Skies of Arcadia Legends

"Excellent RPG for those who missed out on the DC original."

Review of the PAL version.

Let's get all the history stuff out of the way - Skies of Arcadia Legends is a port of a 2 year old RPG from the Sega Dreamcast. How does this adventure of swashbuckling proportions fare on the Gamecube?

GAMEPLAY

- Story basics -

You are Vyse, an air pirate of the Blue Rogues. Blue Rogues goes around stealing from the rich and the greedy in order to help the less fortunate (think Robin Hood). Vyse's ambition is to try and explore the world out there beyond familiar lands and into the unknown and the unexplored. Vyse and his friend Aika encounters a female captive during one of their raids and it is from this point on that Vyse will begin to embark on a journey that goes beyond the job description of an air pirate. Generally the story is a common save-the-world scenario as is the case with a lot of RPGs.

- Battle system -

Battles are by design the traditional turn-based fare that you see in plenty of other RPGs. What is unique to this game though is the ability to switch between elemental attributes (red, blue, yellow, green and so on) and set these attributes to your weapons whilst you fight. With this system, you can build up an arsenal of magical spells to your characters depending on which element is being used and by whom. This means that strategies can be formed on the go and gives players a lot more access to how they want to play the battles. Special moves are surprisingly not permanently consumed (as in you don't need to rest in an inn to recover points) and characters are able to recover them using an action called focus. ALL characters rely on this SP bar when they perform any action (special attacks and magic) other than the standard attack option and this is itself neat because it forces the player to be careful and to be more thoughtful as to how you assign actions to your characters.

Another kind of battle are the ship battles. These battles involve you assigning actions to your characters based on the ship equipment alongside the regular battle features of Guard, Magic, Focus and Item. In order to survive, you'll need to become aware of what the enemy may do to you and at several points, you'll be given choices to make and it is up to you to decide how you want to approach the battles.

Both these battle systems encourages players to think before they leap. It is not simply relying on ''Fight'' ''Fight'' ''Fight'' to win. You need to be resourceful and is what makes the battle system in this game a joy to play. The downside to battles in this game is that they are pretty slow. Between each character's turn to fight and the time to activate the actions, there is a delay (like in Final Fantasy IX) that I felt shouldn't have been there and this applies to ship battles too. These are just minor complaints to an otherwise excellent system employed in Skies of Arcadia.

If there's any gripes to be said about the battle, the speed of ship battles are a tad slow which does make the battles appear longer than they should. But this is simply a minor gripe and should not be something to be made a big deal of.

- Exploration! -

One of the best features of this game is your ability to explore the wide world out there. This game really does encourage you to go out and explore to the best of your abilities. You can try and find Discoveries and sell the information for money. You can go out in search of ''wanted'' pirates and beat the crap out of them for rewards. There's so much to do in this game that really does warrant your attention.

- Controls -

Incredibly simple and easy to use controls for both characters and ship situations. The camera angles could be altered manually but is a bit clumsy when you try and run in the opposite direction and the camera wouldn't move at the same pace. But this is simply a minor niggle and nothing to worry about.

MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS

There are quite a number of battle music in the game and all of them serves their purpose well. The ship battle tune is an awesome piece that sounds very distant (music quieter than the sound effects) which creates an atmosphere of being away from the bustle of a street market and somewhere that is lonely which in this case is in the sky. I can compare this to that of Wild Arms 3 in that the battle themes creates a sense of loneliness and melancholic almost.

You also get to hear various brief character voices and by brief, I mean really brief and in having no direct reading from the script. For example, you'll hear Vyse say ''uh-huh'' whenever the script indicates that he is agreeing with someone or you'll hear Aika say ''Yay!'' whenever she is jolly happy with something. These various soundbites are recycled and reused in different places. They do not appear too often to grate on your ear and I would say that they're a nice little touch to the game. Not essential by any means but gives the characters that tiny bit of aural character to them.

GRAPHICS

Being a port, the graphics are not given a spectacular touch-up from the Dreamcast original. However, you will be playing this game not because of the graphics but for what it has to offer to the RPG gamer. With that said, I have to say that the graphics are very decent and special attack animations in battle are superb. Even the very early specials are visually impressive and makes full use of colours being mixed in with fast moving visuals to create colourful effects.

LENGTH

Although the length of the game is to do with the individual player's own progress, I have to say that this RPG is not a short one. One of the major features of the game of recruiting new characters to work on your ship doesn't come into play until 20 hours into the game and that's certainly saying something about the length. Taking all the side-quests into consideration, this game can last well over 50 hours for newcomers.

REPLAY VALUE

Alas, there is basically no reason why you should return to this game after completing it. Whether you want to replay the game to experience the fun again is up to you.

OVERALL

Skies of Arcadia Legends is a game that conveys the very definition of ''adventure''. The plot quickly moves thick and fast, the game's foes are always on the chase and it is up to you and you little team to protect the world against greed-filled villains.I had a grand time playing through this game and I am sure that anyone looking for a lengthy adventure won't be disappointed with this game. Sure, Skies of Arcadia may be just another port to all you port cynics but this is a game that I would have missed out on if it was not released on the Gamecube and I am sure as hell glad that I now had the opportunity to play this awesome RPG. It may be one that you play once but it is a fantastic experience that shouldn't really be missed out on.

PRO'S

- Likable characters and witty script.
- Excellent emphasis on exploration. Plenty to do around the world.
- Generally lengthy game.
- Excellent soundtrack.

CONS

- Battle speed a little slow particularly for ship battles.
- Fairly high encounter rate may irritate those who are not too keen on turn-based battles.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/03, Updated 06/04/03