Skies of Arcadia

The Good
Skies of Arcadia was developed by Overworks a Sega department with some of the Phantasy Star designers. It is the best rpg of the Dreamcast, and one of the best in general. Everyone assumed that Grandia II would be the killer app rpg for the Dreamcast. In the end however most agreed Skies of Arcadia was the better game.

Skies of Arcadia takes place in a world of floating islands, where the sky is like the sea. In Arcadia much lies uncharted. Civilizations vie for domination and Air Pirates roam the sky. There are two types of pirates on Arcadia, The Black Pirates, and The Blue Rogues. The Pirates are the scum of the sky, whilst the Rogues are the nobler of the two. For example they only rob Imperial Ships. You play Vyse the Blue Rogue, when he and his friend Aika discover a strange young woman being attacked by Imperials, they aid her. Thus begins their epic quest to stop the evils of the Old World from returning. Skies of Arcadia’s plot had me addicted, seriously. No rpg since Phantasy Star IV, had me this enthralled.

The Graphics were amazing. All the various cultures in Arcadia have a unique look. The characters were all well detailed. The spell and Special Moves all look spectacular. But the S. Moves out do the spells. Even Vyse’s level one move looks awesome. Traveling the skies looks sweet. With good view distance, and only scant pop-up. All the towns, dungeons, and ships are incredibly detailed both on the world map and in full size. And unlike many rpg’s every dungeon is a unique experience. You never feel as if you just did this dungeon. Seeing the new weapons in battle is a treat I found myself compulsively going after ever new weapon just to see it in battle!

The Gameplay is unique in many ways. As I mentioned every single dungeon is unique. And unlike most rpg’s in Skies you start the game with an airship, instead of getting it at the end. There are also ship to ship battles which are some of the coolest segments of the entire game. You fire cannons and build up energy until you can unleash a super move that devastates the enemy! There are traditional character battles, which are made more interesting due to the S. Moves. However like most console rpgs they can get tedious. The boss battles are all good, fortunately.

The Sound and Music. First the sound all the weapon sounds, guns, swords, cannons, etc are convincing, the voice samples are poor, thankfully they are brief. The Music shines, more than making up for the questionable voices. Few rpg’s have a score this good, as few would I own, Skies of Arcadia is one of those few. I cannot think of a track in this game that I do not like.

The Bad
The voices are poor. The character battles can get tedious and feel drawn out. And the random encounter rate is way to high.

The Bottom Line
If you own a Dreamcast and haven’t played this one, you owe it to yourself to do so. Don’t miss one of the DC’s best games, and one of the best ever!

The Good
* Amazing graphics! The world is quite beautiful and all the graphic cut scenes for magic and special attacks are phenomenal!

• Moving story! You begin to really care about the characters, with a multitude of dialogue and interaction!

• Six different schools of magic, each representing one of the colors of the moonstones! Great variety of spells, plus an innovative way to gain magic abilities based on what color of magic you apply to your melee weapon in battle.

• Ship-to-ship battles! Not only do you fight in standard man-to-man fights ala Final Fantasy, you can take your ship and blow away another ship (or very large creature) using a fairly simple turn-based combat system.

• Very large enemies! It's intense to be taking on a creature the size of a skyscraper (the Gigas) in your tiny, but powerful ship.
  
  The Bad
  * Random encounters. It's very annoying to search an outdoor area or a dungeon when you keep getting caught in a battle. Sure, it's fun at first, but after a while it gets old and tired real fast.

• Rough linearity. Although the world is laid out so that you theoretically could explore whatever area you want, you can't reach certain areas until you plow through the main plot points, thereby hurting the freedom that an RPG could bring. You have to obtain the moonstones in a pre-set order, rather than choosing which one you could go after.

• Pre-set save points. You constantly worry how much farther it is to the next save point in a dungeon. At least you could save at any time while you're in your ship.
  
  The Bottom Line
  You take on the role of Vyse, an air pirate who is struggling against the Valuan Empire with his friend Aika, as well as his father. Vyse rescues an enigmatic girl named Fina from the clutches of the Valuans. In time, he learns that she came to Arcadia from a floating space station built by a long lost Silver Civilization. Her charge was to collect six color-coded moonstones that had the power to revitalize the Gigas, golem-like creatures left by the elitist Silvites to destroy the world if they felt that the world was too unfit to exist. A member of the Valuans, Galcian, is in league with Fina's traitor Silvite brother, Ramirez, to capture the moonstones and revive the Gigas in order to control the world. Throughout his adventures, Vyse meets a conglomerate of characters who join up with him in his battles, including LOTS of NPCs. Lots of spells and items, standard level gaining and ship-to-ship battles! At the end, the party must fight Galcian, Ramirez and the Super Giga Zelos in a battle royale!

Overall, an excellent RPG with only minor flaws; probably one of the best games on Dreamcast!