Skies of Arcadia
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| Skies of Arcadia | |
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| Developer(s) | Overworks |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Designer(s) | Rieko Kodama |
| Release date(s) |  October 5, 2000 (DC)
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| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T (Teen) ELSPA: 11+ OFLC: G8+ |
| Platform(s) | Dreamcast, GameCube |
| Media | 2 GD-ROM's 1 GameCube Optical Disc |
| Input | Gamepad |
Skies of Arcadia is a console role-playing game developed by Overworks and published by Sega in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast. It was released in Japan in October 2000, and subsequently in North America in November 2000 and in PAL territories in April 2001. An enhanced remake, Skies of Arcadia Legends, was released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003. Known as Eternal Arcadia in Japan, the game's story focuses around Vyse, a young pirate, and his friends as they attempt to stop the Valuan Empire from reviving ancient weapons which could destroy the world.
It was critically well received thanks to its stylish graphics and light-hearted setting, which contrasted with the then highly popular cyberpunk-influenced brand of dark fantasy that was popularized by such games as Final Fantasy VII.[citation needed] A similar motif was used by Final Fantasy IX, released around the same time for the Sony PlayStation. The game's musical soundtrack was composed by Yutaka Minobe and Tatsuyuki Maeda.
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[edit] Gameplay
The majority of gameplay in Skies of Arcadia takes place in standard RPG dungeons. Controlling the male protagonist, Vyse, in a third-person view, players must traverse and defeat these dungeons in order to advance the storyline. Dungeons comprise of a network of pathways with some treasure chests, the occasional puzzle, and littered with monsters. Throughout the dungeon gameplay the player meets compulsory random encounters every one of which must be won. If the entire player party is defeated progress is reset to the beginning of the dungeon. In the Dreamcast version it was possible to slightly foresee these random encounters by noticing a loud spin-up of the console's GD-ROM drive.
The player may purchase weapons and armor for both his party and his ship in this way. Completing the dungeons is usually a matter of exploring each of the possible pathways presented to the player until the correct one is found. Treasure chests are commonplace during this style of gameplay and contain some of the most powerful items in the game. It is usually in the best interest of the player to explore all routes as it is frequently impossible to return to dungeons the player has visited, and significant portions of the game are cut off when certain events occur in the storyline.
Travel between the numerous dungeons is accomplished by piloting an airship through the overworld. The overworld in Skies of Arcadia is a three dimensional sky with massive floating rocks forming islands and continents. Some islands and continents are completely uninhabited while others are filled with sprawling towns and cities. All dungeons throughout the game are located on these islands and continents. There is one exception where a dungeon is traversed whilst piloting an airship. This under-utilised form of dungeon contains floating spherical objects instead of treasure chests, and vortex-like tunnels in place of corridors and doors.
Throughout overworld travel, the same unavoidable random encounters occur as while traversing the dungeons. These battles take place on the deck of the airship and are otherwise identical to their dungeon-based counterparts. Later in the game, however, an advanced mechanism is discovered for the player's ship which allows it to rise above the upper cloud layer and sink below the lower cloud layer of Arcadia, presenting two ways to avoid these encounters. In addition, ship-to-ship combat can occur whilst travelling through the overworld; however, the majority of these are unavoidable boss fights which advance the storyline. Random ship-to-ship battles can occur, but they are rare and avoidable.
The player can also find Discoveries hidden throughout the world while flying their airship. Information about discoveries can be sold at Sailor's Guilds located in cities throughout the game; the value of a discovery is determined by how well-hidden it is, and falls over time. When finding a new land, a discovery is recorded. This will happen without pressing the action button, as these Discoveries are part of the quest.
[edit] Battle System
Combat occurs very frequently in Skies of Arcadia, especially during the overworld travel. This is widely accepted as one of the main weaknesses of the game, since due to the large amount of encounters the player characters level up too quickly and make the rest of the game less of a challenge. It is not until late in the game that it becomes possible to avoid combat during overworld travel. Combat comprises two vastly different settings: those encountered in ship to ship combat, and character to monster combat. Ship to ship combat occurs relatively rarely compared to the common character-combat.
[edit] Character Combat
Character combat occurs between two to four player characters and one to eight monsters or NPCs. Combat comprises of seven main options; 'Run', 'Inventory', 'Guard', 'Attack', 'S.Move' (Super Move), 'Magic' and 'Focus'. An eighth option becomes available later in the game by meeting certain criteria. As with all RPGs, using these in an effective combination can make victory almost certain.
