I like Wild ARMS but find the quality regresses as the series gets older.

WA1 is surprisingly good (the original not Alter Code F the remake) a huge world, plenty of secrets, all your characters were unique and likable. The plot is a little "by the book" but has enough twists and turns to make it feel original. Has a wonderful soundtrack (Rudy's theme is one of my all time favorites) Overall an exceptional game considering its age.

WA2 is has a larger cast and the story is quite original and deep (explores the theme of what it means to be a hero) gameplay suffers a bit though... Magic and summons have been retooled in a negative way... Your mage is useless and your summoner is ungodly powerful but he's also the most annoying character in the game. Your main character gets a special power thats comes close to breaking the gameplay and the ending is a little too touchy feely for my taste but eh . Other elements like the ARMs and Force abilities are refined even better in this game. Puzzles are fun but frustrating. Overall its a rather good sequel.

WA3 is where things start getting bad... The customization system is like a bland Junction/Materia system (You equip summons and the summons give you spells based on their elemental properties) and the ARMs and Force abilities were nerfed horriby. A few spells acquired early on allow you to break the game. The cast is generic the story is unintelligible and tries to connect itself to the first game but there are so many differences that these connections can only be thought of as homage rather than actual connections. WA3 tries to make alot of changes to a series that didn't need it.

I stopped playing after WA3 for obvious reasons, I especially hate how WA4 dropped the whole "Wild West theme" and made it even more generic. Alter Code F is a PS2 remake of WA1 but changes the games original system in favor of a slightly retolled WA3 system. Thus diminishing the quality of the game...