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The first installment in the Wild ARMs series on the PlayStation. Notable for combining the Western (as in cowboys) genre with both Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Wild ARMs is the first appearance of the eternally cursed planet Filgaia. The planet is dying after a long, destructive war with alien creatures known as demons. The weapons of the old war are blamed for the decay of the planet, and most of them are sealed away and shunned.

The story follows three characters, with a playable prologue for each.

  • Rudy Roughnight is a young Wanderer (Dream Chaser in the original) who is making a living doing odd jobs at various towns around the world. During one of his jobs, a child enters a dangerous area in search of a holy berry, which can heal any wound, to save his injured father. Rudy follows, and saves the child, but doing so reveals that he has one of the ancient weapons from the wars, an ARM. The villagers immediately vote to banish him. He happens to drift to the city of Adlehyde, where he meets...
  • Jack Van Burace is a Treasure Hunter who is seeking "absolute power." A clue in a ruin leads him to Lolithia's coffin and into Adlehyde on the fated day. He is seeking revenge on the demons, which leads him to act recklessly at times. He has a strong distrust of nobles due to a tragic event in his past, which leads him to initially dislike...
  • Cecilia Lynne Adlehyde is the Rebellious Princess of Adlehyde. She was educated in Curan Abbey as a Crest Sorceress and possesses a mysterious artifact called the Teardrop, which allows her to commune with Guardians. Before leaving the Abbey, she unsealed the water Guardian from his long imprisonment there. She is on a quest to find and unlock all the Guardians to prevent a disaster brought about by the demons.

The three find themselves chosen by the Guardian Spirits of Filgaia to combat the returning Demons, who have come to revive their ancient leader, Mother. However, it turns out all parties—even the villains—have secrets they must deal with...

This game was remade as Wild ARMs: Alter Code F for the Playstation 2.


This game provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Heroism: The Mayor of Serf Village is a much nicer and more reasonable person in Alter Code F than he was in the original.
  • Air-Vent Passageway: Deconstructed. Only Hanpan is small enough to get out this way.
  • Alien Sky: There are two moons, the natural moon and the artificial moon, Malduke, which serves as The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
  • All Men Are Perverts: Your front line needs to consist of only guys to read (and fight) the dirty magazine you can find.
  • All of the Other Reindeer:
    • The minute the villagers find out Rudy has an ARM, they immediately forget he just saved Tony's life in the caves and protected them all from a really nasty monster. They drive him out without so much as a thank you. The fact that many people consider the ARMs to be terrible weapons used by the demons didn't exactly help.
    • A flashback reveals that he has been an outcast his entire life, not just because he has an ARM, but because his nature as a "Holmcross" gives him unnatural strength and combat abilities (with said weapons). This tended to freak people out more often than not.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: A recurring background for certain boss fights.
  • And the Adventure Continues: The game ends with Rudy, Jack, and Hanpan once again wandering around the world. Cecilia seems to have stayed as the new Queen of Adlehyde but quickly drops the role and runs off after them.
  • Artificial Human: It turns out that Rudy's not human; he's an artificial construct called a "Holmcross" (though it's probably meant to be "Homunculus") created during the war a 1000 years ago using the same (or at least similar) Living Metal that the Demons are made out of. It's why he's so damn strong and also the reason he can use their technology, or tech based off it such as ARMs.
  • The Atoner: Mariel says that this is the reason she has to live alone on Filgaia while the rest of her race is in the Elw dimension. It later turns out she's atoning for her brother, who inadvertently caused the desertification of most of the planet.
  • Audible Sharpness
  • Back from the Dead:
    • Boomerang returns from hell as a boss just so he can fight you one last time.
    • In the remake, Berserk is resurrected for one last rematch during the finale.
  • Badass Longcoat: Jack. Boomerang as well, but only in the remake. (He was more of a ninja in the original.)
  • Bait-and-Switch Boss: Zed antagonizes you all throughout the Gate Generator. You finally corner him in the control room, where he unveils a new sword and is ready to fight you again... only for Zeikfried to order him to stand down, so you have to fight him instead.
  • Batman Gambit: Alhazad uses a small one to capture the team in the remake.
  • Battle Butler: Magdalen/McDullen
  • Beam Spam: Rudy's Prism Ray ARM.
  • Because Destiny Says So: Mother genuinely believes that being an Omnicidal Maniac is her destined duty.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: This is the reason behind Zed's Heel–Face Turn. If you defeat him in Saint Centaur, Zed reveals that he was the one who saved blind girl Aura from Alhazad's attack and has since become friends with her, claiming that she was the first human to ever treat him with kindness and respect.
  • Berserk Button: Jack does not like being reminded of his past or being in the presence of a demon.
  • BFG: Rudy's Hand Cannon ARM as it appears in Alter Code F. It appears to be a 20mm or larger revolver carbine. He shoots it one-handed. Good thing he was built to wield the thing, or else he'd go flying backwards with every shot.
