Wild Arms 4, known in Japan as Wild Arms the 4th Detonator, is a role-playing video game developed by Media.Vision and the fourth installment in the Wild Arms video game series. The game's overall look and feel is a departure from the Wild West feel of the previous games in the series, to a more modern look.
Story
Jude Maverick has grown up in an isolated town called Ciel, which is completely enclosed in a large sphere floating thousands of feet above the surface of Filgaia. His sheltered world changes forever when he sees the sky "tear" and ships enter his homeland. Upon inspecting the campsite set up by the intruders, he sees something else that he has never seen before: a girl. The girl's name is Yulie and she is being held captive by the intruders after being captured by a "Drifter" for hire, Arnaud G. Vasquez. After the invading army attacks Ciel and brings the sphere crashing down, Jude, Yulie and Arnaud join forces to find the army's true intention behind Yulie's abduction. With the help of another Drifter, Raquel, these four idealistic teens travel the war-torn land of Filgaia in search of truth, their own identities, and their separate paths to adulthood.
Gameplay
Action elements on the field map such as double-jumps, using the new "Accelerator" ability to manipulate time, and equipping items to solve puzzles maintains the excitement between battles. Movie events are presented in a distinctive use of polygons and shading with voice-actors. Dialog takes place using various character illustrations that change and reposition frequently. Dialog takes place using various character illustrations that change and reposition frequently like a digital comic book, making it easier to deeply understand the emotions of each character. The HEX battle system is composed of seven hexagons on the battle field, with random beginning placement for all characters and enemies. What makes the HEX battle system so unique is that it is area based instead of character based. This means that any attacks or spells given to certain hexagon, or HEX, will affect all characters on that HEX. Multiple allies or enemies can occupy a single HEX, but enemies and allies can't occupy the same HEX.
Reception
IGN: 7.8/10 GameRankings: 73% Metacritic 69/100 Famitsu: 32 out of 40 GameSpot: 7.8/10
Localization
In the North American version, two monsters were taken out of the game, but not out of the monsters list, making it impossible to finish the game with 100% completion. The PAL version still contains this error, and is also known to crash in certain places when played in 50 Hz mode, leaving those areas potentially impassable to players whose television does not support 60 Hz PAL signals. Some PAL copies also have another issue where triggering specific Material summons would freeze the game. A workaround is to disable the battle movies in the game's options. This bug affects both PAL and NTSC modes. The English localization copy is known to freeze when loading the area at the top of a ladder at "The Great Wall" roughly 5 hours into the game when played in PAL mode. A workaround can be achieved by saving the game in the area prior and loading the game in NTSC mode, going past and saving on the world map. No other areas are known to have this problem.
