Wild ARMs 1

The first installment in the Wild ARMs series on the Playstation. Notable for combining the Western (as in cowboys) genre with both Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Wild ARMs is the first appearance of the eternally cursed planet Filgaia. The planet is dying after a long, destructive war with alien creatures known as demons. The weapons of the old war are blamed for the decay of the planet, and most of them are sealed away and shunned.

The story follows three characters, with a playable prologue for each.


 * Rudy Roughnight is a young Wanderer (Dream Chaser in the original) who is making a living doing odd jobs at various towns around the world. During one of his jobs, a child enters a dangerous area in search of a holy berry, which can heal any wound, to save his injured father. Rudy follows, and saves the child, but doing so reveals that he has one of the ancient weapons from the wars, an ARM. The villagers immediately vote to banish him. He happens to drift to the city of Adelhyde, where he meets...
 * Jack Van Burace is a Treasure Hunter who is seeking "absolute power." A clue in a ruin leads him to Lolithia's coffin and into Adelhyde on the fated day. He is seeking revenge on the demons, which leads him to act recklessly at times. His real identity is He has a strong distrust of nobles due to a tragic event in his past, which leads him to initially dislike...
 * Cecilia Lynne Adlehyde is the Rebellious Princess of Adelhyde. She was educated in Curan Abbey as a Crest Sorceress and possesses a mysterious artifact called the Teardrop which allows her to commune with Guardians. Before leaving the Abbey, she unsealed the water Guardian from his long imprisonment there. She is on a quest to find and unlock all the Guardians to prevent a disaster brought about by the demons.

The three find themselves chosen by the Guardian Spirits of Filgaia to combat the returning Demons, who have come to revive their ancient leader, Mother. However, it turns out everyone -even the villains- have secrets they must deal with...

This game was remade as Wild ARMs: Alter Code F for the Playstation 2.

This game provides examples of:


 * Air Vent Passageway: Deconstructed. Only Hanpan is small enough to get out this way.
 * Alien Sky: There are two moons, the natural moon and the artificial moon Malduke which.
 * All of the Other Reindeer: The minute the villagers find out Rudy has an ARM, they immediately forget he just saved Tony's life in the caves and protected them all from a really nasty monster. They drive him out without so much as a thank you.
 * The fact that many people consider the ARMs to be terrible weapons used by the demons didn't exactly help.
 * Artificial Human:
 * Audible Sharpness
 * Back From the Dead: In the remake,
 * Badass: Boomerang. After
 * Badass Longcoat: Jack. Boomerang as well, but only in the remake. (He was more of a ninja in the original)
 * Batman Gambit: Alhazad uses a small one to capture the team in the remake.
 * Battle Butler: Magdalen/McDullen
 * Beam Spam: Rudy's Prism Ray ARM.
 * Because Destiny Says So: Mother genuinely believes that being an Omnicidal Maniac is her destined duty.
 * Berserk Button: Jack does not like being reminded of his past or being in the presence of a demon.
 * BFG: Rudy's Hand Cannon ARM as it appears in Alter Code F. It appears to be a 20mm or larger revolver carbine. He shoots it one-handed.
 * Big Bad: Mother.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Rudy is the master of this trope, especially in the remake. Jack gets one too
 * Big Eater: Cecilia. How she keeps that figure is anyone's guess.
 * Lampshaded - apparently being a mage just uses that much energy! In the remake, she claims that she's one of the lighter eaters at the Abbey.
 * Bishonen Line:
 * Blind Idiot Translation: The original game. "Ray Line" indeed. The remake, while it fixes some of the worst typos, somehow manages to come up with its own that are just as bad - "How do we get thru this barrier?" indeed. In both, Jack's surname is supposed to be Vambrace, which is why he calls himself "The armguard." "Van Burace" makes the metaphor meaningless.
 * Where the hell did "Arch" come from when the original translation was "cocoon" in the remake's version of the prologue movie at Arctica?
 * "Alhazred" became "Alhazad."
 * "Angol Mois" became "Angol Moa."
 * "Belial" became "Berial."
 * "Berserk" became "Belselk." Egregious, considering "berserk" is an established English adjective.
 * "Cherubim" became "Kelbim."
 * "Catoblepas" became "Catobrepas."
 * "De Re Metallica" became "De Le Metalica."
 * "Dullahan" became "Durahan."
 * "Fafnir" became "Fafneil." Ouch.
 * "Fenrir" became "Fenril."
 * "Homunculus" became "Holmcross."
