My “patience with poor game design” meter gets shorter and shorter every year. I forget what the screen said last time I saved, but I know I’ve played at least 35 hours of Wild Arms 5. When I quit I was supposed to go around the continent destroy some TF System stuff in some towers somewhere, only navigating to the towers is a right pain in the posterior because the roads in this game are all twisty and turny and don’t show up on the main map and you end up getting completely lost, blah blah blah. And then you finally make it into the dungeon and there’s this stupid puzzle and you have to go get your laptop or phone so you can FAQ and eventually I just said Screw that, I’m outta here! And that’s that for me.
It wasn’t that bad early on. Most of the stages up to that point could be cleared without resorting to FAQs except once or twice, but I was already irritated after spending a looong time wandering the map trying to reach the dungeon in the first place and I hadn’t saved in a while and then this floor with colored tiles dropping down showed up. I am so done.
Besides, I already found out the true identity of the ‘Johnny Appleseed’ they were looking for. As I’d suspected from the start Johnny Appleseed was Avril herself. That’s often the case in these ‘looking for something’ stories – the answer is either you yourself or something right back where you started. Also the bad Veruni are trying to kill everyone but we’re going to stop them somehow, I don’t really care how. Yeah, I’m done.
The game was dragging out any way. After finding out Avril’s identity there should have been maximum one more dungeon then the game should have ended. Whatevs. I don’t care any more. I want to play something new. Dragon Shadow Spell, here I come!
