History VideoGame / WildARMs3

* RecurringBossFight: This game loves this trope - between Janus, the prophets, as well as the Schroedingers, yeah, get ready to see some familiar faces a lot. This also isn't including Janus's two flunkies who are fought at least twice.

* The main character is a female who wears a very modest and practical dress for the entirety of the game, which by itself is like a subversion apocalypse. Though her naive optimism is picked apart throughout the first half of the game, instead of discarding her ideals she matures them instead into something practical yet still optimistic.

Filgaia is a world [[AfterTheEnd on the brink of collapse]]. Those who roam this wasteland in search of fortune or fame are known as Drifters. To protect themselves, these Drifters equip guns known as [=ARMs=] ([[FunWithAcronyms Artifact from Ruins' Memories]]) that are controlled [[EmpathicWeapon by the will of their wielder]].

Soon afterward, they decide to form a [[TrueCompanions team]] ([[MagneticHero with a lot of prodding from Virginia]]) and track down a priceless treasure known as the [[MacGuffin Eternal Sparkle]]. This brings them into conflict with [[TheRival rival Drifter]] Janus Cascade, a SimilarSquad of Drifters called the Schrödinger Family (led by Virginia's {{Foil}}, Maya Schrödinger), and eventually an AncientConspiracy threatening to consume both the past and future of Filgaia.

-->--'''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezkMLIdE-Kg Advanced Wind]]''', the opening theme sang by Samantha Newark.

* [[spoiler: HijackedByGanon: Siegfried was TheDragon and later the BigBad in the first ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMS|1}}'' and is the "Ganon" to the new villains the Prophets.]]
** [[spoiler:And he in turn is hijacked by Beatrice.]]

** The original name of Little Twister, Titty Twister, is a ShoutOut to ''FromDuskTillDawn''.

** Virginia - Sanguine

** Gallows - Choleric
** The Schrodinger Gang applies this trope as well

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Clive to Melody in Yggdrasil, about the concept of external and inner beauty.

* GambitPileup: Arguably has the most convoluted plot in the entire series.

* TheManBehindTheMan: ''[[UpToEleven Three]]'' [[UpToEleven times]]: [[spoiler:The Prophets]] behind Janus, [[spoiler:Siegfried]] behind [[spoiler:The Prophets]] and [[spoiler:Beatrice]] behind [[spoiler:''everyone'']].
** Though it seems more like [[spoiler:Beatrice and Siegfried were enemies, since when Siegfried brought the 'dream-demon' up he more or less stated "But in this world she can't really hurt me," not to mention the visions she gave to everybody seemed more to be towards the goal of stopping Siegfried before she made her move.]] So the last one was more of a case of Villain-on-Villain action.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Used interestingly. While Siegfried and Beatrice are both defeated, Filgaia is still a wasteland. The leader of Filgaia's most prominent religion is dead, and the heroes are blamed for his death. On the other hand, the party isn't too broken up about it, and the ending sends the player off with an uplifting feeling; after all, it's not like people haven't tried to kill them before. The last thing we see is that HopeSpringsEternal.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: ''Everything'' is foreshadowed. Most of it is obvious, but you'll probably overlook [[spoiler:Shane's explanation of his prophetic dreams, which pretty much summarizes the entire plot and is the first mention of Beatrice. And since this dream ''came'' from Beatrice in the first place, it's the first part of her XanatosRoulette]].

* [[FiveManBand Four Man Band]]: A massive aversion of the typical band. TheChick is also TheLeader, TheLancer is the ''actual'' TheChick, that TheBigGuy is the best mage in the party with the worst melee attacks, and TheSmartGuy is a MightyGlacier with a sniper rifle.
** It gets to where one suspects the party's design is an intentional complex {{Deconstruction}} of the usual personality-to-party-role stereotypes in your average RPG.

* NewGamePlus: Epically. The EX File Keys, which require doing some ''insane'' side quests, are used in a New Game Plus to unlock things. Good luck getting them all.[[labelnote:*]] you only need two to unlock the New Game Plus.[[/labelnote]]

* StealthHiBye: [[spoiler:Beatrice, for the entire damn game!]]

* XanatosRoulette: [[spoiler:Shane's dreams and the local religious leader's visions? All part of Beatrice's master plan.]]

