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Formerly a Dreamcast gem, Skies of Arcadia Legends improves upon the award-winning game engine with longer quests and slightly improved graphic
November 15, 2003 | 10:00 PM PSTby: Ray Almeda
There wasn’t a turn-based RPG until now. Skies of Arcadia: Legends is the answer to every RPG fan that owns a GameCube. That is, of course, unless you played the Dreamcast version. Previously a Dreamcast-only RPG in 2001, Sega’s exclusive Overworks have taken the time port the game’s stellar gameplay over to the Nintendo GameCube. Even better, this GameCube version has some new gameplay features that the original Dreamcast title never had.
Chances are that most casual gamers haven’t played the original Skies of Arcadia. Having said that, they’re missing a lot. The Overworks-developed RPG is a mix of real-time exploration and turn-based battle sequences. Just like typical RPGs, Skies of Arcadia finds one hero slaying groups of enemies, gaining experience to earn levels, gathering a weird currency of some sort to buy weapons and items, all in all to accomplish a near-impossible task.
SoK’s lead character, Vyse and his female companion, Aika, start their adventure on one of evil Valuan’s ships to take it over and steal some loot. Similar to the Robin Hood stories, Vyse and Aika are part of this group called the Blue Rogues, which in turn, give their stolen money and property from the corrupted rich over to the poor. The quest starts taking a wide turn as Vyse finds out that Fina, a young girl, has been taken captive. Saving her opens the whole world to Vyse in a new aspect. As for the rest, you’ll have to play the game to understand the story fully, and an awesome story it is.
The battles within the game take place in turn-based fashion in ground and air battles, airship duels, and real-time 3D exploration. The battle system allows you to do the regular actions that a normal RPG allows you to do: using items, running, guarding, attacking any enemy, and casting magic. Some new elements within the system include special attack and “focus,” which charges up your attack for the next turn and increases your accuracy. The more and more you attack an enemy, the more spirit points you earn. These spirit points are used to create that powerful special attack. However, special attacks don’t come cheap. You’ll have to find items called Moonberries, found in treasure chests or even enemies. These moonberries allow you to enter your menu screen and “purchase” a special attack. The berries, however, are very rare. Be patient though. Every special attack side by side comes with a dramatic cinematic display of energy explosions and powerful hits. Considering the time when this game was released, these special effects look great.
The magic system, like most RPGs, relies on the display on elemental powers, such as earth, fire, water, and wind. Although traditional, the way that you learn the spells are one of the most unique aspects of Skies of Arcadia Legends. The whole process revolves around the moonstone “process.” Green moonstones are for health-related spells, red for fire, purple for ice, blue for water, etc. Moonstones are tied into the weapons of each character, hence giving each of them specific elemental attributes. Now, you can change a weapon’s attribute anytime during a fight. Characters earn points for each element you used, including on how long you used it. This adds a rare strategy effect within the battles. So basically, characters need to change elemental attributes to their weapons when they see a weakness in the “elemental factor” of their enemies.
The bosses in Skies of Arcadia: Legends are certainly no means easy. Like all RPGs, players will be required to level up before each battle as each boss battle in particular contains several signature attacks and moves that are pretty devastating. That being said, Skies of Arcadia Legends aren’t for RPG amateurs. If you haven’t played a Final Fantasy game in your life, you might have trouble getting into the later levels.
The airship duels in Skies of Arcadia can be described in one word: hectic. These battles add that bit of required diversity that most RPG battles don’t have anymore these days. Basically, it’s your ship’s cannons against your foes in a Battleship style battle mechanic. You can use your evasive maneuvers to dodge cannon fire, fire your main obviously or, focusing on spirit points, which charge up even a more powerful cannon. Spirit points are usually the main focus of these battles. When an enemy opens itself for attack, and your spirit points aren’t yet full, it forms that loophole that questions why you even took a turn in increasing your spirit points for a more powerful attack. This airship duel aspect of the game is where the most strategy is necessary. Although these battles are far and few because they are air-scripted events, they are very entertaining in their very own nature and one of the most unique aspects in Skies of Arcadia Legends.
The exploration aspect of Skies of Arcadia will be very familiar to fans of the older titles in the Final Fantasy series, because of its emphasis on airships. You’ll be able to manage your own crew as well as sail across the skies looking for that one wanted pirate. Walking around towns and such have that Zelda-like feel, because of its emphasis on small puzzles. These vessels of gameplay are certainly not high-caliber because of the reiteration we’ve seen of these gameplay elements in the past, but they’re interesting, and that’s what counts right?
Some minor details in Skies of Arcadia also help this game in its high-quality status. Although players may sounds lose a battle in SoA, they won’t have to travel back from the save point to head back to the boss. Even better, there’s an ongoing mini-game involving Vyse’s eye-patch and other gameplay refinements.
Graphics-wise, SoA is at a smooth 30 fps, however it remains as blurry and mip mapping ridden as the DC version was. Nothing impressive besides the story and battle cinematics can be said about SoA. But then again, it is a direct port. Up-close, the most notable improvements are the crisp textures, tweaked animation, and bigger character models. Still, it doesn’t feel that SoA is taking true advantage of the GameCube’s hardware.
The beautifully orchestrated piece for the menu screen is a rarity, because Skies of Arcadia truly doesn’t have an awesome sound engine. The scores are very well composed however, and the melodies don’t get too repetitive. There’s no voice-over work, but the sound effects are sufficient enough for a sufficient RPG.
