I made a decision a couple weekends ago that I would finally pull a title that I have not played yet off my shelf of games and pop it in.  I settled on Enchanted Arms for the Xbox 360.

When I started, I didn’t know much about Enchanted Arms.  I had traded for it a while ago on a whim.  I did know that it was an RPG and from what I had seen about it, to me it seemed very similar to Final Fantasy.  (Or at least what I associate Final Fantasy to be like since I have never actually played it myself.)

I was really confused at the start of the game.  The opening scene is actually a scene that takes place a few hours later into the game, where the main character Atsuma and his friends are in their first battle against the boss of the game.  If  you hadn’t read the manual, you wouldn’t  know how to control the battle.  The tutorial for battles is very soon after this, so I would imagine many people would also be confused.  Even worse is the fact that you can continue to attack turn after turn and nothing will happen.  I’m not sure if the cut-scene activates after you use all the characters powers up or if it was time based.  I did something different to continue the game.  Instead of controlling my characters, I selected the boss character and use her to defeat my characters.  This is something that you cannot do in regular battle so I have no idea why the developer decided to do it this way.  Especially when there is no prompting to do so!!  How many people end up stuck and frustrated at this point?

The game play seems pretty easy.  However, it moves very slow, so if you were expecting something that you could knock out in a few hours, this doesn’t seem to be the kind of game you would want.  The basic button in this game is the A button and it does everything from climb ladders to activate anything that requires activation.  In fact, I became very tired of being told how to do something when it was always ended up being the A button.  Battles movements are easy to manage.  First you are able to move the characters you have in your party around and then select their attacks one by one.  This is all done on a grid and only certain movements are available depending on where they are at or who is near them.  Also, you’ll want to plan these movements depending on attack range.

Lastly about combat,  co-ordinate your movements as any buffs will be done before the next character moves so you will have a chance to buff them before them move in for their attack.  Did you move somebody and then realize after seeing another character’s attack that a different move would be better?  No worries, your movements and attacks are not finalized until you end your turn.  You can undo previous selections and start over if you choose to.  Also, don’t forget some of the best options available to you.  You can choose to run in case your opponents are much stronger than you or if your characters are low on health.  Also, you can choose Auto, which allows the computer to pick your moves for you.  I prefer to select my attacks myself, but the computer does an OK job in case you aren’t feeling up to the task.

The story itself seem very linear.  There is no room to waver outside the pre-drawn lines of it.  This is not an open world game and it shows that heavily.  While I’m not saying the story is bad, as it certainly has its highlights and twists, but I always like more freedom.  Atsuma is one of your typical heroes that has a power he can’t control and needs to learn to use it.  This always makes for a good story line because it brings the hero to the beginner player’s level and allows the player to grow with them.

The graphics are decent.  So far I haven’t noticed anything that seems out of place or an eyesore.  It certainly doesn’t display anything close to the max performance of the 360.  However, its good enough to keep me engaged in everything.

Over all, I’ve played for roughly 12 hours and I don’t think I am anywhere near close to even halfway.  This game is great for those just starting out playing RPG style games.  It doesn’t have all the nuances or the difficulty I would expect in Final Fantasy.  Also, when I play, 30 minutes of playing feels like 5 so this is definitely a game I could keep playing for a while.  I highly recommend it if you are looking for an RPG, but haven’t played one before.