  • Big Bad: Mother. After her defeat in the first half, Zeikfried takes up the mantle...until Mother "merges" with him to create a very unsettling Big Bad Duumvirate.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Rudy is the master of this trope, especially in the remake. Jack gets one too by saving Rudy from being crushed immediately after he saves Jane from the same thing.
  • Big Eater: Cecilia, who first demonstrates this by ordering six helpings of food for three people and eats four of them herself. How she keeps that figure is anyone's guess. It's even Lampshaded at several points. Apparently, being a mage just uses that much energy! In the remake, she claims that she's one of the lighter eaters at the Abbey.
  • Bishōnen Line: Mother is initially a fleshy, larva-like demonic creature. After absorbing Zeikfried, however, her "Motherfried" form looks serene and human, even cradling Zeikfried in her arms like a baby.
    • Inverted with Zed. The majority of the fights with him when he's a prettyboy are jokes, and he isn't treated by the game much better than that. But when he goes full hulking demon mode, he is a serious threat.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The demons are defeated, but Asgard sacrifices himself to save the party from the destruction of The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. Also, while it's stated Filgaia will eventually recover, it'll definitely be a long, slow process. Oh, and Arctica is still in shambles.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: The original game. "Ray Line" indeed. The remake, while it fixes some of the worst typos, somehow manages to come up with its own that are just as bad — "How do we get thru this barrier?" indeed. In both, Jack's surname is supposed to be Vambrace, which is why he calls himself "the armguard". "Van Burace" makes the metaphor meaningless. (This one was made worse in the remake, when they made his previous title Knight of the Gauntlet. At least "Van Burace" can be seen as a corruption of "Vambrace" in hindsight).
    • Where the hell did "Arch" come from in the remake's version of the prologue movie at Arctica, when the original translation was "cocoon"?
    • "Homunculus" was instead translated as "Holmcross."
    • Enemies named for the demons of the Ars Goetia also tend to suffer this. Ayperos became Aipeloss, Agares became Agaless, Flauros became Frauloss...
    • References from Norse Mythology were equally mangled. Siegfried became Zeikfried. Sieg Zwei became Zeik Tuvai. Fenrir became Fenril, and Berserk became Belselk.
    • From Mesopotamian Mythology, Marduk became Malduke.
    • Let's not forget that the Japanese Language does not normally have an "L" sound, which tripped up a lot of translators in the early days of J-RPGs. Most of these are L<->R confusion... Malduke vs Marduk, Agares vs Agaless, Flauros vs Frauloss, etc. Sometimes the translator automatically assumes Ls should be substituted for Rs by default in names, and sometimes in non-name words (See Breath of Fire II's "Equip fishing lod").
    • Alter Code F improved on the translation, yet had some very suspect terminology in places that the original did not. For example, a character who is called "the vigilante group leader." The correct term: sheriff. Who in stereotypical Wild West stories lead posses AKA: a group of vigilantes. Coupled with the character wearing stereotypical sheriff garb, the intent of the game developers is quite obvious. Yes, the translators somehow turned "sheriff" into "vigilante group leader".
  • Blood Knight: Boomerang and Lucied.
  • Body Horror: What Alhazad's Demon Seed does to its victims is not pretty. And then there's Mother, especially after she "merges" with Zeikfried.
  • Bottomless Pits
  • Bowdlerise: Quite a few minor examples, but Captain Bartholomew stands out the most. In both the original and remake, the crew members state the (middle-aged) Captain "is only interested in 18-year-old girls." Likewise, you can find messages in bottles from the Captain himself expressing that same desire. Turns out in both Japanese versions, his preference actually falls towards girls 15 and under. Suddenly, Magdalen's warning to Jack to keep an eye out on Jane while the Captain is around in the remake makes a lot more sense.
  • Braggart Boss: Zed.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall:
    • In the original game, an NPC can be found in the far corner of Adlehyde. His line?
    You must have been bored to come all the way up here.
    • When the Sweet Candy is under attack from Leviathan, Jane scolds Bartholomew for not having a weapon on board. Why? Because this is a video game.
    • At the very end, Cecilia lists everyone who helped them overcome the demons and save Filgaia. Then the leads all turn around and look up at the player.
  • But Thou Must!: Alter Code F, after Rudy defeats the Rotting Beast, the mayor puts him on trial for ARM use and accuses him of starting the earthquake. If you object, the mayor ignores it and insists you go on trial anyway because the matter affects the entire village, so you are forced to accept.
  • Can't You Read the Sign?: In Berry Cave, you come across a notice that says 'Do not destroy this sign'. Guess what you have to do in order to continue.
  • Cast from Calories: Cecilia mentions that casting spells uses a lot of energy. Besides, she loves hamburgers.
  • Cat Fight: Cecilia VS Elizabeth is nothing but this. Also it didn't help that Elizabeth in the original was a monstrous Cat Girl which might look a little too similar with Felicia instead of a gothic humanoid maid.
  • Chekhov's Lecture: Just over halfway through the game, Zeikfried drags your party into the Gate Generator and forced you to fight in the middle of subspace. Once the fight is over, he mocks your recklessness and reveals such actions can cause explosions. At the very end of the game he returns as Zeik Tuvai and challenges you as you travel between dimensions to return home. The build up of energy from the battle causes all of Ka Dingle to go up in fire. If it wasn't for Asgard, the heroes would have been toast.
