Wild Arms 2

Wild Arms 2 is a JRPG from Media.Vision, released on PlayStation in 1999 as a continuation of the western-themed Wild Arms series, built on a combination of fantasy and the Wild West. The game abandons the purely desert scenery of the first installment and offers a more varied, diverse world full of different environments, from snowy plains to industrial cities, as the player takes charge of a party built around the mysterious hero Ashley Winchester and his companions, who face a secretive organization threatening the very order of the world and the balance between humans and supernatural forces.

The game retains the series' characteristic features – a combination of classic turn-based battles with puzzle dungeons, in which the player uses each character's special tools, such as a grappling hook or bombs, to solve puzzles and unlock hidden paths. The second installment also introduces a personification system that ties the battle system to story progression, letting characters temporarily take on powerful abilities at key moments in battle, turning boss fights into tense narrative climaxes. An emphasis on elaborate side quests, hidden areas, and bonus dungeons rewards players willing to thoroughly explore the world instead of rushing toward the main goal.

Graphically, the game follows the style of its predecessor, with simple but distinctive 2D sprite characters set against three-dimensional backgrounds and pre-rendered scenery, while the musical score rounds out the series' adventurous, western-tinged atmosphere. Contemporary reviews praised the elaborate world, puzzle dungeons, and story, although the game remained somewhat less well known in Western reviews than the later PlayStation 2 installments of the series. Today, Wild Arms 2 is valued by classic JRPG fans as one of the honest, well-crafted titles of the PlayStation generation, one that's worth discovering even after all these years.

Why play: For fans of classic JRPGs, this is an honest, well-crafted title with puzzle dungeons and a western atmosphere that's worth discovering even after all these years.