|
By Michael Robinson on December 18th, 2001
Introduction Fly the Skies of Arcadia (dat wuz cheezy fo’ sheezy) in Overwork’s contribution to the slim selection RPGs for Dreamcast. The lead characters, Vyse and Aika, are part of a group of righteous air pirates know as Blue Rogues, and will unknowingly be pulled into the adventure of their lives, but is it any good?Presentation Niiiiiiiiiiiiice. Great interface, equipping is extra-easy, and it has a nice, "piratey" feel to it. I didn’t have any problems what so ever going through menus quickly and efficiently to select/equip items. Its a snap, I never had to look into the manual to find any options buried beneath other options, and everything is pretty much self-explanatory.Graphics & Sound All around excellent. The dungeons and towns are very smooth and very well texured, some of the best I’ve seen on Dreamcast. The magic and special attacks during battle are filled with eye candy, giving the game more than a damn good reason for the seizure and epilepse warning shown before the game loads.And one of the most interesting visual features of Skies are the facial expressions. Though the game has very little actual speech (characters only speak to make noises or say two-word scentences),you can still tell exactly what they are feeling in the dialogue thrugh the facial expressions on the characters. Even in battle, if the characters are worn out or injured, it is acutely displayed through their expression and posture. I have almost no complaints with the game’s audio. The music is beautifully orchestrated, one of the best soundtracks in gaming, too bad I can’t find the soundtrack anywhere (if you know where to fnd it, contact me!) Each dungeon has its own music that fits the look and mood. The only complant I have is the voice acting, like I said before, there is very little, but for some of the characters, it just plain sucks. Not enough of a problem to warrant great annoyance though, its ignorable. Gameplay This is where the game becomes a mixed bag for me. The story itself isn’t too great, to be honest, its almost like they ripped off of Final Fantasy 6, excpet not as good. And character development? Almost not existant, only two characters I can think of develop at all, other than that, everyone else stays pretty much the same through the whole thing. The battle system is also pretty standard, and often random battles will become tiresome, partly because of the battle system, and partly because of the shear number of them in some areas. But still, the game was undenyably fun. Sure, the seemingly endless battles were annoying, but I was pulled to see what the hell I would face at the end of each dungeon. Sure, the story wasn’t too great, but the the appeal of the characters and the lands still left to explore kept me going.
You could even discover new landforms, creatrues, and anomolies and sell the information of their discovery. I wanted to search through the game and find everything I could, even going back after I beat the game and spending a hours searching for every last discovery, and I had fun doing it, which is the most important thing. An RPG can have the best story, graphics, and musical score of all time, but if it isn’t fun, what is it worth? Lasting Appeal The characters themselves are cookie-cutter, they are still charismatic and appealing. You even have chances to dictate what Vyse will say at some moments, which in turn will either get you praised by your party, or cursed at and called a moron.Finding all the discoveries, treasure chests, and getting Cupil to his maximum level are the things that will keep you comming back to Skies even after you are done. If you are just looking for a fun and strangely appealing RPG, Skies fits your bill. Conclusion Though there are many errors that would spell certain doom for any other RPG, Skies of Arcadia’s appeal pulls it through and makes it one of the best RPGs released during the Dreamcast’s lifespan. Now go buy it. Now. Dammit, I said now! |
