Wild Arms 3 has undoubtedly its own unique style, thanks to the American Western setting but first and foremost to the peculiar engine developed by MediaVision. The problem is that not everybody can appreciate Wild Arms 3 visuals.
The engine is solid, with no drops in the framerate and no evident issues of any kind, but the developers opted (courageously, I must admit) for a style that looks way too naive when compared to the wonders seen on the system. The first time I started playing the game, my mind immediately went back to Final Fantasy VII. Unlike Final Fantasy VII, Wild Arms 3 makes use of fully 3D environments and thousands of polygons, yet the visual strength of the game is not superior to the one of a six-years old game.
At a first glance, the character models of Wild Arms 3 disappointed me. They seem built with few polygons, and the advanced cel-shading technique used doesn't help in adding life to their blocky bodies. Paying closer attention, one can notice all the little details put in the hair, facial animations, and the excellent body animations.
Character design is pretty good, even if I should mention that one of the main characters, Jet, is almost identical to the main hero of the Evergrace series, Yuterald - actually, it's so similar that I wonder if it's a pure coincidence. Other characters like the Native-American look-alike Gallows are far more interesting.
The environments are displayed from the classic 3D isometric perspective, very common in Japanese RPGs. If you played any game of the Grandia series, you know exactly how the dungeons of Wild Arms 3 look. This simple kind of camera is undeniably flawless, since it's impossible to feel lost when you have a top-down view of the environment, but it's lacking when it comes to involve the player into the game world, even if good lighting effects, and above the average textures spice things up a bit. Luckily, the battles are far more spectacular, with awesome light effects and a dynamic camera framing the chaotic action.
