Skies of Arcadia

THE BAD:
nothing. Some people say there is too many battles but those people obviosly havent played many RPG's. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this game.

SUMMARY:
you fly around as an air pirate Vyse and his crew searching for treasure and Moon crystals. Of course when there are good pirates there will be bad pirates. There is the black pirates who prety much hate you and most of them will do any thing to kill you. Aside from your main party through out the game you encounter people that will help you and can add them to your crew. THIS GAME IS FUN!!!

THE BAD:
all those random battles, no talking, those flags you had to pick for your new ship, man, only the main hero's was the best and oh, and finding those crew members..

SUMMARY:
Tiz the bomb, i think. ths was the first rpg i played on dreamcast and i was hooked!!!! The battling of ships and mega big monters were the coolest. The best of all the rpgs, i believe. Love the graphics and the special attacks of the caracters. Plot was sweet. i thought that flying the ships were the coolest, even better when you had those engines. I thought that the discoveries were well placed. the side quest was inda annoying, though, i couldn't find where spice island was! sign me guest book and email me pleeze?

THE BAD:
Earlier in the game there are definatley too many random battles on the ship.

SUMMARY:
This is my second review, i havent played this for some time and i am no longer able to play disc 1 for some reason. But this was a great game, and the grahpics were its best feature id say. The battle system could have been a bit better, but most other things about this game were good. Loved the nice bright colours also. Quiet interesting having ships and villages in the sky, Looked really good being up in the sky, very nice effect, and being able to see other ships outside some windows. If you havent played this game before its well worth getting in my opinion, i just wish i could play it again sometime, but i just cant get disc 1 to work no more. Please observe my new email address as the old one in my profile is wrong and i havent been able to alter it. francessmith844@hotmail.com WRITE TO CHAT IF YOU LIKE BUT PLEASE OBSERVE FIRST I DO USE LARGE PRINT AND CAPS ALWAYS IN EMAILS, IF YOUR OK WITH THAT ID LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU.lOOKING FOR NEW FRIENDS.

THE BAD:
elemental system, high encounter rate, ship piloting

SUMMARY:
Skies of Arcadia was the first role-playing title I played for the Dreamcast, and I was instantly taken in by its immensely beautiful graphics, town and dungeon design, and liveliness when it comes to facial animations and expressions. During the first scene, I took one good look at Vyse and Aika and thought what in the world they were doing as air pirates. But as I grabbed the controller and started my way into the game, I soon let go out of that first impression and became nearly enthralled. With good reason, too.

The battle system comes across as very clean and polished, with plenty of attention (almost too much) paid to the finesse of your character's super moves. Aika's Alpha Storm, for example, carries enough on-screen glitz and flash that surely it could produce seizures. When Vyse strikes with his hard-hitting and flashing Thrashing Sabre, it almost brings about an involuntary wince with each successful hit. I could've personally done without the voices, sure, but hey it works. Another strategic component I like, for the most part, is the elemental system. Unlike traditional RPGs in which the only way you could pull off a water-elemental standard attack was to equip an Ice Blade, you can change your character's weapon to one of six different Moon Stone colors -- Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, or Silver, each with its own properties. Better still, the more you use a Silver weapon, the quicker you learn Silver skills such as healing or reviving the dead. You'll soon discover that some characters have certain rapport with some elements over others. Aika learns Fire spells quickest; Fina's loyal to the Silver ones.

Unfortunately, the relation among the Moon Stones is a bit odd. It makes sense that Red (Fire) weapons hurt Blue (Water) foes, or that Red and Purple (Ice) greatly conflict each other. But why does Blue hurt Purple more? Or Blue to Yellow (Earth)? Or that Yellow and Silver (Life) mutually damage? Or Yellow severely threatens Green (Wind) foes? I learned my elemental relationships through such classics as the Final Fantasy series, and time after time again, it made little sense to hit a flying creature with Quake. Why the change now? So, of course, you'll probably spend much of your time on page 19 in the instruction booklet, just to make sure your strategies are sound.

Though the battle sequences are pretty fun in and of themselves, the Skies programmers set the random encounter rate incredibly high. You'll notice this most when you're piloting the ship in the skies; when you're trying to find your way to the next destination and it took long enough to get your compass and direction squared away, you have to fight many, many monsters before you can finally reach that next spot. (If the monsters line themselves up well enough, one Alpha Storm is sufficient to take them all out.)

Once you reach Pinta at the Sailor's Island, you discover the greatest fun in the title -- the Pinta Quest. Download Pinta to your VMU and he'll mimic the ship exploration element of Skies. He can fly around and discover treasures, fight enemy battles, and negotiate and trade goods. And when you plug him back into your Dreamcast controller, you can transfer the goods from your minigame into treasures for Vyse and his crew. Translation: you'll get incredibly valuable items to guarantee your team's survival.

If you can get past the awkwardness of controlling your ship, Skies is an easy RPG to immense yourself into, thus proving how fun it can be for all ages.

THE BAD:
No voices

SUMMARY:
This game is da bomb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!
I loved the characters, battles, items, ships, plot, bossess, and everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!

THE BAD:
proply the stupid eye patch main hero wears

SUMMARY:
it is truely the best rpg game on the dramcast ,i have waiting for good rpg game and this is it.it give me over 68-hours of gamplay.the storyline can change at ne time which is cool.it has huge world with vest number of places to go and something all way waiting for u in everytime.the are also super cool flying air ship battles and if u get certin item u can do super cool attacks.

THE BAD:
The monotonous battle style of this game will tick off the common gamer, MANY random battles.

SUMMARY:
I am awaiting the gcn version of this game. If you do not own or plan on owning a gcn in the future then you should definately put this in your dreamcast library of games.