* WastedSong: The English versions of ''Advanced Wind'', the opening song, ''Only the Night Sky Knows'', the "quit game" song, and ''Wings'', the ending song, are not available on any soundtrack. There are English versions on the official Japanese soundtrack, but they have completely different lyrics and vocalists (and are so very {{Engrish}}). The only way to listen to the official English versions of the songs are to rip them from the actual game disc. Argh.

* CyberneticsEatYourSoul" The Metal Demons are a weird version of this; it's stated pretty clearly that it was ''after'' they became monsters that they took up cybernetics, but averted in the case of the heroes ARMs, which are stated to be usable only because of the everpresent nanobots in soil, air and the heroes themselves.

* CyberneticsEatYourSoul" The Metal Demons are a weird version of this; it's stated pretty clearly that it was ''after'' they became monsters that they took up cybernetics, but since no hero uses cybernetic abilities, it still stays in this category.

* NewGamePlus: Epically. The EX File Keys, which require doing some ''insane'' side quests, are used in a New Game Plus to unlock things. Good luck getting them all.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Used interestingly. While Siegfried and Beatrice are both defeated, Filgaia is still a wasteland (though again, its getting better), and the leader of Filgaia's most prominent religion is dead. Oh, and the heroes are blamed, wrongly, for his death. On the other hand, the party isn't too broken up about it, and the ending sends the player off with an uplifting feeling. it's not like people haven't tried to kill Virginia and Co. before. And the last thing we see is that HopeSpringsEternal.]]

* BonusLevelOfHell: One hundred floors. No save points whatsoever. BonusBoss from hell, Ragu O Ragla, waiting for you at the end. You have to fight him twice. In. A. Row. And he is even stronger the second time around. Have fun!

* {{Catchphrase}}: Janus is "just trying to do things efficiently".

* DarkerAndEdgier: It's a toss-up between ''WildArms2'' and 3 as to which is the bleakest game in the series.

* ItWasADarkAndStormyNight: These words exactly open the game.
** Later, Virginia even lampshades it: "It sure was a stormy night..."

** The original name, Titty Twister, is a ShoutOut to ''FromDuskTillDawn''.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: Virginia gets this treatment not only once but twice : first by her uncle, who slaps her because she tried to be a Hero and could easily got herself killed (well, rushing in a dungeon filled with goblin smugglers, all alone at level 1, isn't the brightest idea, especially when you're TheChick), and the second time by Maya, a Drifter like her (but way more experienced), who gives her a WhatTheHellHero speech after Virginia tried to pursue the antagonists and nearly got herself killed, save for the intervention of her comrade Jet, who she completely ignored while he just saved her life. She quickly realized how naive and stupid she acted this time, thanks to Maya's speech.
** And there's the time where Virginia slaps [[spoiler:''Maya'']]... Only to see [[spoiler:her blocks the slap with her arm. "I told you you can't reach"... Then Virginia forces and reach Maya's cheek. Cue Virginia smiling : "Yes, I can."]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Used interestingly. While Siegfried and Beatrice are both defeated, Filgaia is still a wasteland (though again, its getting better), and the leader of Filgaia's most prominent religion is dead. Oh, and the heroes are blamed, wrongly, for his death. On the other hand, the party isn't too broken up about it, and the ending sends the player off with an uplifting feeling- it's not like people haven't tried to kill Virginia and Co. before. And the last thing we see is that HopeSpringsEternal.]]

** When Shady, the cat of Maya's group, is trapped, he yells "No more walls !"... Add this to the fact that in battle he only has two attacks with 50% of chances of using each one... And that Maya's family is named Schrödinger... And that said family's ancestors made Shady completely claustrophobic... Poor Schrödinger's cat.

* AfterTheEnd - Filgaia was turned into a desert wasteland by a cataclysmic event [[spoiler:that actually only happened about ten years ago, but also erased everyone's memory of it happening, so they think it was in the distant past]].
* AllMythsAreTrue - ''Every'' piece of Filgaia lore is both accurate ''and'' [[{{Foreshadowing}} relevant]] to the events of the game.
* AlmightyJanitor - The BonusBoss Bad News.

