"If you lose sight of one dream, replace it with another."
Skies of Arcadia is all about how no suffering lasts forever and how we all have the strength to adapt and overcome anything as long as we're capable of finding it within ourselves - and it is so real for it.
It's rare for a game to focus so heavily on realizing there's more to life than being stuck in your old ways, but the amount of perspectives it uses to make that hit home combined with Vyse's optimism makes for such an uplifting journey.
Of course, it's not perfect - being a relatively old school JRPG means it has the issues you'd come to expect from them, in this case mainly a ludicrous encounter rate and some incredibly slow combat pacing due to it's wide variety of special move animations that can last pretty long.
The combat's relatively barebones and a bit confusing to get into, but despite turns taking a while it's relatively fast-paced in how long battles last once you've got the hang of it, so it's nothing too bad in my opinion. Random encounters last two turns at best, and bosses are creative enough to keep you on your toes so there's still a lot of fun to be had there.
But the cast is what really makes this game, as I've mentioned - beyond Vyse just being a fantastic protagonist, the main trio as a whole is a blast and the other party members that tag along during different parts of the game are all real fun too.
And not only that, the setting is one of a kind. There's this genuine childlike joy at sailing through the clouds with the crew and discovering all there is to its world, and I'm amazed I've never seen anything like it since.
All in all, just an incredibly whimsical and unique experience if you're capable of putting up with the usual classic JRPG struggles. Trust me, it's absolutely worth it.
Skies of Arcadia is all about how no suffering lasts forever and how we all have the strength to adapt and overcome anything as long as we're capable of finding it within ourselves - and it is so real for it.
It's rare for a game to focus so heavily on realizing there's more to life than being stuck in your old ways, but the amount of perspectives it uses to make that hit home combined with Vyse's optimism makes for such an uplifting journey.
Of course, it's not perfect - being a relatively old school JRPG means it has the issues you'd come to expect from them, in this case mainly a ludicrous encounter rate and some incredibly slow combat pacing due to it's wide variety of special move animations that can last pretty long.
The combat's relatively barebones and a bit confusing to get into, but despite turns taking a while it's relatively fast-paced in how long battles last once you've got the hang of it, so it's nothing too bad in my opinion. Random encounters last two turns at best, and bosses are creative enough to keep you on your toes so there's still a lot of fun to be had there.
But the cast is what really makes this game, as I've mentioned - beyond Vyse just being a fantastic protagonist, the main trio as a whole is a blast and the other party members that tag along during different parts of the game are all real fun too.
And not only that, the setting is one of a kind. There's this genuine childlike joy at sailing through the clouds with the crew and discovering all there is to its world, and I'm amazed I've never seen anything like it since.
All in all, just an incredibly whimsical and unique experience if you're capable of putting up with the usual classic JRPG struggles. Trust me, it's absolutely worth it.