Well, look at that, I can't have a more complete opposite opinion to NeoElfBoy! The new WAs, while look prettier, lost a lot of its charm and atmosphere I love about old WAs, because now they just have generic anime graphic! Battle design is one of the least "well known" things amongst the many standout features from Wild ARMs series imho such as the music, the puzzles aspect with tools, the map searching, the western atmosphere and even the funny way they handle running! In fact I'm of the opinion that its recent adventurous battle design is one of the things that killed the series (although the overall downtrend in JRPG is probably the main reason we don't have WA6 yet)
If you can't stand "genericness" and "ugliness" (remember this was a pre-FF7 3D-rendered RPG, so pardon the graphics), then you may consider skipping it, but you'll miss out on a great plot and great characters (plus awesome music!)
For me, the original Wild ARMs can be considered as one of 'em classics. And yes, this is not strictly nostalgia speaking. I played WA2/3 before WA, and I may put WA2 above WA every other days depending on how I feel. The game is just minimalist in a great way!
9/10
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