This is a game I have always wanted to play ever since I saw it on a shelf in one of my local video game shops, but I didn't own a GameCube so I couldn't get it for myself, but the concept was one I couldn't shake from my mind. JRPG style game involving ships, crews and ect!
Gameplay:
Much of the combat is your standard JRPG affair, however, you can switch between elements freely with your weapons so you don't have to drop a powerful weapon because it's aligned with fire and you're fighting someone who is resistant to fire or ect. You can change on the fly, but often the more difficult bosses will have enemies on their side who are strong against the element they're weak against. This is mostly for the combat with the characters on a battlefield or fighting enemies boarded on a ship or something.
The ship combat is done in a more interesting way where everyone has their own turns lined up and to unleash your special power, you need to not only have it charged, but also be certain that you are pointing the weapon directly at them! Depending on choices in combat, you can end up behind them or they may end up behind you, putting you on the defensive! Because of how these battles can go either way, there's no point in trying to just go in blindly fighting like in poorly designed JRPGs and every battle will require quite a bit of planning ahead.
A big bonus of this version over the original one on the Dreamcast, is it comes with the DLC stuff you could only get by going online. Really feels SEGA were a little too ahead of their time...
There's also a really cool discovery mechanic where you can find treasure and hidden locations through the world that you bring back and report to the cartographer's guild and get paid. However, if you weren't the first to find it, you only get a fraction of the payment as all you did was confirm it's existence, regardless of if it's some magical kingdom or a undiscovered creature or continent.
There is also a bounty hunter system where you can meet all kinds of interesting characters to battle and get rewarded with not only cash but also weapons and things looted from them too.
There are one or two others, including gathering up a crew to give your ship passive boosts to different functions and a few others that may require spoilers.
Story:
You play as Vyse, a Skypirate! Often known as Blue Pirates because they only attacked armed vessels and aim to not just kill and massacre people. They are still stealing loot at the end of the day, but unlike Black Pirates, they don't hunt down people who can't defend themselves nor do they aim to kill people outright.
Anyway, you start by fighting a group of soldiers who are heavily armed and Vyse is with his father on their raid of this military vessel, until they discover and rescue a mysterious girl (getting Laputa: Castle in the Sky vibes) who claims to be from somewhere that was said to exist only in myth.
Vyse, his childhood friend and this mysterious girl investigate a nearby ruin that was said to be tied to the girl's people and soon are on their own journey to uncover the mysteries of the ruins, the past and the empire's current plans for world domination.
I highly recommend this for any JRPG fan out there as many of the mechanics feel fresh and it's such a crime that they haven't been brought back in a similar form! A game that the industry should look back at and take some real interest in.
Gameplay + Stream
Gameplay:
Much of the combat is your standard JRPG affair, however, you can switch between elements freely with your weapons so you don't have to drop a powerful weapon because it's aligned with fire and you're fighting someone who is resistant to fire or ect. You can change on the fly, but often the more difficult bosses will have enemies on their side who are strong against the element they're weak against. This is mostly for the combat with the characters on a battlefield or fighting enemies boarded on a ship or something.
The ship combat is done in a more interesting way where everyone has their own turns lined up and to unleash your special power, you need to not only have it charged, but also be certain that you are pointing the weapon directly at them! Depending on choices in combat, you can end up behind them or they may end up behind you, putting you on the defensive! Because of how these battles can go either way, there's no point in trying to just go in blindly fighting like in poorly designed JRPGs and every battle will require quite a bit of planning ahead.
A big bonus of this version over the original one on the Dreamcast, is it comes with the DLC stuff you could only get by going online. Really feels SEGA were a little too ahead of their time...
There's also a really cool discovery mechanic where you can find treasure and hidden locations through the world that you bring back and report to the cartographer's guild and get paid. However, if you weren't the first to find it, you only get a fraction of the payment as all you did was confirm it's existence, regardless of if it's some magical kingdom or a undiscovered creature or continent.
There is also a bounty hunter system where you can meet all kinds of interesting characters to battle and get rewarded with not only cash but also weapons and things looted from them too.
There are one or two others, including gathering up a crew to give your ship passive boosts to different functions and a few others that may require spoilers.
Story:
You play as Vyse, a Skypirate! Often known as Blue Pirates because they only attacked armed vessels and aim to not just kill and massacre people. They are still stealing loot at the end of the day, but unlike Black Pirates, they don't hunt down people who can't defend themselves nor do they aim to kill people outright.
Anyway, you start by fighting a group of soldiers who are heavily armed and Vyse is with his father on their raid of this military vessel, until they discover and rescue a mysterious girl (getting Laputa: Castle in the Sky vibes) who claims to be from somewhere that was said to exist only in myth.
Vyse, his childhood friend and this mysterious girl investigate a nearby ruin that was said to be tied to the girl's people and soon are on their own journey to uncover the mysteries of the ruins, the past and the empire's current plans for world domination.
I highly recommend this for any JRPG fan out there as many of the mechanics feel fresh and it's such a crime that they haven't been brought back in a similar form! A game that the industry should look back at and take some real interest in.
Gameplay + Stream