  • Chew Toy: Poor, poor Bartholomew, especially in ACF. People seem to care about everyone else except him, especially when it comes to retrieving the second Gemini circuit. Examples:
    • Jane does him the favor of measuring him for his casket prior to forcing him to be the test pilot for the Protowing, and that's BEFORE taking command of his ship and sending it on a suicide mission right under his nose. Magdalen is the one who entrusts the care of the Gemini circuit to him, simply because he has the largest body. And, when the team finds his half-drowned body, Jack obviously cares more about the survival of the circuit.
    • The team's less-than-sympathetic attitude towards the Captain might make a lot more sense when taking his taste in women into account, as seen in the earlier Bowdlerise example.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: Zed, especially in the remake. After his Heel–Face Turn in the original game, Aura describes him as being a funny and nice person, but also quite weird.
  • Combined Energy Attack: A small one in the remake when the men of Surf Village join their hearts together with Rudy and his ARM to fire a blast powerful enough to expose the Rotting Beast's core, allowing Rudy to destroy it for good.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: Her future position as Queen of Adlehyde weighs heavily on Cecilia's mind. She's visibly relieved when Minister Johann takes over as regent until she's older and more prepared for the role.
  • Cosmic Keystone: The Teardrop and the Leyline.
  • Covers Always Lie: The look Cecilia has on the cover, she only has for the first few hours of the game. After that, she cuts her hair and gets a more practical outfit for the rest of the game.
  • Crack in the Sky: How the attack on Adlehyde begins. It's followed by beams of light turning the town into a burning wreck and monsters coming down to destroy whoever they come across. Another appears later on when Zeikfried decides he's had enough of your party interfering with his plans so uses the Gate Generator to abduct them so he can either let the Demon Gate's unstable energy destroy them, or kill them himself.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: The demons' assault on Arctica. The humans never stood a chance.
  • Cutscene Incompetence: While all of the battles against the Quarter Knights are winnable, most of the after-fight cutscenes in the remake make it seem like your party was utterly trounced, or at least beaten half to death. This is especially noticeable in the first few Berserk fights and the first Boomerang fight.
  • Death Course: Jack's introduction.
  • Developer's Foresight: At the beginning of the game in Jack's opening scenario, if you name him the Memory Temple password Emiko, he'll actually remark on how it's odd that the password is his own name. In order to keep the game on course with him fighting his way back through the temple, he then starts hitting random buttons to see what else happens, which causes him and Hanpan to fall through the floor and continue as scripted.
  • Dirty Old Woman: One Cecilia's teachers at the Abbey comments that if Jack was just little bit older, he'd be her type. Then she decides that age shouldn't matter and continues to flirt with him, anyways.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Mother.
  • Disc-One Final Dungeon: The Photosphere.
  • Doomed Hometown: Adlehyde and Arctica. While the former can gradually be rebuilt to its former glory throughout the game, Arctica is still a frozen ruin even after the demons are defeated. And since Jack is Arctica's Sole Survivor, it's implied that it'll stay that way.
  • Dub Text: In one of the more hilarious typos in the Agetec-translated remake, Alhazad gets called a "she" in his first appearance in the prologue. What makes this hilarious is that one of Al's defining traits is his creepy advances towards Lady Harken, so Agetec accidentally turned him into a Psycho Lesbian. This makes it apparent that they never bothered to check up the plot of the game beforehand, since Alhazad shows this part of his nature at the end of the same prologue. They caught on later, as the next reference to his gender is a comment from Magdalen about that "fellow". However, that one "she" was never fixed, making this also an example of Inconsistent Dub.
  • Duel Boss: Jack vs. Harken, Cecilia vs. Elizabeth, and, in Alter Code F only, Rudy vs. the Rotting Beast again in a sidequest.
  • Edge Gravity
  • Eldritch Abomination: Mother.
  • Empathic Weapon: Only those with "strong will" can wield an ARM. Also Asgard, who only activates when Cecilia feels literal empathy for it.
  • Enemy Scan: In Alter Code F, using the Analyze ability helps you fill out a monster encyclopedia. Filling it to 50% nets you an EX File Key.
  • Epic Flail: Berserk's weapon.
  • Escaped from Hell: Boomerang's explanation when he returns as a bonus boss. Also, Zeik Tuvai claims to have returned from hell after breaking free of Mother.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Quarter Knights are pretty miffed about how Mother doesn't seem to care one bit about Berserk's death. The fact that she wanted to destroy everything didn't help.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Mother.
  • Evil Counterpart: Lady Harken to Jack, in more ways then one.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: The demons awaken the Sealed Evil in a Can, Mother. She immediately reveals her plans to kill them and destroy their new world. So the demons naturally turn on her and kill her. Unfortunately, she turns out to be Not Quite Dead, and she possesses Zeikfried anyway, fulfilling the trope.
