Enchanted Arms

Call me crazy but I like to play games that are fun.

And as a fan of RPGs, this game is loads of fun. Enchanted Arms is a cookie cutter RPG and nowhere is this more evident than its story. You’re Atsuma, a student at Yokohama. You have two friends. Toya, the intelligent, cool and relaxed one. Makoto, the stereotypical gay one. You stumble across a door at your school and, after being attack by machines, enter looking for your dog, Toto, of Wizard of Oz fame. You unleash an ancient evil from 1000 years ago, your friend gets kidnapped, Yokohama is turned to ice and you gotta save the world. You’ve heard this a thousand times before, although if you’re a gamer that has never experienced the 8/16 bit era, you may not be as familiar with this story as us geezers.

The combat, which is a mix between traditional and strategy RPGs, is enjoyable. Your team is on one side of the grid (which is 4x4) while your enemies are on the other. Each attack has its specific range and you gotta kill all your enemies. What makes this set up enjoyable is the fact that you can choose a fairly competent autofight option and there’s even a fast forward option which makes level grinding easier and a little more pleasant.

That’s not to say the game is perfect. It’s linear, too much for my taste, with only 1 side quest. (it’s long though: 10 hours.) Most of the dialogue takes place with head-to-head, something we haven’t seen in console RPGs in years. There are very, very few cut scenes, which is a shame considering how much talking there is.