to find especially the pal version which you will need if your console was bought somewhere in the UK. Enchanted Arms is value for money at £5 and am not sure it is at £44.98 because that does sound ridiculous for a 2006 game. Its value for money back in the day because of the pretty lush graphics, its amazingly good sound effects and the absolutely fantastic and enthralling story to the game. Multiplayer doesn't really effect the games disappointing bits much because RPG games aren't really online...okay a few of them are nowadays. All in all are you willing to pay the hefty price tag for a game? or you can just go else where and find it second hand at a reasonable price.

Final Thought

Enchanted Arms isn't your typical role playing game, okay its got all the elements you see in other role playing games but in this one you get a whole lot of drama and an absolutely great game. You get characters that are designed to make an impact, characters that have voices so you don't have to read all the writing. You get some stunning visual effects and some amazingly beautifully designed places such as towns, cities, villages, temples, forests, dungeons and other places. You get, what I think is the best thing about the game and thats the sound effects and the music, which is simply brilliant and can compete with todays sound effects to the more recent games. There is 50 hours of gameplay maybe more if you want to play the game over and over again, some brilliantly designed Golems and other creatures that you can also interact with. This game has everything in my opinion and I am so glad I have it now. The game rarely disappoints and the only thing I was disappointed with was the online mode as it is pretty much ridiculous and a waste, more time could of been spent on the story than wasted on a game mode that no one ever plays. Since I have completed I am already missing playing the game and I have been tempted to start it again but I cant really as I have other games to play and complete. Plus I don't think work would be too pleased if I didn't go. Enchanted Arms is a fun game. The game is rated 12+ because it does have a lot of fighting in and has some language that the younger gamers may dislike or take offence to. The game also has a lot of ugly looking beast that some gamers may not like. All in all Enchanted Arms will be a classic RPG and is one of the best I have played and is possibly the best on the Xbox 360. Give it time and this will be a rare game and hard to find. I would recommend it to anybody who is a fan of RPG games or even adventure games because your on a whole adventure that last ages. I would give this gave a brilliant 9.5/10 almost perfect!

Review also on DooYoo under the username: simon020187!