 * "Humbaba" became "Funbaba." Though Ted Woolsey (not himself involved with Wild Arms) once made a similar mistake.
 * "Jabberwocky" became "Javawalk."
 * "Jack-o-Lantern" became "Jacklanton." ...Really?
 * "Ka Dingir" (the older Sumerian name for Babel/Babylon) became "Ka Dingel."
 * "Lucied" became "Luceid," which appears to be a typo...copypasted across the entire script.
 * "Marduk" became "Malduke."
 * "Megiddo Flame" became "Megid Flame."
 * "Nicola" inconsistently became "Nicholi" or "Nichola."
 * "Ragu O Ragula" inconsistently became "Rago Ragla", "Ragu Ragla" or "Raguragura." That's just sad.
 * "Saint Centaur" became "Saint Centour."
 * "Sephirot(h)" became "Sephiroto."
 * "Siegfried" became "Zeikfried."
 * Blood Knight: Boomerang and Lucied.
 * Body Horror: What does to its victims is not pretty. And then there's Mother,.
 * Bonus Boss: Ragu O Ragula, of course. There's also the Golems that aren't fought in the main story, Angol Moa, and
 * Bottomless Pits
 * Braggart Boss: Zed.
 * But Thou Must!: Alter Code F, after Rudy defeats the Rotting Beast
 * Cat Fight: Cecilia VS Elizabeth is nothing but this.
 * Chew Toy: Poor, poor Bartholomew, especially in ACF. People seem to care about everyone else except him, especially when it comes to retrieving the second Gemini circuit.
 * Examples: Jane does him the favor of measuring him for his casket prior to forcing him to be the test pilot for the Protowing, and that's BEFORE taking command of his ship and sending it on a suicide mission right under his nose. Magdalen is the one who entrusts the care of the Gemini circuit to him, simply because he has the largest body. And, when the team finds his half-drowned body, Jack obviously cares more about the survival of the circuit.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Zed, especially in the remake.
 * Combined Energy Attack: A small one in the remake when
 * Cosmic Keystone: The Teardrop and the Leyline.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: The demons' assault on Arctica. The humans never stood a chance.
 * Cutscene Incompetence: While all of the battles against the Quarter Knights are winnable, most of the after fight cutscenes in the remake make it seem like your party was utterly trounced, or at least beaten half to death. This is especially noticeable in the first few Berserk fights and the first Boomerang fight.
 * Death Course: Jack's introduction.
 * Disc One Final Boss:
 * Disc One Final Dungeon: The Photosphere
 * Dub Text: In one of the more hilarious typos in the Agetec-translated remake, Alhazad gets called a "she" in his first appearance in the prologue. What makes this hilarious is that one of Al's defining traits is his creepy advances towards Lady Harken, so Agetec accidentally turned him into a Psycho Lesbian, making it apparent that they never bothered to check up the plot of the game beforehand since Alhazad shows this part of his nature at the end of the same prologue. They caught on later, having the next reference to his gender being a comment from Magdalen about that "fellow." However, that one "she" was never fixed, making this also an example of Inconsistent Dub.
 * Duel Boss: Jack vs. Harken, Cecilia vs. Elizabeth, and, in Alter Code F only, Rudy vs. the Rotting Beast again in a sidequest.
 * Edge Gravity
 * Eldritch Abomination: Mother.
 * Empathic Weapon: Only those with "strong will" can wield an ARM. Also Asgard, who only activates when Cecilia feels literal empathy for it.
 * Enemy Scan: In Alter Code F, using the Analyze ability helps you fill out a monster encyclopedia. Filling it to 50% nets you an EX File Key.
 * Epic Flail: Berserk's weapon.
 * Even Evil Has Standards - The Quarter Knights are pretty miffed about how Mother doesn't seem to care one bit about . The fact that she wanted to destroy everything didn't help.
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Mother
 * Evil Counterpart: Lady Harken to Jack,
 * Evil Genius: Alhazad.
 * Evil Is Dumb: Harmless Villain 's dramatic improvement in effectiveness when he becomes a secret recruitable party member in Alter Code F.
 * Evil Is Not a Toy:
 * Evil Laugh: Mother has a voiced one. Also, Alhazad has one for each version. (A sickening "Khhk khhk khhk" in the original, and a less sickening, but still pretty creepy "kekeke" in Alter Code F)
 * Berserk had one too.
 * Evil Versus Oblivion:
 * Evolving Attack: Jack's Fast Draw abilities in the remake require less MP the more you use them.
