Product Description

Enchanted Arms places you in the control of Atsuma, who early in his adventure manages to inadvertently open a seal which revives the fierce Devil Golem.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7593 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Released on: 2007-03-23
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Enchanted Arms places you in the control of Atsuma, who early in his adventure manages to inadvertently open a seal which revives the fierce Devil Golem. One of the unique aspects of Enchanted Arms is that in combat you rely heavily on Golems artificial life forms built for labor and combat that are customized using material and ether gained through trade, gambling, and combat. You'll make use of Golem support characters as you work through the game's strategic battle system. There are over 100 varieties of Golem to customize.

Customer Reviews

Enchanted Arms... Not so enchanting in places...
Ok, so in theory this game is the first Japanese style role-playing game (RPG) to grace the newly acclaimed Playstation 3 (PS3). It sets out to be a combination of what some gamers may have experienced before in games such as the Final Fantasy series, and something similar to Yu-Gi-Oh / Pokemon. The result is a game very similar to Lucifer Calls for the Playstation 2 (PS2).

The story of the game is that you are a student at an academy for those being schooled in how to fight alongside "golems". Golems are collectable creatures which you end up battling alongside against other golems and characters. Unfortunately this game takes a ling time to begin, it took me close to an hour to get into the game, this first hour being incredably slow, to the extent of being painful and me regretting purchasing the game in the first place. Patience, i hasten to add, revealed something much different.

As the game develops it flows more freely. Away from the stunted battling and epic dialogues the game actually plays well in the field. Most battles are random encounters and thus far (i am still only 10% into the game) there is quite a variety of enemy to fight against. There are many comparisons that can be drawn with Final Fantasy, not least the field itself, resembling many of the places visited in Final Fantasy 10 (the first city you see resembles Luca superbly!). The switches, moving platforms and event the healing points also have strong Final Fantasy connatations. The one thing that does stand out though is the ability to save the game anywhere, at any point and any time - that i cannot argue with.

The music is extremely annoying and repetative. If you expect some grand score like in many other RPG's, you will be massively dissappointed. may i recommend that you mute the sound and listen to some rock music instead - much more enjoyable.

Graphically, this game does not cut it. The in-game graphics are very PS2 rather than PS3, being blocky and angular where with next generation consoles we should be looking at much smoother viewing and some sense of environment (there is not even a hint of a breeze - i.e. flowers stay stationary, as does charcters hair), as this is something that has been developed on PC a long time ago (see Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for a supreme example of this). When a character runs around the background jerks and stutters, and the run itself is more of a wooden gait. As for the video sequences, they are impressive compared to say a cartoon, but after the release of Final Fantasy Advent Children last year we should expect to see that standard of video in our games now.

At this point i have to apologise for comparing so much to Final Fantasy. The reason for this is two-fold. I am a big fan of the Final Fantasy series, however i am severely dissappointed with its most recent offereing of Final Fantasy 12, and secondly, most reviewers will use Final Fantasy as a point of comparrison as it is possibly the most established RPG to date, as well as being the most successful (although at times far from perfect!).

Gameplay, as i have mentioned seems fluid, though as with the introduction, i expect much more epic dialogue and not so imaginative quests to come. The battle system itself is something quite different. Based on games like Disgaea, the battle system comprises a grid in which you can move, and from where you select your characters actions. There are two halves to the grid, your own side and an enemy side. Different attacks, support actions (such as heal, extra defence, etc.) and special attacks cover different grid squares, and different combinations of grid squares. The most flexible part of battling is the combination of golems you can equip and have fight alongisde you. Each golem collected has different attacks or support actions and an element. The are 6 elements in terms of battling, fire and water, light and dark, and earth and wind. Each element is weak to its opposite, so fire is weak to water, and water is weak to fire. And thus, this is the basics of battle.

Overall the game seems sound, but although it is 50+hours long, i'm not sure it will hold my attention for that long. Definately worth a look for experienced and novice RPG fans alike, however, the more experienced of you will be dissappointed whilst finding some mild amusement in the game. I would recommend this game to novices though, as it is acessable, easy to follow and yes, fun too. I would advise that you quickly upgrade to the likes of the Final Fantasy series or Oblivion as soon as you feel comfortable with the basic RPG idea for a better game though.

Just a quick note of caution...
Be aware. There is a bug in the UK release of this game due to a faulty batch that causes the game to crash, sometimes frequently. Judging by the number of occurences and complaints in online forums I would estimate that you have a 1 in 3 chance of experiencing this problem. You may be lucky and be able to finish the game without any problems.

If you are interested in this game and don't mind waiting a little longer, I would recommend importing an American version for the same price which will work perfectly on your UK PS3 as each disc is not region coded (try Amazon.com or GameXchange).

So Far So Good
This game seems to have many mixed reviews but personally i would buy the game,if you are a fan of RPG's you won't be disappointed.
The battle system is quite straight forward and in many ways could be seen as similar to that of final fantasy in respect to how you use skills, items, etc. The first part of the game in the university i thought was quite boring and it really irritated me the way that when you talk to characters they appear up close in the foreground and it flicks from one character to the other, once i got over this however i found i could enjoy the game more. I really started to like this game when i got into Yokohama and i did the pizza eating contest with the sixaxis controller but i think that there should have been more challenges for me to complete for golem tickets, rather than it be so simple to aquire the other tickets.
I thought the game was really good when i went into the sealed ward and met the frozen devil golem it reminded me of the dark aoen Shiva in final fantasy X (and the guardian monster before her was kind of like the Jecht you fight when you go into Sin) but anyway drawing away from that this is a good game in its own right.
Currently I am in London so haven't played that long and as for the graphics i wouldn't say they were blocky as one reviewer suggests( i would be the first to complain if they were rubbish), (perhaps they are not playing in H.D.)but they are entitled to their own opinion. The game doesn't look half bad considering it's not in 1080i or p and only goes as far as 720i. So Far So Good.....