A show of hands? I know there hasn't been an official release announced yet, but I'm just curious...

I really don't know why I'm so amped for it since I have a beef with each one they have released since moving the series to the PS2... it's like Mega Man, I keep playing for some reason even if I'm not satisfied.

I'm not optimistic. WA3 went on far longer than the skimpy plot should have allowed and WA4 had the most boring cast of characters this side of FF5 (and didn't have great music to save it like the former did).

Wild Arms 3 was the first RPG I played on the PS2 and I was pretty bored the entire time... the aging mechanics really got to me and I'm not a big fan of Naruke's score for the game even though I own it - basically I was hoping to force myself to like it by shoving it down my throat. It's a good score - I won't sit here and take potshots at it - it's just not my thing I guess.

I liked Raquel and that was about it. Jude was just too juvenile (even though "growing up" was the idea befind the story). There are a few pieces of music I like but getting the WA3 soundtrack taught me I shouldn't buy something I'm not into just because a certain composer did it and I feel the need to have all their/the series' work... simply but it's a waste of resources better spent elsewhere.

I'm not exactly that hopeful either, I just really want something that reminds me or can somewhat complete with WA 1&2.

It's an effective score in the game but there is a lot of filler in it, like most soundtracks that stretch out to 4 CDs. The game itself was... yuck. It was also one of the first RPGs I played for the PS2 and I can't say that it was very memorable. It just stretched on and on... and by the time I made it to the final boss (which also stretched on and on), I just didn't care anymore.

In all honesty, I didn't think WA 1&2 were all that great either. The first game is horribly dated and the second suffered from one of the worst translations of the era. For me, they were both distractions while waiting for the slamdunk RPGs.

I didn't comment much on WA4 because I only played the first three hours of it before giving up. If I'm not hooked on the plot and characters by that time, I don't bother.

I can't really explain why I personally hold the original in such a high regard, especially considering I played FFVII first then borrowed and played WA1 immediately afterwards. There is just a lot of heart in the characters and beyond those horrible chibi-looking battle models and over simplistic battle system. Granted, even with FFVII out at the time RPGs still weren't the force then that they would eventually come... if they were I probably passed over Wild Arms back in 1997 - probably a case of access/supply and demand and right time/right place.

I really got into WA2 by chance considering there were bigger and grander titles avalible in 2000... I like the story despite the translation. Still, like I said by the time WA3 came around I thought the wear and tear on the franchise was pretty apparent and I realized I wasn't having fun anymore. I kind of bought into the buzz around WA4's changes and for the most part though it was a little less than a bust.

I guess old habits die hard, and I'm just not ready to give up the ghost when it comes to the series. Even if I buy and play WA5 I'll probably play it once and sit on it like I do 3 , 4 and ACF. For some reason I just can't part with'em and break up my set. Lol, man that probably sounds pretty sad.

I really liked 2...It was odd, but once I played a couple of hours in, the story seemed to take off and I was actually interested in what was going to happen to the cast (maybe not the world so much). I remember I really liked Kanon and the fights with her were some classic good RPG fights. It did drag on, but it was rewarding (although the one translation puzzle in the final dungeon had me reaching for Gamefaqs more than once...It was awful). I didn't care so much for Code F, but I'll buy a remake of 2 without hesitation. It had a lot of intangibles working for it that a lot of RPG's seemed to lack at the time (and now, for that matter).

Mixed responses to the remainder of the games...I finished 1, but barely. I'm somewhere near the end of WA3, but the game lost all sense of being engaging somewhere around 10 hours in (if that). 4 has potential, but it's on the backlog for possibly eternity right now. Those Klonoa sections should be used in their own seperate game.

Suffice to say, I want to see 5, but not with the same level of anticipation for VP2 or Suikoden 5 yet.

My only complaint with 3's OST is the dungeon tracks are lacking compared to 2's and there aren't nearly as many. Other than that, it's a strong favorite.

I wasn't really impressed with VP2. I bought it because I was curious what it was like since I missed out on the original Valkarie Profile. I've been toying with the notion of selling my copy since I don't think I'll ever revisit it. And most will probably crucify me but I've been thinking of selling my copy of Chrono Cross... it's just not worth hanging on to it for one battle and the song that plays during that battle (I LOVE "People Imprisoned by Destiny"/" Prisoners of Fate") when someone else can get a lot more joy out of it than I do.

Nah. I can't think of many people who liked Chrono Cross. I suppose it might have been a better game if I wasn't comparing it to CT the entire time (and it didn't even remotely compare).

Yeah, Ashley, you're safe...That was one of the greatest let-downs in my gaming career. I feel like a lot of the energy in the game went on pissing on the events of CT than really making anything of substance and the game's best feature (the elemental system) didn't offer enough reward for constant usage. It's supporters tend to be quite rabid though. It's probably not worth too much though, since it's a Greatest Hits title. Ironically, I started playing Wild Arms 2 after I quit Cross (for the first time) and it was a nice pick-me-up.