* BagOfSharing - Especially ridiculous in the prologue, which shares items between characters ''who haven't even met yet'', with the items traveling ''back in time'' if you choose to play the four prologues out of chronological order. One of the few outright weird FridgeLogic moments in the game.
* {{BFG}} - The gun mounted on the sandcraft, which can do a ''million'' points of damage in a single attack.

* BlockPuzzle - The Millennium Puzzles. No, [[Anime/YuGiOh not that one]].
* BolivianArmyEnding - [[spoiler:Subverted during TheStinger, as the heroes are shown to have come out alive and unharmed, though everyone thinks they killed the guy who headed Filgaia's biggest religion.]]
* BonusLevelOfHell - One hundred floors. No save points whatsoever. BonusBoss from hell, Ragu O Ragla, waiting for you at the end. You have to fight him twice. In. A. Row. And he is even stronger the second time around. Have fun!
* CartographySidequest - Completing the entire map nets you a nice bonus.
* {{Catchphrase}} - Janus is "just trying to do things efficiently".
* ChekhovsGunman -
** One in particular stands out, spanning the ''entire damn game.'' [[spoiler: Beatrice, the final boss, shows up in the [[StealthHiBye first ten minutes]], and repeatedly shows up for small portions of cutscenes throughout the game as an almost unnoticeable side character until she reveals herself as the Woman behind the Man who was behind 3 People who were behind One Man. Yes.]]

* CoolSword - The Dark Spear. Which is [[{{Expy}} totally not]] [[SoulCalibur Soul Edge]].

* CyberneticsEatYourSoul - The Metal Demons are a weird version of this; it's stated pretty clearly that it was ''after'' they became monsters that they took up cybernetics, but since no hero uses cybernetic abilities, it still stays in this category.
* DarkerAndEdgier - It's a toss-up between Wild Arms II and III as to which is the bleakest game in the series.
* DeathWorld - The state of Filgaia in this game is the absolute lowest in the entire series.
* DiscOneFinalBoss - Happens several times, actually; Virginia and her team fight what appears to be their ultimate nemesis and defeat him/them only to find an even bigger threat looming on the horizon. Interestingly, the intro movie continues to change throughout the game to reflect this. The game feels very much like several seasons of a multi-arc anime because of this.
* TheDogWasTheMastermind - [[spoiler:Beatrice, the purple-haired little girl.]]
* EvilLaugh - Once the antagonists (with the exception of the ''really'' dangerous ones) begin to lose it, you will hear them laughing out loud like mad men quite often.
* EvolvingCredits - Another series tradition. The "outro" for when you quit the game after saving shows a beautiful scene, with a sung score, detailing the party's level, stats, and equipment as scenes of Virginia's life slowly drift by.

* EvolutionaryLevels - Used repeatedly [[spoiler:The final boss goes through ten stages of evolution]].

* {{Foreshadowing}} - ''Everything'' is foreshadowed. Most of it is obvious, but you'll probably overlook [[spoiler:Shane's explanation of his prophetic dreams, which pretty much summarizes the entire plot and is the first mention of Beatrice. And since this dream ''came'' from Beatrice in the first place, it's the first part of her XanatosRoulette]].
* ForTheCelOfIt - One of the earlier examples of cel-shading on the PS2, and highly successful; the look merges well with the Wild West aesthetic.
* [[FiveManBand Four Man Band]] - A massive aversion of the typical band. TheChick is also TheLeader, TheLancer is the ''actual'' TheChick, that TheBigGuy is the best mage in the party with the worst melee attacks, and TheSmartGuy is a MightyGlacier with a sniper rifle.

* GambitPileup - Arguably has the most convoluted plot in the entire series.
* GatlingGood - Maya Schrodinger has one. Mentioned less for the weapon and more for her...''[[TrouserSpace interesting]]'' means of carrying it.

* GuideDangIt -
** The game never actually tells you how Finest Arts works. Since it's a GameBreaker, this may or may not be deliberate.

* TheGunslinger - Unlike previous ''Wild [=ARMs=]'' games, which mixed swords and fantasy weapons together, pretty much everyone uses a gun. Everyone in your party wields a different type of gun.

