Wild ARMs 3

"''My shield is strong,

I'll take my chances here and now!

Bring on the fight,

I'll find a way to win somehow!

No tomorrows, no regrets,

I'll risk it all for this brand new day!''"

- Advanced Wind, the opening theme sang by Samantha Newark.

Wild Arms 3 (released in Japan as Wild Arms Advanced 3rd) is the third game in the Wild ARMs Desert Punk RPG series.

Filgaia is a world on the brink of collapse. Those who roam this wasteland in search of fortune or fame are known as Drifters. To protect themselves, these Drifters equip guns known as ARMs (Artifact from Ruins' Memories) that are controlled by the will of their wielder.

On a train, four such Drifters clash over a mysterious artifact known as the Arc Scepter: Virginia Maxwell, a greenhorn Drifter following in the footsteps of her Disappeared Dad; Jet Enduro, an experienced but cold-hearted Drifter with Identity Amnesia; Gallows Carradine, a crass and lazy Magical Native American running away from his duties to his tribe; and Clive Winslett, a Bounty Hunter and Adventurer Archaeologist with a cool disposition and a mean sniper rifle.

Soon afterward, they decide to form a team (with a lot of prodding from Virginia) and track down a priceless treasure known as the Eternal Sparkle. This brings them into conflict with rival Drifter Janus Cascade, a Similar Squad of Drifters called the Schrödinger Family (led by Virginia's Foil, Maya Schrödinger), and eventually an Ancient Conspiracy threatening to consume both the past and future of Filgaia.

Wild ARMs 3 gives one the impression that its creators were told to make a JRPG, but had never played a JRPG before. Far from making it a bad game, this means that they approached the genre from a new direction and did a lot to shake up old cliches:


 * The main character is a female who wears a very modest and practical dress for the entirety of the game, which by itself is like a subversion apocalypse. Though her naive optimism is picked apart throughout the first half of the game, instead of discarding her ideals she matures them instead into something practical yet still optimistic.
 * Magic doesn't expend MP; rather, each character has a "Force Gauge" that builds as they attack, with spells becoming accessible when it reaches a certain level.
 * Characters don't buy new weapons: they upgrade and customize their existing ones.
 * You can't buy healing items. Since Filgaia is a wasteland and all the healing items are fruit, healing items are incredibly rare, forcing you to rely on healing spells in battle and a limited Vitality Gauge, which will keep your health topped up for a time. You later get the ability to grow your own healing items, but just like real gardening it's a long and patient process.
 * You can use an item to rename almost any NPC or ability in the game.
 * You can't see items or places on the world map automatically. Instead, you have to search for them using a radar-like ping. This includes towns and dungeons.
 * Although there are random encounters, there's a "migrant seal" system which allows you to skip encounters if you wish, or even bypass them entirely if you're overleveled.

An interesting tidbit - this game was the first not to be localized by Sony. Squaresoft, of Final Fantasy fame, performed the localization process, which was noticeably of much higher quality than the Blind Idiot Translations of the first two. Unfortunately, this also created some continuity errors with certain names that were intended to be references to the first two games. Future entries were handled by XSEED (and in one case, Agetec).

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This game provides examples of:

