Line #5 VideoGame/WildArms5


1	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WildArms5_2437.jpg]]
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3	''Wild [=ARMs=] 5'', released in Japan as ''Wild [=ARMs=]: The Vth Vanguard'' on 2007, returns us once again to the improbably disaster-prone planet of Filgaia.
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5	Humans struggle under the rule of the Veruni, a [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien highly-advanced race]] of HumanAliens that conquered the planet a century ago. The world is full of LostTechnology, the most prominent ones being HumongousMecha known as Golems and special weapons called [=ARMs=]. Those who search for this LostTechnology are known as Golem Hunters.
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7	Dean Stark is an average 16-year-old boy who dreams of leaving his tiny hamlet and becoming a world-renowned Golem Hunter. One day he witnesses something fall from the sky: a golem's arm clutching a strange white-haired girl named Avril. What begins as a simple quest to help Avril regain her lost memories soon develops into something far more grandiose as Dean learns the true extent of the divide between the Human and Veruni races, and vows to reform a system that is hurting both sides.
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9	Joining Dean and Avril on their journey are: Rebecca Streisand, Dean's childhood friend who dreams of becoming a famous gunslinger; Greg Russellberg, a drifter and "Golem Crusher" who has vowed to destroy all Golems; Carol Anderson, a child prodigy with an interest in Golem research; and Chuck Preston, a rookie Golem Hunter looking to climb the ranks.
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11	''Wild [=ARM=]s 5'' uses the same engine and HEX battle system from ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 4}}'' but with several refinements and improvements. The number of members allowed in battle at once is reduced to three, while the [[ScrappyMechanic much derided]] need to choose between movement and attack was removed. For dungeons, the use of tools to solve puzzles returns in the form of unique bullets for Dean's ARM, combined with other actions such as sliding and stomping. Being published on the tenth anniversary of the franchise, it also includes a ''ton'' of references and cameos from previous ''VideoGame/WildArms'' games.
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13	----
14	!!This game provides examples of:
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16	* ActuallyADoombot: The Volsung you fight on top of TF system: Tower O turns out to just be a clone.
17	* AfterCombatRecovery: Your HP is recovered after battle, but not your MP.
18	* AlienSky:
19	** Filgaia has two moons in this game: a larger gray moon and a smaller bronze-colored one. They are visible when summoning Equites.
20	** The Capo Bronco area's "always sunset" pink sky.
21	* AlwaysClose: Despite there being no time limit, Greg's bombs will always go off just as you reach the exit of the Lightless Shaft.
22	* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: Compare [[http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/6/931326_72769_front.jpg the Japanese box]] to [[http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/6/931326_72466_front.jpg the American box]].
23	* AnAdventurerIsYou: The Mediums all represent different classes. Any of your characters can use them at any time, though their special abilities help point them towards certain specialties.
24	** The Sword Medium is a Blademaster, with high physical damage but low speed.
25	** The Sky Medium is a Nuker, a SquishyWizard with high damage but low defense
26	** The Sea Medium is a Healer Classic, able to heal allies.
27	** The Luck Medium is a combination Backstabber and Scrapper, having high speed and the ability to crit easily.
28	** The Mountain Medium is a combination Buffer and Tank, having abilities to protect and support party members while having high defense and HP.
29	** The Moon Medium is a combination Mitigation Tank, Debuffer and Mezzer, locking down enemies, reducing their stats and able to maneuver the battlefield with ease.
30	* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Granted, some of them (i.e., the ShoutOut costumes) are among the best armors in the game.
31	* ArbitraryHeadCountLimit: Although you eventually have 6 (7, if you count Asgard) party members, only 3 can fight in battle. If using Asgard, none of the other characters can fight.
32	* ArcWords: "You can do anything as long as you don't give up!" Starts out as Dean's CatchPhrase, but eventually becomes this when ''everybody'' starts saying it.
