Enchanted Arms (Xbox 360, 2006)

I'm a big fan of RPGs, I've played most of the Final Fantasy series and I enjoy them. Enchanted Arms is definitely different than the FF series, but this is a good thing and adds to the games interest. Battle is the most important aspect of these games and Enchanted Arms uses a grid system, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, although much smaller. Your characters (up to 4) are on one 4X3 grid and your enemies (sometimes up to 6) are on another 4x3 grid. You can't cross into the opponents grid, but this still offers alot of strategy opportunity. There are a variety of attacks to hit different squares on the enemy grid, offering a wide range of options when fighting an enemy.

Healing after battle is a thing of the past in Enchanted Arms, you merely need to get through the battle and all your health and EP (like MP in FF, but you use EP for all attacks, even physical ones) will be restored. As always if your character is knocked out in combat, he or she won't gain any EXP or SP (allows you to learn new skills and up your parameters like attack and health), but will still revive to full health at the end of combat. Of course there is a price to pay. All your characters have an attibute called VP, which decreases several times during battle, including taking damage, getting knocked out (a whopping 10 VP, I'll explain why this is a big deal in a moment), and even going through turns. Its because of this last one that you want to defeat your enemies ASAP. If you can defeat all the enemies in one turn, then you lose no VP. VP is replenished at health stations located throughout the world. I found they are placed at good enough locations that you don't have to worry, so long as you don't let your characters get knocked out alot or take too long fighting battles. Your main character has 100 VP, but your lowest human character has only 50. In addition to human characters, you will find Golems throughout the world that you can use. They level up just like humans and have attacks, but they cannot learn new attacks or skills. Depending on the Golem, they have varying amounts of VP (I noticed that the more powerful the Golem, the less VP they have, figures right?), from 100 to only 12. You can buy items that restore your VP, but you can only carry 9 of them and they don't appear til mid-game.

Learning skills for your human characters requires that you first buy them from a shop and then use SP to "teach" it to them. Like FF8, there are only a limited number of spots for actions (attacks, healing spells, and powerups) and supports (effects like cancel poison and HP +20%). One of the coolest things about this game is that you can save anywhere. I mean anywhere you can open up the menu you can save. It's great. Some things that bother me about the game I will just quickly list because they aren't that big a deal but I figured I'd mention: In talking sequences, they do use voice actors, but after every sentence, you need to hit A to continue. It gets alittle annoying because I like to sit back and enjoy it, instead of mashing a button every 5 seconds. Another problem in battle is that powerup buffs (like Damage -50% and Parameters +50%) do not stack, the new erases the old.

I'm running out of room, but this game is definitely worth the buy, although it has its flaws, the plot is good, but the end kinda leaves you wanting more.

I'm a fan of old-school RPGs, for the very reasons many people HATE old-school RPGs. The turn-based fighting, the in-depth fighting styles, 60+ hours of gameplay, multiple characters to control and upgrade, extensive storylines multiple twists and twines and random fights that doesn't seem physically possible! I love all of that, and for once, an RPG on the 360 has all of this and much more.

The story takes some time to build, so those without patience should not attempt this game. It starts out in a very uplifting mood, where you travel around a University for Gifted Enchanters and travel to Yokohama city, where a festival is taking place. After some traveling, mini-games, and "Golem" battles (Golems: Robots/Artificial Life you control on the battle field), disaster breaks out and you find your school in shambles...

The game easily has 60+ hours of gameplay through the main story and mini-games. Those with that pokemon-esque itch will find themselves hunting Golems to control. The battle system is pretty intense, the field is a 8x4 grid where you can move your character into one of the slots and unleash one of his/her/it's attacks that will hit one or multiple opponents. It takes some getting use to, but this game features great and painless tutorials on how to effectively use the system. I say painless because I know a lot of people hate tutorials, as do I, however this is pretty painless, it's more basic instructions then lots of mindless back history on the creation of the style that you really just don't care about.

The story is amazing, not necessarily for kids though. There is certain situations children will most likely ask about and you will most likely not want to answer. Cultures in the game do resemble cultures in real life, and you can tell who they are suppose to resemble as soon as you learn of the cities name. The graphics are great for an RPG, especially when you use the crazy EX moves in battle.

If anything, this game is at least worth a rental. Of course, you will need more then day. If you're a 360 owner that is looking for a great old-school experience brought up to date, you will not be disappointed by this game!

