Almost a decade ago, the Super Nintendo was the
best place to find quality Role Playing Games (RPG’s). Last generation the
Nintendo 64 had a few but they were rubbish, and the place to find the best was
the Sony Playstation. Now that a new generation of hardware has come along,
Nintendo wants to reclaim that position away from the Playstation 2, but there
have been few games that have been released that will enable them to do so.
Sega’s Skies of Arcadia Legends wants to change that. Is this the best RPG game
on the GameCube, or is it too out dated to compete with the other RPG’s on the
market? Read on to find out.
People live on floating islands, and they fly their ships as far as the eye can
see. In this world there is no ground, but an all-encompassing sky. This is
where they live, battle, explore, and die. At any given time, people might hear
the roar of cannons firing upon enemy vessels, and the Air Pirates are the ones
taking the lead. These pirates are armed people who want to search the world for
treasure and stronger enemies to fight against. Vyse, a young pirate, along with
his best friend Aika, attack a battleship of the Valuan Empire, which is the
strongest military power in the world. It is here where they meet a young girl
named Fina. She is different than everyone else in the world, yet she will not
tell where she is from or what her mission is. A few days later the Empire sends
a fleet over to Pirate Isle, the headquarters of the Blue Rogue Pirates, and
home to Vyse. When the raid was complete, the island lay in ruins and Fina was
captured. It is now up to you to rescue Fina and learn the details of her
mission. Are you brave enough to accomplish this or will you remain a scallywag
your entire life?
Through out the game, players will have a variety of different people to help
out in your quest. Vyse is a young pirate who wishes to become the greatest
pirate in the entire world, his weapon of choice is two cutlasses (swords) and
he handles them with great proficiency. Aika is Vyse’s childhood friend, she is
trustworthy and extremely reliable; her weapon of choice is a large boomerang.
Fina is from another world, she is quiet, and never tells anyone where she is
from. Cupil is always by Fina’s side, he will transform into a weapon to protect
Fina. Drachma lost his eye and arm in an accident; his sole purpose in life is
to capture a huge whale called Rhaknam. There are many other people Vyse will
come in contact with, and they will help the gamer in many different ways.
In this world there are six moons with different colors: red, green, purple,
blue, silver, and yellow. Each moon floats separately from one another, and has
different attributes: fire, life, ice, wind, void, and thunder, and each island
under the moon will develop under its culture. Vyse comes from an island under
the red moon, and the Valuan Empire is under the effect of the yellow moon.
Through your journey players will meet people that live under these various
moon, and they will help you out in your quest.
Moon Stones are pieces of rock that has fallen from the various moons. Each
stone contains a great amount of energy that people use as a source of fuel for
everyday life. Each stone contains a special power, and can be harnessed. If a
moonstone is red it will contain the power of fire, and players will be able to
equip that attribute on their weapons, and gain different magic spells. Here is
a complete list of all of the stones and their attributes. The red stone
contains the power of flames and the ability to raise different abilities. Green
stone has the power to heal wounds and cure poison. Blue has the power of the
wind, and can alter wind conditions. Purple has the power of ice and it can
alter the mind of enemies. Silver has the power of void; it presides over life
and death. Yellow is the power of thunder, and it can weaken enemies. The key to
these are mixing and matching each attribute to your weapons to be more
efficient in battle.
Players have to be aware of their Swashbuckler rating. The rating is an outcome
or the event and replies gamers make in a conversation. If players make correct
decisions and do great actions, the rating will go huger, and the higher it is
the more people will trust you. When the title changes, there will be a
“chiming” sound.
Skies of Arcadia: Legends is rated T for Teen for mild violence and suggestive
themes. It will take three blocks of memory to save.
Gameplay: 9.3
Even though the game is over two years old, it is still extremely fun to
play. It contains all of the things that make RPG’s so fun, wonderful plot,
tight controls, strategy, and many other things. The battle engine used for this
game is great! Examples of this is being able to switch your weapons attributes
during battle, seeing your characters move around during combat, and ship to
ship combat. I think that this was a great idea to include while creating this
game, not only do players have to worry about the health of the characters, but
also the upkeep of the ships, to make sure they don’t fall apart during battle.
This helps break up any sign of repetitiveness that comes from fighting enemies
with the main characters. The Spirit Points, or SP, system is one of the neatest
ideas for the battle system. All of the characters share a gauge to do all of
their special attacks and magic, which brings a great deal of strategy when
taking on any boss.
There are a lot of mini games to keep players entertained when they get tired of
the main quest. There will be fishing games, finding hidden islands, and many
other great things to help break up any sign or the game becoming mundane and
boring. Players can even join the Sailors Guild to buy and sell information to
help them progress in the game. The inclusion of all of these things will give
the player a lot of replay value, and give the gamers more bang for their buck.
Graphics: 8.1
A few years ago, when Skies of Arcadia was originally released on the
Dreamcast, this was one of the most gorgeous games around. Fast forward to 2003
and you will find that this game is still great looking, but it is not up to par
with other games in the same genre. The textures and everything else looks good,
but the GameCube is able to handle more than this game gives. The frame rate
stays at a steady thirty frames per second. Each of the characters has a high
polygonal count, and nice textured, but there is room for improvement. Along the
same line, the environments look nice as well. This game looks essentially the
same as it did when it was released a couple of years ago.
Sound: 8.5
The music used in this game is average, but it is not Earth shaking and give
you that warm fuzzy feeling on the inside as some games do. The music is
composed well, and it never gets dull, but it is lacking something that other
games have. There are no voice-overs either, since this game was made over two
years ago. It is hard to image a time when RPG’s didn’t have full voice-overs in
this post Final Fantasy X era. I guess we are all getting spoiled to them,
because the game didn’t seem to come as alive as other ones do. The sound
effects used are adequately done, but it is not something to brag about. The
game does stand out compared to the other RPG’s on the GameCube.
Difficulty: Medium
Like any RPG, this game can get extremely hard if players don’t take the
time to level up their characters. For instance in the beginning of the game, if
players just do the first mission with out any sort of leveling up, they will
have an extremely hard time trying to defeat the first real boss. Once gamers
figure out this concept, the game will prove to be a little challenging but fun
at the same time.
Concept: 8.5
This concept has been done a lot: figure out the past of a mysterious person
and save the world from impeding evil. That is not why this section received a
high score. The battle engine really impresses me. While one character is
fighting, players will be able to see the other characters fighting it out, no
damage is being done, but the characters are moving around like it would happen
in real battle, not standing in a straight line, attack, defend, and repeat.
This way of battling is old, it is just like the British, and other military
powers did back in the colonial days, and we see how well that turned out. This
gives the players a sense that battles are really going on.
Overall: 9.0
There are hardly any quality RPG’s on the GameCube, plain and simple. Skies
of Arcadia: Legends helps fill the void to give players a change to feel what a
true RPG on their system of choice feels like. The main problem with this game
is that it feels a little dated, especially when you compare it to FFX or other
games coming out shortly. Other than that it is a great game to play, and any
person who likes to play RPG’s should pick up a copy.
