Wild ARMs XF Crossfire PSP Review
Media.Vision put out Wild ARMs 5 Vth Vanguard in August and have since moved out of just doing JRPG's. Now Media Vision should be proud of themselves as they have constructed a unique SPRG in Wild ARMs XF Crossfire.
One of the best aspects of an SRPG is the ability to have different ending conditions, and while most mainstream SRPG's conditions are simply 'defeat all enemies', Wild ARMs XF does a good job of varying these conditions. Sure there are still levels where killing all the monsters on the screen is the point, but there are plenty of stages where you need to accomplish certain tasks, like fleeing, or protecting people, or sneaking into the enemy camp, and so on.
This segues into the class system. SRPG's like Final Fantasy Tactics generally have classes that are overpowered and once you max them out it is hard to justify using other classes (think Lancer, Monk, Ninja from FFT). There are over 15 classes in Wild ARMs XF but the best part is that the game forces you to use all of these classes in different battles. You cannot just build a brute force and smash everything to pieces; you will be outnumbered plenty of times and in turn it is your strategies (slowing the enemy down, taking their weapon, casting status ailments on them, etc) that are your saving grace. You also cannot grind massive amounts of levels, as even though there are random battles they do not yield much for experience.
One of the negatives of having to change classes all the time based on which battle you are fighting is that you will die often the first time fighting battles if you do not understand what needs to be done / which classes you need to have. Also since you are changing classes all the time you do not get a chance to distinguish the characters by having one main class for each person.
The story is typical Wild ARMs in that you are to save the decaying Filgaia. Unlike previous Wild ARMs games the forest and plain scenery is beautiful instead of brown, desolate and depressing. The characters are interesting although there are some annoying voiceovers.
Wild ARMs XF uses a lot of remixes from Wild Arms 1 through Wild Arms 5. Fans of the series will love this as no matter the Wild ARMs game most will agree the music is solid and fits the setting perfectly.
Wild ARMs XF Crossfire is a challenging game in each battle, and may turn off mainstream crowds because of this; but really, how many mainstream gamers really play strategy RPG's? SRPG fans will note that because you cannot grind levels this game presents much more strategic planning than Final Fantasy Tactics or Jeanne D'Arc, two other PSP SRPG's.