33	* ArtisticLicensePhysics:
34	** When Dean and Greg are jumping off a train, they use ''grenade blasts'' to cushion their fall. And no one gets singed.
35	** Pretty much anything Captain Bartholomew does.
36	* AwesomeButImpractical: The LimitBreak combo moves between two characters have some of the best effects in the game, but their damage output is less than spectacular. Especially after characters can use Finest Arts.
37	* BackToBackBadasses: The Trigger Rondo LimitBreak, featuring Dean and Rebecca.
38	* BeastAndBeauty: Averted. Kartikeya is unusually friendly towards Avril when he first meets her, even calling her a "young lady". However, she has no interest in him.
39	* BigDamnHeroes: Dean, Rebecca, and Avril showing up just in time to save Chuck.
40	* BittersweetEnding: Although the world is saved and Veruni and humans will now live in peace, [[spoiler: Avril is stuck in an infinte StableTimeLoop for all of eternity, never to be with Dean except for the brief period during the game.]]
41	* BlockPuzzle: The Puzzle Boxes.
42	* BrutalBonusLevel: FOUR of them: Inferno, Cocytus, Tartarus, and Abyss.
43	* CantHoldHisLiquor: A random Drifter whose status as a lightweight is even in his "name." You first meet him in Gounon (a wine-making town), and he keeps having bad brushes with alcohol everywhere he goes.
44	* CarryingTheAntidote: In battle, some poison-inducing enemies have Antidotes on them that you can steal. The [[BigCreepyCrawlies giant moth]] boss Twilight Venom is a good example.
45	* CastFromHitPoints: Interestingly, character growth. Characters gain skills by gaining levels, but you can also take off 50 HP from their max total for a point towards a skill. It's a tradeoff between having a GlassCannon party with late-game skills, or patiently going through the game so you can get those skills permanently.
46	* CerebusSyndrome: The light and funny tussle over a mirror early in the game stands in stark contrast to the [[spoiler: hundreds of people who Volsung immolates alive near the end.]]
47	* CharacterPortrait
48	* ChekhovsGun: A couple of them. Dean tries to use [[spoiler:the monowheel]] against Volsung, plus [[spoiler:the bolt he's had since before the game]] gets used on Asgard.
49	* CombinationAttack: One for each pair of characters, learned by battling together enough.
50	* CreditsRunningSequence: Featuring younger versions of Dean, Rebecca, Avril, and [[spoiler:Volsung]].
51	* CurseCutShort: In the beginning of the game, Dean's neighbor yells at him, and then gets interrupted by [[CrackOhMyBack his achin' back]].
52	* CuteMonsterGirl: Averted. Female goblins look just like male goblins, [[{{Squick}} beard and all]].
53	* DeadlyGame: "Brutal Death Match," a ShowWithinAShow that our heroes are tricked into coming on.
54	* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Greg's son dies in the flashback scene. When Kartikeya threatens Greg, his son steps in front of him. He promptly gets blasted, much to his parent's horror.]]
55	* DefeatMeansFriendship: ''Wild [=ARMs=] 5'' really utilizes this trope. [[spoiler: Every main villain except Kartikeya survives and pulls a HeelFaceTurn. Yes, that includes BigBad Volsung.]]
56	* DidTheyOrDidntThey: [[spoiler:Fereydoon and Lucille.]]
57	* DiscOneNuke: If you've been obsessively buying/stealing/hoarding badges, you can synthesize Elder Records and Punching Gloves fairly early in the game.
58	* DuelBoss: Everyone, except Avril, fight another member of the QuirkyMinibossSquad in a final duel.
59	** Dean [[spoiler:fights Nightburn, who betrayed the image he had over him]].
60	** Rebecca [[spoiler:faces Persephone, both struggling because of their feelings]].
61	** Greg [[spoiler:gets Kartikeya, who murdered his family]].
62	** Carol [[spoiler:gets her mentor Elvis]].
