![]() ![]() There are six elements in the game, each representing SOA’s Gigas. Spells are obtained through the use of elements. There is also a focus option in battle which increases SP between turns. The party gains back a certain amount of SP between turns. MP take a single magic point and varying SP points- anywhere from 1 SP to 8 SP. Here, characters use MP or perform Super Moves. Characters share a bar for special attacks. The game features an interesting SP bar for battles. Fighting can get heavy- not to the point that you will be battling at every footstep, but battles are frequent. Battles are random in both the overworld and on islands. The overworld in the game is the wide open skies and the airship. Vyse and Akia save Fina from a foppish Valuan admiral, and after meeting the likes of Drachma- a grizzeled humorless old timer hunting down a fearsome Whale for killing his son and crew- they find themselves on an epic quest to traverse the game's massive world to retrieve the moon stones and beat the empire to the punch. Vyse, the hero, is the son of the leader of the Blue Rogues, a Robin Hood-like band who raid armed ships for supplies and treasure then gives them away to the poor and downtroddened. The game is set in a world of all sky and airships. Skies of Arcadia's setting along with well drawn characters make it appealing. They meet the mysterious Fina and find themselves in an epic battle with a steam-technology-driven empire known as Valua, with both clamoring to retrive moon stones that could resurrect the Gigas, giants from years past. The games story is typical RPG fodder: Vyse is a sort of adventre-starved teen and so is lifelong friend Akia. Sega single-handedly wipes out the bad memories with Skies of Arcadia. Contributions to the genre have ranged from cutesy simplistic dungeon crawls (the Evolution franchise), a tired port of a tired PC offering (Silver), a hyped up mega-flop (Time Stalkers), and two godforsaken ''games'' (EGG and 7th Cross). The Dreamcast has been strong in terms of software so far with the only big hole being the RPG. Skies of Arcadia is the latest epic to- hopefully- get this moniker. The term ''greatest game ever'' or ''greatest RPG ever made'' is used about everytime a RPG- be it Square or somebody else- is released. ![]() Plus, I think it looks pretty cool, and since Fina has a few unique glyph tattoos, I plan to someday cover the rest of my arm with those as well."The term ''greatest game ever'' or ''greatest RPG ever made'' is used about everytime a RPG- be it Square or somebody else- is released. But whenever I look at it, I’m going to be reminded to behave in accordance with what my childhood heroes taught me. When I explain it to my bartender this weekend, I bet he’s gonna nod his head politely and that’s about it. I now have a video game tattoo, a nonsense glyph that few people will recognise. So, yeah, like I said: Pretty sappy, but that’s what I believe. And while life isn’t exactly a massive sailing adventure in the clouds, I can’t think of better guiding principles for navigating the short, strange journey we have here on Earth. Vyse and his crew never turned down a challenge, and they always respected the culture and views of whoever they encountered on their journey. Those lessons still matter to me, and it mattered to me to see characters that embodied those virtues. Skies of Arcadia’s lessons are cloying but refreshingly simple: Never give up, “impossible” is just a word, be audacious, speak up for the little guy. That might sound sappy, but that’s what I mean about not getting to choose what influences us. Her gimmick, JRPG trope as it is, is that she’s from a long lost civilisation of mages called the Silvites - every civilisation in Arcadia lives under a different colour moon - and she is on a mysterious quest to stop the empire from awakening ancient weapons. I could ramble about Skies for at least seven more articles, but to sum up: It is an earnestly heroic game with kind-hearted protagonists.įina left a huge impression on me she was feminine but bold, demure but perpetually critical of social structures. Her name is Fina and she is, for me, one of the most important fictional characters I’ve ever encountered. ![]() Skies of Arcadia tells the story of Vyse and his friend Aika, two air pirates who get caught up in a grand adventure when they recover a young woman from the clutches of the evil Valuan Empire. So, when the time came for me to finally get my first tattoo, I took inspiration straight from the video game that changed my life. The Dreamcast was an amazing console, with bright and colourful games that left a major impact on me. My favourite video game of all time is Skies of Arcadia, a Japanese RPG released for the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast in 2000. ![]()
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