One of many RPGs released on the Playstation in the late '90s, Thousand Arms was relatively novel for the time in that it's also something of a dating sim - you build relationships with several women over the course of the game through dialog choices and minigames, which in turn boosts your ability to forge stronger weapons and unlock spells. The presentation is surprisingly polished for the time as well, transitioning between chibi-style sprites and larger anime-styled animated characters for scenes of dialog (complete with voiceover!). That said, the rest of the gameplay is rather pedestrian, with a simplistic combat system with one active character and up to two others who mostly support the point character by weakening enemies or bolstering their abilities, and some rather generic dungeons and minigames to fill out the rest of the time. It's not hard to see why the game has a small but loyal following - after all, it arguably inspired the social sim element of the later Persona games - but it's a bit too simplistic to hold my attention.
Developer: TOSE/RED Entertainment
Publisher: Atlus
Released: 1999
Platforms: PlayStation