Way Back Wednesday: 2nd Ignition

Welcome to Limit Break's first Way Back Wednesday. Starting today, and every Wednesday following, we will be posting a review from older systems. Starting with an old favorite of mine, Wild ARMs: 2^nd Ignition.

Wild ARMs 2, or 2^nd Ignition in Japan, is the second installment in the Wild ARMs series developed by Media Vision and SCE development studio Contrail on April 30, 2000. Wild ARMs 2 is a RPG where the player controls

several characters throughout the game. The game starts off with the selection of three characters. Ashley Winchester, a male gun warrior, Brad Evans, an ex convict and heavy ARMs user, and Lilka Eleniak, the party's mage.

For people who never picked up a Wild ARMs game before, ARM stands for Advanced Relic Machine or gun which is introduced in the first installment, Wild ARMs. In the second game, ARMs means the same, but has another meaning as well Agile Remote Mission Squad or in other words the party. Ashley and Brad can both use ARMs while being part of the ARMs, confusing.

Each character has their own set of powers, abilities, weapons, and tools that make them essential to the party as a whole. The battle system is a little complex, each character needing FP, Force Points, which are gained by being attacked in order to use some of their special abilities.

Once all three characters have been played, they are brought together by a man named Irving and leader of ARMs. From the moment the antagonists join forces, they are pit against a terrorist group named Odessa, a group bent on ruling the world of Filgaia. Besides the main antagonists, there are bosses that reappear and characters you will either love to hate, hate, or simply love.

The world of Filgaia could be compared to a fantasy western, between the catchy music, the state the world is in, and the use of guns. There are more advanced parts of Filgaia, and of course there is the magic aspect that comes together to make an unforgettable journey.

The story of Wild ARMs 2 takes place over two discs, both with different animated intros on each disc when the player loads their game. The graphics in the game, while not impressive to the current generation of games, are fun and really good for the time when the game was released.

This is one game I would suggest to anybody. It's classic, but amazing. Wild ARMs 2 has catchy music, strong character development to make the player care about their party and supports the overall story. While the disc version of Wild ARMs 2 is hard to find in working condition for a fair price, the game can be bought from the Playstation Network for all to enjoy. Wild ARMs 2 gets a 9.5/10 rating... close to perfection!

Comment below with the system you would like for us to select a game from for the next Way Back Wednesday! The comments help, both with material and to let us know how we are doing.