63	** Chuck [[spoiler:faces Fereydoon, who puts in question Fereydoon's blind loyalty and love for Lucille]].
64	* DullSurprise: Joseph has a bit of trouble with this. In particular, his flashback scene to where [[spoiler:finds his daughter and grandson murdered]]. He emotes anger fine, but his shock and sadness mostly consists of blank staring.
65	* EncounterBait: The Bad Omen badge and the Duel Sign tool. The latter can be used to summon {{Optional Boss}}es
66	* EncounterRepellant: Purifying a dungeon's Sol Niger will allow you to switch the encounters of that dungeon on or off. You can later do this for the overworld itself.
67	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Golem Crushers and Golem Hunters.
68	* {{Expy}}:
69	** Dean, Rebecca, and Avril have drawn comparisons to the main character trio of [[VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia another cult-hit RPG]].
70	** Rebecca also resembles a somehow less {{Stripperific}} [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Yoko Littner]].
71	* FantasticRacism: The Veruni feel that the humans are lesser beings and treat them as disposable labor and entertainment.
72	* FantasyCharacterClasses: Not in the usual sense. Most JRPGS split the party members into different archetypes that fit the role. To some extent this is true, as each character has special abilities to bias them towards a specific role, but most growth comes from customizing "mediums" that grant stat bonuses and skills as you level up. It is entirely possible to have a party full of healers, tanks or damage dealers all at any given time.
73	* FireBreathingWeapon: The Fire Bullet tool.
74	* ForcedTransformation: The Misery status effect turns the character into an adorable anthromorphic cat version of themselves, as well as disabling all commands but Move.
75	* FreezeRay: One of the field tools you get for Dean's guns.
76	* GenderInvertedTrope: The MysteriousWaif gains the highest Strength bonus, and TheBigGuy gets the biggest Magic bonus.
77	* GenerationShips: The Veruni have been in space so long, that many of them consider their mothership their "homeland".
78	* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Many bosses in the game literally appear in a burst of light.
79	* GottaKillThemAll: Toward the end of the game, you have to track down each of the Four Sentinels and defeat them. [[spoiler: Although only one of them actually dies, and it's by his own hand.]]
80	* GrapplingHookPistol: The Anchor Hook tool.
81	* GroundPound: Dean uses this to press buttons or to break through a weak floor.
82	* GunKata: Dean with the final boss.
83	* HamAndCheese: In-universe example - Nightburn's wacky Golem Hunter's Guild commercial.
84	* HopelessBossFight: Always immediately recognizable since attacks will have no effect and scans reveal that there's no experience for winning.
85	* HumanAliens: They're even called humans. {{Justified\|Trope}}, since [[spoiler: they ''are'' humans. Just ones that have had divergent evolution.]]
86	* HumanResources: The Locus Solus' main gun, the Darkness Tear, is powered by life force. [[spoiler:Volsung fires off a warning shot powered by every Veruni aboard at the time, one of whom was his second-in-command's grandmother.]]
87	* InterspeciesRomance: This is quite common. [[spoiler: Volsung's parents were a Veruni father and a human mother. Persephone's elder sister, now deceased, was once Nightburn's lover. Lucille and Fereydoon are glaringly obvious.]]
88	* ItemCrafting: The Tim {{Expy}} in Mithysmere can synthesize new badges from ones you collected.
89	* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Late in the game, the party finds a way to enter Avril's mind an uncover her lost memories.
90	** BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: Her mind happens to be inhabited by monsters that you fight in random encounters. [[spoiler:You also get attacked by her old self, the Ice Queen.]]
91	* LastEpisodeThemeReprise: An extended version of the opening theme is used for the FinalBoss battle.
92	* LastLousyPoint: Trying to find all those treasure boxes to take on the Black Box.
93	* LazyBackup: Despite having 3 party members sitting on the sidelines somewhere twiddling their thumbs, it's still GameOver if the three currently in battle die.