 * Expository Hairstyle Change: Cecilia's haircut and outfit change symbolize her willingness to do whatever it takes to retrieve the teardrop and save the world.
 * Eyes Do Not Belong There:
 * Face Heel Turn: Subverted.
 * Fake Difficulty: In order to get the player to manage their resources, there were no MP- or special cartridge bullet-restoring items programmed into Alter Code F - the only way to restore either is by leveling up or sleeping at an inn.
 * Fantastic Racism: Relations between humans and Elw are less then rosy.
 * Five-Bad Band: Mother and the Quarter Knights.
 * For the Evulz: Most, if not all, of Alhazad's various atrocities were done solely for his own amusement.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Averted to varying degrees. For example, Jack's special ability is the Fast Draw, based on his ability to create magical effects from drawing his sword quickly. He's all about speed. In gameplay terms, he is pretty much the fastest character, friend or foe: he almost always goes first. There is pretty much only one enemy that's faster: Lady Harken. This is in fact a plot point: she also uses the Fast Draw, and is
 * Game Breaking Bug: In the original, an item-duplication glitch renders resources almost completely trivial. Unlimited Crest Graphs means Cecilia's balancing factor (limited number of spells available) is gone, while unlimited Duplicators means getting access to high powered stuff way too early.
 * The Gunslinger: Rudy.
 * Hammerspace: Where does Rudy keep that huge shotgun when he's not using it? And how did the villagers miss it before he used it to protect them?
 * In answer to the first... well, Hammerspace. In answer to the second, apparently it was hidden amongst his belongings - one of the villagers admits to having found it when he searched them!
 * Hannibal Lecture: Mother gives one during the first confrontation with her. It basically boils down to, "All things are meant to come to an end, and what better way to have it end then me?"
 * Harmless Villain: Zed.
 * Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Lose to any Quarter Knight in the remake and its game over. Win, and the after fight cutscene acts like you lost anyway.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Oddly, in the original, Rudy used a sword, despite him wielding a pistol-looking weapon in all official art. Alter Code F changed it so that he used the above-mentioned BFG for normal attacks as well as his special moves.
 * Heroic Mime: Rudy
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Hidden Elf Village: The Elws' pocket dimension.
 * Hopeless Boss Fight: The first fight against Berserk in the remake.
 * Hostage for McGuffin: The town of Adlehyde for the Teardrop.
 * And, much later,
 * How We Got Here: The opening sequence of the remake is essentially  You just have to find out those events.
 * Hypocritical Humor: In the remake's ending,
 * Important Haircut: Cecilia cuts off her hair to prove to Jack that she's serious about going after the demons.
 * In-Game Novel: Only present in the remake.
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Zed, while not exactly a pushover in battle, is largely viewed as a joke that can't do anything right, both by the heroes and his fellow villains. Which makes the optional battle against him late in the game much more alarming when he proves surprisingly capable of handing you your ass...
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Subverted in Jack's opening dungeon, many of the chest have already been looted. Otherwise played straight.
 * Innocent Flower Girl: Mariel
 * Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Duplicators, although it is justified because they're actually magic keys that can only take on one shape once, and thus only unlock one lock.
 * Interface Screw: In the original, a confused character wouldn't respond correctly to player input. Changing leads fixes this.
 * Item Caddy: Jane, to a degree.
 * It's Personal: Jack never forgave the demons for.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jack
 * Kansas City Shuffle:
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Despite the fact that Jack, he uses a katana.
 * Kill Sat:
 * Last Lousy Point / Cartography Sidequest: Filling out 100% of the map is quite painful if only 1 or 2 spots are missing, and those blank spots blend in to the point of being almost impossible to see.
 * Did you miss opening a single treasure chest? Have fun scouring through EVERY dungeon again in order to find it before being able to open the Black Box.
 * Law of Inverse Recoil: Rudy's ARM exhibits no recoil in the remake.
 * It is actually mentioned (and shown) that Rudy is very, VERY strong. Much stronger than one would think given his size and apparent age.
 * Why he's so strong is actually a plot point that's explained by The Reveal and not a case of Muscles Are Meaningless.
 * Leitmotif: Each Quarter Knight has their own unique theme in the remake, and they are awesome.
 * Ley Line: Infamously mistranslated as Ray Line in the original.
 * Life or Limb Decision: Rudy
 * Lightning Bruiser: Jack.
 * Like a Badass Out of Hell: Boomerang's explanation when he returns as a bonus boss.
