Healing between battles is a chore; why not have the characters auto-heal after a fight? Done! Those random encounters are annoying; how about the player be allowed to turn them off and explore free of distraction? Done! Waiting to level up to learn that new skill is time consuming; can’t they be learnt when the player so chooses? Done! Those traditional-style world maps are a bit archaic; why not... Done!

It’s a shame the same care wasn’t applied to the story.

It’s not what they say, it’s how they say it. Wild Arms 5 has a great story dying to break out; the Veruni rule over the humans in Filgaia, treating them as slaves, but both races are at risk of extinction. Will our plucky heroes unite the people and save the day? With a better team of writers, there would be real potential, but what we have here is a series of badly scripted, stilted plot devices. The mysterious Johnny Appleseed, the world for whom you are searching, is apparently known by every NPC in the game. Rather than let on, though, they prefer the old “I’ll let you find out for yourself when you’ve travelled a few hundred miles to get there”. JUST TELL US! Save us all the hassle of walking halfway across the world to find out it was just a waste of time! The game also introduces each of the main factions very early, but simply confuses by being deliberately vague about who each person is and what their alignments and goals are. This results in over twenty hours of gameplay where you simply don’t care because everything’s too confusing, and it’s a big ask for anyone to trawl through it for that long for the good stuff. The good stuff, though, is very good indeed, and the climax (though the dialogue remains poor) is excellent, and makes the trawl worthwhile.

It's not made easy by the dungeons though. In terms of graphics, they're great, but unfortunately that's to be expected with the small number of areas on offer. That’s not to say this is a small game, but the developers have chosen to palette swap rooms in dungeons, so there’s often a sense of déjà vu. As if in league with the plot, the dungeons don’t offer much until the second half of the game. At first they’re not much more than a trek from entrance to exit, but later on they’re filled with excellent puzzles (with all but a few falling just the right side of obscure) and platforming sections, and there’s a real sense of achievement when you conquer one.

While the dungeon design can initially seem lazy, where the game really excels is in its portrayal of a world. Rather than a world map that’s no more than an excuse for random battles between towns as you travel large expanses of flat green, Wild Arms 5 contains a picturesque, coherent world. Due to a great use of scale, travelling it gives a feeling of reality. Oh, and there’s not an airship in sight!

Where any RPG lives or dies is in its battle system, and luckily Wild Arms 5 has one of the very best, and fighting is fun throughout. Battles take place on seven ‘HEXes,’ (predictably enough, they’re just hexagons) and rather than attacking enemies, the HEXes are attacked instead. If there’s more than one enemy in a HEX all are attacked simultaneously, but the same applies to the player party and of course to healing. Having the characters bunched in one HEX allows for much easier healing, but leaves the team vulnerable to attack. Positioning is of the utmost importance to win these fights; forcing a bunch of enemies into a single HEX to wipe them all out together is very satisfying. Status effects, too, only affect the HEX rather than the character. Poison is easily cured by moving to a different HEX.

In a well-advised change from Wild Arms 4, each character can move and then act in one turn. This makes attacking safer and setting up co-operative attacks easier, but crucially, still not risk-free. Co-op attacks are performed when enough FP (gained for striking enemies, being damaged, etc) is accrued. When two compatible characters find themselves on the same HEX they can perform a powerful joint attack, often targeting multiple enemy HEXes – these can be the difference between winning and losing. If you don’t manage to wipe out the enemies in one shot you’re vulnerable to having the characters hit together. Ley points are the final major consideration. Three HEXes per battle have elemental allegiance (earth, wind, water or fire) and magic attacks used depend on the HEX stood on. Aiming a magic attack from a fire HEX launches a fireball, aim it toward an enemy on a water HEX for (for want of a better term) massive damage – but the reverse is also true so exploiting a weakness always leaves your own wide open. The importance of position, and the risk/reward associated with it, makes every battle exciting and much more fun than mindless spamming of the ‘fight’ command, a problem all too often found in turn-based battles.

In an interesting twist to levelling up, one GC point is awarded to each character per level, as well as the usual stat bonuses. These GC points can then be used to 'buy' skills. For example, a spell normally learned at level ten could be learned at level five, by using the five GC points that have been earned at that point to make up the remaining levels. Even this has its own risks, as every GC point used lowers the max HP of the character using it, providing another great example of risk versus reward. HP corrects itself gradually through the levels as at level six only four of the GC points are needed and so on, and that hit to the max HP is reduced. But then there’s that level fifteen skill to get as soon as possible...

If John Motson were to review this game, he'd undoubtably leave it at five words: 'a game of two halves.' The final half of Wild Arms 5 is incredible. The story, dungeons and battles all come together to create a game that is as good as traditional RPGs will ever get. If only the same could be said about the initial slog, it’d be a classic.