* HeroesPreferSwords - Not in this game, making it one of the few [[{{JRPG}} JRPGs]] that ''averts'' this trope. Not even the other [=Wild ARMs=] games can claim this. There's even a joke about enemies [[TakeThat coming at them with swords and being totally ineffectual]].
* HighAltitudeBattle - Battling with Lombardia produces this- while you pilot a giant doom dragon jet Transformer thing. Awesome!
* [[spoiler: HijackedByGanon - Siegfried was TheDragon and later the BigBad in the first ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMS|1}}'' and is the "Ganon" to the new villains the Prophets.]]

* HollywoodCyborg - The demons and the dragons.

* InGameNovel - A FanFic of ''VideoGame/WildArms2'', no less, starring Marivel and space flight. Clive reads it to his daughter as a father/daughter bonding moment, and it's [[CrowningMomentofHeartwarming adorable]].
* InterestingSituationDuel - The first time you get to control all four characters against Janus and his gang is on top of a train in a dark and stormy night.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Maya may seem harsh, but besides the obvious motivation of wanting to get rid of other Drifter competitors, she does have a sweet spot for Virginia, protecting her in her own way (and literally saving the party's life at least once). Lampshaded by her own brother, Alfred : "My sister's a little... you know... She comes off as crass, but she's trying her hardest to be nice."
* LastLousyPoint - The Black Box, which requires you to open every single other treasure chest in the world.
* LeyLine - And an observatory to investigate it.

* LostForever - Didn't trigger the events to begin the Telepath Tower sidequest in time? Too bad, no EX File Key for you!
* LostTechnology - The Council of Seven was founded to try and revive it, and the one major religion on Filgaia (the Order of the Ark of Destiny) is essentially dedicated to it (even having their headquarters in a millenia-old GenerationShip!).
* TheManBehindTheMan - ''[[UpToEleven Three]]'' [[UpToEleven times]]: [[spoiler:The Prophets]] behind Janus, [[spoiler:Siegfried]] behind [[spoiler:The Prophets]] and [[spoiler:Beatrice]] behind [[spoiler:''everyone'']].
** Though it seems more like [[spoiler:Beatrice and Siegfried were enemies, since when Siegfried brought the 'dream-demon' up he more or less stated 'But in this world she can't really hurt me', not to mention the visions she gave to everybody seemed more to be towards the goal of stopping Siegfried before she made her move.]] So the last one was more of a case of Villain-on-Villain action.
* TheMaze - The final dungeon and [[BonusLevel the Abyss]] are both like this.
* [[MeddlingParents Meddling Grandmother]] - Late during the second act, just before going to the last shrine, Halle, Gallows's grandma, outright reveals to her grandson that she had an hidden agenda, and that she intentionally orchestrated the events of the game's beginning, in which she succeeded to bring back home Gallows, and set him up on the rails of his quest and duties (which he ran away from at the beginning of the game).
* MegaManning - [[spoiler:Maya Schrodinger]] can do this by reading comic books.
* MexicanStandoff - The "Select a Character" screen is a stand-off between the main characters, and you play through their backstories before the stand-off gets resolved.
* MonsterArena - Gunner's Heaven.
* NewGamePlus- Epically. The EX File Keys, which require doing some ''insane'' side quests, are used in a New Game Plus to unlock things. Good luck getting them all.

* OneHundredPercentCompletion - This game ''thrives'' on this. A good way to tell how you're doing is to check how many EX.Keys you've picked up.
* OneWingedAngel -
** The final boss has ''[[UpToEleven ten freaking forms]]''.

* OutsideTheBoxTactic - It's possible to defeat the sub-boss Gespent in one turn by using the ''Requiem'' spell.
* PapaWolf - Virginia's father is pretty much absent, but if you [[TemptingFate dare hurt her]], Papa will come to the rescue.

* PornStash - You get to ''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny fight one]]''.
* PowersAsPrograms - The Mediums explicitly work like this.
* PuzzleBoss - A ''lot''. Around half the game's bosses require either a specific strategy to defeat, or have their difficulty level go through the roof if you don't use it (Trask being the key example).
* RoswellThatEndsWell - An NPC named Roswell sends you on a sidequest for flying saucers. Yes.
* SandIsWater - The oceans are, quite literally, ''sand''. Giant sea monsters live in it, and you have to drive a boat out to fight them. [[ItMakesSenseInContext Don't ask]].
* SarcasticClapping - Janus does this to Virginia after she gives him yet ''another'' gallant and long-winded speech. Virginia gets ''furious''.