Even for a game released years ago, Skies of Arcadia legends is an awesome addition to GameCube’s short RPG library. Although the game is hardly revolutionary in the way of RPGs, the formulaic mood of SoA works very well. The gameplay is top-notch, and it shows. Skies of Arcadia is the best RPG on GameCube so far, and there’s yet a reason to ignore the title if you like RPGs.
Chances are that most casual gamers haven’t played the original Skies of Arcadia. Having said that, they’re missing a lot. The Overworks-developed RPG is a mix of real-time exploration and turn-based battle sequences. Just like typical RPGs, Skies of Arcadia finds one hero slaying groups of enemies, gaining experience to earn levels, gathering a weird currency of some sort to buy weapons and items, all in all to accomplish a near-impossible task.
SoK’s lead character, Vyse and his female companion, Aika, start their adventure on one of evil Valuan’s ships to take it over and steal some loot. Similar to the Robin Hood stories, Vyse and Aika are part of this group called the Blue Rogues, which in turn, give their stolen money and property from the corrupted rich over to the poor. The quest starts taking a wide turn as Vyse finds out that Fina, a young girl, has been taken captive. Saving her opens the whole world to Vyse in a new aspect. As for the rest, you’ll have to play the game to understand the story fully, and an awesome story it is.
The battles within the game take place in turn-based fashion in ground and air battles, airship duels, and real-time 3D exploration. The battle system allows you to do the regular actions that a normal RPG allows you to do: using items, running, guarding, attacking any enemy, and casting magic. Some new elements within the system include special attack and “focus,” which charges up your attack for the next turn and increases your accuracy. The more and more you attack an enemy, the more spirit points you earn. These spirit points are used to create that powerful special attack. However, special attacks don’t come cheap. You’ll have to find items called Moonberries, found in treasure chests or even enemies. These moonberries allow you to enter your menu screen and “purchase” a special attack. The berries, however, are very rare. Be patient though. Every special attack side by side comes with a dramatic cinematic display of energy explosions and powerful hits. Considering the time when this game was released, these special effects look great.
The magic system, like most RPGs, relies on the display on elemental powers, such as earth, fire, water, and wind. Although traditional, the way that you learn the spells are one of the most unique aspects of Skies of Arcadia Legends. The whole process revolves around the moonstone “process.” Green moonstones are for health-related spells, red for fire, purple for ice, blue for water, etc. Moonstones are tied into the weapons of each character, hence giving each of them specific elemental attributes. Now, you can change a weapon’s attribute anytime during a fight. Characters earn points for each element you used, including on how long you used it. This adds a rare strategy effect within the battles. So basically, characters need to change elemental attributes to their weapons when they see a weakness in the “elemental factor” of their enemies.
The bosses in Skies of Arcadia: Legends are certainly no means easy. Like all RPGs, players will be required to level up before each battle as each boss battle in particular contains several signature attacks and moves that are pretty devastating. That being said, Skies of Arcadia Legends aren’t for RPG amateurs. If you haven’t played a Final Fantasy game in your life, you might have trouble getting into the later levels.
The airship duels in Skies of Arcadia can be described in one word: hectic. These battles add that bit of required diversity that most RPG battles don’t have anymore these days. Basically, it’s your ship’s cannons against your foes in a Battleship style battle mechanic. You can use your evasive maneuvers to dodge cannon fire, fire your main obviously or, focusing on spirit points, which charge up even a more powerful cannon. Spirit points are usually the main focus of these battles. When an enemy opens itself for attack, and your spirit points aren’t yet full, it forms that loophole that questions why you even took a turn in increasing your spirit points for a more powerful attack. This airship duel aspect of the game is where the most strategy is necessary. Although these battles are far and few because they are air-scripted events, they are very entertaining in their very own nature and one of the most unique aspects in Skies of Arcadia Legends.
The exploration aspect of Skies of Arcadia will be very familiar to fans of the older titles in the Final Fantasy series, because of its emphasis on airships. You’ll be able to manage your own crew as well as sail across the skies looking for that one wanted pirate. Walking around towns and such have that Zelda-like feel, because of its emphasis on small puzzles. These vessels of gameplay are certainly not high-caliber because of the reiteration we’ve seen of these gameplay elements in the past, but they’re interesting, and that’s what counts right?
Some minor details in Skies of Arcadia also help this game in its high-quality status. Although players may sounds lose a battle in SoA, they won’t have to travel back from the save point to head back to the boss. Even better, there’s an ongoing mini-game involving Vyse’s eye-patch and other gameplay refinements.
Graphics-wise, SoA is at a smooth 30 fps, however it remains as blurry and mip mapping ridden as the DC version was. Nothing impressive besides the story and battle cinematics can be said about SoA. But then again, it is a direct port. Up-close, the most notable improvements are the crisp textures, tweaked animation, and bigger character models. Still, it doesn’t feel that SoA is taking true advantage of the GameCube’s hardware.
The beautifully orchestrated piece for the menu screen is a rarity, because Skies of Arcadia truly doesn’t have an awesome sound engine. The scores are very well composed however, and the melodies don’t get too repetitive. There’s no voice-over work, but the sound effects are sufficient enough for a sufficient RPG.
Even for a game released years ago, Skies of Arcadia legends is an awesome addition to GameCube’s short RPG library. Although the game is hardly revolutionary in the way of RPGs, the formulaic mood of SoA works very well. The gameplay is top-notch, and it shows. Skies of Arcadia is the best RPG on GameCube so far, and there’s yet a reason to ignore the title if you like RPGs.
November 20, 2009
