Thousand Arms

by Atlus

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001ZUHJ
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 13, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,464 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

GameSpot Review

Thousand Arms is the story of Meis Triumph, scion of the venerable Triumph clan - overlords of the town of Kant and spirit blacksmiths for seven generations. One day, the dark acolytes attack the slumbering village, and Meis is thrown out of his ancestral home. Barely reaching the capital city, Boyzby, he meets Sodina, a young girl whose brother, Jyabil, happens to be a master spirit blacksmith. Jyabil takes Meis as an apprentice, but the Dark Acolytes have their sights set on Boyzby as well... thus, the story unfolds.

Thousand Arms is an RPG, and it's got all the standard trappings of one - if you've played any game in the genre, Thousand Arms should be immediately accessible. Red Company, the developer, has been at this for years, spawning many immensely popular titles - Sega's Sakura Wars, for example - that unfortunately haven't been released in the United States. The company's expertise shows; nothing seems awkward or out of place, and it all flows.

What makes Thousand Arms unique is the master system, in which you use your powers as a spirit blacksmith to reforge your party's weapons, adding power and spells to them. Where do you draw this mystical power from? Being a spirit blacksmith is tough; in addition to the master points you use to reshape the metal, you'll need the support of a girl to achieve your results. That's where the dating elements of this game come in.

Now, dating games have not historically been well received in the US. That's not exactly true; they've never really had the opportunity. Talk to a random sampling of people and you'll either hear derisive snickers or fanatical devotion. Either extreme is pretty silly - dating scenes might sound like the last refuge of the socially inept, but they're just a lighthearted aside to the game's main thrust: the tried-and-true RPG quest. They offer a welcome breather from saving the world. The format is this: Sodina, or whoever, will pose a question to Meis, and you must pick one of two options as an answer. Obviously, the aim is to please her. If the date goes well, your intimacy factor grows by a point, and your blacksmithing ability is thereby increased as well. In addition to normal "dates," you can play minigames that boost your statistics with a girl. Sodina's cooking attack basically plays like that old Simon smack-the-colored-lights game. Additionally, each town has a shop in which you can buy presents for girls, although the best presents are hidden in deep corners of dungeons.

The graphics are simply excellent. Everything is polygonal, except for your characters, which are sprites. This holds true in the battles, as well. The level of artistry is quite high - the houses in the towns are littered with sundry items and decoration, and the texture maps are both detailed and varied. Your town/dungeon sprites are small, superdeformed, and generally humorous, but in battle you will be treated to full-size characters that look as though they stepped out of an anime cel. There's also a smattering of high-quality FMV, which is a mixture of computer-generated backgrounds and anime characters.

The game has a very humorous presentation and loads of cel artwork - any time a scene with any importance is about to happen, the camera swings around to a close-up shot of the characters in fully hand-drawn anime style. There is also a lot of extremely well-done voice acting in the game - Sodina and Meis, especially, are full of emotion, and they carry the weight of their lines extremely well. The dating scenes are extremely amusing, and a lot of it has to do with Sodina's reactions, which may vary from infatuation to disgust; it's always quite obvious how she feels.

One of the most important aspects of an RPG is the battle system; after all, you're going to be spending a lot of time with it. Thousand Arms' battles will feel familiar, but they are a little bizarre. It's easiest to compare them to other games: They have elements from Namco's LMB system (the Tales series) in that your characters are all flat anime characters on a 3D background. They're like Square's ATB system (Final Fantasy) because a real-time gauge governs the timing of attacks, and there's no action element. The strangest thing has to be that the front character (in both enemy and player parties) is the only one who can make any kind of offensive move, be it a physical attack or a spell. The only thing back-row characters can do is cast help spells and use items. Occasionally, they'll cheer you or taunt the enemies, marginally affecting stats. This might be the only game where those "spell in a bottle" items are extremely useful.

The game has a strong anime aesthetic - sometimes cute, sometimes wacky, and definitely attractive. The enemies are downright absurd and generally worth a laugh. The dialogue is too, though as is true of the genre, high drama can cut in at any moment. Atlus definitely has a great game on its hands here - the combination of solid RPG questing, graphics, dialogue, dubbing, and ambiance really push this game over the edge from standard to special. Game-playing anime fans will get a big kick out of it, and it's the first real example of a decent dating simulation in the US. Any RPG fans who like amusing situations, animated (in both senses of the word) characters, and challenging gameplay will enjoy this title. Fans of Lunar, especially, should check this one out. Because RPGs aren't that rare anymore, good ones stand out that much more. Hopefully, Thousand Arms won't be swept under in the fourth-quarter flood. --Christian Nutt
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thousand Arms is a must buy for Playstation owners., October 23, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Thousand Arms (Video Game)

Thousand Arms is in my opinion the best RPG to date on the Playstation console. It has a light spirit but a deep plot. This game is filled with subtle jokes. It will keep you and your friends playing for the entire weekend. (Forget about that homework!) Thousand Arms is not that difficult but it will certainly challenge in some areas.

The only complaint that I have about this game is the random battle system. Although almost every RPG has this I wish they would do something new. For example when in a certain dungeon while trying to explore one will keep on continually running into random monsters. This gets very repetetive.

The graphics are excelent with some of the best anime every seen on the playstation. This game actually has voice acting although Metal Gear Solid still beats it in this area. This is the only game I have seen on the Playstation where the graphics do not continually shimmer and a another small thing I noticed is that this is the first time a game has actaully done trees right!

All in all Thousand Arms is a great game for anyone!

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This Could Have Been A Perfect Game, But Oh The Battles!, November 11, 1999

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Thousand Arms (Video Game)

I liked the concept of a RPG dating Game. I bought it and was impressed with the way they incorporated the voice overs and just the sheer beauty of the game. But did they have to have so many random battles! I am a true RPG fan, but I have never ever encountered so many battles in a RPG game. It was very difficult to make thorough searches of dungeons without running into a fight every step or just standing too long in the same place. I was also turned around by the camera angles. I must have entered the same area a hundred times, because I was constantly being turned around in all directions. I hope that if a sequel is made, that Atlus heeds the voices of this and other gamer and cut back on the long, drawn-out and quite repetitive battles! This game could have scored a 10 if not for the above mentioned drawbacks.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Anime RPG Game with a Twist, October 2, 2001

By 

Anime Master (Tyler, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thousand Arms (Video Game)

Forget the standard Final Fantasystory line. In Thousand Arms you play as Mice Triumph a letcherous young man on a quest to regain his kingdom, and woo any young woman in his path. The game features the best voice overs in any game the Playstation has ever made and the graphics are a culmination of Lunar 2 and Final Fantasy VII. For anyone who wants to have a wonderful story in the tradition of anime, and laugh for hours at some of the funniest dialoge yet, then look no farther then Thousand Arms. Warning the game while not anymore violent then any of the Lunar games does contain quite a few sexual innuendos, partly spawning form the unique system of this game where you can go on dates with each girl and try to win her over. This game is suggested for an audience 13 and up.