[edit] Ship Combat
Ship combat obeys the same framework as character combat with a few distinct differences. Ship combat is the format used when battling other ships and the extremely powerful gigas that are summoned throughout the game. Each round in ship combat is divided into four moves. The player is informed of the approximate amount of fire the ship will come under during each move of the following two turns allowing advance planning of which combat strategy to use. During ship combat, neither team has more than a single move advantage over the opposition. The strategy screen for ship combat displays many of the same options as the character combat screen.
[edit] Storyline
The story begins with a young Silvite named Fina sailing through the skies in her tiny Silvite ship. Not far behind her, Alfonso is chasing in his Imperial warship under orders from Lord Galcian. Alfonso opens fire on and disables Fina's ship. Just as her ship is being towed in by Alfonso, a Blue Rogue ship comes to save the day. Vyse and Aika of the Blue Rogues jump from the Albatross onto the Cygnus, Alfonso's warship. Vyse and Aika battle their way through and eventually catch up with Alfonso, who is holding Fina captive. Just as they are about to capture him he escapes but leaves Fina behind. Vyse and Aika bring Fina back to Dyne's ship, the Albatross. After Fina explains what happened to her, Vyse pilots the Albatross back to the appropriately named 'Pirate's Island'.
As they are watching the sunset, the pair of young pirates along with their new found friend see a meteor fall from the skies onto a distant island. The next day Vyse and Aika go to Shrine Island where the meteor landed to investigate if what they saw was in fact a very powerful moonstone. After retrieving the moonstone, a source of power for air ships, the pair return to Pirate's Island to find that their secret hideout has been obliterated by a large Imperial fleet. Fina, Dyne and many others have been captured by the Imperial Armada and from here the main quest begins. Vyse and Aika embark on an epic quest to rescue their friends not knowing what they are getting into.
After leaving Pirate Island, Vyse and Aika are caught in a whirlwind and their ship is destroyed. Luckily they are rescued by the mean but good-hearted fisherman Drachma. They manage to convince Drachma to take them to the Imperial City where their friends are being held. After rescuing their friends and making a miracle escape from the Imperial City (a feat which had never been accomplished before) the Blue Rogues return to Pirate's Island. Later this evening, Fina admits the real reason she is here and explains why the Empire would go to such trouble in order to capture her.
At this point Fina joins the party and along with Vyse and Aika the trio set out to recover the six moon crystals. These crystals are an extremely concentrated form of moonstone and instead of powering ships, they are used to control gargantuan monsters with incredible destructive power called gigas. Along their journey, the trio meet Gilder and Enrique who aid in their quest and also stumble upon a desert island called Crescent Island which is gradually built up into a base for Vyse and his team. After recovering all six Moon Crystals, the party returns to Crescent Isle to celebrate.
As Vyse and Aika bid their final farewells to Fina the island is attacked by Ramirez, a corrupted member of the ancient Silvite race. Stealing all six of the moon crystals, Ramirez heads to Shrine Island and using the six moon crystals, raises from the deep sea the ancient and magnificent Silvite city of Soltis. Heading into Soltis in pursuit of Ramirez, all of Vyse's friends and enemies alike see how desperate the situation is and aid the Blue Rogues in defeating him but leave him alive as an act of mercy. Ramirez uses his last living breath to combine his living body with the power of the moon crystals and becomes Zelos, the silver gigas.
Even after being defeated by the Delphinus, Zelos crashes onto the deck of the Delphinus and removes his shell to reveal a barely living Ramirez, possessed and corrupted by the silver moon crystal. Defeating this final boss is the end of the game, and a lengthy celebration begins after saving the world from the evil Ramirez.
[edit] Characters
- Main articles: List of Skies of Arcadia characters and Skies of Arcadia things and events.
[edit] Party
Throughout the game the protagonist, Vyse, is the character that is actually controlled by the player. Vyse and Aika, the female lead, are permanent members of a four character party. At various stages, the player can pick up one, and only one, of the secondary characters. At some points the player has a choice which of these to use, but often it is compulsory for the party to contain a certain secondary character. A short way through the game, Fina changes from a storyline-only role to a playable character.
At one point in the game the four character party is split in two, with Vyse + Gilder and Aika + Fina being the pairs. This part of the game presents an unusual challenge as the various strengths and weaknesses of the characters are unable to complement each other. The two primary damage dealing characters (Vyse and Gilder) are paired together, with little magical ability, and the two primary magic characters (Aika and Fina) are paired, with little damage ability.
At various stages in the game Fina, Gilder, Drachma and Enrique are added and removed from the character pool. This is usually done forcibly, however near the end of the game the player can choose which of the three characters to choose from.
[edit] Main player characters
For the voice actors, JP indicates the Japanese voice actor, and EN indicates the English voice actor.
