Amazon Maximum Age: 20 years Amazon Minimum Age: 144 months Binding: Video Game Brand: Sega of America EAN: 0010086610185 ESRB Age Rating: Teen Label: Sega of America Manufacturer: Sega of America Platform: GameCube Publisher: Sega of America Sales Rank: 2427 Studio: Sega of America
Features:
Experience a full 3D world with a highly imaginative storyline, including new plot details and improved character graphics.
Use over 70 weapons and 36 magical skills to make your party the scourge of the skies. Explore six enormous virtual lands with landscapes ranging from massive deserts and quaint villages to the cold reaches of outer space.
Customize your own airship and gather up to 22 crew members to help attack or protect against other ships.
Hand-to-hand and ship-to-ship combat featuring spectacular spell effects, amazing special attacks, and an improved battle engine.
Product Description: You must gather your own crew of air pirates and journey through uncharted skies to vanquish the empire from every corner of the map. Along the way, you'll wage battles against savage monsters and evil Pirates as you make a name for yourself on land and in the sky. For the first time you can experience the complete story of the critically acclaimed RPG, with hours of new gameplay containing additional background stories
Amazon.com Product Description: Grab the wheel of your airship and prepare to embark on an adventure of legendary proportions. You are Vyse, a young member of the Blue Rogue pirates. Together with your childhood friend Aika and a mysterious girl named Fina, you are locked in an epic struggle with a powerful enemy nation for the fate of the world. You must gather your own crew of air pirates and journey through uncharted skies to obliterate the empire from every corner of the map. Along the way you'll wage battles against savage monsters and evil pirates as you make a name for yourself on land and in the sky. For the first time you can experience the complete story of this critically acclaimed RPG, with hours of new gameplay containing additional background stories for key characters. Interact with a brilliantly animated cast of characters, monsters, and villains, explore astounding environments, and unravel a dramatic and twisting story line. You can explore six enormous virtual lands with landscapes ranging from massive deserts and quaint villages to the cold reaches of outer space. Customize your own airship and gather up to 22 crew members to help attack or protect against other ships. There is hand-to-hand and ship-to-ship combat featuring spectacular spell effects, amazing special attacks, and an improved battle engine.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Still My Favorite RPG of All Time
Skies of Arcadia is a game with a real sense of exploration. The game shuns most cliches of plot and character development by including memorable characters you actually care about rather than cartoon cliches. The gameplay and combat is simple and but addictive and memorable. The game continually expands, dishing up new types of gameplay and unique areas to explore in your airship. Ship combat and the crew system further enhances the variety.
Keep in mind that this GameCube remake tones down the battles significantly, fixing the main problem that some had with the original DreamCast remake. The visuals are very last-generation (maybe even before that), but you'll be caught up so much in the experience that you won't mind.
Rating: - It's been 5 years now...
I purchased this game when it came out in 2003 and couldn't wait until I got home to play it. The first day I played it, I spent 6 hours playing and not knowing where the time went. After I beat the game, I, of course, moved on with my life playing games, going to school, etc.. Still, I haven't found a game more satisfying to play than this game. But enough reminiscing, let me tell you why I love this game.
First off, the story. I know several elements of the game's story are a bit cliche, such as having to defeat an evil empire, finding a certain number of ancient crystals to protect innocents from being subject to their power, a love triangle, and such. However, the CHARACTERS of this game really make the story evolve from a basic plot to an exciting adventure story. Main man Vyse is courageous, cool, and likable. Far from the moody, depressed heroes of many modern RPGs. Everyone that Vyse meets in the game has a personality, and when these characters act, it really feels like they are actual people in an actual world that could exist. What they say and do is the most influential aspect of this game, making the story into a far deeper element than "beat the bad guys, save the world, get the girl."
