Single Player Magic

In its single-player game, Enchanted Arms™ takes linear storytelling and combines it with turn-based combat to create an entertaining, challenging, and fast-paced game that will work both hemispheres of your brain. The game itself does an excellent job of training you so that you understand the basics of how to succeed in this world. In this article you can go beyond the game's training with more advanced tips.

The Ice Queen doesn't suffer fools lightly.

Living the Story
The developers of Enchanted Arms put their hearts into making a story that will keep you enthralled from beginning to end. You will learn important clues in the beautiful cut scenes, so pay attention to each one. However, because you won't necessarily want to watch the cut scenes a second time, make sure you save the game after each one, particularly the long ones.

Live the story as Atsuma. Go with it. Don't short change yourself. Talk to people. Whenever you find yourself in a free-roaming zone, take the time to wander about and start up conversations with the NPCs. Many of them will have tidbits of information that will enrich your experience in this magical game world.

Use the Recharge Stations you come across wisely.
Return to them if you can before heading out
into the open countryside. Climb Every Mountain.

Follow every path. There aren't many free-roam areas, usually you're restricted to the specific path you're on, but from time to time you'll come across a side path or a ladder to a supplemental area of the dungeon. Don't skip them. They'll often hold treasure of some sort.

Watch for piles of glowing crates and barrels. As you'll learn early in the game, you can break these apart, and they will frequently contain important items. After the early stages of this game, it is easy to forget to keep this up. The crates and barrels will always be there, however, so keep your eyes open for them.

The wide, wonderful world of Enchanted Arms

Check Your VP
The combat in Enchanted Arms is turn-based. Within your turn, each of your characters takes their turn in the order you determine. Whenever a character takes a turn, he uses up one Vitality Point (VP). When your character uses up all his VP, he can no longer take any action. Therefore, it is very important to keep an eye on the VP of your characters. Otherwise, you could end up taking someone into combat who could prove almost completely useless.

Between battles, when you notice that one of your characters has no VP, you should switch him out. For this reason, it is always useful to have a few golems to use as alternates for your regular fighting line-up.

Fortunately, the game is very forgiving and allows
you to run from overwhelming battles and save as
often as you like.

Attend To Your Upkeep
Periodically, you'll come across Recharge Stations. The game explains how they work when you first encounter one. What it doesn't explain, however, is that you can't find them everywhere. Generally, they're only in urban or well-populated areas. You will often wind up isolated in the boonies without any way of recharging your VP other than letting time pass.

If half your lineup is down with VP deficiency, the next time you face off against a handful of werewolves, you'll be hurting. Return to a Recharge Stations if you can before heading out into the open countryside. It may be inconvenient, but the choice is yours. Always remember where the nearest Recharge Station is so you can return to it if things get too hairy.

Go Shopping
Almost as rare as the Recharge Stations, Shops appear as floating purple diamonds. Inside them you can buy and sell items, and make golems and weapons. Many weapons have very useful features, like returning hit points with each attack, or automatically resurrecting a fallen character. Make sure to stock up on golems as well, as backup for when you run low on VP.

Thoroughness always pays off.

Golem Construction
The most interesting thing to do at the Shop is build golems. You need to gather all the appropriate materials before you can build a golem, but they play an important support role for you in battle. They help fill the ranks of your team, and they can level up along with you. Accordingly, start building golems as soon as you can.

It is easy to get distracted by the storyline in Enchanted Arms and forget to focus on combat. If you get so engrossed in the story that you forget to buff your characters or create a golem support structure, you can find your forward progress stopped cold.

Fortunately, the game is very forgiving and allows you to run from overwhelming battles and save as often as you like. Saving will protect you from your own mistakes, so get in the habit of saving after each visit to either the Recharge Station or the Shop. Your characters will thank you.

Article by Angel Leigh McCoy