"Cheap Dreamcast Port" may be your first thoughts when you hear about Skies, but that would most likely only be if you haven’t played this title. Finding an RPG fan that does NOT like Skies of Arcadia may be just as hard as finding a legitimate bad review for it. How can it compete with the Dreamcast counterpart with a down sampled music rate and no Pinta’s quest? Well folks, read on and find out why this is one of those must-haves, no matter which console of choice is yours.

Presentation
Same old great looking menus, which are now faster, you’re thrown right into the story, which helps it from seeming like an overly-long intro. The intro cut-scene, like its Dreamcast counterpart, is almost like an intro to a movie. Very dramatic, yet upbeat and stylish. You can’t help but love it. You’re also quickly introduced to the characters, which are so unique in every way; it seems as if Sega did research on some real people. They all have their own styles, ways of talking; even movements and facial expressions are unique. The first improvements you may notice if you did have the original, is the semi-free flowing hair and clothing, for such a minor detail, it sure adds a lot of effect. The Dreamcast had a little, but not to the extent you could tell which way the wind was blowing.

Another one of the first things you may notice is the sound quality of the battle music is slightly lowered, personally I can only notice this if my sound is turned up, but if you’re a sound buff, I’m sure you’ll notice it easily. Yet even though it’s been down sampled, it’s still stunningly beautiful and intricate music. Brilliant Overworks, brilliant. If you’re real finicky, you may also notice while lots of textures and character models have been upgraded, they tend to clash (Though VERY slightly) with poorer quality ones. Read on and get some more details.

Graphics
A little over 2 years old and this game still manages to shine above many new titles, incredible. The world is gigantic and filled with everything you can imagine a world in the sky would have. There ARE NO INVISIBLE BARRIERS IN THE SKY! Now I won’t spoil why there’s not, but just as with the first, eventually you get the world expanded even more, so don’t e-mail me trying to prove me wrong until you’ve beaten the game. The world, as I said, is huge, but I do have some problems.

For instance, "sky rifts" and "stone reefs" are flat pictures, mixed with a few (Okay, a lot) of little fully rendered rocks, this is fine and all until you see it from the top or a side angle. Another problem is "texture building." Remember this "problem" on the Star Destroyers in Star Wars: Rogue Leader? As you get closer, you see more detail. Well, with Star Wars it seemed more like a special effect. But here, it’s a problem. This annoying little graphics glitch builds at least three different shades of blurry texture at once in a very small place, like a stone catwalk for instance. It’s not always visible, but when you see it, it does kill some effect.

Another problem I have is low quality facial models; sure, they’re anime-ish, right? Wrong, I’m fine with that, it’s the fact that it looks like a face from Animal Crossing still that’s the problem. Is it so hard to make some high resolution gifs for the faces? Instead of these terrible pixilated monstrosities? Shame, Overworks, shame!

Now don’t think I have nothing good to say. In fact, I have plenty!

The ups are listed below.

Incredible animation, outside of battle, in battle is another story. But outside of battle animations are hardly ever re-used and seem very lifelike, the characters are always doing something different, whether a back flip to escape the blade of an enemy or a quick turn to a slamming door. Or maybe boarding an enemy ship using a rope from your mast to their deck? It’s breath-taking the time they took here.

Now let’s not forget special effects. Overworks threw in many, from flying blue backgrounds straight from any Japanese cartoon right down to a tunnel of blue light with insane amounts of lightning entering your character’s weapon, they spares no expense here. Although a small few do present a miniscule amount of slowdown if there are many characters and enemies on screen, but hardly enough to complain about. The ships also look great, and for the most part, are all even unique. Everything from the detail on a sail, to the speed of a rotor.

The character models are still unique for EVERY SINGLE person (Minus the guild masters and guards), but some of them have a slightly lower quality than others, so if you’re looking closely, they stand out a bit more.

Now, we’ve talked about textures, and character models and special effects and what-not, but how are they on par with other GameCube games? For lots, they’re right up there, and for some others, they’re far behind. Instead of describing it, how about your look at the screen shots I’ve provided at the bottom of this review, and a tip: It looks like a very good Dreamcast game.

Sound/Audio
Incredible. Now, the sound is slightly lower quality than the Dreamcast version, but that does not stop it from being amazing. The battle music seems less overdone thanks to less battles, the music out of battles is great and each place, as usual, as unique music, as does every event. The characters have little sound bytes that play every so often, while some are kind of cheesy, most are just to express emotion or drama. The sounds of ships flying by, the clicking of wooden "engines" and such are all very convincing. Everything from the booming sound of thunder to the light footsteps on many different grounds, it’s all convincing.

Gameplay
Once again, amazing. There are many puzzles, ranging from "Hey! Indiana Jones!" to "Hey! I can’t figure this out without a guide!" The flying around in airships is also great, so much freedom. The battles are a lot faster paced now then the Dreamcast version, plus they load 10 fold faster. And occur a lot less frequently, I applaud Overworks for this decision. As it really does make a huge difference. The dungeons are hardly tedious, as there aren’t very many compared to everything else you do, so it never actually gets old. It all stays very fresh.

The control is rock solid and no problem in response. Sometimes you may try to guide yourself through the menus a little to fast though, so be careful that you don’t get too arrogant, as the control mistakes here are typically by human error. Also, finding all the chams to get Cupil, Fina’s weapon/pet, to his final form. Something very powerful. Although his final form has been weakened severely since the Dreamcast version (Dreamcast= 500 Attack Gamecube= 300 Attack) it still packs quite a punch, so search everywhere for these little things. Moonfish also get you something rather nice, don’t skip out on searching everywhere for these, it’s very easy to miss them, so look for them from every point of a level, because obstacles usually block the way.

In Skies, the game is just plain fun to play. It’s very upbeat and lighthearted, while at the same time keeping an urgent tone in you. It’s a sigh of relief from the darker genre, without straying too far into Super Happy Fun Farm Land. Chances are, you won’t miss out if you get this game, and I suggest you at the VERY least give it a rent, RPG fan or not.

Lasting Appeal
For me, a Skies veteran who has beaten the original exactly 15 times in the past two years, and knows the game top to bottom, it still took me 73 hours. Sure I’m busy a lot, but the timer stops when you access a menu. The game is very long, and very satisfying. When they said they were going to add 10 hours of extra gameplay, they were not lying; the Pistol battles, the moonfish and the wanted list will take you at LEAST that. Very good extras. You might even come back for a second round to make sure you’re as good as me, 537 battles, 2,185 enemies defeated, and I didn’t run once. (As of 6:05 P.M. PST on February 10, 2003 of course. But now I’m just spewing out random babble.) Tired of short games? Here’s your cure. Tired of no RPGs? Here’s you cure. Tired of Leukemia? Uhhh, never mind. Sorry.

Conclusion
As excellent as it’s ever been, but better. A must-buy for almost any RPG gamer, you will not be let down with this game. Pick it up and love it. One of my favorite games ever, and the number one game ever of many. Go for it, and pick this puppy up.