The next aspect is the design of the game. This is an enhanced port of a Dreamcast title, so if you played this before, you won't find too many new things here. However, seeing all the action of the game take place in the sky on floating islands and airships is a whimsical sight to behold, and it really creates some memorable scenes in the game when all you can see is ships fight and the sky. The music is epic, from pirate themes to sorrowful tunes, the orchestrated music is wonderful. Unfortunately, this Gamecube port has lower quality music that the original. If you want cleaner music, I suggest the Dreamcast original. Another downer is the graphics. They are not bad by any means, but the full extent of the Gamecube's graphical power is not used here. Yes, it has higher polygon counts than the original, but several characters appear to be somewhat blocky. But to seriously look down on the game for that reason is folly. However, if perfect graphics are your dig, move on.
Next, the combat. Just like in the original, there are quite a few random encounters in this game. Not as many, but still a lot. I know many people don't like this, but that's the way the game is made. The actual combat is turned based, like many RPGs, but the most unique aspect of the combat is the Spirit Point meter. You get a certain amount of "SP" each round, and they are shared by all members of the party. They are used for magic and special moves, adding strategy and planning to the combat. The other unique aspect are the ship battles. They are similar to normal combat, but they are ship-to-ship, and they require different strategy because of the different weapons your ship can use. You slot in the moves and watch the battle go. Some may find this slow and frustrating, others, like me, do not.
The last thing is the extra stuff. While sailing, you can find hidden locations and objects called "Discoveries." Finding these will earn you money at local towns. There are more Discoveries in this version that the Dreamcast title. There is optional Moonfishing side story that lets you play through a subplot involving a vengeful pirate hunter, a doctor, a little girl, and a bird. This quest is also new. Also, there is a small list of strong bounties to collect, new to this version. Aside from those things, there is a special weapon just for Vyse later in the game, and a special boss to fight. Doing all this stuff increases your rank, changing the way people talk to you and the way to find new things.
Indeed, this game is not perfect, but I believe once you get involved in the game's many great qualities, you will overlook its small flaws. The intriguing setting and characters will entice you and make you want to keep playing. This is one of the Gamecube's more overlooked titles, and I recommend this title to anyone with a Gamecube. You won't regret it. I didn't, and haven't been for 5 years.
Rating: - A flawed masterpiece...
Standard turn-based RPG battle system, check. Damsel and world in distress, check. Numerous random battles, ugh.
Yet, this game transcends the sum its parts. The story is absorbing, the sail, explore, and discover new worlds aspect is engrossing, and the playable characters (yup, all three of them) are endearing. Isn't that why RPG enthusiasts get such a kick out of this genre. It's the disparate, loner characters, banding together and forming a family, and along the way (if the game is any good) they become our friends.
I highly recommend this game. Look past the out-dated graphics, and keep pushing through those random battles, because what unfolds is definitely worth the trouble.
Rating: - The best rpg of all time.................
Why do people play rpg's? I can't answer that question for other people as everyone has their own taste and their own reasons, but i can tell you the reason why i play rpg's is because i like to feel like i am in a world of fantasy and adventure, a world where anything is possible and where the sound of the wind resonating quitely against the breeze preordains a future of uncertain destiny. This game brings the gamer a feeling of adventure the whole way through and throws you right into the story. You start as vise, a young sky pirate who plunders treasure from other pirates in the skies of arcadia, as vise and his father navigate the skies they come across an airship belonging to alfonso of the valvuan armada, they decide to plunder the airship and thats when the story takes off. Throughout the game you encounter different enemies both in airships and in single hand to hand battles, the game is basically about the valvuan empire trying to take over the world, Fina, the mysterious stranger, completing her "mysterious" voyage, and vyse fighting the empire for the good of the world and the sheer joy of pissing them off. Once the story begins to unfold you are automatically drawn into a world of diverse cultures and environments, places like ika'taka, nasrad, and valvua are just a few of the areas you will encounter along your journey, you will meet different people and everywhere you go will bring you satisfaction as you keep records on your journal of all the places you've explored.
THE GRAPHICS
Yes this game came out orginally for the sega dreamcast and so there weren't many visual improvements done to the game, but this was still the best looking rpg on the gamecube and the visuals match the game perfectly. the specials are those of your typical rpg with the razzle dazzle attacks, the magic attacks are also pretty cool to watch and the best part is, once you get your ship, it has a special also! The environments in my opinion look amazing and the clouds shifting softly through your ships propellers just add to the feeling of actually flying.