VP2 is different from the original in some aspects, but it has the same kind of style and feels like it's trying to evolve some good ideas. It feels like a push forward, but some ideas were left behind (the feeling of non-linearity and the backstories of the Einherjar...VP2's handling of it is just plain awful). I WILL finish it, but it hasn't hooked me yet...I'm just afraid of what it will do when it finally does. Pay whatever you have to for VP1 though...It's amazing from the get-go, once you get the hang of it.

I though the elemental/combat system was the game's best feature as well. I have an original copy of the game but I know I wouldn't get much out of it because when I go looking for PS1 games anywhere I run into tons of copies, unlike every other Squaresoft game from that era. I'm not looking to unload it or VP2 like a hot potato, but if I ran into a person that liked the game(s) a lot and really wanted it I would part with them.

Have any of you heard the soundtrack for WA5 yet?... I won't buy until I hear some of it from the game. I myself am kind of bummed Naruke seems to have been given a back seat with the series. I heard she became ill when working on WA4... has anyone heard if they plan to bring her back for WA Crossfire for the PSP or has she moved on to other projects?

Yeah, I've heard it. Think WA4, only much longer and even more boring. Naruke is greatly missed.

I wasn't impressed with WA4 so ouch! I'll reserve some judgment until the game comes out but I wasn't expecting any kind of musical renaissance. I asked because there where these people on the gamefaqs message boards practically ranting and raving about the thing and it made me wonder. I don't know why I bother posting there anymore, some people can be nice to chat to but then there are some real pieces of work over there.

WA5 is mostly split between Kouda and Agematsu, neither of whom impress me. It's probably okay in the game but six discs of it is a bit much.

Well, yeah! That's because most of them are under 18.

Different impression from me...It's not something I can listen straight through (yet) and it doesn't quite have Naruke's defined melodical style as far over it, but it is probably the farthest the series has gone to the "western" theme, there is some great diversity within the whole thing, with plenty of musical styles present (both composers use styles that are hard to pin down and categorize, so there is a good mix of styles overall to complement the "western" theme...I was disappointed it started to gravitate towards generic techno beats towards the end though) and there are a number of crowd-pleasers spread over the six discs (including a full-on remix of the "Ashley as Lord Blazer" battle music and my personal favorites thus far, "Seeking the Blue Sky", "The Mountain of No Return" and "The Wings of Fallen Gods".) Only thing that feels a tad cheap is some themes are blatantly reused with slightly different instruments...Limiting those and maxing out CD times could have gotten it to 4 CD's, but oh well. Other than that...The worst part is letting all of it sink in. This is a prime candidate for a decent 'mix' CD, since some themes really outshine others. It's different enough from 4 to warrant attention (though I enjoyed much of that one as well...aside from "Buried City" and its' 9 minutes of pure tedium, plus a number of Kouda's lesser tracks).

I hope Naruke comes back...It would be a shame for her to disappear just as the WA series begins increasing in exposure. I like what Kouda and Agematsu did, but there's no replacing an original. Right, Uematsu?

LOL, I never noticed that rather huge tracktime, had no idea that track was that long

Just curious as to which soundtrack(s) your referring to... FF12?

Anyway, the only Wild Arms disc on my radar for the rime being is the Rocking Heart CD. I know I ask asked you about it Goldfish and I was intending to buy it but I got a little pre-occupied and sidetracked with some other purchases... seriously, I really need to buy something that ISN'T a Rockman disc next time out...

Twas just a random, harmless poke. I haven't been in love with most of the guys they've gotten to replace Uematsu on FF (read: Mizuta and Sakimoto*) and hearing Blue Dragon only makes me miss him in that position again. Naruke is kind of in the same position, only...less publicized (and much more likely to make a return.)

Rocking Heart though = thumbs up. Not quite Dracula Battle, but still really good. "Battle with Liz and Ard", "Battle with Lord Blazer" and "This Is Where the Spirit Becomes Certain" always have room on my iPod Shuffle's puny capacity.

*High hopes for the upcoming Hamauzu and Shimomura FFXIII OST's though.

I actually REALLY liked WA3, but then again, I'm a damn sucker for anything Western themed.  I picked up WA4 as a result, and I was just really disappointed... I mean the battle system was fun but just about everything else in the game was a turn-off for me.  So I no longer have any interest in seeing WA5. :-/

I've heard from a couple places that the story in WA5 is quite good (and that they hired a Japanese novelist to pen it) and that the puzzles are quite good.  If it's not a terribly long game, I might be interested (having only played WA3 and AC:F, I'm wary of any Wild Arms game because I expect all of them to last at least 20-30 hours longer than they are interesting). 