- Vyse: 17 year old boy, Blue Rogue (Air Pirate that only attacks armed vessels larger than their own ships, in particular those of the Valuan Armada). Vyse has a highly upbeat personality and refuses to give up. Vyse fights with twin cutlasses, one primarily used in offence and one for extra defense. Vyse's magic is relatively weak compared to that of Aika and Fina, but his physical attacks are the second strongest in the game (after Drachma's). His super-moves often become a staple in boss battles.
- Aika: 17 year old girl. Vyse's close friend since childhood and fellow Blue Rogue. Aika has a strong personality and easily inflamed temper. Aika fights using an oversized boomerang. Aika balances her high speed and respectable attack strength with fairly strong magic. Aika becomes mostly used for buffs and items rather than attacking enemies. Her Super Moves are best used to destroy large numbers of common enemies at once.
- Fina: 17 year old girl, "Silvite" (survivor of the ancient, defunct Silver Civilization). Fina is sweet-natured and demure, like many typical love interest characters in RPGs, but her sweet nature hides an iron will. Fina's pet, a silver ball-like creature named Cupil, fights for her. Cupil can morph into various shapes, and gains power by eating Chams, Moon Stone shards that are hidden throughout the game. His most powerful form is Final Cupil, although it required a download in the Dreamcast version in order to get the final cham. She has very strong magic powers, and her super moves are very useful when fighting bosses like Galcian, Ramirez, and Piastol, for their healing abilities.
[edit] Secondary player characters
- Drachma: A maimed man in his early 70s. Drachma has a mechanical arm replacing his right arm, which he uses as a weapon in battle sequences. His obsession with hunting the purple arcwhale Rhaknam (Mobys in the Japanese game in a homage to Moby-Dick) leads him to search the skies. Drachma is the captain of the small fishing airship, Little Jack. He travels with Vyse and the others for part of the game, and pretends not to care about them, but he shows up just in time to save them quite a few times.
- Gilder: A rakishly handsome man in his early 30s. Gilder wears a pince-nez and uses a pistol as his weapon. Gilder is the captain of the light, swift pirate vessel Claudia. He has a parrot named Willy, who can be helpful when Gilder needs to break out of jail cells.
- Enrique: 25 years old, Enrique is the Crown Prince of the Valuan Empire, but disagrees strongly with the imperialist policies of his mother, Empress Teodora I. The name of his father is unknown. Enrique uses rapiers as his weapon in battle. He joins the party and gives Vyse his flagship, the Delphinus, when he escapes Valua with Vyse, Aika and Fina.
[edit] Antagonists
The Blue Rogue's sworn enemy, The Valuan Empire, continually hunt Vyse and Aika throughout the game. The Valuan Empire is ruled by the Empress Teodora I, but the real power lies with the Lord Admiral Galcian. Galcians five deputies; Alfonso (First Admiral), Gregorio, Vigoro, Belleza, De Loco (Fifth Admiral) each have a distinct personality, which is personified in their highly unique ships. Amongst themselves they are silently competing for promotion at the expense of the others, especially Alfonso, who thinks he should be Lord Admiral instead of Galcian. Galcian's Vice-Captain Ramirez later becomes the Sixth Admiral of the Valuan Armada and has a mysterious connection to Fina.
In addition, a significant amount of less sinister adversaries confront the player throughout the game, including Captain Baltor, leader of the Black Pirates, a faction which robs any ship it sees, and his second in command Gordo the Round, an extremely obese pirate who plunders any ship in sight in search of food. Several more enemy factions are included in the Gamecube version, amongst which are Vize, Anita and Faina, a nasty trio who impersonate the three main characters and try to ruin their reputation.
[edit] Reviews and critical reception
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Skies of Arcadia was well received by most game reviewers. IGN gave the game a 9.2, praising it for its "solid overall visuals, lively and appealing characters, excellent use of camera angles, and some of the coolest mechanical designs for the airships". [1] At Gamerankings, it currently ranks in the top 10 highest scoring Dreamcast games, with an average score of 90.3%.
Lacking any highly rated single player RPG's, Skies of Arcadia filled a hole in the Dreamcast's lineup. As such, Skies of Arcadia is generally rated higher amongst its owners than by the press. Skies of Arcadia debuted with a one-hour playable demo in games magazines. To this date, Skies of Arcadia is held by most reviewers as the best RPG to ever be released on the Dreamcast.
The game has received acclaim for its advanced battle system and unique fighting style. Like most RPG's, Skies of Arcadia involved the usual attack, defence and healing components. In addition, further strategy was incorporated into the game through the use of the Elements system. By equipping the right element color against a given enemy, the player could effectively increase the delivered damage. For instance, equipping the fire element against an ice enemy would deliver greater damage. The use of Spirit Points to deliver special moves is also a notable addition to the battle system. Each round a number of spirit points are made available in order to use magic abilities or character-specific special moves. Later on in the game, two 'super' abilities become available by filling the spirit meter completely. These moves unleash a devastating amount of damage to the enemy, but forfeits the player's turn.