THE GAMEPLAY
The game play is basically the same as your typical rpg except for a few improvements in the battle mechanics, you encounter random battles, you lvl up with experience and moon stones allow you to learn specials, what really sets the game apart from your typical rpg's are the ship battles, which allow you to fight using a ship and crew to battle against enormous monsters and pesky valvuan airships. The ship battles are turn based and the commands closely resemble the commands used in regular hand to hand combat, you get to use magic, choose if you want to use evasive manuvers, or just attack with a cannon torpedo or special. The ship is fully costumizable in terms of crew and equipment, and it is one of the coolest vehicles i have ever used in any game.
THE STORY
The story is one of greed, hate, love, and betrayl, its about an adventurous young sky pirate reaching for the sky and protecting those he loves, its about a young woman trying to overcome the betrayel of her long time friend and about a dictator who wants nothing more than power for rebuilding what he deems a lost civilization. This is what epic legends are made off!
REPLAY VALUE
To me one of the most important things in a video game is will i want to play the game over after i'am done. The answer for skies of arcadia is a certified yes. acquaring the ultumate weapons, all the magics, all of the specials for every character, all of the crew member for the delphenus, and the best weaponry for the delphenus, plus completing the discovery journal and if your a true fanatic, getting all of your character to level 99 and increasing their strength to 999 using the power seeds, this game has some of the highest replay value out of any game ever.
In conclusion skies of arcadia promises nothing less than one of the best "evil empire" stories ever narrated in a video game, beautiful visuals, and gameplay that is going to keep you coming back for hours on end, (i beat the game 4 times!), so if you are an rpg fan, then you owe it to yourself to pick this one up, you will not be disappointed.
Game play: 5/5
Replay value: 5/5
Story: 5/5
Graphics: 4.5/5
Rating: - On Par With the Greats
This was one of those games I found on the shelves of the rental store and thought 'heck, why not?' And not once did I regret my decision. Though Skies of Arcadia has its fair share of 'gaming cliches' (the mysterious girl who gets things rolling; every female is incurably attracted to the main character... that sort of thing) the story is compelling.
Vyse and his cohorts are Blue Rouges, a faction of the 'Air Pirates' distinction who are easily likened to the Robin Hoods of the world. Their favourite target is the Valuan Empire, easily the ruling power of Arcadia. But it seems that Valua has developed a streak of imperialism, and is attacking the other countries of the world. After discovering a strangely garbed kidnapped girl in the Valuan ship they'd just attacked, Vyse and co. find out that Valua is really after the Moon Crystals. These items are each able to control a Gigas- 6 of them altogether (one for each Moon of Arcadia)- and Valua intends to use these powerful weapons against those who oppose them. Thus begins Vyse, Fina, and Aika's quest to gather the Crystals before Valua can.
One of the great things about this game is that the villains are so delightfully evil and competent (at least most are, namely Galcian and Ramirez). No more wondering how they came into power; it's quite obvious that Galcian and Ramirez lied, cheated, and murdered to get where they are.
The ship-battle system was a nice change of pace for players, breaking away from the repetitive random battle screens to give us a good old-fashioned cannons-and-torpedos aerial battle (no oceans in Arcadia- you sail the skies). These battles also aren't just dependent on brute-strength (though being strong helps keep you alive) but they also take some strategy, as you have to consider how far away the other ship is and if your cannons could reach, and because you input several commands at once you also have to consider 'how much damage do I think I'll sustain this round? Will I need to heal?'
The side-quests in this game are extremely worthwhile, especially the sidequest involving feeding Moonfish to Maria's little pet. This will give you items as well as interesting insights to the back-story and how a certain villain fell from grace. The optional battles against Piastol are also worthwhile.
All in all, Skies of Arcadia is a great game with a decent amount of replay value. Decent graphics make everything relatively easy to see (though don't expect breath-taking cutscenes), battle systems detract from the monotony of random battles, and the music offers a very fitting atmosphere.
- Still My Favorite RPG of All Time
- A flawed masterpiece...