 * After the End - Filgaia was turned into a desert wasteland by a cataclysmic event.
 * All Myths Are True - Every piece of Filgaia lore is both accurate and relevant to the events of the game.
 * Almighty Janitor - The Bonus Boss Bad News.
 * Always Close
 * Armor Piercing Slap: Virginia gets this treatment not only once but twice : first by her uncle, who slaps her because she tried to be a Hero and could easily got herself killed (well, rushing in a dungeon filled with goblin smugglers, all alone at level 1, isn't the brightest idea, especially when you're The Chick), and the second time by Maya, a Drifter like her (but way more experienced), who gives her a What the Hell Hero speech after Virginia tried to pursue the antagonists and nearly got herself killed, save for the intervention of her comrade Jet, who she completely ignored while he just saved her life. She quickly realized how naive and stupid she acted this time, thanks to Maya's speech.
 * And there's the time where Virginia slaps ... Only to see.
 * Awesome McCoolname: Gallows Carradine. Honestly, the Wild Arms series is in love with this trope.
 * Bag of Sharing - Especially ridiculous in the prologue, which shares items between characters who haven't even met yet, with the items traveling back in time if you choose to play the four prologues out of chronological order. One of the few outright weird Fridge Logic moments in the game.
 * BFG - The gun mounted on the sandcraft, which can do a million points of damage in a single attack.
 * Block Puzzle - The Millennium Puzzles. No, not that one.
 * Bolivian Army Ending -
 * Bonus Level of Hell - One hundred floors. No save points whatsoever. Bonus Boss from hell, Ragu O Ragla, waiting for you at the end. You have to fight him twice. In. A. Row. And he is even stronger the second time around. Have fun!
 * Cartography Sidequest - Completing the entire map nets you a nice bonus.
 * Catch Phrase - Janus is "just trying to do things efficiently".
 * Chekhov's Gunman -
 * One in particular stands out, spanning the entire damn game.
 * On the slightly saner level,
 * Cool Sword - The Dark Spear. Which is totally not Soul Edge.
 * Crew of One: Subverted, the sandcraft requires four crew members to be used, each in different jobs roughly corresponding to actual ship jobs- Helmsman, Gunner, etc.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul - The Metal Demons are a weird version of this; it's stated pretty clearly that it was after they became monsters that they took up cybernetics, but since no hero uses cybernetic abilities, it still stays in this category.
 * Darker and Edgier - It's a toss-up between Wild Arms II and III as to which is the bleakest game in the series. Ironically, this also means that III has one of the best storylines in the series, too.
 * Death World - The state of Filgaia in this game is the absolute lowest in the entire series.
 * Disc One Final Boss - Happens several times, actually; Virginia and her team fight what appears to be their ultimate nemesis and defeat him/them only to find an even bigger threat looming on the horizon. Interestingly, the intro movie continues to change throughout the game to reflect this. The game feels very much like several seasons of a multi-arc anime because of this.
 * The Dog Was the Mastermind -
 * Evil Laugh - Once the antagonists (with the exception of the really dangerous ones) begin to lose it, you will hear them laughing out loud like mad men quite often.
 * Evolving Credits - Another series tradition. The "outro" for when you quit the game after saving shows a beautiful scene, with a sung score, detailing the party's level, stats, and equipment as scenes of Virginia's life slowly drift by.
 * Also, uniquely, the game has Evolving Intros- the anime opening sequence that plays when you load your save changes depending on storyline changes- villains come and go, major scenes get resolved, etc.
 * Evolutionary Levels - Used repeatedly.
 * Expy: Maya is an expy of Jane from the first game. Not only are they alike in appearance and personality, they serve as the rival for the resident lead female (romantic for Cecelia, professional for Virginia). Though, its Virginia who takes Jane's surname.
 * Foe Yay/Les Yay: Virginia and Maya. It's subtle at first, but around the third time they meet you wonder why they just don't admit it already. Even the creators were aware of it!
 * Foreshadowing - Everything is foreshadowed. Most of it is obvious, but you'll probably overlook.
 * For the Cel of It - One of the earlier examples of cel-shading on the PS 2, and highly successful; the look merges well with the Wild West aesthetic.
 * Four Man Band - A massive aversion of the typical band. The Chick is also The Leader, The Lancer is the actual The Chick, that The Big Guy is the best mage in the party with the worst melee attacks, and The Smart Guy is a Mighty Glacier with a sniper rifle.
