Thousand Arms

Combat in Thousand Arms is turn based, with up to three party members to be taken into battle at once. However, only the front character is actually able to physically attack the enemy. The other two characters serve in a supporting role, taunting the enemy and utilizing certain items or spells. The enemies have the same limitations.

If necessary, characters can be rotated out such that one of the support characters and the lead character exchange position. Since only one character can engage in direct combat with the enemy at a time, this tends to have the overall effect of slowing down combat when compared to games which allow all or most of the party to be fully involved.

The game takes place on a "steampunk" type of world. The Dark Acolytes, a mysterious organization of cyborgs and robots, is trying to find the five legendary Sacred Flames, and bring chaos to the World in the process. Meis, a womanizing "Spirit Blacksmith" with the ability to make magical weapons, finds himself chosen to find the flames before the Dark Acolytes do. However, to increase the power of his weapons, Meis must have the help of a woman, and must increase his 'intimacy level' with her by going out on dates. Along his journey, he meets a colorful cast of characters, including girls to date and allies to join his party.

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The game makes use of early CGI to provide limited 3D backgrounds. The character sprites are super deformed. More typical anime style pictures are used during conversations. Cutscenes are done in traditional animation.

The game's music was also released as a soundtrack, packaged alongside the game in some instance, or available for purchase by mail. The disc also included digital artwork, biographies, and character voice acting excerpts when explored on a personal computer. The soundtrack also contained J-pop musician Ayumi Hamasaki's fifth single Depend on You as its opening theme.

The game received favorable reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Jeff Lundrigan of NextGen said, "Well made if breezily consequential, Thousand Arms straddles the line between being an enjoyable time-waster and a thoroughly engrossing game – either way, you can't miss". In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 28 out of 40. Matt Van Stone of GameFan gave the game universal acclaim, over a month before it was released Stateside.

the combination of solid RPG questing, graphics, dialogue, dubbing, and ambiance really push this game over the edge from standard to special. Game-playing anime fans will get a big kick out of it, and it is the first real example of a decent dating simulation in the US. Any RPG fans who like amusing situations, animated (in both senses of the word) characters, and challenging gameplay will enjoy this title". Francesca Reyes of IGN said that the game "as a whole is a distinctly anime-type RPG, from its character designs to the visual style to the themes that it explores.