overdrive's Wild Arms 2 review

How's the enemy rate in this game? What finally killed Wild Arms for me was the terrible battle and dungeon graphics mixed with an inability to speed through them because I was attacked every three-five steps. And it is very weird that this game came out at the same time as FFVII. Really shows you how far advanced Square Enix was in terms of graphics. I guess they still are, but it doesn't stand out as much these days.

The enemy rate is really improved. To be honest, I'm a bit annoyed by it now, as I'm grinding for optional bosses and it's low enough in most areas that grinding takes longer than I'd like.

And, as long as it's not a surprise attack, you can hit the "search area/use tool" button and avoid combat.

What, really? You can just escape?

In most cases, yes. However, if you do it too often, soon enough you'll get a "surprise" battle where you are attacked by a mob and lose the first turn. Honestly, despite the shoddy translation and awful graphics, WA2 was a gem. If it had better mechanical features, it would probably be the best WA game, at least in my opinion.

Great review! I've been meaning to replay this game since it was one of my favorites in the series, and even one of my favorite games on PSX. I don't think I was quite as bothered by the ugly graphics or philosophical banter. I had a lot of fun playing the game, and I was hooked into seeing what else it would do to jump the shark.

The one thing I'll never forget about WA2 was it had that puzzle in the Spiral Tower involving the days of the week that you wouldn't get right unless you were Japanese because their week starts on Monday instead of Sunday. I wasted so much time trying to figure out how I was wrong and became livid when I looked up the solution on GameFAQs.

Our weeks start on Monday as well. The entire worlds do unless you live in North America.

WA2, though, was a mistranslated mess nontheless. Which is a shame because it could have been a great game. Instead, it's forever the transition title where new ideas were tried out and refined in later games.