Flashback - Skies of Arcadia (DC)
Posted by Steve McHugh on 06.15.2007
Why can't Sega make a sequel to this?
Dreamcast owners who enjoyed RPG's didn't exactly have a lot to look forward to back in 2000. In fact there were, maybe, two other RPG's out for the system by then and it really didn't seem like there was a lot on the horizon to get excited about. The Playstation had become the console to go play RPGS with the mostly great, Final Fantasy series as well as a host of other excellent work.
Step forward the guys at Overworks to save Sega's ass and develop one of the best RPG's in recent memory. Overworks had employees who made the Megadrive Phantasy Star games so you knew you were going to get something special but come the end of 2000 everyone found out just how special it was going to be.
Whilst the game was given almost universal praise it didn't get any amazing scores, 85-90% was the norm with the occasional score over 90% but over time the game seems to have been given more praise as an excellent RPG. In fact it seems to have matured over time and is regularly in anyone's top 5 Dreamcast games of all time.
So was this game worthy of the praise that is heaped upon it?
Well in a word. Yes.
Okay that would make this a very short review so let me explain why this is such a great game.
Firstly Final Fantasy 7 had managed to instil a rejuvenation effect on RPG's on consoles. It was now cool to like to play them, but because of the dark nature of not only FF7 but FF8 too, a lot more RPG's had followed that dark nature and then along came SoA with its beautiful and colourful graphics along with the fun nature of the characters. Yes the story still had some dark elements, but it was a breath of fresh air in amongst all of the angst that seemed to be the norm at the time. But no matter how bad it gets the characters all manage to be optimistic in trying to set it right.
The sky battles are excellent.
You play as Vyas, an air pirate (a blue rogue) who has a Robin Hood philosophy when it comes to stealing, and the game starts with Vyas and his friend boarding a huge war ship owned by the evil Valuan Empire. It ends with you rescuing a Princess, and the ship's commander escaping to plot revenge. From there you decide to help the girl and come into direct opposition to the Valuan Empire who would quite like to get the girl back. It blends into a fairly complex story that will keep you hooked for the 50 or 60 hours that the game lasts as you meet new friends and enemies. There's a lot of humour and tongue in cheek dialog and it really is very well told.
The gameplay is also excellent, for the most part. And whilst the battles are turn based there's a real element of tactics to use. Throughout the game you'll be able to find various crystals that will give your characters the chance to change their weapon to a different colour and thus a different element. Changing them can be done anytime in battle, which is a great touch, and picking the right ones will mean the difference between winning and losing. Also using one element for long enough will give you spells. For example use the silver element enough and you'll eventually be able to raise dead characters. Different characters level up at different times for each element so you'll never just have everyone getting the same spells at the same time so there's a nice variety in character spells.
On top of that there are also Spirit Points. Each character has an SP bar and can use it to perform special moves. Each move uses ‘X' amount of SP with the more powerful ones costing a lot more then the lower ones. Keeping your SP at a good level so that you can use it for the more powerful enemies is the key although at the beginning of every level each character automatically gains some SP and you can choose to not attack but just increase your SP, or ‘focus', on a turn instead. It's all a very easy system to use and makes battles a more interesting affair then just hitting the action button at the beginning of each turn.
Vyas is one happy pirate.
However there are problems, firstly the battles themselves can often consist of a lot of lower powered enemies making, then boring and longwinded as you go around killing everything. This is compounded when you start getting enemies that just call more of their kind over and over again.
It's also annoying to go into a boss fight to discover you're hopelessly outclassed and once beaten have to start from a previous save point. The game should have just had to restart the battle, although this was fixed in the Gamecube version.
Even worse than this is the fact that the battles are random encounters. And there are a lot of them. This has one of the highest encounter rates I've played in a game in ages and you'll often only go 5 or 6 steps after a fight before getting into another one. There is nothing worse than trying to solve one of the game's many puzzles than doing it whilst constantly getting into fights. It makes it frustrating, not because the puzzles are hard (they're really not) but because it constantly makes you stop what you're doing.
I don't know why all JRPG characters need huge swords and the like.
However, this is only the on foot battles. There are also battles that take place in the air between two ships. These are something very impressive and usually take place with bosses that outclass your little ship in every way. They force you to think several moves ahead so that you can get into position to get the best shot whilst maintaining your ships health. To put it bluntly they are excellent and one of the best aspects of the whole game. In fact there is a great side-quest in which you go around the enormous world recruiting people to join your crew so that you can make your ship better.
In fact apart from the main storyline there are plenty of side-quests such as finding secret places and the aforementioned crew quest. There's a lot to see and do if you fancy a few distractions.
These days SoA doesn't look great. It's certainly been eclipsed by the likes of FF10, Star Ocean and the like, but at the time this was one of the most stunning games you could own. But the polygons are low and there's an awful draw distance. However the world still looks great and there's a lot of varied places to go. It might not be stunning but it does the job and still looks better than plenty of games from that era.
The music, on the other hand, is still excellent and is certainly one of the best on the console. The same can't be said about the small amount of voice acting which goes from passable to irritating on a regular basis. It's never enough to ruin your experience but enough to be noticed.
Should I buy it?
The one thing that SoA is about is enjoying yourself. It oozes charm and wit and does so with ease, on top of that it's one of the best games for the console and a fantastic RPG in its own right. Buying it is an easy option. If you own a Dreamcast it'll cast you about $35 and probably the same for the Gamecube version, which has a few added extras. Whatever version you go for you owe it to yourself you play one of the best RPG's of the last generation.
9.5/10
Other stuff
Overlord is coming soon to the 360 and it looks fantastic. Seriously this is like Pikmin with evil goblins. I've played the demo and enjoyed it a lot. I will be very surprised if this is anything less than one of ‘the' games to own this summer and should be on everyone's watch list.
The Darkness is also out soon. Now I implore you to go buy the developer's first game, Riddick for the Xbox. Not only one of the best FPS games for the console but one of the best movie tie-in games ever made. Yes that's not hard to achieve but even so its fantastic so go get it now.
Sony are being threatened with legal action by the Church of England for using Manchester Cathedral in Sony's Resistance PS3 game. It's so dumb on so many levels from both sides. It's pointless for the CoE to sue about a game that takes place in an alternate reality and is a work of fiction. But it was pretty stupid of Sony not to get permission to use a church as important as the Manchester Cathedral.
In the big, big world not involving games. Biffy Clyro's new album is out and it's awesome. If you like good Rock music then this is for you.
I haven't watched any wrestling for a few weeks now so I can't comment on anything that's happening. WWE is getting better for the most part from the sounds of things but the TNA booking still seems to be on a haphazard basis.
Come back in a few weeks and I'll be taking a look at another game, possibly an Xbox game, possibly not, it'll be a surprise for us all.
