Skies of Arcadia

A true masterpiece within the roleplaying genre! Is the only way to describe this game. A game where the only rival it had was the Final Fantasy series and unfortunately got overshadowed by the Square-Enix giant yet don't lose faith in this forever battling underdog.

Before I start my review of the game I would first like to state my personal experience with the game, which will also give you a hint of what type of game it is. My eyes first graced upon this game through the glossy pages of PC gamer, ironically a review stating and slating that this game wasn't worth the money and set it at a mere 30% out of 100%. Being a rebel I decided to purchase SoA and try it for myself, only to go ahead and complete it a further twenty four times within the two year period of owning it, of course this was before the collapse of Dreamcast and being greeted by the breeze block known as the xbox. So I got rid of the game and console only to gain withdrawal symptoms two years...

Skies of Arcadia will take you on a unique and innovative adventure.

For a sport fans the Dreamcast had been just that a dream. For action game fans the same the console has some of the best games in the genre. Although for RPG fans it has been a bittersweet relationship. Well it seems as though that has changed. With the release of Skies of Arcadia Dreamcast has become the #1 gaming unit out there. This RPG is not only good; it is great so great it gives Final Fantasy a run for its money.
I know some of the RPG fans have probably stopped reading this review at the end of the first paragraph. Thinking how could a young console like Dreamcast possibly have an RPG that is better than Square's masterpiece Final Fantasy. Well its not that this game is better but it surely is more innovative. I really did not see where Final Fantasy 8 advanced the RPG genre at all. Yes it added cool spell effects and all but nothing had really changed from the original RPG formula. Well Skies...

THE GOOD:
Absolutely everything the graphics are great for the time when it was released the game play is the best i have seen in a while the stroy line is cool. I can guarentee that if you buy this game you will like it. This game is soo cool i played it multiple times after i beat it(which is not easy to do in RPGs)

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 GOOD:
the characters, the weapons, the ships and battles, the magic and specail moves........EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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 GOOD:
GRAPHICS, colour, gameplay pretty good, different seening its based in the sky, and i liked the characters also.

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...

THE GOOD:
beautiful graphics and effects, battle system, gameplay, Pinta Quest

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...

THE GOOD:
Great Plot, good characters

THE BAD:
No voices

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

THE GOOD:
the super-fun battle ship fight

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.

For a long time, way too many people here in the US have been waiting for an RPG of better quality than, say, Timestalkers or Evolution. And for quite a while we've heard only faint whispers of hope from Japan, in the forms of Grandia II and the then-named Eternal Arcadia. But oh, what beautiful whispers they were.

So, now that Eternal Arcadia (hereafter Skies of Arcadia, hereafter SOA) has arrived on these blessed shores and Grandia II is close behind, was our waiting in vain? Not really.

STORY AND PRESENTATION: SOA has it in spades. The whole game takes place in an absolutely gargantuan world where islands float above the Deep Sky, and stones rain down from six different colored moons. In this sort of Age of Exploration, pirates and merchants and fleets of warships move about the sky.

I won't delve into the real storyline, but suffice it to say that it starts off strong and ends even stronger. Just as you think you have things figured out and you...

THE GOOD:
Everything about this game is top notch. There is a huge world to explore, weapons to find, and things to kill .

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.