94	* LetsSplitUpGang: In the beginning of TF Tower O, your party must split up into two groups. However, only Dean's group will go through the tower; the other group only fights one boss.
95	* LethalJokeItem: 100% Orange is a Badge that reduces the damage you give or take to 100 and prevents you from being healed, and you have to turn in a [[InfinityPlusOneSword Sheriff Star]] to get one. Might seem counterproductive, but that means even boss monsters capable of dealing more damage than you can ever have Hit Points will only deal 100 damage. A character equipped with 100% Orange can shrug off powerful blows and revive their allies turn after turn (granted, they only get 100 HP back), making Superbosses a cakewalk.
96	* LeyLine: The ley points.
97	* LimitBreak: In three flavors.
98	** Equip your characters with the Boxing Glove badge, and their critical hit animations turn into incredibly flashy Finest Arts. It also allows Greg and Avril to subvert InformedAbility by using their weapons' secondary functions (Greg's sword in his gun, Avril's whip.]]
99	** Party members can use a CombinationAttack, which use your FP.
100	** The medium summonings use your whole FP gauge, but their effects are damn powerful.
101	* LongSongShortScene: Unlike previous ''VideoGame/WildArms'' games, the opening theme only plays during the opening credits and is not heard again until the FinalBoss fight.
102	* LoveTriangle: Both Avril and Rebecca are in love with Dean, but Dean seems blissfully clueless about this.
103	* LuckBasedSearchTechnique: An actual solution to a puzzle in the Memorial Sanctuary.[[note]]Near the end of the dungeon, you have to go through doorways that a torch is pointing to, but the last torch points to a corner instead. Search that corner and this trope happens.[[/note]]
104	* TheMaze: All of the bonus dungeons except Cocytus.
105	* MirrorCharacter: The game manages to milk a lot of drama out of Dean's ideals being uncomfortably similar to Volsung's.
106	* MonowheelMayhem: Dean obtains a monowheel for faster transportation around world map areas.
107	* MythologyGag: So many it qualifies as {{Fanservice}}. All the previous game's playable characters [[PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo appear as [=NPCs=]]] and reference their previous roles and relationships. Some of the alternate costumes for the heroes also resemble outfits from previous Wild [=ARMs=] heroes.
108	** A somewhat obscure one may be present in the form of Nightburn's name, which can easily be construed as a synonym-slash-homonym for [[VideoGame/WildArms2 Knight Blazer]].
109	** The most powerful armor in the game, Nine Lives, has appeared in previous ''Wild [=ARMs=]'' games; [[spoiler:however, this is the first time it looks like Knight Blazer, and even plays its battle theme.]]
110	** A giant moth boss is named after TheAnimeOfTheGame, Twilight Venom.
111	* NewGamePlus: Of the "carry over items but not levels" variety. [[spoiler:If you collected all the Ex File Keys, you'll get the Nine Lives/Knight Blazer armor for Dean as well.]]
112	* NukeEm: The Corona Fall LimitBreak with Rebecca and Greg.
113	* OneOfTheseDoorsIsNotLikeTheOther: During the DeadlyGame segment, you're inside a square room with three identical exits and one slightly different one. Most of the differences are obvious, but the last one not so much [[note]]Shooting the pot next to the correct door gives you money, the ones next to the incorrect doors are empty.[[/note]] Bonus points for starting a random encounter if the short time limit runs out.
114	* OneSteveLimit: There's the boss Black Box and TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Black Box.
115	* OminousPipeOrgan: "[[http://tindeck.com/listen/siir Bitter Tears of Purification]]." [[spoiler: This is the song that plays when the Darkness Tear is fired off.]]
116	* PartyInMyPocket
117	* PointOfNoReturn: [[spoiler:Save on a different file after beating Volsung the first time and heading to Locus Solus.]]