 * Lost Forever: Played straight in the original with several items (including Crest Graphs and one Rune) in numerous one-shot dungeons. Averted in the remake as all items in one-shot dungeons are required to obtain or dropped by the boss while monsters in those dungeons can appear in the Forest Prison.
 * Lost Technology: In addition to ARMs and Golems,.
 * Love Triangle: Both Cecelia and Jane have a thing for Rudy but Rudy seems to either be going for the harem ending or is just Oblivious to Love.
 * MacGuffin Delivery Service: Quite literally -- you actually go to great lengths in order to do just that, fully aware of whom you're giving it to and how much of a bad idea it is, although it's basically the heroes being unable to Take (or Think Up) a Third Option on the Sadistic Choice. This essentially sets up the plot for the first half of the game.
 * Mad Scientist: Alhazad has traits of this.
 * Mass "Oh Crap": The Quarter Knights, upon learning Mother's true objectives. Even worse in the remake when
 * Meaningful Name: A "vambrace" is a piece of armor that covers the forearm, This would have made a lot more sense if his name hadn't been translated as Van Burace.
 * Boomerang plays this straight in the original (guess his weapon), but in the remake he has a sword...that acts like a boomerang.
 * Mega Manning: Emma gets her skill set by downloading the abilities of monsters, much like Marivel of Wild Arms 2.
 * Mighty Glacier: Rudy.
 * Mirror Match: The Doppelganger enemy. Also the Shadow enemy in the Abyss; if the mirrored character is in the vanguard at the time, s/he will feel the same damage given to the Shadows.
 * Monster Arena
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Most closely applies to Jack after defeating Harken in the Demon's Lab dungeon and seeing who she really is.
 * Also reveals he had one of these during his backstory in the remake.
 * Nigh Invulnerability: The Rotting Beast, which can regenerate from literally any wound. The best one can hope to do is seal it away with a Holy Berry.
 * Noble Demon: Zed, Boomerang and Harken, especially Zed.
 * Non-Human Sidekick: Hanpan
 * Not-So-Harmless Villain: In the original, Belselk/Berserk was pathetically easy. In the remake? Not so much. Also happens in-story with the vast difference between Zed's story battles and the optional boss fight against him.
 * Oh Crap: Jane in both versions when she finds the team talking to her father at Court Seim, mainly because
 * In the remake it doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: Mother. Apparently, Zeikfried and the other Quarter Knights were not aware of this, and are understandably shocked/horrified when they find out.
 * One-Winged Angel:
 * One Bad Mother: And how!
 * Our Demons Are Different: The demons are from the planet Hyades and made of metal.
 * Our Homunculi Are Different: . He's made of living metal, for one thing.
 * The Password Is Always Swordfish: Or rather, the password is "password."
 * Perverse Sexual Lust: One of Alhazad's defining traits is his, erm..."affection" for Lady Harken.
 * Pet the Dog: Boomerang Zed
 * Plaguemaster: Alhazad
 * Powers as Programs: Emma can download enemy skills to learn them in the remake.
 * Precision-Guided Boomerang: Hanpan serves the role of one.
 * Psychopathic Manchild: Possibly Alhazad, who refers to humanity as his "toys" and states that his one wish is to "play with them" (read: subject to horrible experiments) forever.
 * Puzzle Boss: The Shadow and Alhazad in the remake.
 * Rare Candy: Apples. They increase various stats in the original and give an automatic level up in the remake.
 * Razor Wind: Jack's Sonic Wind.
 * Robotic Reveal:
 * The character in question is not really a robot (and is, in every sense, a living being). They are, however, artificially created.
 * Sadistic Choice: The main plot is started by one.
 * Scavenger World
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Mother.
 * Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You
 * Shadow Pin: Jack's Shadowbind.
 * She's Got Legs: Emma, of all people. Hard to believe she's 39.
 * Shifting Sand Land: The Sand River dungeon.
 * Shoot the Dog:
 * Sinister Scythe: Lady Harken.
 * The Smart Guy: Hanpan. That a flying mouse is the smart guy on the team may say something about the other characters.
 * Solve the Soup Cans: There was a puzzle involving five chests on one side of a dungeon and five bookcases on the other side of the dungeon. You had to somehow read the books in the bookcases to tell you whether or not to leave it's respective chest open or close. It may have been Lost in Translation. And it returned in the remake, and was still freaking hard to understand! But fortunately, this time it was optional.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Sort of averted in that Belselk is the first Quarter Knight you face. As The Brute, he's actually the strongest of the bunch, and in the remake.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Angol Moa/Angolmois, Van Burace/Vambrace, Fenril/Fenrir Knights, and Zeikfried/Siegfried, among others. Also, some Meaningful Names Lost in Translation--not only Vambrace, but Alhazred rendered as Alhazad, and the granddaddy of them all, or at least Rudy, "Zepet" Roughnight. Gepetto ring any bells?
