Wild ARMS: Alter Code F
Mar. 4th, 2012 05:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThe planet of Filgaia never really recovered from the war against the demons 1,000 years ago. The Guardians are barely keeping the planets’ lifeforce together. Much technology was lost and only now being recovered and a lot of it—particularly the Ancient Relic Machines—is still viewed with great suspicion. The world is a wild-west-themed blend of medieval culture and pockets of high technology. A young wanderer named Rudy is about to be embroiled in a struggle against the returning demons that will reveal much about Filgaia, the Guardians, ARMs, and himself…
“I expect a good portion of Alter Code F was designed with the intention that you already know everything about the original game already.” – Krysmphoenix, in his LP of the game
This is a remake of the first Wild ARMS game, using a lot of the systems and innovations from Wild ARMS 3 (and fleshing out the characters a bit, tying the references a little closer to the third game, etc.). So, in retrospective, I probably should have played this closer to the original game. I actually started it and played the first half in 2007, then played the original in 2010, then just got back to this as I work down my backlog.
The big problem I had with Alter Code F is that the translation reads like something from the SNES era, but the extra verbosity gives it more room to go wrong. There are typos, there are inconsistent localizations, there’s some wildly bizarre grammar, and there’s a general unawareness of tone, mood or characters’ speech patterns. (Seriously, most of the best lines fall flat because the English is just so awkward.) The original wasn’t great, but in retrospect, it seems better, and it’s from an era where problematic translations were more acceptable.
There’s also a delightful glitch where picking up an item on the world map causes sections of the ground to disappear. It could block off areas or even just trap you where you stand. Entering a town fixes it, as does saving and restarting (you can save anywhere with a fairly common consumable item), but still. Finding items on the world map with the search system is a noteworthy part of the game, and this bug is potentially game-breaking.
I give them credit for doing a more thorough job with the puzzles than in the original, which had some problems with particularly empty dungeons. This actually eliminated a couple of the dungeons, probably because they couldn’t come up with creative ways to do them. They also added several bonus characters and some variety to the post-game content (mostly more bonus bosses, but a couple of sidequests, too). When I stopped five years ago, I had done barely any of the Puzzle Boxes, which was fine because they’ve been the part of the resumed playthrough that excited me the most—hidden around the world are random block-pushing puzzles of varying difficulty that give items when completed; and I’m a well-established fan of the Temple of the Pushable Block
The graphics have a bit of an uncanny-valley problem, which is not helped by the fact that characters only occasionally make lip-flaps while talking. So the dialogue scrolls by and they kinda just stare at you. A number of the redone cutscenes are very pretty, though I do think the sky cracking open (right after the prologue, the point where the game gets serious about what’s going on) was done better in the original.
Trying to play the game without occasionally referring to a walkthrough—or being an expert at the original with a taste for trial-and-error—is an exercise in frustration. While the search system for finding towns and puzzles is improved (when you hear about a place, the approximate location is marked on your map) there’s still a bunch of points where you’re apparently expected to revisit every town and talk to everyone to find the one event flag that lets you continue.
Wild ARMS series in order of my preference: 2, 3, 5, 1, 4, ACF. The second game had the strongest characters and most interesting plot, and the third was close behind. The systems for both are very different, but both fun to play. Four had some fun bits, but the characters were mostly stereotypical whiny kids and there was a lot of filler. Five improved on that a bit, balancing new and old system choices. One was a good start to the series that they built on well, but the remake overall falls flat.
Overall: It’s not actually better than the original, which is surprising for a video game remake; I blame the localization for most of that. The system is interesting and the puzzles are often fun, but the translation feels half-assed and clunky and prevented me from actually getting into the story or really appreciating the characters.
“I expect a good portion of Alter Code F was designed with the intention that you already know everything about the original game already.” – Krysmphoenix, in his LP of the game
This is a remake of the first Wild ARMS game, using a lot of the systems and innovations from Wild ARMS 3 (and fleshing out the characters a bit, tying the references a little closer to the third game, etc.). So, in retrospective, I probably should have played this closer to the original game. I actually started it and played the first half in 2007, then played the original in 2010, then just got back to this as I work down my backlog.
The big problem I had with Alter Code F is that the translation reads like something from the SNES era, but the extra verbosity gives it more room to go wrong. There are typos, there are inconsistent localizations, there’s some wildly bizarre grammar, and there’s a general unawareness of tone, mood or characters’ speech patterns. (Seriously, most of the best lines fall flat because the English is just so awkward.) The original wasn’t great, but in retrospect, it seems better, and it’s from an era where problematic translations were more acceptable.
There’s also a delightful glitch where picking up an item on the world map causes sections of the ground to disappear. It could block off areas or even just trap you where you stand. Entering a town fixes it, as does saving and restarting (you can save anywhere with a fairly common consumable item), but still. Finding items on the world map with the search system is a noteworthy part of the game, and this bug is potentially game-breaking.
I give them credit for doing a more thorough job with the puzzles than in the original, which had some problems with particularly empty dungeons. This actually eliminated a couple of the dungeons, probably because they couldn’t come up with creative ways to do them. They also added several bonus characters and some variety to the post-game content (mostly more bonus bosses, but a couple of sidequests, too). When I stopped five years ago, I had done barely any of the Puzzle Boxes, which was fine because they’ve been the part of the resumed playthrough that excited me the most—hidden around the world are random block-pushing puzzles of varying difficulty that give items when completed; and I’m a well-established fan of the Temple of the Pushable Block
The graphics have a bit of an uncanny-valley problem, which is not helped by the fact that characters only occasionally make lip-flaps while talking. So the dialogue scrolls by and they kinda just stare at you. A number of the redone cutscenes are very pretty, though I do think the sky cracking open (right after the prologue, the point where the game gets serious about what’s going on) was done better in the original.
Trying to play the game without occasionally referring to a walkthrough—or being an expert at the original with a taste for trial-and-error—is an exercise in frustration. While the search system for finding towns and puzzles is improved (when you hear about a place, the approximate location is marked on your map) there’s still a bunch of points where you’re apparently expected to revisit every town and talk to everyone to find the one event flag that lets you continue.
Wild ARMS series in order of my preference: 2, 3, 5, 1, 4, ACF. The second game had the strongest characters and most interesting plot, and the third was close behind. The systems for both are very different, but both fun to play. Four had some fun bits, but the characters were mostly stereotypical whiny kids and there was a lot of filler. Five improved on that a bit, balancing new and old system choices. One was a good start to the series that they built on well, but the remake overall falls flat.
Overall: It’s not actually better than the original, which is surprising for a video game remake; I blame the localization for most of that. The system is interesting and the puzzles are often fun, but the translation feels half-assed and clunky and prevented me from actually getting into the story or really appreciating the characters.