118	* ThePsychoRangers: Each of the your party members has a rival in one of the villains. [[spoiler:Lighthearted and idealistic Dean has to face the defeated dog of the villains, [[BrokenPedestal his idol Nightburn]]; [[{{Tomboy}} Rebecca]] ends up with Persephone, both of which share the same inability to express their feelings for their loved ones (Dean and Nightburn, respectively); family man Greg fights his family's killer, the AxCrazy Kartikeya; Avril has story reasons for rivaling Volsung, leader of the radical Veruni; small but heavily-armed Carol fights against her former caregiver, the muscular Elvis; and Chuck rivals the surprisingly noble Fereydoon over the same girl.]]
119	* QuirkyMinibossSquad: Fereydoon, Persephone, Kartikeya, and Elvis.
120	* RaceLift: The Cecilia {{Expy}} is a Veruni. Gallows and Tim are implied to be Veruni, too.
121	* ReconcileTheBitterFoes: The game's central theme is about ending racism between Veruni and humans.
122	* ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: All of the game's major villains are [[IronicName ironically]] named after mythological figures.
123	* RevolversAreJustBetter: The main trio's [=ARMs=] are all influenced by revolvers.
124	* RousseauWasRight: [[spoiler: The only true villains in this game are Kartikeya and the Hatred.]]
125	* SevenDeadlySins: Each of the [[SavePoint Memory Birds]] says something odd about one of the sins when you talk to them.
126	* ShoutOut
127	** Apparently the Memory Bird in Harmonde plays ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}''.
128	--->"What is Greed? Nothing but a pitiful little pile of selfishness! But enough talk... Would you like to save your game?"
129	** The Memory Bird in Laila Belle, on the other hand, had apparently watched ''Film/TheGoonies''.
130	-->"I once had a girlfriend named Sloth actually. She left me for a bird named Chunk."
131	** A couple of bosses have a HPToOne attack called "[[Music/EltonJohn Candle in the Wind]]."
132	** A boss is a [[Film/{{Tremors}} Graboid]], though it looks a lot different from the ones in the movies.
133	* SingleTear: On Avril's face in the beginning of the game. It's brought up a few times throughout the game.
134	* SneezeCut: As Rebecca tries and fails to tell Dean about her feelings, Dean guesses that she really likes Chuck or Greg. Cue them sneezing.
135	* SpoilerOpening: The opening credits shows you three allies who have not joined your party yet. However, when and how they are going to join definitely is a completely different question.
136	* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: Avril's tragic role in the story. Events seem to slightly change for her every time, after she comments on something that hasn't happened to her before.]]
137	* TheStinger: [[spoiler: Avril prepares to go back into cryosleep, completing the StableTimeLoop.]]
138	* TrainJob:
139	** Dean catches Greg in the middle of trying to blow up a train's golem cargo.
140	** Much later [[spoiler: Kartikeya]] pulls one off by disconnecting the car the party is in and putting a golem in the middle of the tracks to attack them.
141	* TranshumanAliens: The Veruni seem to be this. It turns out, however, that they [[spoiler: left Filgaia centuries ago and are from the same genetic base as humans.]]
142	* TrumanShowPlot: A variation. Duo's cameras are following the heroes every step of the way, so the whole world is watching their exploits.
143	* VideoGameTools: It replaces all tools with AbnormalAmmo for the Dean's ARM but uses them in a manner closer to the first three games. You collect these cartridges over the course of the game and use them for solving puzzles in dungeons (by shooting at things, that is). Grappling Hook and Radar return, albeit under different names.
144	* VisualInitiativeQueue
145	* VitriolicBestBuds: Rebecca and Dean sure do argue a lot.
146	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: We never do find out what happened to Fereydoon, Persephone, Elvis, Nightburn, or Captain Bartholomew.]]
147	* WithAFriendAndAStranger: Rebecca, Avril and Dean.
148	* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: While Greg is escorting the party to Gounon, Dean keeps saying this to Greg. It just seems to annoy Greg.

Context VideoGame / WildArms5