This was a game I heard about for a long time, but really never decided to pick up until a couple of my friends really pushed it on me. I'm a huge fan of One Piece, so the concept of pirates (albeit in the sky instead of the sea) exploring a ton of islands was really interesting. Though this game has a lot of really awesome stuff to it outside of it's theme.
The gameplay at first I was worried would become quite stale due to the fact all spells cost only 1 MP, but the game has a spirit point system which is used for spells and abilities (called S. Moves) which brings a fantastic about of tactics to how you manage your SP and use skills, conserving for big attacks later on, preparing for buffs, etc etc.
It would've been nice if this game had a more active approach (1 character after the other) so you could focus into super moves, but for what it is, this combat is great and extremely tactical. The only downside IMO is how overpowered items can feel because they cost 0 SP, but I would love to try a run without using items some day.
There's also ship combat, which is a cool and novel concept but imo is way too slow, it did have some fun tactics in the last few though so it's enjoyable enough!
Storywise the game is very traditional, rebelling against an evil empire and restoring the mcguffins, but this game wins on characters and areas, the main cast is all extremely lovable and filled with great character interactions. Despite being traditional the story did throw me for a few loops and I was constantly invested in it from start to finish, and I fell in love with your cast.
Exploration and side content is great, Discoveries are a fun system to incentivize exploring the map, and the moonfish and bounties attached to the Gamecube version are a great way to add some extra boss fights and items to explore and look for (the bounty fights being some of the best and most challenging fights in Skies of Arcadia). Overall it gave me a ton of reasons to explore the map and even go back to older areas is search of new moonfish, bounties, and crew members, just a great time all around.
The music is a complete banger, that is all.
All in all, Skies of Arcadia is a damn fun RPG and one of the best I've played in this era. I'd reccomend it to anyone looking for an RPG with a lot of cool and memorable side content and fun characters. Some minor flaws here and there which bring my rating down a bit, but overall amazing.
9.5 Cutlass Dances/10
The gameplay at first I was worried would become quite stale due to the fact all spells cost only 1 MP, but the game has a spirit point system which is used for spells and abilities (called S. Moves) which brings a fantastic about of tactics to how you manage your SP and use skills, conserving for big attacks later on, preparing for buffs, etc etc.
It would've been nice if this game had a more active approach (1 character after the other) so you could focus into super moves, but for what it is, this combat is great and extremely tactical. The only downside IMO is how overpowered items can feel because they cost 0 SP, but I would love to try a run without using items some day.
There's also ship combat, which is a cool and novel concept but imo is way too slow, it did have some fun tactics in the last few though so it's enjoyable enough!
Storywise the game is very traditional, rebelling against an evil empire and restoring the mcguffins, but this game wins on characters and areas, the main cast is all extremely lovable and filled with great character interactions. Despite being traditional the story did throw me for a few loops and I was constantly invested in it from start to finish, and I fell in love with your cast.
Exploration and side content is great, Discoveries are a fun system to incentivize exploring the map, and the moonfish and bounties attached to the Gamecube version are a great way to add some extra boss fights and items to explore and look for (the bounty fights being some of the best and most challenging fights in Skies of Arcadia). Overall it gave me a ton of reasons to explore the map and even go back to older areas is search of new moonfish, bounties, and crew members, just a great time all around.
The music is a complete banger, that is all.
All in all, Skies of Arcadia is a damn fun RPG and one of the best I've played in this era. I'd reccomend it to anyone looking for an RPG with a lot of cool and memorable side content and fun characters. Some minor flaws here and there which bring my rating down a bit, but overall amazing.
9.5 Cutlass Dances/10