Wild Arms 1 (PS1) Review!

A review of the wonderful early Playstation jrpg Wild Arms 1!

Sorry about the occasional popping. I was unable to find my pop filter and those plosives don't play around.

[HighLevelReviews]

Thanks for all the support and awesome comments guys! Star Ocean: Second Story is next!

[MrSerpico]

I've always loved the soundtrack for this game. Instantly nostalgic for me.

[robinmattheussen]

I finally got around to playing this one after having it sit on my shelf for yours, and yes, I thought it was a really enjoyable game! I was actually taken aback quite a bit by how solid it was, since this one often gets dismissed as not-noteworthy early PS1 JRPG, but it's honestly a great, well-rounded package that I really enjoyed from start to finish.

[Dacho_Shaki]

I've only played the first game and I have to say it gave me a pretty good impression. It doesn't stand out in scope as much as other JRPG's in the market, but it's a simple and charming JRPG with a solid yet simple combat system. I'll probably never play the remake because judging by the gameplay videos, it lacks in budget and the charm of of the first game in terms of the aesthetics. I think the original still holds up pretty well in the aesthetic department while the stiff animations kind of throw me off. My main issues were that they needlessly made the main protagonist silent despite the fact that you control all three characters, and two of them can talk, and they haven't really capitalize on the wild west elements enough as I wanted. I'm honestly fond of simple pick up and play JRPG's with charming 2D aesthetics of the PS1 era like this one and Lunar games. They age surprisingly well.

[AllSeeingEyesOfficial]

Great review, I'm playing through this as we speak. Brings back so much childhood nostalgia.

[johntracy]

That was also the first thing I noticed when I first played Wild Arms 21 years ago: the overworld music sounding very similar to The Ecstacy of Gold from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

[BawesomeBurf]

I remember this being either the first or one of the first few RPGs Sony had put on the PSN. I downloaded it right away, but didn't end up playing it for 2 or 3 years. Really enjoyed most of it, although I do wish they stuck with 2D for the combat.

[madsli]

You know what I like about wild arms? The encounter rate. For me it is one of the few RPGs with an acceptable random-encounter rate.

[unsnkablesam]

Really loved this game in my childhood mostly because of the soundtrack, it's wonderful.

[Mbc]

Nice video man, but the music is too loud. It would be better without it IMO.

[CSProductions]

Great review, been searching for a decent Wild Arms review for the longest time. I always seem to get stuck & throw in the towel during that last huge dungeon. Still, it's a fun game, thanks again for the video.

[angellegna]

Good review, Andrew. Keep up the quality work.

[michaeldane]

Playing it for the first time at 37 and really shocked I let this series pass me by back then

[jzblue]

I do a wild arms marathon once a year play 1, 2, and 3. Best games ever.

[c.samuels]

PS Classic!!! Looking forward to it more and more. December 3rd 2018 😎

[SQGReviewShow]

Wild Arms was definitely a highlight of the PS1 JRPG era. I've never gotten around to beating it but I remember liking this one quite a bit. How are the sequels, btw?

[randalthor]

The bit about then demon knights leader "Mother" and all the things that went with that make me wonder if that was the inspiration for Jenova.

[Verbalaesthet]

I remember this to be a very enjoyable RPG though I think the scenes shown here show the character sprites very blurry which they were not in my memory. I remember them being like slightly better SNES sprites.

[robinmattheussen]

I still have Wild Arms 1, 3 and 5 sitting on my shelf, but I haven't touched 'em yet. I really should get around to at least playing the first game. The puzzles were definitely something that caused me to pick them. At least they seem to add some level of interactivity to the dungeons, which is always better than static hallways filled with monsters in my book. Over here in PAL-land the first game got released a full year AFTER Final Fantasy VII was released. I doubt that was beneficial in terms of sales figures! I definitely don't recall ever seeing it on store shelves.

[cbarona]

Good review, but I have to say, I don't think the music gets overlooked. It's one of the things about the wild arms series I hear praised consistently.