FromSoftware - Enchanted Arms (2006)

 

Composer: Yuki Ichiki, Tsukasa Saitou, Ayako Minami, Shouhei Tsuchiya, Daisuke Matsumoto, SiZK
Console: PS3, Xbox 360
Game Release Date: 2006-01-12
Soundtrack Release Date: 2006-02-22 (as [eM] -eNCHANT arM- Original Soundtrack)
Runtime: 1:12:37, 42 Tracks

There is a running joke amongst my friends that I will play ever single FromSoftware game before I ever get to Demon's Soul's. Well I only figured out this was even a FromSoftware game until I was several hours into it. I tend to do other stuff while the game loads up so I never saw the logo. Regardless, that joke remains true for now. 

I originally picked up this game in 2017 when I bought a refurbished Xbox 360. The store had a bunch of random X360 games for sale and I picked this one for about 10 bucks. 

Enchanted Arms is a grid-based JRPG with monster collecting influences. The story follows Atsuma, a student in a magic academy and a revolving cast of characters. While attending a festival with his friends Makoto and Toya, the entire city is destroyed by an earthquake. The trio make there way back to the academy and find a being called the Queen of Ice has appeared and begun freezing everything. She easily beats the 3 and Atsuma goes into a bloodlust mode and blacks out, his arm transforming into something. When he awakes it is up to him to stop the Ice Queen by whatever means necessary. As the story progresses the Ice Queen begins attacking other major population centres slowly destroying the world. In typical RPG fashion there are also tons of subplots and side-stories. Taking the down Ice Queen does take a back seat often. A trait in RPGs I quite like. It helps flesh out the world a lot.

In the game you get a few major allies and as many monster allies as you want. It has been a few years since I touched the game so I can't recall exactly how you do it but I remember it wasn't the SMT/Persona system where you just talk to them. After obtaining a new ally you have full access to whatever spells and abilities they have. While recruitment isn't the system is comparible to the Last Bible SMT series wherein any monster (including some bosses) can join the party with a bit of convicing. This allows you to build a fully dynamic party with whatever alignments and stats you want. Combat is done on a 3 by 4 grid. Enemies have abilities that can only hit certain squares on the grid and some places may be safe. This means a whole tactical element is done  and the placement of your allies matters a lot. 

I originally started playing this game in 2019 alongside a bunch of other Xbox 360 and PS3 games I had lying around like Hunted: The Demon's Forge and Bioshock 1. After beating  Bioshock 1 and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time I just sort of stopped playing Xbox and the run was abandoned. September 2019 was a mess for me and a lot of runs I had going were cancelled or abandoned (10+ games, I needed to consolidate everything).  I had tried a few times after that to bring it back but was never successful. Then the pandemic happened and all console gaming pretty much stopped for me. I have been following the development of Xenia in hopes that I could one day emulate it but the game still does not run. I have only sort of started to get back into consoles as a few weeks ago finally resuming my run of Hunted: The Demon's Forge. The game was really time consuming and I also didn't have the time to continue a massive RPG like that. It takes me a long time to beat games, RPGs even more so. Case in point last years Nemuru Mayu took 7 months give or take, Magical Starsign took 8 months, Last Bible took well over a year (post coming soon!) and so on. 

Other highlights from my run including blitzing through the London City tournament, recruiting a pizza mascot enemy and bringing him far in the run and recuriting as many tough enemies as I can. The London City tournament was so easy. I got so far I must have cleared well over 3/4s of the matches. And that was when I entered London City. 

Aside from one boss (can't remember who, huge dragon dude you revive) I didn't find the game terribly difficult. That boss was total crap and you get softlocked when the fight starts. Had I not been able to beat him I likely would have abandoned the run totally. In my run I was in the desert just after completing the oasis city area story. I had found the difficulty started to ramp up, being another reason why I stopped. Despite all this I still enjoyed the game a lot and I will complete it eventually. Just not anytime soon. 

The soundtrack was officially released through Rhythm Zone in 2006, Japan exclusive. It was released under the title "[eM] -eNCHANT arM- Original Soundtrack". The composers were Yuki Ichiki, Tsukasa Saitou, Ayako Minami, Shouhei Tsuchiya, Daisuke Matsumoto. Guest composer SiZK also appears here only in the first track.  

Since that rip has become rare and afaik not avaiable anywhere I'll post it for now. There are two things to note in this rip. The quality is 192kbps MP3 and to make it easier to sort in my library I changed the artist ID3 tag from Various Artists to From Software. That's what I usually do with V/A releases anyways. I don't need my library clogged up with tons of albums by "Various Artists". 

Download: aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvMkJZeHphWkojLUlVV3RPVEt4NnJiOU5xYTBpd2RRd2hoTjR3REx5R0UzSjBZWkhSdktPRQ
p@ss: cursedarm