Wild Arms - Development

Development

Wild Arms was developed by Japanese software company Media.Vision and Sony's internal development studio Contrail and initially released in Japan in late 1996. New to the role-playing video game market, Media.Vision had previously released the "run and gun"-styled shooter game Rapid Reload for the PlayStation a year before Wild Arms. Under the direction of producer Takashi Fukushima and game designer Akifumi Kaneko, Wild Arms was developed to be a traditional role-playing video game that would incorporate an American Old West theme with anime-styled story elements and action sequences. Character designer Yoshihiko Ito was responsible for all major character designs.

First appearing as a video demo on the promotional PlayStation Jampack vol. 1 in January 1997, the full English version of Wild Arms was made available three months later in March 1997 by Sony Computer Entertainment America. Being released just before the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) updated their video game ratings system, the game thus received two separate North American ratings: first, "Kids to Adults" (K-A), and later "Everyone" (E) for copies released after January 1, 1998, though both versions contained the same software and catalog number. Wild Arms was later translated to both French and German for its release in the PAL region in late 1998, published by Sony Computer Entertainment's European division. Wild Arms features an opening sequence by Japanese animation studio Madhouse, with accompanying music by game composer Michiko Naruke titled "Into the Wilderness". The song was arranged by Kazuhiko Toyama and features melancholy whistling by Naoki Takao.