Thousand Arms

About Thousand Arms

Thousand Arms (1998) is a steampunk RPG crossed with a dating sim, in which a womanising Spirit Blacksmith powers up magical weapons by dating the women he meets.

Thousand Arms in Depth

On a steampunk world, the Dark Acolytes, a mysterious organisation of cyborgs and robots, are hunting the five legendary Sacred Flames and spreading chaos. Meis Triumph, the stubborn, lazy 16-year-old heir to a family of Spirit Blacksmiths who learned womanising from his father, is driven from his comfortable home and chosen by the spirits of the Ancient Blacksmiths to find the flames first. His gift is reforging weapons to make them stronger and give them spells and special attacks, but to raise their power he needs a woman's help, increasing his intimacy level with her by going on dates.

His companions include Sodina, a brave 15-year-old whose Spirit Blacksmith brother was killed by the Acolytes and who is often enraged by Meis's lechery; Muza, a big, brave but dim knight who freezes around pretty girls; Wyna, the fight-loving daughter of the King of the Pirates, whose eyepatch is just for effect; Nelsha, a shy aspiring Dress Master whose personality and combat form change with her outfits; Kyleen, a cynical thief; and Soushi, a proud samurai in a pink kimono who first clashes with Meis. Meis can also date women met on his travels, from an inventor living on a giant train to a priestess obsessed with cleanliness, and he can summon Elemental Beasts in battle. The villain is Medeus, the Dark Emperor, who turned his body into a machine to live long enough to find the flames and become a god.

Making Thousand Arms

TOSE developed it and Atlus published it for the PlayStation in 1998. It received favourable reviews: NextGen's Jeff Lundrigan said it "straddles the line between being an enjoyable time-waster and a thoroughly engrossing game – either way, you can't miss", and GameFan gave it universal acclaim a month before its US release. GameSpot's Christian Nutt likened it to Sakura Taisen and Lunar, praising how its "solid RPG questing, graphics, dialogue, dubbing, and ambiance really push this game over the edge from standard to special", and predicted that anime fans would "get a big kick out of it".