And on the Uematsu thing - yeah, I've been pretty disappointed by Square giving the FF series to all my least favorite composers on their staff (though Nakano and Tanioka's contributions were quite good), and I'm excited they're FINALLY giving an FF-related game to Shimomura.  I still feel that Kenji Ito was the rightful heir to the FF main series, though, as his style seemed to synch the best with Uematsu's back in the day.

Agreed there.  It would have been much better if they had just made a full Radical Dreamers game and left all the Chrono stuff out of it.

I never get all the hate for Chrono Cross... it was probably the first PS game I really enjoyed and one that I always think of picking up again.

I think as a standalone game, it's fairly average and seems to have a bunch of little ideas that don't work or slightly work, such as the stat-gaining methods (and general lack of reward for extended fights...Growth levels accumulate depending on your position in the game, not based on how well you've micromanaged or fought), the pacing of the storyline (read: the game's in no hurry to explain things and there's a good chance the player will lose interest before anything noteworthy is explained) and I'm one of the ones who contends the game doesn't need as many characters as it has, since most have little to no motivation to join you and have little use (I had played Suikoden 1 and 2 before this, so I probably noticed more than I should have). All I remember from my last save: I had Serge, the dancer chick and an alien as my main party. And on a much more personal note, I HATE the fact you can actually run from boss fights. Somehow, that just seems to defeat the purpose of fighting one.

THEN you toss in the point that its' predecessor was one of my favorite games of all time and you get to see with just how little respect the creators have for the original, while throwing CT fans the sentimental bone every now and then (including the "ghosts" and my favorite: Lynx calling Serge the "Chrono Trigger" completely out of the blue). That's where the actual hate comes from.

Hope that sheds light...

That's one of things that bothers me to... 50 characters doesn't mean much when most of them mean nothing to the core of the story, and playing through the game like 3 times to get them all on the same file? That is boring as hell even if you use the fast forward option and is hardly what I consider adding anykind of replay value.

I thought the link between the games was fair at best and would probably stood better much better without it.

I will say when I played Chrono Trigger in the SNES days I didn't think to much of it as the person I borrowed it off of did, but after playing Chrono Cross I gained a much higher level of apprication for it.

Personally I don't think any game has done the stupidly large cast very well... even the Suikodens.  For every relevant and interesting character in Suikoden, you have some random woman who was doing laundry who moves to your castle.  Just seems kind of silly.  I still say collecting a crew in Skies of Arcadia was the best balance in that kind of human collection quest.

As far as Chrono Cross goes, I like it quite a bit - I love Yuuki's character designs (Serge is one of my favorite looking heroes in the history of gaming) and the general settings are gorgeous as well.  The music I've never liked as much as Xenogears, but it's still quite solid.  As far as gameplay goes, I really like that you're able to run from boss fights.  RPG battle systems tend not to be very realistic in the first place, and especially ones with as much elemental customization as Chrono Cross need to have some kind of allowance for not having the clairvoyance to know what the boss is going to be weak to.  I like that in Chrono Cross you can go in, see what you need, back out and then reorganize.  Games that annoy the @$%# out of me because there's really no way of knowing what you need include Vagrant Story and SMT3: Nocturne, neither of which I have any desire to play ever again.  But yeah... I liked a lot of the new things Chrono Cross tried in the gameplay.

The only big problem I have is story... I LIKE the story in Radical Dreamers a lot, and I don't like getting rid of Janus and having that whole Schala-divided-into-two-people thing was just kind of stupid.  If only they'd taken the basic plot from RD and expanded it, rather than changing it dramatically.  Oh well.

It's probably closer to 80% relevent, 20% extracurricular in the Suikodens (or maybe I'm just thinking of S5 at the moment...I don't recall EVERYONE from S1, but 2 was pretty on the mark). In any case, the POINT of the games is to accumulate 108 characters for your war efforts, so it at least has an excuse for less useful characters. Cross just has people joining you out of the blue (Serge is practically a random nobody to begin with) and there's not even a place to store them.

Ok, I guess I do see your point about the large cast.  I don't think of it as a big negative as you do, but I didn't see it at all as a positive since the number of characters and lack of identity helps make them feel generic...

http://www.xseedgames.com/news.php

Torrance, Calif., (Oct. 04, 2006) --- XSEED Games today announced that it has obtained exclusive publishing rights for DUNGEON MAKER: HUNTING GROUND, BRAVE STORY: NEW TRAVELER and WILD ARMS® 5 for the North American market. DUNGEON MAKER: HUNTING GROUND and BRAVE STORY: NEW TRAVELER, both for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, are scheduled for release in July 2007 and Q3 2007, respectively. WILD ARMS® 5 for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system is scheduled for release in Q3 2007.

Yay, I'm happy...