History VideoGame / WildARMs4

** Nearly every boss in the game is an adult that your party barely beats 4-on-1. Later they all have GameBreaker abilities that you have to find the AchillesHeel of in order to even damage. If anything the message is that kids are useless (but plucky).

%% * TheAlcatraz: Ilsveil Prison, which appears in most of the games. Also doubles as the TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.
%% * AntiVillain: Kresnik and [[spoiler:Gawn]]. Depending on your point of view, this could be stretched to all of Brionac as well, apart from [[AxCrazy Jeremy.]]
%% * AxCrazy:
%% ** Belial is nuttier than a fruitcake.
%% ** Jeremy shows traits of this as well early on, but once [[spoiler:he becomes a HalfHumanHybrid with his ARM]], he's even ''more'' crazy then Belial was.
* BadassNormal:
** [[spoiler:Gawn]] and Augst are the only members of Brionac without a supernatural power or special ability, and the former is nevertheless their best fighter while the latter is their strategist.
** In the main group, Arnaud seems to fill this role. He has no connection to arms and no combat experience. Just his brains and knowledge of spells.
* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: [[spoiler:The Cabal plan to lobotomize Yulie and hook her brain to a computer terminal as a convoluted scheme to make themselves immortal so they can continue to rule forever. They have no combat ability, and it'd be rather unheroic for the heroes to kill a bunch of defenseless old men, but fortunately Lambda deals with them without the heroes even learning of the plot.]]

%% * TheBigGuy: Raquel as a class 2.
* BittersweetEnding:
** [[spoiler: Raquel eventually succumbs to her condition and dies after giving birth to Arnaud's daughter, having finally found true beauty.]]
** Also, despite having promised to help build up Halim, [[spoiler: Jude ends up living alone out in the wilderness.]]

%% * BulletTime: The gameplay convention for Jude's Accelerator ability.

%% * CombinationAttack: One for each pair, set of three, and a hidden one for the whole party.

%% * DefeatMeansFriendship: Some of the officers in Brionac.

%% * DoomedHometown: Ciel.
%% * DuelBoss: Jude vs. Kresnik.

%% * HumanAliens: It's a Wild Arms game, so this is standard.

%% * TheSmartGuy: Arnaud.

%% * VisualInitiativeQueue
%% * TheWallAroundTheWorld: The barrier surrounding Ciel.

*** If anything, this game seemed to be trying to create an ''Adults Are Evil'' variant in its place.
* TheAlcatraz: Ilsveil Prison, which appears in most of the games. Also doubles as the TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.
* AntiVillain: Kresnik and [[spoiler:Gawn]]. Depending on your point of view, this could be stretched to all of Brionac as well, apart from [[AxCrazy Jeremy.]]
* AxCrazy:
** Belial is nuttier than a fruitcake.
** Jeremy shows traits of this as well early on, but once [[spoiler:he becomes a HalfHumanHybrid with his ARM]], he's even ''more'' crazy then Belial was.
* BadassNormal: [[spoiler:Gawn]] and Augst are the only members of Brionac without a supernatural power or special ability, and the former is nevertheless their best fighter while the latter is their strategist.

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: An NPC in the playable epilogue tells a 'parable' about the delusional using faith as a shield until the faith is lost and they realize how evil the delusion was. Rather jarring in that it comes completely out of nowhere.
* TheBigGuy: Raquel as a class 2.

* BlockPuzzle: It ''is'' a Wild [=ARMs=] game, after all.
* BreakTheCutie:
** And the Ugly, and the Not Bad Looking But Needs To Work Out...
** Sticking with this game's putting minor variations on old tropes, you could say this one is ''Break 'em All''.
* BulletTime: The gameplay convention for Jude's Accelerator ability.
* CameraScrew
* ChekhovsGun: If you take the time to fully investigate the White Orphanage and Aerial Fortress Eulalia, you can find a veritable armory of these lying around.
* CombinationAttack: One for each pair, set of three, and a hidden one for the whole party.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Some of the officers in Brionac.
* DisappearedDad: Jude's father.
* DoomedHometown: Ciel.
* DuelBoss: Jude vs. Kresnik.

* FloatingContinent: Ciel, although it's only a town (and the surrounding forest) rather than a whole continent.
* ForgottenSuperWeapon: The Divine Weapon.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Gawn and Kresnik. The latter may still be alive at the end, but as for the former...see below.]]

