This is an older review which I originally wrote quite some time ago, I have edited it somewhat but it is still intended to be a review of the original Dreamcast version of the game.
Until the release of Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2 had been the only decent RPG on the Dreamcast; this had left a few people wondering when another good one would finally come along. Thankfully, Skies of Arcadia more than fit the bill. The game is set in the strange world of Arcadia where ships sail the skies, and everyone lives on a multitude of different islands, overlooked by many different-coloured moons. Each moon has a different element that can be used in battle to your advantage: these are the red (fire), blue (water & wind), purple (ice), yellow (lightning) green (healing magic) and silver (revival and status curing properties). The world of Arcadia is vast and covered with apparent dangers, sky rifts, black pirates and even worse the Valuans. This dastardly bunch are after the six moon crystals, so that they can wake the Gigas, a bunch of huge man-made beasts constructed just for destruction – and as you’re a Blue Rogue, a noble space pirate, it’s your duty to stop those filthy gits from doing so.
You play Vyse, the son of Dyne, a well respected Blue Rogue captain who has his own ship. You hang around with Aika, a tomboy who will follow Vyse anywhere because they have known and trusted each other for ages. Now to the good stuff: the story starts off when you see a funny-looking ship being attacked by none other than Alfonso, one of the Valuan generals, who seems to be after the uniquely-dressed girl who was piloting the ship. You rescue her and find out that she’s a Silvite – a descendant of the silver civilisation. Her name is Fina and she has come to collect each of the moon crystals before Valua manage to find them: one from each part of the world, a crystal for each moon. Along the way you meet quite a few characters, including Drachma the rusty old pirate who is on a mission to chase and kill an Arcwhale that wronged him in the past, and Gilder who is probably the coolest guy in the whole game, he can do anything… with style. Many other characters and crew members are also there to be discovered: try and find them all!
Moving onto the battle system, it’s pretty good too: you get a certain amount of spirit points, depending on your level, per turn and those points let you use magic or a super move. This is kind of like Final Fantasy’s limit break but not as powerful or as impressive. Some of the effects may give you a bit of a headache though; you’ll see why once you play it. The element colour of your weapon can also be changed so that you can do more damage by changing to the opposite element. The battles are a standard turn-based affair; you level up as you would in any other RPG. But that’s only half the battle system, as you also get to fight with your ships. Here, you get four turns to attack in; you can defend, focus (that gives your party a small spirit point boost), attack (with either a normal cannon, a torpedo or harpoon cannon), use your crew (each crew member has a different ability), magic, item and run. Each attack uses a certain amount of spirit points and depending on the person that fires it, you’ll do either less or more damage, depending on the character who fired the cannon.
The graphics are pretty admirable too. It’s not the newest game so don’t expect Xbox-standard graphics, the polygon count isn’t too high, for instance, but they are still great. Unlike Final Fantasy, Skies of Arcadia doesn’t rely on fancy over-the-top FMV to wow the player: there is no FMV at all, only cut scenes that look exactly the same as the in-game graphics. Everything is polished off and there aren’t many jagged edges. Even the food is nicely detailed, and the characters look pretty nice (especially Gilder). Just wait until you see some of the locations, the Ice city especially; it’s got nice shiny surfaces and patterns on practically everything. It all looks cold and icy just like it should. The monsters which you fight are quite well done but the ships are just astounding: they look fabulous flying through the clouds and when the sun and all the rays hit them it looks pretty realistic.
The music is all the usual RPG stuff – quite orchestral. Now, I don’t know much about music but I do know that this is the stuff I like: the music is one of the most important bits in a game because it sets the scene and if you have fast-moving music for a sorrowful scene it just won’t work. Skies of Arcadia manages to have brilliant music throughout, from soft ballads to fast “move otherwise we’re going to die” music. It’s a fitting and varied soundtrack which is almost as memorable as the characters themselves; during the game there are many cultures that you visit so the music changes to match the style and mood. The sound effects are adequate, though they don’t really stand out that much. They’re not dreadful but they’re not magnificent either. The only thing that should have been changed about the music and sound is the voice acting: it’s not even really worthy of the name, it’s just an annoyingly-placed word or so here or there that really doesn’t fit in.
The game is also quite lengthy. It’s not overly hard though some bits can be a bit annoying when you have to repeat the same battle over and over. It’ll easily take you fifty or more hours to complete and that’s if you only do half the stuff in the game. There’s so much to do, like finding all the discoveries around the world. Once you get immersed in this game, you had better take a big breath because it’ll be a long time before you stop playing.
So there it is: one of the finest RPGs on the Dreamcast, an astonishing game that creates a unique atmosphere way up high in the skies, a game about war, power, struggle and most of all determination. A truly classic game with only a few niggles here and there that prevent it from getting a perfect 10. It’s a game to be played by everyone who owns a Dreamcast; nobody should shun this game.
Released in 1987 Sign ‘O’ The Times showcases the talents of an artist at his peak both creatively and musically.
