Skies of Arcadia

A true masterpiece within the roleplaying genre! Is the only way to describe this game. A game where the only rival it had was the Final Fantasy series and unfortunately got overshadowed by the Square-Enix giant yet don't lose faith in this forever battling underdog.

Before I start my review of the game I would first like to state my personal experience with the game, which will also give you a hint of what type of game it is. My eyes first graced upon this game through the glossy pages of PC gamer, ironically a review stating and slating that this game wasn't worth the money and set it at a mere 30% out of 100%. Being a rebel I decided to purchase SoA and try it for myself, only to go ahead and complete it a further twenty four times within the two year period of owning it, of course this was before the collapse of Dreamcast and being greeted by the breeze block known as the xbox. So I got rid of the game and console only to gain withdrawal symptoms two years later. I bought it back and even now I still play the game, a game released back in 2000 and eight years on still playing.

Overview:

The general concept of this game must come from the Japanese purely due to the fact they are the only ones crazy enough to think and dream of pirate ships flying in the air like they used to do on the sea. Yes flying pirates, gun battles while thousands of feet in the air and floating islands, all surrounded by strange and hostile creatures.

You follow the adventures of Vyse, son of the captain of the pirate rebels, The Blue Rogue. A band of pirates that seem to have training from the medieval legend, Robin Hood as they steal from the rich Valuan Empire and share their loot amongst their villagers, all the while exploring and searching for Moonstones. Moonstones play a major part within Skies of Arcadia as they fuel the ships to sail the skies amongst other things such as powering weapons to give an extra effect, for example: wielding a red moonstone will give you the effect of fire, damaging any creature that wields the effect of earth or green moonstone.

Along your adventures, you will meet many strange and wild characters, some you can later recruit as your crew members and others that will join your team party. Each team party will come in handy as you explore deeper in the game, so levelling up wisely will give you a big advantage.

The graphics aren't anything to shout about, however for a 2000 game these are the best graphics you are going to get, especially when you compare the game to the likes of Grandia II and other such games.

Gameplay:

Skies of Arcadia uses a turn based battle system, a simple one at that yet even simplicity can lead to problems especially if you are ill-prepared or caught off guard. In battles you are allowed a maximum of four in a team and you can't switch between extra characters, again choosing wisely how you level comes in handy. Add to this the moonstone magic system and battles can somewhat take an interesting turn as moonstone magic can be casted normally. This I will go into more detail below.

Magic:

Magic takes on several forms, firstly you have elemental properties as explained above where your weapon will take on an element to face certain enemies. Secondly, it comes in the form of magic spells, such as green/earth will allow you to cast Noxi, which will poison an enemy. Depending on which colour you choose for a character, they will gain experience within that school of magic and so will your team mates, giving you experience within four schools at one time. However they will each learn the spells individually meaning if Vyse has Noxi and then learns Noxus, Aika will have to learn Noxi and then Noxus herself.

Special attacks:

Of course the game uses special attacks and a spirit point system, which is more or less the special attack points built up over the rounds of a battle and shared between the four team mates. Moonberries are scattered across the lands and used to learn these special attacks, which I believe each team mate has between five or six. Each getting stronger and requiring more berries everytime. The decision to use them on a character is entirely up to you, allowing you to maximise a character at an early stage or to equally level them as you go depending on how you play the game. Some attacks are good and others are useless, which ones are for you to decide.

One character has a "living weapon", it is basically a guardian of sorts and can be levelled whereas the rest of the character's weapons can be bought, sold or found. This one works on being "fed" to level up by finding chams. The makers of the game have cleverly used the Dreamcast's VMU as a metal detector or to be correct, a cham detector. When you are close to a cham since they aren't visible, the VMU will start beeping, the beeps will get faster the close r you get. On the subject of the VMU, later on in the game you can get a mini-game named Pinta's Quest. This serves as method of gaining loot and experience as well as moonberries and possibly a cham if you are lucky.

Controls:

No quarrels over these as they suit the dreamcast controller splendidly.

Roleplay Experience:

Skies of Arcadia takes everything on board when after a roleplay experience. With a turn based battle system, customisable ship, magic, eccentric characters and a vast amount of sky that is opened up to you as you progress. Not to mention boss battles every step of the way and gallivanting across the skies to explore dangerous areas to plunder their loot. You indeed take the role of a pirate aching for adventure and the characters you control throughout the game give you this impression and immersion.

Overall:

If you are bored of the new style RPG's or bored of Final Fantasy and want a similar game then Skies of Arcadia is that game. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and still do and certainly haven't regretted not listening to the magazine review. I am not saying dismiss those type of reviews but it does make you think about pro-reviewers and personally I would rather read a user-review and listen to their advice than read a pro-review.

So dust off that dreamcast or search for the Gamecube version of this game because if you are one of those that hasn't given this underdog a chance to shine then you have seriously missed out upon an excellent RPG