In the fifth installment of the Wild Arms series, the player assumes the role of young Dean Stark and travels back in time to the spaghetti western planet of Filgaia. Dean is a young child with big plans for his future: he wants to become a hunter of golems, which are enormous, ancient machines initially constructed to help humans. Dean, his childhood best friend Rebecca Streisand, and Avril Vent Fleur, a mystery girl who falls from the sky, embark on an adventure together. Dean aims to fulfill his dream of becoming a golem hunter while assisting Avril to regain her memories.
Wild Arms 5 is a role-playing game played from the third-person perspective in which the player explores the world and engages in turn-based combat sequences with up to three people in their party at any given time. During a fight, the playing area is divided into seven hexagonal sections with unique abilities. Players can access various tools, including guardian animals, combo arts (which require teamwork), chain attacks, original assaults, and more. In a manner identical to the preceding game, they are determined by a force meter, which fills up whenever characters attack or are assaulted by other characters.
During the exploration mode, Dean and his group can either drive cars or run around on their own. Additionally, when exploring dungeons, there are two modes available: Action (jumps, slides, and interactivity) and Shooting (via ARMs, Dean can select from a variety of cartridges that can either destroy or manipulate the environment).
