Wild Arms is a role-playing video game that involves the player controlling up to three characters, Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia, as they progress through a number of environments, battle enemies, and solve puzzles. The game is presented in a top-down two-dimensional fashion where the player has an overhead view of all the action taking place on a particular screen. To advance, the player must overcome a number of story-based scenarios and sequences that involve navigating through dungeons while fighting enemies that appear randomly. Characters progress and grow by gaining experience points after a battle, discovering crest graphs, finding ARMs, and mastering sword techniques prompted by various events in the game. This allows them able to battle increasingly more difficult demonic entities.Progressively more powerful armor and weapons can be purchased for each character from specialized shops in towns throughout the world, and new skills can be learned to help the player complete tougher challenges. Special devices called "Tools" unique to each character allow the player to transverse otherwise impassable situations while not in battle. These items are obtained at certain points in the game, and allow hidden areas or pathways to be discovered, as well as destroy objects and solve puzzles. Rudy's bomb tool, for example, can demolish large rocks and other impediments, while Jack's grappling hook allows the party to cross large gaps and chasms while avoiding traps.
Wild Arms is a role-playing video game that involves the player controlling up to three characters, Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia, as they progress through a number of environments, battle enemies, and solve puzzles. The game is presented in a top-down two-dimensional fashion where the player has an overhead view of all the action taking place on a particular screen. To advance, the player must overcome a number of story-based scenarios and sequences that involve navigating through dungeons while fighting enemies that appear randomly. Characters progress and grow by gaining experience points after a battle, discovering crest graphs, finding ARMs, and mastering sword techniques prompted by various events in the game. This allows them able to battle increasingly more difficult demonic entities.Progressively more powerful armor and weapons can be purchased for each character from specialized shops in towns throughout the world, and new skills can be learned to help the player complete tougher challenges. Special devices called "Tools" unique to each character allow the player to transverse otherwise impassable situations while not in battle. These items are obtained at certain points in the game, and allow hidden areas or pathways to be discovered, as well as destroy objects and solve puzzles. Rudy's bomb tool, for example, can demolish large rocks and other impediments, while Jack's grappling hook allows the party to cross large gaps and chasms while avoiding traps.
The gameplay is unit-oriented battlefield tactics with infantry, cavalry, and archer squads and artillery pieces as well as supporting hero and wizard units. The game freely mixes cannons, flintlock pistols and steam-powered tanks with bows, cavalry and magic.Units vary in size from individual wizards or monsters to regiments of up to 32 members, and cannot be split up or combined. Units can suffer from psychological effects and can be routed, and individuals in units may be lost but can be replaced between missions unless the entire unit is lost. Units advance in experience as the game progresses, and between battles the player's forces can be brought up to strength, replacing losses, and upgraded by adding armour and equipment using money gained by killing enemies and accomplishing objectives within the mission. New units, including allied Elven and Dwarf units, can also be added at certain points in the campaign, often as rewards for successful completion of critical missions.While the army can consist of many units, only ten may be employed simultaneously in one battle. Players may choose the initial disposition, arrangement and position objectives for the army as well as unit formation. Terrain and elevation must be taken into consideration for attack and defence. Most real-world medieval or Napoleonic tactics can be employed, including ambushing and flanking (see list of military tactics). Movement likewise reflects historical reality in that units must rotate or "wheel" from the centre or edges when changing facing.Dark Omen also has a multiplayer component, where both players 'purchase' an army with a predefined amount of money before facing each other in battle, and can choose to play as the Imperial, Orcish or Undead forces.
The game's storyline is built around an alternate history, in which there was a worldwide oil crisis in the 1970s and the U.S. was on the verge of an economic breakdown. Strikes, riots and crime were rampant, and all available law enforcement were brought to the cities leaving the outlands vulnerable. A foreign multinational oil consortium, Oil Monopoly Alliance Regime (OMAR), was determined to monopolize the world oil trade. The U.S. was the last country that stood in their way and they were prepared to go to any length to bring the U.S. to its knees.OMAR hired Sid Burn, a professional terrorist, to push the U.S. economy over the edge. Sid began to organize his troops in the remote areas of the southwest. Calling themselves the "Coyotes," they began to target oil refineries, commercial installations and other vital industry throughout the region. With the law enforcement in the cities, some desperate civilians began to take the law into their own hands. Led by a trucker named Convoy and referred to simply as the "Vigilantes," this oddball group soon became a major hindrance to Sid.Meanwhile, the U.S. government, feeling more vulnerable than ever, was intensifying its research and development of a new military arsenal. The most advanced weaponry, rumored to be based on UFO technology, was located at Site-4, a secret facility at Papoose Lake. This information was not lost on Sid, and the Coyotes ambushed the facility. However the Vigilantes unexpectedly appeared to stop them and as a result, both parties found themselves in possession of the world's most advanced weaponry.What followed were no ordinary skirmishes. Auto clashes ensued all over the land, from Colorado's Rockies to California's farmlands, only to culminate in a battle like no other. To this day the events which took place are only a matter of speculation.
The game's storyline is built around an alternate history, in which there was a worldwide oil crisis in the 1970s and the U.S. was on the verge of an economic breakdown. Strikes, riots and crime were rampant, and all available law enforcement were brought to the cities leaving the outlands vulnerable. A foreign multinational oil consortium, Oil Monopoly Alliance Regime (OMAR), was determined to monopolize the world oil trade. The U.S. was the last country that stood in their way and they were prepared to go to any length to bring the U.S. to its knees.OMAR hired Sid Burn, a professional terrorist, to push the U.S. economy over the edge. Sid began to organize his troops in the remote areas of the southwest. Calling themselves the "Coyotes," they began to target oil refineries, commercial installations and other vital industry throughout the region. With the law enforcement in the cities, some desperate civilians began to take the law into their own hands. Led by a trucker named Convoy and referred to simply as the "Vigilantes," this oddball group soon became a major hindrance to Sid.Meanwhile, the U.S. government, feeling more vulnerable than ever, was intensifying its research and development of a new military arsenal. The most advanced weaponry, rumored to be based on UFO technology, was located at Site-4, a secret facility at Papoose Lake. This information was not lost on Sid, and the Coyotes ambushed the facility. However the Vigilantes unexpectedly appeared to stop them and as a result, both parties found themselves in possession of the world's most advanced weaponry.What followed were no ordinary skirmishes. Auto clashes ensued all over the land, from Colorado's Rockies to California's farmlands, only to culminate in a battle like no other. To this day the events which took place are only a matter of speculation.