Nostalgia: noun, “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.”

That’s how I feel about older game systems these days. I’m still fond of my Nintendo DS, as well as the Gamecube. Can’t say the same for the Xbox or the X360 since I never grew attached to the games aside from Blue Dragon, but I digress. Time moves on, and generally game companies these days want to make everyone connected to the point of relevance. That’s why the DS and Wii lost their wi-fi features to make time and room for the 3DS and Wii-U.

Still, I hold a special love for the older game systems, especially the Playstation 2, when the focus was just making good games that would be timeless on their own, and I feel the last generation of systems was the pinnacle of that before wi-fi became the norm.

I recently had the privilege of completing the game “Wild Arms 3”. The Wild Arms series in general is what happens when JRPG gameplay and elements (such as magic and world saving) is mixed with a Wild West backdrop of gunslingers and whistles. Wild Arms 3 is unique as its the only game that feels close to the western feel. There’s a lot to love about it; the great use of cel-shading graphics, the catchy music that fits the tone, and especially the characters that drive the story.

From left to right: Jet, Clive, Virginia, and Gallows.

Virginia Maxwell, a town girl who misses her traveling father, quickly takes point as a leader with her upbeat optimism and sense of justice, despite her naivety. Clive Winslett is an archaeologist (and married man with a child) who actively searches for clues to the world’s decay in hopes for a better future. Gallows Carradine is a runaway shaman of the Guardian Spirits who is more interested in freedom from duty, but is torn from achieving this once he realizes how much in danger the Guardians themselves are. Jet Enduro bares no memories of his past and prefers to rely on himself instead of others.

One night on a train ride, Virginia is caught in a crossfire as Gallows and Jet try to steal the same item Clive is hired to protect: the Arc Scepter, a power relic of the Baskar culture that Gallows is from (and to his surprise, there’s more than one Scepter). This is their first meeting together, and the game allows the player to play through each of their perspectives before the train ride as both a tutorial for gameplay and a look in what kind of characters they are. After the prologues and stand-off, they momentarily work together to stop another group of robbers, led by Janus Cascade. By the hand of the Guardians, and Virginia’s own persistence, the four of them stay a group with a common goal of making a living and slowly grow accustomed to the idea. As the main heroes, they fight to protect Filgaia from all sorts of villains; from Janus’ conquest to ultimate power, to a group of prophets attempting to terraform the planet, the ante of villainy goes up.

Each character uses a special gun called an ARM (Artifacts from Ruin’s Memory), and have their own strengths and weaknesses. They can also each equip 3 of the 12 Guardians to increase specific stats, cast their magic, and summon said Guardians, similar to the Junction feature of Final Fantasy VIII. Taking account to these, players are encouraged to think of how to equip and use the Guardians on their characters the best way. For example, Gallows has a weak attack from his sawed off shotgun, but also has the highest base HP and magic stats, making him ideal to revive fallen members or cast elemental spells enemies are weak to. Each character has unique skills to help tip the favor outside of shooting and spell casting, and for further sake of example, Gallow’s is “Extension”. The skill allows Gallows to use spells to target all characters instead of one depending on what spells he has accessed to from which Guardian.

Graphically, the game is well aged for being sold in early 2000. The world looks dull and brown and the sea is literally sand, but that’s sort of expected for a post-apocalyptic world. At least the characters and monsters themselves are colorful. Plus, the whole world is a big western playground to travel through, either by foot, horse, boat, or even dragon. And as Drifters, you do a lot of exploring in other towns or ruins to find and stop the next bad guy, but it requires a bit of clue searching for directions and scanning. This, along with a migrant system that can lower encounter rates from monsters, is a staple to the Wild Arms games before it and has worked just as well here.

What really grabbed me most of this game was how it felt playing through the opening animation every time I loaded the game. Both the original version of “Advanced Wind” and the localized cover get me excited when I see the cutscene play alongside it, especially when the opening changes each time depending on the chapter. They’re miniscule, but pretty neat differences since they’re relevant to the specific “arc” in the game, and who the villain of that “arc” is. It reminded me the best of anime in a way.

I won’t give a numerical vote for this game, but I will say that it’s very good. At first I was a bit disappointed in how the game ended (which I won’t spoil) but after thinking it over, I realized it suited well for the setting of the wild west and the theme of Wild Arms in general; the world is imperfect but you can make the most of it despite what other people think. All the heroes grow in their own ways by the end of the journey, and from complete strangers met in a train robbery they’ve become a strong team of companions that have saved the world at least four times over (once for each main chapter climax). I’m always for uplifting games with meaning behind them, and Wild Arms 3 has this in spades.