  • Evil Laugh: Mother has a voiced one. Also, Alhazad has one for each version. (A sickening "Khhk khhk khhk" in the original, and a less sickening (but still pretty creepy) "kekeke" in Alter Code F).
    • Berserk had one, too.
  • Evil Versus Oblivion: The demons are not interested in Mother destroying the world, and they try to eliminate her so they can get on with conquering it.
  • Evolving Attack: Jack's Fast Draw abilities in the remake require less MP the more you use them.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Cecilia's haircut and outfit change symbolize her willingness to do whatever it takes to retrieve the teardrop and save the world.
  • Expy: The role of the Elw race is very similar to that of the Elves in Tolkien's Legendarium, in that they are an older race, perpetually youthful in appearance, they are deeply in tune with the natural world, and their numbers in Filgaia have been steadily declining for a long time. (And even the name "Elw" strongly resembles "Elves".) Most of the Elw left long ago to the Elw Dimension, a Floating Continent normally accessible only to the Guardians and Elw. This Elw Dimension is a blatant Expy of Aman, the Undying Lands.
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: Alhazad's true form has a single eye. In his mouth.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Subverted. Lucied, Guardian of Desire, is said to have defected to the demons during the war. She actually became the partner to Blood Knight Boomerang, who served no one.
  • Fighting a Shadow: Guardians can recover from being killed, but for most it takes time due to most of Filgaia's residents not having them in their hearts. Lucied, however, recovers upon hitting 0 hp in the same combat round multiple times due to Boomerang's strong conviction of Desire.
  • Fake Difficulty: In order to get the player to manage their resources, there were no MP or special cartridge bullet-restoring items programmed into Alter Code F. The only way to restore either is by leveling up or sleeping at an inn.
  • Fantastic Racism: Relations between humans and Elw are less then rosy.
  • For the Evulz: Most, if not all, of Alhazad's various atrocities were done solely for his own amusement.
  • Gaia's Lament: The land of Filgaia has been slowly decaying ever since the great demon war. It's reached the point where even seeing flowers in bloom is a rare occurrence, and most of the world is either barren desert or harsh wasteland. (The lush greenery of the Elws' world is representative of how Filgaia used to look.) Both the Guardians and the Elws believe that the humans are just as much to blame for this as the demons, if not more so.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: After you leave St. Centour after the Cage Tower, if you trigger a battle on the last tile before the overworld, the game will crash as it tries to load the cutscene and fight simultaneously.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • The Sacred Shrine has a dark, spoilery example: because a portion of the monsters fought there are recently-mutated humans, they occasionally waste their turn by trying to use a Remedy on themselves.
    • Jack's special ability is the Fast Draw, based on his ability to create magical effects from drawing his sword quickly. He's all about speed. In gameplay terms, he is the fastest character, friend or foe; he almost always goes first. There is only one enemy that's faster: Lady Harken. This is, in fact, a plot point: She also uses the Fast Draw, and is Elmina, one of the Fenril Knights who sacrificed herself for Jack.
  • The Ghost: Jane's older sister, Jessica, is spoken of and is said to be a Head-Turning Beauty in both versions of the game, but never makes an actual appearance.
  • Ghost Town: Saint Centour turns into this by the time the heroes return from the Cage Tower; the town is overrun with monsters and only a blind girl is left alive.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: So Rudy is in a coma, following his recent Tomato in the Mirror and subsequent revival. Cecilia enters his mind to find out what is blocking his awakening. She watches his memories and helps him overcome self-loathing, when suddenly, a goddamn Gothic Lolita (or Cat Girl in the original) succubus who has been masquerading as Rudy's father in his mind shows up and fights Cecilia. Afterwards, Rudy wakes up, and the succubus (whose name is Elizabeth) is never mentioned again.
    • Not to mention the fact that most bosses literally come out of localized portals that appear with no warning. You just wander around a dungeon, when suddenly...
  • Good Parents: King Justin is a loving father and only wants the best for Cecilia.
  • Guide Dang It!: The Awaken spell in the original game. It does what you think it ought to do: wake people up. However, what the game does not tell you, is that it also prevents sleep if you cast it ahead of time. It sure makes boss battles like Chaos and Lolithia much, much easier as you can have Cecilia cast it at the very beginning of the battle, and it will automatically wake everybody up (though it needs to be cast again afterwards).
  • The Gunslinger: Rudy.
  • Harmless Villain: Zed. In both games, he becomes a Not So Harmless boss; in the remake, he joins as one of the strongest party members.
  • Hammerspace: Where does Rudy keep that huge shotgun when he's not using it? And how did the villagers miss it before he used it to protect them?
    • In answer to the first... well, Hammerspace. In answer to the second, apparently it was hidden amongst his belongings; one of the villagers admits to having found it when he searched them!
  • Hannibal Lecture: Mother gives one during the first confrontation with her. It basically boils down to, "All things are meant to come to an end, and what better way to have it end than me?"