I had three days off from class and work, and I wanted a game to ignite my gaming passion and keep me occupied for those three days. I had seen Enchanted Arms several times; it had caught my attention with the cover and being an RPG title, so I finally picked it up to give it a go.
It's your typical RPG style game, start slow, engage you with a story, grind, grind, grind til the finish. The combat system is pretty simple, placing you on a 3 x 3 grid facing your opponents grid of the same size with random enemy encounters. You have varied attacks hitting varying locations on the grid to smite your enemies and protect yourself. The combat itself is pretty easy to pick up, and once you learn the strengths and weaknesses of certain attacks you'll be wiping the floor with your enemies in no time. One of the things you do have to keep an eye on are Vitality Points, which will decrease after each battle depending on the number of turns taken and damage taken. It is imperative to keep battles short as lots of turns and lots of damage subtract from this total and reduce the number of battles your characters can participate in. When the total reaches zero, your character will enter battle with 1 health and 1 EP (magic).
One of the fun features I enjoyed was the creation of golems. You can create a huge variety of golems to aid in your quests, from healers to damage dealers to downright weird creations. The Crazy Pizza golem certainly made my day with it's weirdness and style. Unfortunately, the golems all don't speak English so when they comment in battle and upon their creation you have no idea what they say. Fortunately, they don't play a part in cinematics.
All in all, it was a good game that did what I wanted to do: it occupied my time and gave me a good challenge in trying to acquire all the golems. I enjoyed the game very much and would recommend it to all you die-hard RPG fans. Oh, and don't let Makoto turn you off this fun game.

Let me start by confessing a little known dark secret – I have never played a JRPG for more than 10 minutes. That is not to say I am not an RPG fan, which I am, but I am accustomed to “western” RPG’s such as Fallout, Baulder’s Gate, Fable and KOTOR. As of writing this review, the xbox 360’s RPG library is rather anemic. My attraction to e this game was its use of turn based combat which I have long craved since the days fallout 2.

Right from the get-go Enchanted Arms introduces you to its turn-based combat system. The entire game combat mechanics revolves around this system and will ultimately determine your like or dislike for this game. There are two square grids for opposing sides on which players from opposing players are placed. Although attacks can be made into the enemy section of the battlefield, one cannot move there. The system introduces more depth by having elemental affiliation. Logically a fire attack will cause more damage to a water based creature. While the whole system is strategic in nature, it is lacking when compared to a battle system like that found in fallout. With the exception of boss battles, most of the battles require the use of very general techniques.

The game essentially involves running around from point A to B and engaging in battles. Uniting these battles is the game world and story. The environments look pretty but feels linear with invisible walls. Often you will find yourself on a road unable to walk/run into the surrounding area. Even worse – most of the combat encounters are random with invisible enemies. You are walking one minute, next, battle. The only solid enemies are gloms that can be captured or bosses. However there are NPR characters that you can interact with, even if this is very shallow.

For all its failing and annoyances the game does having more than one saving grace. Two, in fact: the story and characters. The characters are well portrayed with good voice acting and tied up in an interesting story that will keep you paying. I was annoyed with the presentation of dialogue and how I had to hit “A” button to advance after few lines but I kept listening/reading. Had the dialogue presentation been better, the impact would have been far greater.

In the end the game was a tiring experience taking close to 50 hours to complete but the story made it worth while. Pick this game up for the turn-based combat and engaging story and be prepared to put up with annoyances that are typically found JRPGs. JRPG veterans should feel right at home.

[PS you can pick up an easy 1000 achievement points by finishing this game. No tricks. No hassles. Just finish the main story.]

Experience one of the first true next-gen roleplaying game (RPG) adventures. Developed exclusively for Xbox 360™, Enchanted Arms™, a best-selling RPG in Japan, now finally arrives in the U.S.

Embark on an epic RPG adventure and escape to a fantasy world filled with beautiful cinematic-quality graphics, unique characters, and bizarre creatures. Take on the role of Atsuma, Enchanter in-Training, and transform from a naïve student into the most powerful savior in a war 1,000 years in the making.

Immerse yourself in a deep storyline as you face increasingly difficult challenges and learn to master Atsuma's special fighting and magical attacks.

If you love RPGs this game is designed perfectly for you. You will love this adventure. Highly rated in Japan. Just another highly rated PlayStation game becoming available to the XBOX 360, comes out August 29th 2006. Enjoy.