* HumanAliens: It's a Wild Arms game, so this is standard.
* HumansAreBastards:
** [[spoiler:Hauser]] is eventually driven insane by this belief.
** Couple this with GenerationXerox, and [[spoiler:that interpretation of the epilogue in which Jude is assumed to have become a hermit doesn't look so improbable after all.]]

* ItemCrafting: Rare weapons and accessories can be obtained this way.
* LeyLine: The ley points.
* MetalSlime: The Grow Apples (Exp) and Melchoms (money).
* MorphWeapon: Jude's "Shapeshifter" ARM.
* PeopleJars: In the White Orphanage.

* SeaMonster: The Sapphire Drake.
* SlidingScaleLongName: The only happy people are the ones who died horrible deaths.
* [[SorryImLate Sorry I'm Late]]: There are a series of battles in which the four protagonists are supposed to fight alone. However, Yulie ends up against impossible odds since it was a ploy to split them up and capture her. About two rounds into the fight, assuming you survive that long, the rest of the party will show up to rescue her.
* TheSmartGuy: Arnaud.
* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: Played straight until you face Belial, then subverted in that each member of the QuirkyMinibossSquad after that seems to be ''weaker'' than the last.
* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Taken to an physics-defying awesome degree in Gawn's final inspiring speech.

* VisualInitiativeQueue
* TheWallAroundTheWorld: The barrier surrounding Ciel.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Several members of Brionac whom the party defeats but doesn't kill.
* [[WhatTheHellHero What The Hell, Villain?]]: [[spoiler:Gawn is ''pissed'' when he finds out Lambda murdered the Cabal.]]
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue

* CrowningMusicofAwesome: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B43AuRlR1e0&fmt=18 Buried City]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Raquel eventually succumbs to her condition and dies after giving birth to Arnaud's daughter, having finally found true beauty.]]

* BreakTheCutie: And the Ugly, and the Not Bad Looking But Needs To Work Out...

* HumansAreBastards: [[spoiler:Hauser]] is eventually driven insane by this belief.

The fourth instalment in the DesertPunk ''[[Franchise/WildArms Wild ARMs]]'' series, released as ''Wild [=ARMs=]: The 4th Detonator'' in Japan. Notable for combining {{Platformer}} elements with a experimental strategic RPG battle and stat growth system.

* TitleDrop: While each game in the series works the acronym "ARM" in somehow, this marks the first time the term "Wild [=ARMs=]" is used - [[spoiler:to refer to the monsters growing out of control in the final dungeon]].

* TitleDrop: While each game in the series works the term "ARM" in somehow, this marks the first time the term "Wild [=ARMs=]" is used - [[spoiler:to refer to the monsters growing out of control in the final dungeon]].

* HeyItsThatVoice: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9KFOJzn3u4 There's a reason why Gawn]] [[Creator/NorioWakamoto is so badass.]]

* HeyItsThatVoice: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9KFOJzn3u4 There's a reason why Gawn]] [[NorioWakamoto is so badass.]]

''Wild [=ARMs=] 4'' follows the story of Jude, a child who has grown up in the small, peaceful village of Ciel. At least, it's always seemed to him to be a small, peaceful village.

That was until the day military airships literally break through the sky, and Ciel is revealed to be an airborne shelter built by a group of scientists seeking to hide from the rest of the world. These military forces seek to capture those scientists and the mysterious weapon that they created, codenamed "ARM".

In the ensuing battle, Jude [[ClingyMacGuffin suddenly bonds with the ARM]] and gains its incredible power. Fleeing the destruction of Ciel, he crash-lands in the middle of the post-war wasteland of Filgaia. Pursued by an elite military unit known as "[[QuirkyMinibossSquad Brionac]]", Jude must discover the secrets behind the ARM and the army's true intention while searching for a way to live in this dangerous and desolate new world.

With him is Yulie Ahtreide, [[TheChick a young girl]] victim to horrific army experiments that have left her with the ability to control [=ARMs=]; Arnaud G. Vasquez, [[TheSmartGuy a cocky but intelligent Drifter]] who fights with powerful magic; and Raquel Applegate, [[TheBigGuy a swordswoman]] and artist searching the world for its last remnants of beauty.

