As one of the last games on the Dreamcast, which was SEGA’s last real contribution to the console market before they just gave up in general, Skies of Arcadia is certainly a lost gem in its own regard.
For a game like this you sorta have to wonder how this even managed to string up a cult following when it was pretty much set to fade into history around the time real JRPG heavy hitters started rolling around the corner. And on a surface level, Skies of Arcadia really doesn’t have much to offer against the lot in terms of doing something really “unique” or “boundary pushing”, especially in terms of its story. Many of its plot points were obviously taken right from Final Fantasy 7; Valua is a dead ringer for Midgar, Fina and Ramirez are akin to Aerith and Sephiroth, you fight kaiju-sized personified weapons tied to an ancient civilization in this world, and Moon Stones might as well have just been called Materia.
It might even be a stretch to call a JRPG taking inspiration from the biggest game changer in the genre of the time a mere “rip-off” when in reality it’s taking these elements to provide a sort of alternative to what was available. In that sense, it’s almost like a response to FF7 and the impact it would leave on JRPGs trying to recapture or play into its existential and melodramatic pathos. Skies of Arcadia stands firmly against this wave of JRPGs by just being a simple, soul filled adventurous experience of a straightforwardly charming good dude who just wants to do good as a pirate.
While the Legends port (remaster?) fixes and adds a bunch of things to make the game feel more expansive and “complete”, I still think there needs to be more ironing out for the gameplay. Like many turn-based RPGs Skies of Arcadia falls into the unfortunate archaic trappings of battles feeling too slow which isn’t helped by the random encounters. The real culprit here comes with the ship battles, which while really fun on paper, definitely feels too sluggish and drawn out to really feel engaging after a while. You just hold out against your enemy long enough until you see the option to just blast your special cannon which usually instakills everything. There’s no real tension in combat up until the last stretch where the game really tries to get you on your toes. The actual mechanics for regular combat are a bit lopsided in how they’re designed, like adding an entire new layer to combat on enemies having elemental color weaknesses and changing your weapon’s color to abuse that is weird, but when it works it becomes worthwhile. I also like how Magic is still its own system with its own energy to use independently from Special Moves which only requires a shared meter that the entire party charges and uses to perform what’s basically just Limit Breaks.
But I think the real appeal that the developers intended for this game is the exploration. A lot of it feels condensed by modern day standards but for a DreamCast/Gamecube title the world design for flying your ship in is still great. It really drives home the grand sense of adventure as throughout the course of the game you upgrade your ship to get pass areas you weren’t able to before, creating shortcuts from one part of the map to the other, and even completely negate random encounters by flying high on top of the map or below it.
Gotta give props to the music tho. Gamecube port basically butchers the audio through decompression but it’s not enough to flush out how great the sound can still be, especially during boss battles where the boss theme dynamically changes rhythm and melody depending if you’re close to winning or losing the fight. It’s a really simple thing to do but it’s so damn effective especially during times when you finally prevail against the heavy hitters.
While this game would realistically never get a sequel I still liked to see it getting a new modernized port on something like the Switch with all the QoL features emulation helped provide to make this a smoother experience. Ideally, a remake would be better for overhauling the gameplay to re-balance the combat and maybe even fix up the over-world more. Other than that, unless you can fork over 100 dollars for a physical copy for your Gamecube, this is stuck in Emulation Hell.
For a game like this you sorta have to wonder how this even managed to string up a cult following when it was pretty much set to fade into history around the time real JRPG heavy hitters started rolling around the corner. And on a surface level, Skies of Arcadia really doesn’t have much to offer against the lot in terms of doing something really “unique” or “boundary pushing”, especially in terms of its story. Many of its plot points were obviously taken right from Final Fantasy 7; Valua is a dead ringer for Midgar, Fina and Ramirez are akin to Aerith and Sephiroth, you fight kaiju-sized personified weapons tied to an ancient civilization in this world, and Moon Stones might as well have just been called Materia.
It might even be a stretch to call a JRPG taking inspiration from the biggest game changer in the genre of the time a mere “rip-off” when in reality it’s taking these elements to provide a sort of alternative to what was available. In that sense, it’s almost like a response to FF7 and the impact it would leave on JRPGs trying to recapture or play into its existential and melodramatic pathos. Skies of Arcadia stands firmly against this wave of JRPGs by just being a simple, soul filled adventurous experience of a straightforwardly charming good dude who just wants to do good as a pirate.
While the Legends port (remaster?) fixes and adds a bunch of things to make the game feel more expansive and “complete”, I still think there needs to be more ironing out for the gameplay. Like many turn-based RPGs Skies of Arcadia falls into the unfortunate archaic trappings of battles feeling too slow which isn’t helped by the random encounters. The real culprit here comes with the ship battles, which while really fun on paper, definitely feels too sluggish and drawn out to really feel engaging after a while. You just hold out against your enemy long enough until you see the option to just blast your special cannon which usually instakills everything. There’s no real tension in combat up until the last stretch where the game really tries to get you on your toes. The actual mechanics for regular combat are a bit lopsided in how they’re designed, like adding an entire new layer to combat on enemies having elemental color weaknesses and changing your weapon’s color to abuse that is weird, but when it works it becomes worthwhile. I also like how Magic is still its own system with its own energy to use independently from Special Moves which only requires a shared meter that the entire party charges and uses to perform what’s basically just Limit Breaks.
But I think the real appeal that the developers intended for this game is the exploration. A lot of it feels condensed by modern day standards but for a DreamCast/Gamecube title the world design for flying your ship in is still great. It really drives home the grand sense of adventure as throughout the course of the game you upgrade your ship to get pass areas you weren’t able to before, creating shortcuts from one part of the map to the other, and even completely negate random encounters by flying high on top of the map or below it.
Gotta give props to the music tho. Gamecube port basically butchers the audio through decompression but it’s not enough to flush out how great the sound can still be, especially during boss battles where the boss theme dynamically changes rhythm and melody depending if you’re close to winning or losing the fight. It’s a really simple thing to do but it’s so damn effective especially during times when you finally prevail against the heavy hitters.
While this game would realistically never get a sequel I still liked to see it getting a new modernized port on something like the Switch with all the QoL features emulation helped provide to make this a smoother experience. Ideally, a remake would be better for overhauling the gameplay to re-balance the combat and maybe even fix up the over-world more. Other than that, unless you can fork over 100 dollars for a physical copy for your Gamecube, this is stuck in Emulation Hell.
Deathix
1 year ago