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Lose to any Quarter Knight in the remake, and it's game over. Win, and the after-fight cutscene acts like you lost anyway.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Oddly, in the original, Rudy used a sword, despite him wielding a pistol-looking weapon in all official art. Alter Code F changed it so that he used the above-mentioned BFG for normal attacks as well as his special moves.
  • Hostage for MacGuffin: The town of Adlehyde for the Teardrop.
    • And, much later, Jane's village for one of Asgard's power cores. Thankfully, the party manages to drive the enemy back.
  • How We Got Here: The opening sequence of the remake is essentially the ending of the game. You just have to find out those events.
  • Hypocrite: The mayor who banishes Rudy from the first village in the game, does so because Rudy used a gun. Considering that this man is the one who gave Ruby actual bombs as a reward for doing odd jobs, this decision to exile Rudy can come across as a little bit hypocritical.
    • Jack calls Cecilia out for hiding her identity so she can wander the wasteland without people making a fuss of her when he himself hides his identity to wander the wasteland to avoid confronting his past. Fortunately he comes to realise the hypocrisy and apologizes to her late in the game.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In the remake's ending, Jane claims she isn't brash or rude enough to interrupt Rudy and Jack's reunion with Cecilia.
  • Important Haircut: Cecilia cuts off her hair to prove to Jack that she's serious about going after the demons.
  • In-Game Novel: Only present in the remake.
  • Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Subverted in Jack's opening dungeon, where many of the chests have already been looted. Otherwise played straight.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Zed, while not exactly a pushover in battle, is largely viewed as a joke that can't do anything right, both by the heroes and his fellow villains. Which makes the optional battle against him late in the game much more alarming when he proves surprisingly capable of handing you your ass...
  • Innocent Flower Girl: Mariel.
  • Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Duplicators, although it is justified because they're actually magic keys that can only take on one shape once, and thus only unlock one lock.
  • Interface Screw: In the original, a confused character wouldn't respond correctly to player input. Changing leads fixes this.
  • Item Amplifier: In Wild Arms: Alter Code F, Jane's Force ability allows her to use an item and have it affect the entire party. (In the original, this ability belonged to Cecilia.) The game also has a skill called Floral Arts that can be equipped to any character and causes healing berries to restore twice as much health.
  • Item Caddy: Jane, to a degree, or Cecilia in the original. Both have Force abilities that can be used to use a single item on the entire party.
  • It's Personal: Jack never forgave the demons for the destruction of Arctica.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jack. He's quite brash and rude in the beginning, but becomes more and more protective of Rudy and Cecilia as the game progresses, eventually showing that he cares for Filgaia just as much as them.
    • Zed makes this transition during the game, but it only shows after the final fight with him post-game.
  • Kansas City Shuffle: You know that Darkness Tear that was supposed to destroy the Guardians and eradicate all life on Filgaia and was the focus of the plot for a quarter of the game? Only a mere distraction to allow Zeikfried to locate and raise Ka Dingel.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Despite the fact that Jack was a Western-style knight, he uses a katana.
  • Kill Sat: Barbados fires off a laser before you start out the battle against it. If you have Asgard with you, though, he'll nullify it with a barrier.
    • Also, the demons planned to turn the Elw satellites into one, using the Darkness Tear.
  • King on His Deathbed: Happens with King Justin after the demons attack Adlehyde. He eventually succumbs to his wounds and leaves his young daughter the throne, something that she's obviously not prepared for.
  • Lady and Knight: Both versions appear.
    • Cecilia is the Princess (later Queen) of Adlehyde so is the Bright Lady with Rudy and Jack both acting as her White Knights. Rudy fits into the role quite easily due to his willingness to protect everyone he cares about. Because of his past, it takes Jack a while to grow into the role.
    • Mother is the Dark Lady due to her desire to destroy Filgaia, and intends for Zeikfried (and to a lesser extent the other Quarter Knights) to be the Black Knight. Zeikfried however is more concerned about conquest and betrays her when he discover their goals clash- until Mother devours and possesses him anyway.
  • Last Lousy Point / Cartography Sidequest: Filling out 100% of the map is quite painful if only 1 or 2 spots are missing, and those blank spots blend in to the point of being almost impossible to see.
    • Did you miss opening a single treasure chest? Have fun scouring through EVERY dungeon again in order to find it before being able to open the Black Box.
  • Law of Inverse Recoil: In the remake, Rudy wields his over-sized Hand Cannon with one hand, yet shows little-to-no recoil. This is not a case of muscles are meaningless as it's mentioned (and shown) that Rudy is very, VERY strong — much stronger than one would think, given his size and apparent age — hinting at his nature as an Artificial Human created from Living Metal.
  • Leg Focus: In-Universe, one of the boys in Court Seim describes Jane's sister, Jessica, by her legs. She never appears on-screen, though.
  • Leitmotif: Each Quarter Knight has their own unique theme in the remake, and they are Awesome.
  • Lethal Joke Character: Zed in Alter Code: F, after recruiting him. He has the highest Attack stat of the main characters (990 out of 999 at level 100, as well as moderate HP) but his accuracy, defense, and Luck are all piss-poor. Further, all of his special abilities grant a positive effect when used, but impose a negative side-effect that reduces their usefulness to novelty at best. He's also only obtainable after going halfway through the final dungeon and coming back out.