 * It gets to where one suspects the party's design is an intentional complex Deconstruction of the usual personality-to-party-role stereotypes in your average RPG.
 * Free Rotating Camera
 * Gambit Pileup - Arguably has the most convoluted plot in the entire series.
 * Gatling Good - Maya Schrodinger has one. Mentioned less for the weapon and more for her...interesting means of carrying it.
 * Also, a Force Ability is named "Gatling", allowing you to perform a barrage of regular attacks.
 * Guide Dang It -
 * The game never actually tells you how Finest Arts works. Since it's a Game Breaker, this may or may not be deliberate.
 * The Dark Luceid arcana is a great spell... that is, as long as you know how it works. Nothing in the game tells you, of course. The big secret is that it's damage is affected by the elemental affinities of the target(s), losing power for each weakness, but gaining power if resist it at all (and of course, the greater the resistance, the greater the boost). It'll do next to no damage (or no damage period) on most enemies, since a good chunk of the bestiary has at least one weakness, but for the monsters that resist, nullify, or absorb multiple elements? They will break down and CRY if they see you cast this.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords - Not in this game, making it one of the few JRPGs that averts this trope. Not even the other Wild ARMs games can claim this. There's even a joke about enemies coming at them with swords and being totally ineffectual.
 * High Altitude Battle - Battling with Lombardia produces this- while you pilot a giant doom dragon jet Transformer thing. Awesome!
 * Hollywood Cyborg - The demons and the dragons.
 * Hope Sprouts Eternal: The last shot of the game
 * In Game Novel - A Fanfic of Wild ARMs 2, no less, starring Marivel and space flight. Clive reads it to his daughter as a father/daughter bonding moment, and it's adorable.
 * Interesting Situation Duel - The first time you get to control all four characters against Janus and his gang is on top of a train in a dark and stormy night.
 * It Was a Dark And Stormy Night: These words exactly open the game.
 * Later, Virginia even lampshades it: "It sure was a stormy night..."
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Maya may seem harsh, but besides the obvious motivation of wanting to get rid of other Drifter competitors, she does have a sweet spot for Virginia, protecting her in her own way (and literally saving the party's life at least once). Lampshaded by her own brother, Alfred : "My sister's a little... you know... She comes off as crass, but she's trying her hardest to be nice."
 * Last Lousy Point - The Black Box, which requires you to open every single other treasure chest in the world.
 * Ley Line - And an observatory to investigate it.
 * Long Title: One song in the soundtrack is called "The Weight Of A Heavy Life, The Meaning Of The Meaning Of Life".
 * Lost Forever - Didn't trigger the events to begin the Telepath Tower sidequest in time? Too bad, no EX File Key for you!
 * Lost Technology - The Council of Seven was founded to try and revive it, and the one major religion on Filgaia (the Order of the Ark of Destiny) is essentially dedicated to it (even having their headquarters in a millenia-old Generation Ship!).
 * The Man Behind the Man - Three times: behind Janus,  behind  and  behind.
 * Though it seems more like So the last one was more of a case of Villain-on-Villain action.
 * The Maze - The final dungeon and the Abyss are both like this.
 * Meddling Grandmother - Late during the second act, just before going to the last shrine, Halle, Gallows's grandma, outright reveals to her grandson that she had an hidden agenda, and that she intentionally orchestrated the events of the game's beginning, in which she succeeded to bring back home Gallows, and set him up on the rails of his quest and duties (which he ran away from at the beginning of the game).
 * Mega Manning - can do this by reading comic books.
 * Mexican Standoff - The "Select a Character" screen is a stand-off between the main characters, and you play through their backstories before the stand-off gets resolved.
 * Monster Arena - Gunner's Heaven.
 * New Game Plus- Epically. The EX File Keys, which require doing some insane side quests, are used in a New Game Plus to unlock things. Good luck getting them all.
 * No Holds Barred Beatdown: An direct allusion to this trope by Maya Schrödinger, who says this to Virginia immediately after saving her and her party from Asgard (who did OHKO them) : "I, Maya Schrödinger, will crush you to the ground, no holds barred. Just remember that."
 * No Hugging No Kissing: It's one of the very few PS 2 JRPGs that doesn't have a romantic subplot.
 * One Hundred Percent Completion - This game thrives on this. A good way to tell how you're doing is to check how many EX.Keys you've picked up.
 * One Winged Angel -
 * The final boss has ten freaking forms.
 * Also,
