Current Events > Is Skies of Arcadia really that good?

(+) Yeah! (+)

According to the PotD, more people want a Switch port for SoA than Metroid Prime, which is a perfect game, imo.

Some people swear by it...I tried playing it several times back on the GameCube and was so bored to tears with it that I never finished the first dungeon.
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I would buy a Switch just to play Skies of Arcadia again.
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Yes. The world and story is so incredibly immersive. Combat is average. The GameCube remake added a bunch of side quests and toned down the encounter rate. I think a modern remake should make some changes to the combat (keep it turn-based), replace random encounters with visible overworld enemies, and make Drachma and Gilder viable for endgame. The end game combat just boils down to charging up your team super move with Enrique.
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People complain about the random battles, but it's usually not that bad. I only remember one time in the game where it was really annoying (trying to make it to Ixa'taka's area through that windy-ass corridor). As for the rest, it's great music, cast, dialogue, setting, entertainment, etc.
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Cruising around in your airship finding discoveries is one of the coolest things Ive done in an RPG.
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radical rhino posted...

Cruising around in your airship finding discoveries is one of the coolest things Ive done in an RPG.

Plus you get your own fucking port and can recruit crew members who all contribute to special attacks you can activate during ground combat.

It was a fucking amazing game, only thing that sucked about it on Dreamcast was the massive amount of random encounters. Kind of off-set by the fact that it had a fucking minigame on the VMU so you could farm money and items while you were away from home.
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radical rhino posted...

Cruising around in your airship finding discoveries is one of the coolest things Ive done in an RPG.

pretty much this, I played it on the Dreamcast and was blown away by how cool it was

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It's okay. I ran through the gamecube version out of nostalgia for the original, and it was more of a history lesson on how game design has evolved, rather than being fun on its own merits. The highlight is definitely the world design; they maintain the illusion of an open world quite well, very impressive for a fully 3D overworld and the technical limitations of the time. They took full advantage of it, too, with the exploration for treasures and unmarked locations easily being the best part of the game. The aesthetic is a neat take on typical anime and nautical fare, with weird buildings, flora, fauna, weapons, and ships that make a degree of sense for what they do or the environments they inhabit.

Plot is super generic: Evil Megacorp is doing Bad Things, and we're the Cool Rebels who will stop them! You've seen it and the characters (spunky sidekick girl, quiet healer princess, etc) a billion times, and there's not much nuance to differentiate them as characters, although, again, the designs are mostly neat.

Combat is a weak spot with a saving grace. The element system is entirely redundant once you figure out the weaknesses and strengths, and all the abilities are things you've seen before as far as buffs and attack types, but the combo meter for super moves is a good, functional novelty; it can make annoying fights go fast, and you really do have to think about how to apply it to beat some bosses.

AAand I suddenly have to go, more later maybe!
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I beat it several times on Dreamcast

It was phenomenal, especially in 2001
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radical rhino posted...

Yes. The world and story is so incredibly immersive. Combat is average. The GameCube remake added a bunch of side quests and toned down the encounter rate. I think a modern remake should make some changes to the combat (keep it turn-based), replace random encounters with visible overworld enemies, and make Drachma and Gilder viable for endgame. The end game combat just boils down to charging up your team super move with Enrique.

Yeah, the music, characters and world are why the game became such a classic. Although most other aspects of the game hadn't aged well like the random encounter system that was old and dispised even back then. And a combat system that's initially fun and engaging but by endgame just boils down to a repetitive spam fest. With Vyse being your sole attacker and everyone playing support.
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Penta Quest on the VMU
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Im not a big JRPG person. I can probably count on both hands the amount of them Ive beaten. SoA is in that list and I loved it.

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The random battles are far too cumbersome, but for my part I enjoyed the rest of the game so much that I got past them. Everything else about it is cool as fuck.
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I had it for GameCube about 4 years ago. I liked it enough to beat it but it was very average compared to other games I played from that time, and it aged terribly.

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Yes!
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The game is charming, but the random encounter rate and battle system haven't aged well.

It was pretty close for me between SoAL and MP.

Here's the post where I explain why I voted SoAL:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/537506-skies-of-arcadia-legends/78013350/927427089

sylverlolol posted...

Some people swear by it...I tried playing it several times back on the GameCube and was so bored to tears with it that I never finished the first dungeon.

The first dungeon is awful. Should have stuck through it. They tried for the FF7 small world -> big world intro, and it just didn't work for SoA at all. They neglected to make the small world interesting too.
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Evening_Dragon posted...

You've seen it and the characters (spunky sidekick girl, quiet healer princess, etc) a billion times

This is true, but execution is important too. Making the main party totally flat characters was a really odd decision, but it worked well because they have it all figured out from the start, they're paired with a series of very round characters, and in particular, in a video game, you really want to relate to the main heroes as your own avatar.

Another example is that even though Galcian is a total wise, collected Ep5 Vader archetype villain, they did such a good job of distilling his dialog to what really matters and keeping him constantly in control that he's one of my favorite villains from any medium anyway.
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It's fantastic i beat it like 4-5 years ago


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Gamecube version is the better version but I found it an average game. I'd much rather they remake Baten Kaitos 1&2 those games were magical

LadyVyxx posted...

Baten Kaitos 1

I liked that game but that one dungeon at the Imperial capital was so damn long I wanted to die.
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there was a combo meter in SoA?