Enchanted Arms Review

Platform: Xbox 360
ERSB: Teen
Genre: Role Playing Game
Number of Players: 1
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: Available now
Official Website
Writer: FaeryTaleE

Rating: 7.0

When I’d first heard about Enchanted Arms, I could hardly contain my excitement. I had to run out and preorder it right away. I must say that it is not at all what I expected. That is not to say that it wasn’t a good game.
I did feel mislead by the advertisements. I felt misled by the graphics and game play style; but not once did I feel misled by the storyline.

Graphics:
In all honesty, the graphics were not that impressive, but they were still fun and interesting. Cut scenes were so good that they almost took your breath away. Everything else was just average.
The artwork was creative. The characters were well thought out in their design aspects. I appreciated that a lot. Everything just seemed very intricate and original.
If the game has anything going for it, it is original artwork with amazing (yet sparse) cut scenes.

Controls:
The controls were simplistic. Everything is spelled out for you. It tells you when and where you push a button if you need to. Controls were responsive and there was a good amount of customization you could do to make it perfect for your playing style.
The one thing I didn’t like was the lack of innovation in the fights. It has a very basic turn-based fighting system that almost made me stop playing the game.

Sound:
Enchanted Arms has a VERY good score. I love the music in this game. It does such an amazing job setting a mood for each part.
The sound effects, on the other hand, were not always great. I love the sounds they use for the special moves, but when you have to listen to Atsuma talk in English for hours and hours, you start to lose your mind, [not to mention] respect, for any of the other sounds in the game. There were some EXCELLENT voice actors in this game, but there were just as many horrible ones. It was Atsuma’s voice actor that made me stop playing the game, so sound is not getting a very good rating.

Flow:
Most games these days have at least an OK flow. Without it, people would have no interest in playing the game. This game was very fluid, yet I felt it had a lot of filler. I’m not big on thin plots with tons and tons of fun filler. And yes…the filler was decent, but it was not part of the big picture. I like everything in my games to have a purpose. Waste not, want not!

Fun Factor:
I really had a great time playing this game, although I’ve not made it all the way to the end (maybe that’s where my loose ends are tied?). I really enjoyed this game more than I have enjoyed an RPG in a long time. I would recommend it, but not as the most amazing RPG ever made… just one that is silly and over the top fun!

Is there a female playable character:
Men and women alike both appreciate women in their games. They kick ass, they are eye candy, and they bring a depth to many games where they would generally lack.
There were only a few girls in this game, but they were powerful, willful and strong-minded. I loved the female characters and was very excited to “get to know them” as I played on.
My one qualm was being stuck playing Atsuma…I wanted to kick some Golem butt with one of the girls!

Replay Value:
I think this game entirely lack replay. It was VERY linear. I was expecting more of a broad world with more things to do. That is not so. Once you’ve played this game, you’ve seen everything there is to see really. One can very easily have all of their achievements completed in this game after one time through.

If you haven’t played Enchanted Arms, I would give it a rent and play through. There is really no reason to buy it unless you’re hardcore into collecting or owning RPG’s.