 * was also given a demon form.
 * Outside the Box Tactic - It's possible to defeat the sub-boss Gespent in one turn by using the Requiem spell.
 * Papa Wolf - Virginia's father is pretty much absent, but if you dare hurt her, Papa will come to the rescue.
 * Plot Coupon That Does Something: The Tear Drop (yet another reference to the first game) can be used with Mystic for some decent healing.
 * Porn Stash - You get to fight one.
 * Powers As Programs - The Mediums explicitly work like this.
 * Puzzle Boss - A lot. Around half the game's bosses require either a specific strategy to defeat, or have their difficulty level go through the roof if you don't use it (Trask being the key example).
 * Roswell That Ends Well - An NPC named Roswell sends you on a sidequest for flying saucers. Yes.
 * Sand Is Water - The oceans are, quite literally, sand. Giant sea monsters live in it, and you have to drive a boat out to fight them. Don't ask.
 * Sarcastic Clapping - Janus does this to Virginia after she gives him yet another gallant and long-winded speech. Virginia gets furious.
 * Schizo Tech - Fantasy and Wild West Tech, as is common to the series. However, in this game, the latter is played up far more prominently, with the fantasy elements almost removed, arguably improving the game by forcing it to focus on what was unique in Wild ARMs in the first place.
 * Self Duplication: Janus Cascade revealed his ability to make duplicate bodies of himself,
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man - Shane and Gallows, respectively.
 * Sequential Boss - The final boss takes this trope much further than most ever do: it has ten forms.
 * Shifting Sand Land - The whole world is like this.
 * Shout Out - Oh so many, even by Wild Arms standards. Not only do many elements from Wild Arms 1 hover in a grey area between Expy and straight reappearance, but monsters and locations have a remarkable tendency to reference myth, folklore, and pop culture in one way or another. Norse Mythology and The Ring Cycle get a particular emphasis, from Siegfried to Yggdrasil to.
 * When Shaddy, the cat of Maya's group, is trapped, he yells "No more walls !"... Add this to the fact that in battle he only has two attacks with 50% of chances of using each one... And that Maya's family is named Schrödinger... And that said family's ancestors made Shaddy completely claustrophobic... Poor Schrödinger's cat.
 * Sneeze Cut - During the third act, Virginia is looking for a gem, and somehow thinks about Maya... Cue a change of scene with Maya sneezing.
 * Stealth Hi Bye -
 * Super Powered Evil Side - Janus gets a dose of The Dark Side, and later get one too.
 * The Gunslinger - Unlike previous Wild ARMs games, which mixed swords and fantasy weapons together, pretty much everyone uses a gun. Everyone in your party wields a different type of gun.
 * This fact leads to a hysterical scene. The party is opposed by villainous Huskarls, a group of knights equipped solely with swords. The party is flabbergasted that someone would be using a sword in this day and age. When the party kills them deader than disco, the guy who sent the Huskarls after the party freely admits that he thought they'd all get killed, using swords like that.
 * The Reason You Suck Speech - Clive to Melody in Yggdrasil, about the concept of external and inner beauty.
 * Took a Shortcut -
 * Martina, an unarmed NPC little girl, somehow travels the world without the use of a horse, sandcraft, or aircraft. Lampshaded several times by the party wondering how the hell she gets to the places she does.
 * Clive also does this in his prologue, since his starter dungeon can only be reached by air.
 * Train Job - The introduction of the game begins with all four party characters meeting each other performing the same train job... and interfering with some villains who have also come to perform the same train job. It was a very busy train that night.
 * Traintop Battle - During the aforementioned Train Job Pileup, you battle Janus and his boys atop the train.
 * True Companions - Virginia declares herself and the three men to be one of these. While initially, the three men find it funny and decide to play along, Character Development slowly turns the whole group into the real thing.
 * Vice City - Little Twister.
 * The original name, Titty Twister, is a pretty obvious Shout Out to From Dusk Till Dawn....
 * Wasted Song: The English versions of Advanced Wind, the opening song, Only the Night Sky Knows, the "quit game" song, and Wings, the ending song, are not available on any soundtrack. There are English versions on the official Japanese soundtrack, but they have completely different lyrics and vocalists (and are so very Engrish). The only way to listen to the official English versions of the songs are to rip them from the actual game disc. Argh.
 * World Tree - The Yggdrasil System.
 * Xanatos Roulette -
 * World Tree - The Yggdrasil System.
 * Xanatos Roulette -