Wild ARMs 1

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


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 Garret Stampede, the sole surviving Fenril Knight of the demon attack on Arctica in the prologue movie. 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.


Tropes used in Wild ARMs 1 include:
  • 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 serves as The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
  • 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.
    • A flashback reveals that he has been an outcast his entire life, not just because he has an ARM, but because his nature as a "Holmcross" gives him unnatural strength and combat abilities (with said weapons). This tended to freak people out more often than not.
  • Artificial Human: Rudy
  • Audible Sharpness
  • Back from the Dead: In the remake, Berserk is resurrected for one last rematch during the finale.
  • Badass: Boomerang. After dying while pulling off a Heroic Sacrifice to protect the main characters, he claws his way up back from hell so that he can fight them one more time.
    • Which is kind of funny to think about if your party loses to him.
  • 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. Good thing he was built to wield the thing, or else he'd go flying backwards with every shot.
  • Big Bad: Mother. After her defeat in the first half, Zeikfried takes up the mantle...until Mother "merges" with him to create a very unsettling Big Bad Duumvirate.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Rudy is the master of this trope, especially in the remake. Jack gets one too by saving Rudy from being crushed immediately after he saves Jane from the same thing.
  • 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: Mother is initially a fleshy, larva-like demonic creature. After absorbing Zeikfried, however, her "Motherfried" form looks serene and human, even cradling Zeikfried in her arms like a baby.
  • 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" (or Ka Dig̃ir—the 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."
    • "Sieg Zwei" became the even more mangled "Zeik Tuvai."
  • Blood Knight: Boomerang and Lucied.
  • Body Horror: What Alhazad's Demon Seed does to its victims is not pretty. And then there's Mother, especially after she "merges" with Zeikfried.
  • Bonus Boss: Ragu O Ragula, of course. There's also the Golems that aren't fought in the main story, Angol Moa, and a rematch with the Rotting Beast from Rudy's intro sequence.
  • 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 the men of Surf Village join their hearts together with Rudy and his ARM to fire a blast powerful enough to expose the Rotting Beast's core, allowing Rudy to destroy it for good.
  • 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: Mother
  • 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 Berserk's death. The fact that she wanted to destroy everything didn't help.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Mother
  • Evil Counterpart: Lady Harken to Jack, in more ways then one.
  • Evil Genius: Alhazad.
  • Evil Is Dumb: Harmless Villain Zed's dramatic improvement in effectiveness when he becomes a secret recruitable party member in Alter Code F.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: The demons awaken the Sealed Evil in a Can, Mother. She immediately reveals her plans to kill them and destroy their new world. So the demons naturally turn on her and kill her. Unfortunately, she turns out to be Not Quite Dead and she possesses Zeikfried anyway, fulfilling the trope.
  • 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: The demons are not interested in Mother destroying the world, and they try to eliminate her so they can get on with conquering it.
  • 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: Alhazad's true form has a single eye. In his mouth.
  • Face Heel Turn: Subverted. Lucied, Guardian of Desire, is said to have defected to the demons during the war. She actually became the partner to Blood Knight Boomerang, who served no one.
  • 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 Elmina, one of the Fenril Knights who sacrificed herself for Jack.
  • 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. In both games, he becomes a Not So Harmless Bonus Boss; in the remake, he joins as one of the strongest party members.
  • 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: Boomerang and Asgard.
  • 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, Jane's village for one of Asgard's power cores. Thankfully, the party manages to drive the enemy back.
  • How We Got Here: The opening sequence of the remake is essentially the ending of the game. You just have to find out those events.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In the remake's ending, Jane claims she isn't brash or rude enough to interrupt Rudy and Jack's reunion with Cecilia.
  • 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 the destruction of Arctica.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jack
  • Kansas City Shuffle: You know that Darkness Tear that was supposed to destroy the Guardians and eradicate all life on Filgaia and was the focus of the plot for a quarter of the game? Only a mere distraction to allow Zeikfried to locate and raise Ka Dingel.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Despite the fact that Jack was a Western-style knight, he uses a katana.
  • Kill Sat: Bonus Boss Barbados fires off a laser before you start out the battle against it. If you had Asgard with you though, he'll nullify it with a barrier.
  • 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. This may be because he's made of metal - but no one mentions he's particularly heavy, even Jack who carries him at a few points.
    • It is actually mentioned (and shown) that Rudy is very, VERY strong. Much stronger than one would think given his size and apparent age.
  • 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 cuts off (or blows off, in the remake) his own arm to save himself.
  • 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, Rudy himself is made of lost technology.
  • 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 she flat-out tells the Quarter Knights that their entire reason for existing is for them to become her next vessels.
  • Meaningful Name: A "vambrace" is a piece of armor that covers the forearm, the significance of which is pointed out when Jack / Garrett receives the title in his Backstory, as he can protect the "sword arm" of the Fenril Knights. 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 Magdalen reveals he had one of these during his backstory in the remake. He was originally a Wanderer who found an old ARM that was placed on display at an exhibition. It went out of control and killed several people. Nicholi Maxwell took responsibility and took in the orphaned children from the accident. Magdalen swore loyalty to the family to repay that debt and especially after Mrs. Maxwell died in childbirth when Jane was born.
  • 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. And in the remake, not even that is enough.
  • 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 she does NOT want him to know that she's Calamity Jane and has been hunting dangerous bounties to keep the orphanage afloat.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: When the evil tower Ka Dingel rises from the sea.
    Et sōlis aurōra, paradīsī porta, per quam lūx est orta!
    ET SŌLIS AURŌRA, PARADĪSĪ PORTA, PER QUAM LŪX EST ORTA!
    ET SŌLIS AURŌRA, PARADĪSĪ PORTA, PER QUAM LŪX EST ORTA!
  • 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: Zed, Boomerang, Alhazad and Zeikfried.
  • One Bad Mother: And how!
  • Our Demons Are Different: The demons are from the planet Hyades and made of metal. Lady Harken is the exception, as she is from Filgaea and was human.
  • Our Homunculi Are Different: Rudy. 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 allowing the party to leave with one of Asgard's power units after fighting them to a standstill. Zed choosing to protect the blind girl who was the sole survivor of Alhazad's Demon Seed experiment rather than killing her.
  • 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: Rudy, after he cuts/shoots off his own arm.
    • 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: Quite literal. At one point, the party has to kill a dog mutated by Alhazad's Demon Seed.
  • 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 is resurrected right before the final battle.
  • 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: Zeikfried helps the heroes defeat Mother so he can take over once he discovers her goals...weren't exactly what he thought they were.
  • Summon Magic: The Guardians.
  • Taking You with Me: Arguably the entire point of Zeikfried's One-Winged Angel form.
  • 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 loses an arm and finds out he's an Artificial Human.
  • That Man Is Dead: Jack does not like being reminded of his old life of being Garret, a guard of Arctica Palace.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: Rudy during his rematch against the Rotting Beast in the remake.
  • 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: Rudy.
  • 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: Lady Harken used to be a guard at Arctica like Jack, and was actually his best friend and possible lover. She actually realizes this eventually, and allows Jack to kill her in their last battle.
    • Completing a certain sidequest allows you to revive her as her old human self, however.
  • 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: When Mother is defeated the first time, she starts to break down because she can't understand how she could be defeated if she's the "destined destroyer" of reality. Its made more explicit in the remake.
  • The Virus: Alhazad's Demon Seed parasite.
  • 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 the Guardian of Desire 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: Mother's death turns out to be only the halfway point. This starts a trend for Wild Arms games.