Perhaps the largest system is the class system. Nothing as bad as, say, most Idea Factory games, but bad enough. Some of it is fun, but there’s a lot of micro-management involved. The majority of time in non-combat scenarios in XF is taken up by navigating menus. The systems are actually fairly intuitive once you get a feel for them, but they can be confusing to start. Just as the plot seems overly complicated, the gameplay can also be daunting to a first-time player. Like many other SRPGs you can also recruit generic mercenaries to fight alongside you in battle. There are several other NPCs crucial to the plot, as well as other spoiler-y companions who join along the way, but these are the core protagonists. The main protagonists are Clarissa and Felius a magician named Labyrinthia Wordsworth who was Alexia’s personal tutor a young boy and heir to the noble House Brenton named Levin Brenton a mercenary who wishes to destroy Elesius for its crimes against humanity named Ragnar Blitz Lebrett and Labyrinthia’s companion animal Tony, a white dog. The group she forms is called Chevalet Blanc. One thing leads to another as she adopts Alexia’s identity and becomes the leader of a movement to overthrow the kingdom from its current rulers, the corrupt Council of Elder Statesmen.
That’s because upon arriving in Elesius it’s revealed that Clarissa is a dead ringer for the purportedly dead princess Alexia. What could have been a straightforward MacGuffin hunt becomes instead a dense and complicated political conflict. Essentially, you place Clarissa Arwin, a girl who travels to the kingdom of Elesius with her adopted brother Felius to retrieve her mother’s sword from a ruthless drifter, Rupert. The plot is convoluted in a way that only strategy RPGs seem to be able to pull off.
Not a bad thing in itself, but a weird way for the series to peter out, with a game that doesn’t even have the feel of its predecessors. It’s a fantasy game with a few Wild West looking settings, not a fantasy/Wild West/sci-fi/steampunk/desertpunk mishmash as every other game has been. Despite all that, though, its connection to the rest of the series feels tangential. Its soundtrack even has a few songs lifted near-directly from the classic games.
XF‘s place in the Wild Arms canon is undeniable in some ways: You get basic things like heal berries, Gella, and revive fruit, plus more all-encompassing things like Guardians, a Filgaia once again on the verge of ecological collapse, and villains striving to wield technologically advanced weaponry. XF contains all the hallmarks of its genre with a fair share of unique quirks, some of which serve in its favor and some of which get in its way. Though it’s the first non-turn-based entry, the jump to SRPG could have been anticipated by the light SRPG elements in the last two games. Wild Arms XF (“Crossfire”) is a competent and interesting strategy RPG.