  • Ley Line: Infamously mistranslated as Ray Line in the original.
  • Mana Potion: The Magic Carrot restores 50 MP.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Quarter Knights, upon learning Mother's true objectives. Even worse in the remake, when she flat-out tells the Quarter Knights that their entire reason for existing is for them to become her next vessels.
  • Meaningful Name:
  • Mirror Match: The Doppelganger enemy. Also, the Shadow enemy in the Abyss; if the mirrored character is in the vanguard at the time, s/he will feel the same damage given to the Shadows.
  • Mobile Kiosk: On the world map, merchant caravans can be found in certain areas which serve fittingly as item shops.
  • Monster Arena: It has this exact name, too.
  • Moon Logic Puzzle: In the Sacred Shrine, you need to throw Hanpan at somebody in order to get them to move so you can talk to another person. This is necessary to progress the plot, and the only hint is the person saying offhand that they're afraid of rats. It Makes Sense Out Of Context, but when you're actually playing the game it just sounds like generic NPC banter, not a puzzle hint.
  • My Greatest Failure: How Jack sees his failure to protect Arctica, and especially Elmina. It Gets Worse when he discovers that Elmina is Lady Harken.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Most closely applies to Jack after defeating Harken in the Demon's Lab dungeon and seeing who she really is.
    • Also, Magdalen reveals he had one of these during his backstory in the remake. He was originally a Wanderer who found an old ARM that was placed on display at an exhibition. It went out of control and killed several people. Nicholi Maxwell took responsibility and took in the orphaned children from the accident. Magdalen swore loyalty to the family to repay that debt, especially after Mrs. Maxwell died in childbirth when Jane was born.
  • Nice Mean And In Between: The three protagonists.
    • Rudy is Nice. He leaps at the chance to help others and the only time he gets truly angry is when he witnesses outright cruelty, such as in Rosetta. Every other character has something to say about his overall good nature.
    • Jack is the Mean due to him being rather rude and abrasive. He's particularly harsh towards Cecilia near the beginning of the game due to his distrust of royalty. He also swears the most to emphasize his blunt nature.
    • Cecilia is the In Between. She's more polite and open than Jack but is more self-interested than Rudy. She'll easily call out those she sees as doing wrong, or who simply annoy her.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: The Rotting Beast, which can regenerate from literally any wound. The best one can hope to do is seal it away with a Holy Berry. And in the remake, not even that is enough.
  • Noble Demon: Zed, Boomerang and Harken, especially Zed.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: In the original, Belselk/Berserk was pathetically easy. In the remake? Not so much. Also happens in-story with the vast difference between Zed's story battles and the optional boss fight against him.
  • Oh, Crap!: Jane in both versions when she finds the team talking to her father at Court Seim, mainly because she does NOT want him to know that she's Calamity Jane and that she's been hunting dangerous bounties to keep the orphanage afloat.
  • Overflow Error: There's an infinite item glitch where if the first two characters each use up one expendable item, then an item with quantity 1 is swapped into the inventory slot of that expendable item by the third character, when the turn finishes the game will subtract 2 from the quantity of the swapped item, leaving you with -1 of that item, or in the game's mind, 255.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Zeikfried says this to Rudy in the remake's script:
    Zeikfried: What's wrong? Heh, no way out of this... No way to escape... Ready to join me? ...Brother... ...Berserk told me... You are just like us... Tell me I'm wrong?! Do you really think your existence is by accident?!
    Zeikfried: I know... the power is revealing... Yours is the power of destruction... ...but, even with your ARM power, it's impossible to thwart my plan.
  • Older Than They Look: Mariel looks about 12, but it's hard to tell her real age due to a combination of the Elw having long lifespans and time flowing differently in the Elw dimension.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Mother. Apparently, Zeikfried and the other Quarter Knights were not aware of this, and are understandably shocked/horrified when they find out.
  • One Bad Mother: When she eats her own son to push him to destroy the world, you know Mother fits this trope
  • One-Winged Angel:
    • Zed has Monster Zed. He reveals it in Saint Centaur when your party visits the blind girl because he fears you will expose who he is.
    • Boomerang has Boomerang Flash. You can fight this form in the Ancient Arena/Devil's Playground after the fight at Ka Dingle.
    • Alhazad is a subversion. He simply removes his robe. It doesn't make him any stronger, only exposes his true hideousness.
    • Zeikfried has Zeik Tuvai and appears when you return from Malduke after beating Motherfried. While he has some different attacks, he's really just a mangled torso by this point and only trying to have the last laugh.
  • Our Demons Are Different: The demons are from the planet Hyades are made of metal. Lady Harken is the exception, as she is from Filgaia and was human.
  • Our Homunculi Are Different: Rudy. He's made of living metal, for one thing.
  • Parental Favouritism: Mother clearly favours Zeikfried to the point he's the only Quarter Knight she addresses. Unfortunately for him, this is one parent you don't want favouring you as she plans to use his body as the next vessel for her existence when she moves onto the next world to destroy.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Or rather, the password is "password."