 * Sprite Polygon Mix: In the original.
 * Squishy Wizard: Cecilia. Emma in the remake is even squishier, though it's more accurate to call her a Squishy Scientist.
 * The Starscream:
 * Summon Magic: The Guardians.
 * Taking You with Me:
 * Talking Animal: Hanpan.
 * Technicolor Death: Each generic enemy dies by flashing colors and collapsing vertically into a little pool on the ground. Bosses get enhanced effects.
 * Ten-Minute Retirement: Rudy after he
 * That Man Is Dead: Jack does not like being reminded of his old life of being
 * Theme Music Power-Up: Rudy during
 * This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: The final battle with Lady Harken, which, as noted above, Jack fights alone.
 * Tomato in the Mirror:.
 * Took a Shortcut: Jane somehow gets around with ease, despite her home being in an inaccessible location only available to the party after obtaining a unique vehicle.
 * To the Tune Of: The title theme, "Into the Wilderness," sounds strangely like "Tie me Kangaroo Down, Sport."
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Cecilia and burgers or curry, depending on the translation.
 * Tragic Monster:
 * Treasure Hunter: Jack and Calamity Jane.
 * Tsundere: Calamity Jane, to an extent. Bar none when it comes to the conversation prior to recruiting her in the remake.
 * Video Game Remake: They went all out: new sidequests, new characters, clarified plot points, the whole nine yards. Now if only the translation was updated too...
 * Villainous Breakdown:
 * The Virus:
 * Walking the Earth: What Rudy and Jack were doing before the game opened. All Wanderers do this, to some extent.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: In the original, Jane mentions that she has an older sister named Jessica. While she never actually appears on screen, she's apparently even cuter than Jane and one kid comments on how She's Got Legs. In the remake, Jessica only gets a passing mention during a bit of backstory exposition prior to Jane becoming a permanent member.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: After Berserk's attack on Adelhyde, Jack calls Cecillia out for not taking the demon threat seriously.
 * White Magician Girl: Cecilia.
 * Wild Card: Boomerang pretty much only cares about fighting, so much so that his strong desire for battle seduced  to follow him. At one point, he even protects the party from his supposed allies in order to be able to fight with them again.
 * Worthy Opponent: Boomerang and Lucied
 * You Don't Look Like You: Most of the villains were given a completely different appearance in the remake. Boomerang is now a cyborg with a Badass Longcoat, Harken is more akin to a Valkyrie, Berserk has more traditional battle armor and long white hair, Zed was made fairly more human-like, Mother became much paler and taller, and some would argue even more frightening, and Ziekfried is now completely armored head to toe, and bears a slight resemblance to Nightmare. The only villain who retained his original appearance was Alhazad.
 * Several human characters had several changes as well. Magdalen is much older. Bartholomew actually looks like a sea captain (while Drake looks like a typical pirate). Jane mostly retains her appearance but her personality is refined to make her a much bigger tomboy while retaining her tsundere nature. Zepet looks more like the adventurer he was. And finally, Nicholi actually looks like Jane's father.
 * This could apply during the end credits art montage in the original. While Jane was a blonde during the game, at the very end her hair is suddenly brown.
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: This starts a trend for Wild Arms games.
 * You Don't Look Like You: Most of the villains were given a completely different appearance in the remake. Boomerang is now a cyborg with a Badass Longcoat, Harken is more akin to a Valkyrie, Berserk has more traditional battle armor and long white hair, Zed was made fairly more human-like, Mother became much paler and taller, and some would argue even more frightening, and Ziekfried is now completely armored head to toe, and bears a slight resemblance to Nightmare. The only villain who retained his original appearance was Alhazad.
 * Several human characters had several changes as well. Magdalen is much older. Bartholomew actually looks like a sea captain (while Drake looks like a typical pirate). Jane mostly retains her appearance but her personality is refined to make her a much bigger tomboy while retaining her tsundere nature. Zepet looks more like the adventurer he was. And finally, Nicholi actually looks like Jane's father.
 * This could apply during the end credits art montage in the original. While Jane was a blonde during the game, at the very end her hair is suddenly brown.
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: This starts a trend for Wild Arms games.