Mastery #20: Wild Arms 2 (Playstation)

 

    WHAT A SET & GAME. This game hits home for a lot of reasons for me. This one along with a couple of other JRPG's from the same era. When this game came out or actually when I very first started playing this game was during a time I lived in Arizona. So playing a anime JRPG that is suppose to be kind of like a wild west theme I was all over it cause it felt like my backyard was part of the world. I don't want to go into too much detail (I will save more for other blog posts of other RPG's) but I moved to Arizona when I was about 13. At this time in my life I was a nerd with closed curtains; playing video games that was not a sports game or Tony Hawk Pro Skater or really any kind of video game for that matter you were some what of an outcast. Not in the same traditional way you see in movies but more like you would lose cool points. To add an extra layer to this I also loved anime, which again, at this time in American culture it was deemed 'weird' or 'childish' or 'nerdy'. Any time I would bring up anime to anyone, I was always met with "Isn't that like cartoon porn?". When moving to Arizona I had never moved before that so being in a all new school with new kids was extremely nerve racking to me and it ended with many bus rides home in tears clinging onto my previous home & friends. I would eventually find my way into a group of friends that shared all the same interest with me, which if I am being honest my old friends didn't even really care for RPG's & anime. My new friends loved anime, games, jrpgs, technology, music, it had really felt like I had found my home. 

    

    JRPG's at the time were rare even during this time. We may have been lucky to find one or two at a funcoland or fry's electronics. So many times my friends and I would share each other's games. It was almost kind of like unwritten rule of some sorts. One friend would buy Tales of Destiny, while another friend would buy Arc the Lad, while another Suikoden game. Thus when one was done playing one we would loan it to the next friend while we took on another. The games traveled so many times I firmly believe I still have some of my friend's game copies (Sorry John, Jarrod & Josh). I forgot who introduced me into the Wild Arms 2 game but I remember borrowing a copy and playing it at my friend John's house. I remember the opening theme and animation was so ingrained into my head after starting it up. It wasn't too uncommon to see anime openers for certain JRPG's but this one has always stuck with me. Even today before I started this retroachievement hunt I would often hum or whistle to the opening animation theme. I also remember so many of my friends were always like "The 2nd disc opener is way cooler and the song is better". Well I never got to disc 2 until recently earning the cheevos, remember this was a time before youtube so I couldn't really just pull it up online. Although there may have been a time or two I had seen it before but just forgot. After seeing the disc 2 opener....I still like the first one better. /fightMe

    Before I talk about my journey earning the cheevos on this game the one thing I want to mention is, after all these years, I never realized how this game does anime openers & closers. Let me explain or if you want you can watch my gif I uploaded below. But each time you start up your file it will play the opening animation, which was somewhat typical of JRPG's at the time or even now really. You start the game and before the opening screen it plays the typical anime opening. But if you were to save your game and than choose to no longer play the game it would play another animation with a different song and a typical anime ending cut scene. This little discovery gave this game a whole new level of respect for me. Such a small unique detail that I don't often find anymore in games.

    Now for the cheevos. Damn these cheevos were a blast but the last three proved rather difficult. For the most part all the achievements for the game was for story progression which I really enjoyed. Along the way was some side quest things but nothing too major. Normally for these games I typically have a bunch of save files so if I ever need to go back I can. I also loved that the achievements also helped if you defeated the other 'parts' of the boss. This game has a lot of boss battles in it, but instead of a simple single target to a giant boss this game provides different targets to a boss to weaken it & earn more experience. Thus many achievements required you to do this & I loved it. Especially since you get some extra experience with it.

I was so pumped I got this much damage on Zavorg when I was playing. Looking back on it now I'm like, "Oh I have done way more damage than that lol"

    I started theses achievements back in July 2022 and was planning on finishing it by October 2022 but with the release of PS2 achievements & some of my friends got me sucked back into Rocket League this fell to the wayside. I assumed that I was going to finish it by October 2022 cause all I had was like 5 more achievements. Which just so happened to be possibly the hardest ones to get lol. 3 of them being defeating the 3 hardest secret bosses in the game, and the last one being complete the monster card album. I decided to hit up these last few cheevos when I got to the end of the game so I can explore the world & hope the bosses would be rather easy if I was high level. How wrong I was...Bulkogidon & defeating his Belly & Drill (counted as two achievements) was the first one I tackled. Luckily I had to find a special strategy guide for that one. The next two was the infamous Ragu O Ragula & Angolmois. At this point in the game did I realize that I messed up their leveling. You see in this game you gain levels like normal through experience but there is also a thing called 'Personal Skills' and this increases certain stats based on the personal skill level. For a quick example there is a personal skill you can upgrade called 'Up Hp' & after every level your HP increases more than normal if the personal skill level is high up too. (Don't quote me exactly on the naming convention please xD ). Well most guides suggest you level this up early on so everyone has a lot of HP to take on these bosses, I didn't do that because I did start the game with a guide at first so I missed a pivotal piece of information. So what else can one person do?

I know, I know, Brad technically isn't at level 99...but his stats are so OP even at 97 he was insane xD

    Get all your characters to level 99. And that's exactly what I did. I leveled up all my characters to 99 which still to my surprise the Ragu & Ango fight was still difficult. Without a proper strategy the bosses were rather difficult and would decimate my team. From doing previous readings it would seem people discussed which one was harder. Some said, Ango others said Ragu....my vote is Ango. When I finally beat him by this point he was the last one in my monster album I hadn't filled out yet, so finally when I took him down I ran around the house lol. I know dramatic but the set was so much fun & I really learned a lot more about this game. When I was younger & I played it understanding all the themes sometimes just went over my head or I just didn't really pay too much attention to them. This game will always hold a special place in my heart. Like I said before, just hearing that opening theme...