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Enchanted Arms

Written by DM on Thursday, September 07 2006

Enchanted Arms has the distinction of being the first traditional turn-based RPG on the Xbox360, and actually the first of the entire next generation. Those of you who have long memories will remember that MS tried the turn-based RPG route at the launch of the Xbox with Metal Dungeon. That outing turned out less than spectacular to say the least. Does Enchanted Arms follow suit? Let’s find out.

The story which fuels Enchanted Arms is a classic Japanese RPG plot. Set in a futuristic sci-fi world, the main character Atsuma and his student cronies suddenly find themselves in the middle of a crisis which threatens to destroy the entire world. All the humans who inhabit the EnArms world have lost most of their powers of magic, only retaining the smallest amount of magical knowledge (enchanting). The universe of Enchanted Arms is also inhabited by golems. These golems do all the manual labor and other menial tasks – basically they are slaves to the humans, but happy ones. Without revealing too much of the story, we can tell you that there are ancient golems who were responsible for the “Golem Wars” that still exist in the game world. Of course, these golems happen to return to life, and the story unfolds from there.

As the gamer you control the main character (of course), Atsuma. He is born with a special birth defect -- his right arm has the ability to interfere with enchantments, basically throwing a wrench into any machine that it comes near. The story behind how the arm came into being is central to the story, and you eventually use the arm to bring about both the evil and the good elements of the storyline.

Throughout the game Atsuma comes into contact with many different NPCs, and they join and leave his party as you progress through the game. This leads to a bit of frustration since you will just get your party set the way you want and then two of the party members leave. It can be trying, for sure.

One of the luscious game environments.

The golems in the game are a bit like the hundreds of characters that RPG players can obtain in the RPG series Suikoden. There approximately 130 different types of Golems in Enchanted Arms, and you can obtain them either by winning special battles with major enemies you meet in your travels, or you can buy them at the stores which crop up. Once you obtain the necessary “core” part of the Golem, you can then assemble the golem at the store. Keep in mind that you also need to obtain a certain number of speed, mind, and other gems in order to complete the golem assembly. The golems really do feature very diverse styles, I cannot stress that enough. From pure comic relief, to bright and fluffy, to downright scary, they are all there. Even the golems that are not suitable for use in combat are fun to collect, you know, just to see what they look like.

The gameplay mechanics in EnArms are straightforward turn-based RPG, through and through. In addition to this, there is a grid system in place so that plyers can see just how big of an area of effect their spells and attacks will have. If you are unclear what this means, think of Vandal Hearts or Final Fantasy Tactics, they both have a similar grid system, just on a much larger scale.

The battle party can consist of up to four players, be they human or golem. Each character has a set number of HP and EP, the EP (ether points) are basically a combination of skill points and magic points, both spells and attacks come from the same pool. If you ever run out of EP, you will not be able to do anything but use an item, keep an eye on the gauge. Personally, I have only run out of EP once or twice, so bear that in mind.

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