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: #6192 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).

Real RPG
This is the first Real RPG i've picked up for my PS3, PC or anything else since Wild Arms 3 seeing as the world seems to be obsessed with Western Style RPG's at the moment. By Real i mean, it's not a sandbox free roaming thing with 40 Million hours of gameplay and sidequests. The likes of Oblivion and Western RPG's in general that seem to think a good RPG means "Do what ever you want, even if you don't want to do the story". Call me old fashioned but i like doing the story bit and i dont want to have to go and find it, when a game does this i often just stumble around the world never getting anything done.

Right, rant over. About Enchanted Arms.

Yes, Real RPG with random battles to boot. The battle system is this grid based thingy where you place your characters like a chess board for lack of a better term, if you're used to J-RPG's you'll pick this up no problem but equally the learning curve is easy. One of those easy to play difficult to master things. However it can make some of the easier battles a little longer and annoying if you're just grinding away to level up. Aswell as battling with your characters there are Golems to help you out, they come in various different shapes and sizes and collect them a bit like pokemon. You beat a Golem and then get a sort of schematic telling you what items you need build it.

The leveling up is a little like Final Fantasy 10, you level up and also get points to spent on two things. A new skill (which you have to buy before you can learn) or increasing your attributes HP, EP (magic) etc...

One thing i'm not a fan of in this game is the dialogue, there's nothing wrong with the conversations it's how it's delivered. When ever you talk to any character, you see them both in the foreground of the screen like the 'Tales Of...' series and they animate just enough to get their point accross and as only two can be on the screen at the same time they pop in and out randomly. Unlike other RPG's where they stand about, walk around and interact with each other properly. It sometimes removes you from the emotions of the characters. It does however have properly acted sequences to go with these that you get every once in a while.

Graphics last, as they never make a good game and certainly don't make good RPG. They're nothing special. At a stretch some of it could have just been done on a PS2. Saying that, its a pretty polished game overall.

I wont mention any story for fear of spoilers, but it's solid enough.

I'm not going as far as to say this is a must for your PS3 collection, but if you're tired of replaying RPG's on your PS2 there's not really a lot else out there and there are far worse games you could spend your time and money. It's one of those - If you're an RPG fan you'll love it. If not well, you might not love it - thing.