Tag Archives: Janus Cascade

Wild Arms 3 Part 49: Too Many Daddies

Can you feel the beat? Because today is April 10, Heart Day. My heart works hard everyday so I can move and work normally. My liver and kidneys also work hard each day too, but they don’t have days named after them… I’d like to give my personal thanks to these unsung organs.

Previously on Wild Arms 3: Well, technically last week we completed our last optional sidequest for this section of the game, but waaaay back in Part 42


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Clive had a good sit where he got to thinking about his old mentor…


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Who was very learned in Filgaia not-magic magic science…


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And got squished by a security system gone haywire.


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So Clive decided we were going to go see that ruin.


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(Back then)


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(The Present)

Now remember, taking a shortcut will lead you astray or something, so that event was hours and hours of gameplay ago. Four hours, actually, as I can compare screenshots from the older update. Oh! And the Wild Arms 3 clock is all wonky, too, so it was probably much longer. I have no idea why that timer only counts walkin’ around time.

Then again, I have two different playthroughs going here, so it is all very confusing. Point is that it has been a while since we participated in the mandatory plot!


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So now we fly!

… We wouldn’t be able to fly if we didn’t do all those sidequests for hours. See, Clive! It was helpful! It’s not like your professor/father-in-law is going to get any more dead.


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Being able to fly makes this quest a little easier…


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As the only directions we have are this “old, worn-out map”, and nailing that location is easier from the air.


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You can certainly reach these Ruins of Dreams…

Wild Arms 3 Part 38 Interlude: Art Appreciation

Did you think we were taking a week off just because Janus died? Nope! Gotta post something on January 23, Odd Number Day. Even though half of all the numbers in this world are odd, why are odd numbers called ‘odd?’ Is it implicating that half of everything in this world is odd?

Previously on Wild Arms 3: Chapter 2 complete!


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And now that all the major players have made their appearances…

Back in the day, I always loved strategy guides. It wasn’t just about knowing what was happening/going to happen in a game, it was also about the fact that strategy guides (and their general gaming magazine cousins) were about the only place you could get “official” art of videogame characters outside of a manual. And this was huge when your protagonist was a 16 x 16 block of smeared pixels! Do you know how many different ways I tried to interpret Celes Chere back in 1994? There was Amano art of her with pants! Did her sprite have pants? Could I see them on my chiclet-sized television? A strategy guide might help!

Now, Wild Arms 3 was released in 2002, and that was well past the point that one needed a magnifying glass and guide to figure out what was going on. In fact, as has been noted before, Wild Arms 3 has some extremely detailed and expressive models. However, it never hurts to see what was “intended” by the art department, so let’s take a quick look at some official Wild Arms 3 art.

(Unlike the rest of the LP, click on any of the images in this post for a larger view)


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As was the style of the time, our first decent introduction to our team is available in the manual. I appreciate that everyone looks happy, and even Jet seems to be having a good time. Also of note…

  • Jet’s age is listed as ????, which is never not a red flag for “mysterious past”
  • Gallows is 6’ 3” and 220 lbs. He might be the most jacked mage in all of JRPG history
  • Clive is 5’ 8”, and his gun is nearly as tall as he is
  • Virginia and Jet are the exact same height. There is something about that that I find adorable


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And our villains get a page, too. While the Prophets are clearly implied to be evil, Janus seems to be described as almost heroic. Maybe aspirational? Regardless, he definitely comes off as the bad guy who eventually joins the heroes… But, as we all know now, that is not the fate for this JRPG Janus.

Maya is not mentioned in the manual at all, and that is a crime.


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Anywho, that’s it for good stuff in the WA3 manual. Just going to also note that I am not convinced that there are actual screenshots in this manual, but some kind of simulated, labor-intensive art going on. Speaking as someone who has spent the last year taking “real” pictures of Wild Arms 3, these examples do not look actually possible…

Beyond the manual, there was a Wild Arms 3 strategy guide, but I never bought it, because Wild Arms 3 came out at exactly the point in time that I was a poor college student that had to decide between purchasing strategy guides or buffalo wings for the week… And there wasn’t a free website called buffalowingfaqs.com.


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There was some free official art released on the Wild Arms website, though.


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I have had this nonsense saved as part of my pictures screen saver for the last two decades.


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I have always loved this piece…

Wild Arms 3 Part 38: You Wouldn’t Download a Demon

Welcome to a farewell to Norse Mythology on today, January 16, Back Talk Day. It’s a day a wily stranger replied to an interrogator’s question, ‘Who are you!?’ He replied with a calm and gentle answer, ‘A stranger.’

Previously on Wild Arms 3: I am guardiansdamned tired of this tower! We beat Malik! Melody! Leehalt! Janus! We have single (eight) handedly defeated every damn villain we have ever seen in this game! Now there’s some damned rumbling upstairs, so we have to deal with that.


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Here we are in the room where Werner and Jet just inexplicably saved the world.


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Yeah, I have the same reaction to most computers.


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So we are getting out of there.


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Puzzles ahoy!


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You know this one from every JRPG/adventure game that has ever existed. Press a square and it switches color, but any adjacent squares change color, too. Obviously, you want to change all the colors over (to red, in this case), but it gets complicated when the “wrong” blocks keep flipping.


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Or it isn’t complicated at all…

Wild Arms 3 Part 37: For a Different World

We are back in the saddle here on January 9, the Day of Fallen Angels. The term fallen angel sounds very aesthetic, but I think angels that have lost their wings are no longer angels. My
grandpa always said flouting one’s former title is disliked even among the old folks.

Previously on Wild Arms 3: I want to say that will be the last we will see of Melody and Malik, but there are really good odds we are going to fight them again and again for the rest of the game. However, they have been defeated for the immediate moment, so at least we have those two behind us for the next few screenshots.


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And this picture features our good friend Leehalt.


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And our even better friend, Werner Maxwell.


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Apparently, Werner has revealed his whole deal is atoning for the past, so “standing in the way” of people that represent that past seems right up his alley.


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“You know it killed us the last time, right? That was a bad outcome.”


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Sidenote: with his gigantic collar and shadow-hat, we don’t usually get a good look at Werner’s face. His “shouting” portrait seems to be the only place we get to confirm the existence of a human face in there.


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What? I feel like that would be the kind of thing you should let your family know about.


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… See?


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This seems to be Werner’s turning point…