"Strategy game which requires strategy"

Wild Arms XF is not your typical strategy role-playing game, srpg. Most games of its kind require one and only one real tactical decision, will you beat all your enemies to death or will you cast spells on them to death. XF on the other hand requires you to think on a whole new level.

Lets first deal with presentation aspects of XF. The graphics consists mainly of brightly colored sprites on a 3D map. While it may not be the best looking game on the psp, it dose serve its purpose well. All of the units, yours and the enemy's, are easily identifiable on the screen by sprite alone. The intermission is handled in moving, sort of, 2d art that is pretty standard for the genre. Now the music on the other hand is top notch and particularly reminiscent of all of those wild west fantasy songs, right down to the whistling quality in them. Very few blockbuster game titles have had such a rounded out sound track to them.

Second, let us talk story for a moment, no spoilers. The wild arms series as a whole has always had a mix of comedy and drama at the beginning, only to unfold to a much more serious dark tone as it continues. XF dose not disappoint. The comedic interludes keep the story from taking itself too serious at the beginning. XF dose a wonderful job of brining emotion to what could have easily been one dimensional characters, pun intended. By the end you really care for the characters and want them to succeed not for your own sake but for their hopes and their dreams. Truly wonderful from beginning to end.

Now on to the meat of any srpg, the game play. This game is not easy, in fact it can be down right hard. This is because the time honored tradition of level up absurdly and smite all before me is thrown out the window. Battles, all battles are either won or lost on your own ability to correctly assess the situation and develop a counter to what the enemy wants to do to you. Need to protect someone? Well you could try to kill all the attackers, but they outnumber you and out gun you so you will in all likely hood fail. So what do you do, you out think them. If they are strong, disarm them, fast, steal their turn and slow them down. This is the first game where status effects didn't seem like a pointless wast to me. Now with this knowledge will you still see the reset screen a lot, yes, but don't get mad, learn. If you try to use the same moves over and over again you will never get through this game. So is it hard, yes, but is it rewarding, very much so. All of your wins and loses are not just because you out leveled your opponent, but you out classed him, pun definitely intended, and that just feels good.

So to sum up. If you are looking for generic supper hyper mega strategy war duo now with fully rendered cut scenes, you will not like this game. If however you are looking for a challenging, charming, rewarding, endearing, thought provoking experience, well you would be hard pressed to find better.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/08, Updated 03/21/08

Game Release: Wild ARMs XF (US, 03/11/08)