* VisualInitiativeQueue

* InferredHolocaust: [[spoiler:So, what happened to all those Wild ARM monsters rampaging throughout Filgaia?]]
** This is also how quite a few people view [[spoiler:Jude's ending in the epilogue. The game ''says'' he simply became a forest ranger, but [[TraumaCongaLine considering all the horrors he went through]], it's possible the "forest ranger" part was just an excuse for him to ''abandon humanity and civilization''. ''Forever''.]] [[AngstWhatAngst Then again...]]
** There's also a certain story told by Amengard (May 7th) about the Telepath Mages....

* ForgottenSuperWeapon: The Divine Weapon
* FridgeHorror: Occurs ''to the party'' at one point near the end of the game - "If this is a prison... ''where are all the prisoners?''".
** It's meant to occur to you, the player. Think about what ''78 years'' of war with technology of a level TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture from 2010's would do to a planet and the people living on it.

** And while YourMileageMayVary on how well the writing team managed to do this - it's meant to occur to you, the player. Think about what ''78 years'' of war with technology of a level TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture from 2010's would do to a planet and the people living on it.

*** YourMileageMayVary on whether such an interpretation is truly intended or a case of UnfortunateImplications.

The fourth instalment in the DesertPunk [[WildArms Wild ARMs]] series, released as ''Wild [=ARMs=]: The 4th Detonator'' in Japan. Notable for combining {{Platformer}} elements with a experimental strategic RPG battle and stat growth system.

** Sticking with this game's putting minor variations on old tropes, you could say this one is ''Bream 'em All''.

The gameplay of ''Wild Arms 4'' mixes together RPG and platforming sections, and an experimental new battle system based upon hex grids. While interesting, the system had a few balance issues that were straightened out properly in ''{{Wild Arms 5}}''.

* PrequelInTheLostAge: It seems to be set during a period of time constantly alluded to in other games in the series of a massive world war where cyborgs and nanomachine monsters freely roamed the lands. Many of the world's bigger cities have been destroyed in the chaos and are slowly turning into the types of locations you see in games such as ''{{Wild Arms 3}}''.

With him is Yulie Ahtreide, [[TheChick an young girl]] victim to horrific army experiments that have left her with the ability to control [=ARMs=]; Arnaud G. Vasquez, [[TheSmartGuy a cocky but intelligent Drifter]] who fights with powerful magic; and Raquel Applegate, [[TheBigGuy a swordswoman]] and artist searching the world for its last remnants of beauty.

In the ensuing battle, Jude [[ClingyMacGuffin suddenly bonds with the ARM]] and gains its incredible power. Fleeing the destruction of Ciel, he crash-lands in the middle of the post-war wasteland of Filgaia. Pursued by an elite military unit called Brionac, Jude must discover the secrets behind the ARM and the army's true intention while searching for a way to live in this dangerous and desolate new world.

With him is Yulie Ahtreide, an young girl victim to horrific army experiments that have left her with the ability to control ARMs; Arnaud G. Vasquez, a cocky but intelligent Drifter who fights with powerful magic; and Raquel Applegate, a swordswoman and artist searching the world for its last remnants of beauty.

In the ensuing battle, Jude [[ClingyMacGuffin suddenly bonds with the ARM]] and gains its incredible power. Fleeing the destruction of Ciel, he crash-lands in the middle of the post-war wasteland of Filgaia. Pursued by an elite military unit called Brionac, Jude must discover the secrets behind the ARM and the army's true intention while searching for a way to live in this dangerous new world.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WildArms4b_3470.jpg]]

The fourth installment in the DesertPunk [[WildArms Wild ARMs]] series, released as ''Wild [=ARMs=]: The 4th Detonator'' in Japan. Notable for combining {{Platformer}} elements with a experimental strategic RPG battle and stat growth system.

''Wild [=ARMs=] 4'' follows the story of Jude, a child who has grown up in the small, peaceful village of Ciel. At least, it's always seemed to him to be a small, peaceful village...

One day, military airships ''break through the sky'', and Ciel is revealed to actually be an airborne shelter built by a group of scientists seeking to hide from the rest of the world. The military forces seeking those scientists, and the weapon--the ARM--they created brought with them a mysterious girl named Yulie (who they're holding captive) and a Drifter named Arnaud (who captured her).

The ensuing battle results in Jude bonding with the ARM and the destruction of the shelter, casting Jude and his new companions out into Filgaia, a world that is just recovering from a devastating war. There, the trio resolve to seek the truth about Jude and Yulie's pasts and the reason they're wanted so badly by Brionac.