When I first saw artwork from Thousand Arms about 9-10 months ago I was immediately impressed and excited about an RPG which incorporated such amazing anime. I read a few positive reviews of the game and so I decided to buy it. Though I don't regret buying the game, I have some major qualms with it. Thousand Arms had a ton of potential but in a lot of areas, it simply fell short. Before you do buy this game, you should think about what things are important to you when playing an RPG.

The graphics in Thousand Arms are one of this game's stronger points. The anime scenes within the game are beautiful and they flow incredibly smoothly. For the most part, instead of FMVs, there are sequences of spoken dialogue and cell style animation. This worked quite well within the game and the frequency of their appearance was quite high. The battle graphics were quite nice, with detailed hand drawn sprites. Some palette swapping occurred but not too much. The spells were adequate, though nothing really spectacular. Undoubtedly the best battle effects came with Meis' summon spells. These summon spells were quite nice without taking outrageous amounts of time (FF8). The town graphics were similar to XenoGears (fully rotatable and polygonal). However, the dungeon graphics looked the same but could not rotate. This was rather annoying at times. Also, sometimes in caves and such, the environment was too dark, making it hard to see passages and other important aspects of the dungeon. Generally the graphics in the game are quite good. The anime is only matched by Xenogears and Lunar SSSC, however there are some annoying aspects about the graphics in dungeons.

When I heard the beautiful opening theme (left in its original Japanese), I was expecting a wonderful soundtrack. However, though there are some nice tunes in Thousand Arms, the majority of the soundtrack is utterly mediocre and totally forgettable. What boosts the sound score up is the amazing voice acting found in TA. The voice of the emperor is absolutely unforgettable, especially when he says "darkness". All of the other voices in the game are extremely well done and convey a lot of emotion. There is 12 hours of recorded dialogue, so as you can imagine, the quality of the voice acting is very important. Only Lunar has surpassed TA in this area. To summarize, the music is, for the most part, bland and mediocre, but the voice acting is fantastic.

The storyline in TA is really a mixed bag. There are some great aspects and some pathetic ones. You start the game as Meis Triumph, a carefree playboy from a noble family of spirit blacksmiths. When Meis' hometown is invaded by a mechanical army called the Dark Acolytes, he is displaced from his land. He wanders along a country road leading to the city of Boyzby. Soon Meis hears a scream of a girl; naturally being the hero and playboy he is, he rescues her. This girl is Sodina and she is the main heroine of the story. Soon, Meis apprentices as a spirit blacksmith under her brother Jyabil. I won't give away any more, but the general premise of the story is fighting the evil empire and dark acolytes, building your power as a spirit blacksmith, and getting girls!!! While the story is pretty cliché it is still quite interesting because of the good translation by Atlus, the humor, and the likable characters. The dialogue is quite funny with many sexual innuendoes. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a Working Designs translation.

While characters like Meis and Sodina are well developed other characters like Soushi and Nelsha don't get nearly enough attention. The game is too short (25-30 hours) and unlike in Lunar, some of the characters just don't matter that much to you. There is a little bit of character development in the dating sequences but it isn't enough. A huge complaint I have about the storyline is the downright piece of trash this game tries to pass off as an ending. After having so much voice dialogue and anime scenes, you'd think they could piece together a decent ending, but nooooo! The ending is way to short and leaves way, way too many questions unanswered. I would much rather have had a few less cutscenes during the game and instead have them devoted to the ending. After seeing endings like FF8's and Xenogears' this kind of ending is simply unacceptable. All things said, the story's good translation and humor make it interesting, but the poor supporting character development and a downright pathetic ending will leave you with a bitter taste that you just can't shake. Ultimately TA's story had a lot of potential but several bad areas make it generally mediocre.

Gameplay is TA's weakest area. The battle system is my major complaint; although it is innovative, it ultimately fails to deliver. Here is a general summary of the battle system: you can have three people in your party at a time, one front row and two back row members. The front row can do everything you'd expect (i.e. attack, defend, magic, special skills, etc.). The weakness, however, lies in the handling of the back row. Members in the backrow can only use support magic (i.e. heal, speed up, attack up, etc.), items and an option called "standby". When one chooses standby, every so often one of the backrow characters will cheer on the front row, or taunt the enemy. Cheering gives you various status bonuses varying, depending on the character cheering; whereas taunting induces negative effects on the enemy, also varying with the character. The enemies' formation works the same way, so it is always a one on one fight. When you kill the enemy in the front line, an enemy from the back replaces him. For the most part you will find yourself using Meis almost 100% of the time (I used Muza some later in the game).

There is one aspect of the gameplay, however, which is very innovative and fun. That is the dating system. Essentially you date a girl (There are nine different ones to date), and she asks you a series of questions. Depending on how you answer the questions your intimacy level with that girl goes up or down. When your intimacy level goes up you can forge your weapons and gain new abilities and increase your stats. This aspect of the game is very fun and saves the gameplay from being totally crappy. With a battle system like TA's, the gameplay really suffers, even the innovative and fun dating system can't make up for this major of a flaw.

In conclusion, Thousand Arms was a game with incredible potential but it delivered disappointment. The graphics, voice acting and dating system were good, but the battle system, poor supporting character development and horrendous ending ultimately result in this game's feel of general mediocrity. Though I enjoyed this game for the most part, it was quite disappointing. I recommend it only if you are willing to put up with some serious flaws.