  • Permanently Missable Content: Played straight in the original with several items (including Crest Graphs and one Rune) in numerous one-shot dungeons. Averted in the remake as all items in one-shot dungeons are required to obtain or are dropped by the boss, while monsters in those dungeons can appear in the Forest Prison.
  • Perverse Sexual Lust: One of Alhazad's defining traits is his, erm... "affection" for Lady Harken.
  • Pet the Dog: Boomerang allowing the party to leave with one of Asgard's power units after fighting them to a standstill. Zed choosing to protect the blind girl who was the sole survivor of Alhazad's Demon Seed experiment rather than killing her.
  • Plaguemaster: Alhazad. He creates a Demon Seed that turns people into monsters, and judging by their reactions, the process is anything but pleasant.
  • Powers as Programs: Emma can download enemy skills to learn them in the remake.
  • Power Copying: Emma gets her skill set by downloading the abilities of monsters, much like Marivel of Wild ARMs 2.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Possibly Alhazad, who refers to humanity as his "toys" and states that his one wish is to "play with them" (read: subject them to horrible experiments) forever.
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: Hanpan serves the role of one.
  • Rare Candy: Apples. They increase various stats in the original and give an automatic level up in the remake.
  • Razor Wind: Jack's Sonic Wind.
  • Redemption Promotion: Harmless Villain Zed's dramatic improvement in effectiveness when he becomes a secret recruitable party member in Alter Code F.
  • Reluctant Ruler: At 17-years-old, Cecilia is clearly nervous to step into her destined role as Adlehyde's Queen. Thankfully, Minister Johann is willing to act as regent in her absence, and until she's ready to take on the position.
  • Robotic Reveal: Rudy, after he cuts/shoots off his own arm.
    • The character in question is not really a robot (and is, in every sense, a living being). They are, however, artificially created.
  • The Smart Guy: Hanpan. That a flying mouse is the smart guy on the team may say something about the other characters.
  • Sadistic Choice: The main plot is started by one. The heroes must choose between handing over the Tear Drop and potentially dooming the world or holding onto it and watching Adlehyde burn. They choose the former as at least that way they can get the Tear Drop back.
  • Samurai Cowboy: Jack is a katana-wielding swordsman wearing a cowboy-style duster.
  • Shout-Out: One of Rudy's ARM weapons is a Phaser gun.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Angol Moa/Angolmois, Van Burace/Vambrace, Fenril/Fenrir Knights, and Zeikfried/Siegfried, among others. Also, some Meaningful Names are Lost in Translation—not only Vambrace, but Alhazred rendered as Alhazad, and the granddaddy of them all, or at least Rudy, "Zepet" Roughnight. Gepetto ring any bells?
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Mother's heart was split into three and sealed away in three Guardian statues due to her alien Healing Factor. Unfortunately your party is unsuccessful in keeping her there.
  • Shadow Pin: Jack's Shadowbind.
  • Shifting Sand Land: The Sand River dungeon.
  • Shipper on Deck: The Abbey's cook would really like to feed Cecilia's boyfriend and shows vocal disappointment when neither Jack or Rudy turn out to be courting her. He continues to press the issue every time Jack or Rudy speak with him later in the game.
  • Shoot the Dog: Quite literal. At one point, the party has to kill a dog mutated by Alhazad's Demon Seed.
  • Solve the Soup Cans: There was a puzzle involving five chests on one side of a dungeon and five bookcases on the other side of the dungeon. You somehow had to read each book in the bookcases to tell you whether or not to leave its respective chest open or closed. It may have been Lost in Translation. It returned in the remake, and was still freaking hard to understand! Fortunately, this time, it was optional.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Sort of averted in that Belselk is the first Quarter Knight you face. As The Brute, he's actually the strongest of the bunch, and in the remake is resurrected right before the final battle.
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix: In the original.
  • Squishy Wizard: Cecilia. Emma in the remake is even squishier, though it's more accurate to call her a Squishy Scientist.
  • The Starscream: Zeikfried helps the heroes defeat Mother so he can take over once he discovers her goals...weren't exactly what he thought they were.
  • Sword and Gun: Rudy uses his ARM for his special attacks, and a sword for regular attacks. Averted in the remake, where he can use his gun for regular attacks now.
  • Taking You with Me:
    • Arguably, the entire point of Zeikfried's One-Winged Angel form.
    • Mother attempts this when you defeat her, by crashing the Photosphere into the ocean.
  • Technicolor Death: Each generic enemy dies by flashing colors and collapsing vertically into a little pool on the ground. Bosses get enhanced effects.
  • 10-Minute Retirement: Rudy after he loses an arm and finds out he's an Artificial Human.
  • That Man Is Dead: Jack does not like being reminded of his old life of being Garret, a guard of Arctica Palace.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: Rudy during his rematch against the Rotting Beast in the remake.
    • Every time you fight Boomerang, he's mildly difficult and has an impressive battle theme. But when he crawls back from Hell itself to battle you once more, he's absolutely brutal and his music is appropriately freakin' badass.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: The final battle with Lady Harken, which, as noted above, Jack fights alone.