One major complaint about the game was the high rate of random encounter-based battles, which made traveling from location to location somewhat testing on the player's patience. This was fixed to a degree in the GameCube version of the game, Skies of Arcadia Legends, the director's cut version which also added some new content and improved graphics. Some players add that the ship battles take too long and distract the player from enjoying game play, however, no such complaints have been made for the common random encounter-based battles. The game was successful enough that it was re-released in Q2 2004 in Japan, which vouched for a similar release in North America on January 27, 2003.
[edit] Skies of Arcadia Legends
Unlike Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast, Gamecube did not use most of the external hardware (e.g. Jump Pack, VMU, etc.) to let players know when many treasures or events were about to occur. It only had an optional rumble pack. Some use of external hardware in the Dreamcast version is that when a battle was about to begin, the Dreamcast's GD-ROM drive would spin loudly just beforehand, allowing players to jump to the Status Screen to make any last minute adjustments a split second before the battle began. The Jump Pack would also rumble a split second before a battle began. Moreover, with an official Sega VMU, Cupil would cause it to beep whenever there was a Cham in the area. He would also appear on the VMU screen to guide players to its exact location. Since the GameCube version has no VMU, Cupil would instead start making a "Pyu!" sound and appear as an icon in the corner of the screen when the player was on top of a Cham. Finally, the rate of random encounters is slightly lower on the Gamecube version.
There are no significant graphical differences between the two versions; even the texture LOD bias remains the same despite the GameCube's more powerful texturing abilities. However the Gamecube does make use of its improved hardware to reduce saving and loading times. In addition, the GameCube version does not require the use of a second disc, whereas the Dreamcast version does. However, in order to fit on the smaller Gamecube disc, the music in Skies of Arcadia Legends is of a lower recording quality than the Dreamcast version. Many owners acknowledge this, and feel it's a detriment when the quality of the recordings are compared to the original Dreamcast version.
[edit] New Content
Twenty-four new discoveries are to be made in Legends compared to the original. These are scattered around the game and reduce the difficulty somewhat as they act as a very large source of income for the player. In addition a potential lookout, Domingo, can be recruited earlier. Another alteration between the two versions is the inclusion of Moonfish and a ship flying near Sailor's Island flown by a doctor - Doc and a young girl named Maria. Maria has a pet bird, which turns out to be a Hamachou. Moonfish, fish which are invisible to the naked eye, are placed throughout the game for the player to collect. In addition to a very distinct noise that moonfish make, Vyse is able to see them moonfish with a special adjustment to his headgear. When returning these moonfish to the Doc, Maria's bird begins to grow, and eventually it turns into a fully grown Hamchou.
The main difference between the version is Piastol, a goth-dressed woman who hunts air pirates. Also known as "The Angel of Death". She is after Vyse because she mistakenly believes that he killed her father Admiral Mendoza of Valua 10 Years before the story began. One night, her father's ship the Aquila was on fire. Dyne's Blue Rogues saw the ship aflame and staged a rescue mission to find survivors. However, Piastol thought it was they who set the ship on fire and attacked the first person she saw, which was Aika. Aika came unarmed thinking it was a rescue mission, so Vyse defended her from Piastol's throwing knife and got a scar on his cheek which remains to this day. When Mendoza's corpse was found and examined, it turns out it was a sword wound that killed him instead of the fire. From then on Piastol planned to avenge her father's death by hunting down any and all air pirates. It is later revealed that Piastol is Maria's older sister, who was traumatized by the same incident and believed her sister to be dead. Piastol is armed with a scythe and Eterni spells, along with a Deathhound at her side. She has the Super Move Tempest Dance, which becomes longer and more deadly each time Vyse and company fight her. Piastol appears in Skies of Arcadia: Legends as part of a side quest, not in the Dreamcast version.
Another major addition to the Legends version is the inclusion of a wanted list, with large bounties to be rewarded when the player defeats any of these foes. Whilst some of the NPC's on the wanted list are present in the original, most of them are entirely new to the GameCube version. As with the new discoveries, the wanted list provides another major source of income for the player. The "wanted list" boss battles are markedly more difficult than the rest of the game (including the other boss battles), partly because they 'level up' when the player characters do, meaning that they will be consistantly difficult .
[edit] External links
- Eternal Arcadia at the Internet Movie Database
- Overworks' Official Site (Japanese)
- Skies of Arcadia Fansite at rpggenesis.co.uk