* SchizoTech - Fantasy and Wild West Tech, as is common to the series. However, in this game, the latter is played up far more prominently, with the fantasy elements almost removed, arguably improving the game by forcing it to focus on what was unique in Wild [=ARMs=] in the first place.

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan - Shane and Gallows, respectively.
* SequentialBoss - The final boss takes this trope [[UpToEleven much further than most ever do]]: it has ''ten'' forms.
* ShiftingSandLand - The ''whole world'' is like this.
* ShoutOut - Oh so many, even by Wild Arms standards. Not only do many elements from VideoGame/WildArms1 hover in a grey area between {{Expy}} and straight reappearance, but monsters and locations have a remarkable tendency to reference myth, folklore, and pop culture in one way or another. NorseMythology and ''Theatre/TheRingCycle'' get a particular emphasis, from Siegfried to Yggdrasil to [[spoiler:Virginia's father and his remarkable resemblance to Odin's mortal disguise]].

* SneezeCut - During the third act, Virginia is looking for a gem, and somehow thinks about Maya... Cue a change of scene with Maya sneezing.
* StealthHiBye - [[spoiler:Beatrice, for the entire damn game!]]
* SuperpoweredEvilSide - Janus gets a dose of TheDarkSide, and later [[spoiler:The Prophets]] get one too.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech - Clive to Melody in Yggdrasil, about the concept of external and inner beauty.
* TookAShortcut -
** Martina, an unarmed NPC little girl, somehow travels the world without the use of a horse, sandcraft, or aircraft. Lampshaded several times by the party wondering how the hell she gets to the places she does.

* TrainJob - The introduction of the game begins with all four party characters meeting each other performing the ''same'' train job... and interfering with some villains who have ''also'' come to perform the same train job. It was a very busy train that night.
* TraintopBattle - During the aforementioned TrainJob Pileup, you battle Janus and his boys atop the train.
* TrueCompanions - Virginia declares herself and the three men to be one of these. While initially, the three men find it funny and decide to play along, CharacterDevelopment slowly [[BecomingTheMask turns the whole group into the real thing]].
* ViceCity - Little Twister.

* WorldTree - The Yggdrasil System.
* XanatosRoulette - [[spoiler:Shane's dreams and the local religious leader's visions? All part of Beatrice's master plan.]]

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Gallows Carradine. Honestly, the WildARMs series is in love with this trope.

* TheGunslinger - Unlike previous ''WildARMs'' games, which mixed swords and fantasy weapons together, pretty much everyone uses a gun. Everyone in your party wields a different type of gun.

* HeroesPreferSwords - Not in this game, making it one of the few [[{{JRPG}} JRPGs]] that ''averts'' this trope. Not even the other [[WildARMs Wild ARMs]] games can claim this. There's even a joke about enemies [[TakeThat coming at them with swords and being totally ineffectual]].

* InGameNovel - A FanFic of ''[[VideoGame/WildArms2 Wild ARMs 2]]'', no less, starring Marivel and space flight. Clive reads it to his daughter as a father/daughter bonding moment, and it's [[CrowningMomentofHeartwarming adorable]].

* SchizoTech - Fantasy and Wild West Tech, as is common to the series. However, in this game, the latter is played up far more prominently, with the fantasy elements almost removed, arguably improving the game by forcing it to focus on what was unique in [[{{WildARMs}} Wild ARMs]] in the first place.

->''In the face of disaster we stand,\\
Racing far, we'll fight and defend!\\
The growls of thunder, an angry thunder\\
Testing those who built on the sand!\\
They can try and tear off my wings,\\
But they can't erase all my dreams!\\
We'll fight for freedom, and beat the system,\\
This is our turn, this is our time!''
-->--'''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n9xP6_cPAI Wings]]''', the ending theme sang by Samantha Newark.

* BlockPuzzle - The Millennium Puzzles. No, [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} not that one]].

* SaveToken: Gimel Coins, which can be used to save your game at any time you're not in battle. They're limited to what you can find or what RandomlyDrops, however.