  • To the Tune of...: The title theme, "Into the Wilderness," sounds strangely like "Tie me Kangaroo Down, Sport." In addition, the world map theme, "Lone Bird in the Shire" is an homage to Ennio Morricone's "Ecstasy of Gold." Also, "Agitation to Destruction," or the theme that usually plays when Mother is featured, sounds very much like "Cheyenne's Farewell" from Once Upon a Time in the West.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Rudy discovers he's made of living metal like the demons after losing his arm in the Gate Generator.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Zed, when protecting Aura. Emma, from the original game to the remake, goes from Gadgeteer Genius NPC to leading the entire team in the second half of the game and being a Megamanning Guest-Star Party Member / Optional Party Member.
  • Took a Shortcut: Jane somehow gets around with ease, despite her home being in an inaccessible location only available to the party after obtaining a unique vehicle.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Cecilia and burgers or curry, depending on the translation.
  • Tragic Monster: Lady Harken used to be a guard at Arctica like Jack, and was actually his best friend and possible lover. She actually realizes this eventually and allows Jack to kill her in their last battle. Completing a certain sidequest allows you to revive her as her old human self. However, she also has no memory of her past life and instead starts a new one in Milama. Jack believes it's for the best that she doesn't remember her Dark and Troubled Past.
  • Treasure Hunter: Jack and Calamity Jane.
  • True Companions: By the game's halfway mark, this applies to Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia. They become incredibly dedicated to each other and refuse to leave anyone behind, to the point where Cecilia doesn't think twice about entering Rudy's possessed and dangerous mind to save him from demon Elizabeth.
  • Tsundere: Calamity Jane, to an extent. Bar none when it comes to the conversation prior to recruiting her in the remake.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: In Rudy's opening chapter, he helps to save a boy lost in a monster-infested mine. Just as he and the (late-arriving) villagers were about to leave, they are accosted by a huge monster. Rudy successfully defeats the monster with the use of his Wild ARM, but gets ousted and banished by the villagers out of fear of the weapon he wields.
  • Video Game Remake: They went all out: new sidequests, new characters, clarified plot points, the whole nine yards. Now if only the translation had been updated, too...
  • Villainous Breakdown: When Mother is defeated the first time, she starts to break down because she can't understand how she could be defeated if she's the "destined destroyer" of reality. It's made more explicit in the remake.
  • The Virus: Alhazad's Demon Seed parasite.
  • Walking the Earth: What Rudy and Jack were doing before the game opened. All Wanderers do this, to some extent.
  • "What Do They Fear?" Episode: The Guardian Shrine is something of a subversion. In order to see whether the heroes have what it takes to face the demons, the Guardians force them to face their worst fears. Rudy fears his ARM abilities make him a monster or a threat to Filgaia. Jack fears he'll never be able to escape his past. Cecilia fears nobody will ever love her because she's a princess. Unlike most examples, they fail.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: In the original, Jane mentions that she has an older sister named Jessica. While she never actually appears on screen, she's apparently even cuter than Jane, and one kid comments on her legs. In the remake, Jessica only gets a passing mention during a bit of backstory exposition prior to Jane becoming a permanent member.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: After Berserk's attack on Adelhyde, Jack calls Cecilia out for not taking the demon threat seriously.
  • White Magician Girl: Cecilia. She manages to be both this and a Black Magician Girl in one.
  • Wild Card: Boomerang only cares about fighting, so much so that his strong desire for battle seduced the Guardian of Desire to follow him. At one point, he even protects the party from his supposed allies in order to be able to fight with them again. He was this during the demon war of 1000 years ago as well. He fought for neither side, simply battling anyone he felt would give him a good fight.
  • You Don't Look Like You:
    • Most of the villains were given a completely different appearance in the remake. Boomerang is now a cyborg with a Badass Longcoat, Harken is more akin to a Valkyrie, Berserk has more traditional battle armor and long white hair, Zed was made fairly more human-like, Mother became much paler and taller (and some would argue even more frightening), and Zeikfried is now completely armored head to toe and bears a slight resemblance to Nightmare. The only villain who retained his original appearance was Alhazad.
    • Several human characters had various changes as well. Magdalen is much older. Bartholomew actually looks like a sea captain, while Drake looks like a typical pirate. Jane mostly retains her appearance, but her personality is refined to make her a much bigger tomboy while retaining her tsundere nature. Zepet looks more like the adventurer he was. And finally, Nicholi actually looks like Jane's father. This could apply during the end credits art montage in the original. While Jane is a blonde during the game, at the very end, her hair is suddenly brown.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!:
    • Mother's death turns out to be only the halfway point. This starts a trend for Wild Arms games.
    • The game pulls this off twice! After defeating Motherfried, setting things right, and returning home, Zeikfried (or what's left of him) ambushes you on the trip back from Malduke in a last-ditch effort to take you with him, for the game's actual final boss fight.


Alternative Title(s): Wild Arms Alter Code F

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