Wild Arms

Wild ARMs is a series of role playing games for the PlayStation video game console. The most unique trait that sets these games apart from other RPGs is the dominant influence of cowboy and Native American culture, similar to the Deadlands system of paper roleplaying or the Doomtown collectible card game. But the worlds and stories of Wild ARMs games also contain elements of fantasy, science fiction, and Asian animism. The original Wild ARMs games was released for the PlayStation in 1997. Wild ARMs 2nd Ignition was released for the PlayStation in 2000. Wild ARMs 3rd Advanced was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002. Wild ARMs Alter Code F, a remake of the original Wild Arms, was released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 in 2003. Wild ARMs 4th Detonator was released in Japan for the PlayStation 2 in 2005. All five games were developed by Media.Vision, and published by Sony.

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Wild ARMs Universe

Filgaia

The story of each Wild ARMs game takes place on a planet called Filgaia, though each "Filgaia" appears to be an entirely separate world with a different arrangement of continents, in similar tradition to the discontinuity between games of the Final Fantasy series. The recurring theme in the series is that Filgaia was once a green healthy world, but, at the time of the story, the planet is gradually dying, as its natural resources and ecosystems slowly wither away. As a result, most of Filgaia is a desolate wasteland, and life is never easy for anyone or anything. Organized settlements tend to be sparse, and their longterm survival is never certain.

The Guardians

Though ailing, Filgaia still has a degree of vitality, and the forces of nature are represented by kami-like beings called Guardians. They govern traditional natural elements (earth, water, wind, fire), light and darkness, states of being (e.g. luck), human emotions (e.g. desire), and notable natural events (e.g. meteor showers). Most of these Guardians take the physical form of large beasts with awesome supernatural powers.

The Elw

In every Wild ARMs story, there is a historical civilized demi-human race called the Elw, who have long since died, vanished or otherwise departed Filgaia, leaving the planet to the dominance of humans. The Elw are immortal, and are granted continued long life as a reward for service to the welfare of Filgaia. They are granted legendary and mythical status in human record.

The appearance of Elw is generally that of humans, except that their ears are long and drooping.

The Crimson Nobles

A glorified synonym for the vampire civilizations of Filgaia. Crimson Nobles meet the criteria of most fictional gothic vampires: they are immortal, they drink the blood of others, they have ghostly pale skin, and they cannot survive direct sunlight. In the Wild ARMs universes, Crimson Nobles are a hereditary race of vampires with an independent civilization, and generally consider themselves superior to all other sentient beings, especially humans. However, their populations are always small with almost no population growth rate.

The Baskar

The Baskar are a recurring culture of humans who have devoted themselves to protecting the Guardians and the environment of Filgaia. They generally live a simple and deeply religious lifestyle, abstractly resembling the cultures of Native Americans.

ARMs

ARMs are a recurring feature in the Wild ARMs series, though the acronym A.R.M. has a different expansion for each story. The common definition is that an ARM is an automated machine weapon, essentially just a firearm. They can take the form of guns, rocket launchers, etc., but as such they are always called ARMs, and never referred to as "guns" or other words used in real world language. In the first game, "A.R.M" stood for "Ancient Relic Machine". In 2nd Ignition, A.R.M.S. stands for "Agile Remote Mission Squad", a special forces unit without any political affiliations, and in Advanced 3rd, "A.R.M." stands for 'Artifacts of Ruins: Memories'. ARMs cannot be used by just anybody: they must be synchronized with the user's "spirit". This concept is never fully explained, however, and the widespread use of ARMs in Advanced 3rd may indicate that the synchronization rule may have been abandoned.

Magic and Crests

Some people of Filgaia have learned the ability to use magic, which is accomplished by binding magical spells or sutras to artifacts called crests, enabling an individual to cast a spell bound to a crest. Magic skills can be learned by anyone in Filgaia, but few people are engaged in this study. As a natural consequence, most magic-users are educated in schools that include curriculum that specializes in magic and crests.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

In all of the Wild ARMs stories, the historical manufacture and detonation of weapons of mass-destruction is considered at least a partial cause of the desolation and declining health of Filgaia. Such legendary weapons are of nuclear, chemical and/or magical origin, and are sometimes made in the form of living monsters. Entire regions and continents are wastelands because of the cataclysmic effects of these weapons, whether they were deployed in warfare, or merely by negligence or accident. Undetonated weapons are feared to still exist anywhere in Filgaia, waiting to be discovered.

Ecological Disaster

In the first Wild ARMs game, the planet's decay into a desert-like environment is a direct result of the war with the game's main antagonists. In all of the subsequent games, however, the war with the main antagonists is something of a distraction, and the real "enemy" is an ecological decay of the world being caused by some external source (which, conveniently, always turns out to be a physical entity the player characters can ultimately beat up on).

Golems

Golems are giant artificial lifeforms made of raw materials (usually clay, rock or metal) and given life through use of technology and programming. In this respect, the golems of Wild ARMs can be considered a kind of robot. Many golems are mindless killing machines, while others have been given consciousness and reason.

The Heroes

Wild ARMs stories generally feature three (or four) main characters who meet as strangers and form a partnership together. The game begins with the player playing, one by one, the scenarios for all the characters before they ever meet; this distinctly introduces and builds the foundation of each character individually before the player sees them together. Generally, one of the characters specializes in the use of ARMs, while another specializes in sword technique, and another is deeply involved in magic. There are other character roles, and in some cases more than one character can have the same special talent, but these three roles are consistently portrayed in the main characters throughout the series. Each character also has a unique peripheral skill that helps the group as a whole accomplish their goals. These skills include the ability to plant bombs, the ability to reach distant objects, the ability to find hidden treasures, and other such useful skills in an RPG world.

The Plot

The plot of Wild ARMs games usually involves a complex conspiracy by a secretive cartel in pursuit of power or goals, usually through violence and acts of sabotage, terrorism or mass-murder of innocents. The heroes of the story are chiefly responsible for fighting against this threat, whether or not their odds of success are any good. Complicated politics between two or more cultures frequently comes into play. The Wild ARMs series is heavily based in Norse and other western mythologies.

Games

The series also inspired an anime television series - see Wild ARMs (anime).

External links