Genre: RPG
Year: 2002
Developed by: Overworks
Published by: Sega
Platforms: Gamecube
#155
Feeling Like: Buried Treasure
I’m currently going through Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s my first time in the Baldur’s Gate franchise, and if you read the Pillars of Eternity post, you know that these types of games are not my forte. I find them overly convoluted and contain systems that I’m unfamiliar with. The level of detail is impressive, and the writing is spectacular, but I never feel like I get the hang of things. I’ve watched four tutorial videos and lowered the difficulty to the easiest setting, which has helped. I’m enjoying my time with it, but it remains to be seen whether I’ll see it all the way through. Especially with Sea of Stars, and about fifteen other games waiting in the wings in this outrageously good year of 2023.
I never had to worry about anything like that with Skies of Arcadia. I don’t keep track, but I’m confident RPGs have to be the reigning champion. I’ve failed so far to fully explain why I love them, why start now? As impatient as I can be when it comes to learning new systems, I’m very patient when it comes to slow, steady progress. For some, grinding up levels for a minor stat boost is about as boring as gaming can get; I find it comforting. The slow pace can drive gamers insane, but for a particular breed of nerd, it’s necessary to build characters and atmosphere. And when it comes to a rip-roaring good time playing as honorable air pirates, I am all in.
It’s about as simple as a JPRG can get, but with superb window dressing and a lot of additions that push it beyond most average games of the genre. There’s an earnestness here, a jolly, jovial attitude that Vyse exudes along with his pirate buddies and mysterious princess magic lady Fina that ensured I wanted to travel right alongside them, no matter how tough things got.
There’s just something about airships. It’s always a magical moment in an RPG when you finally get your own vehicle. Oftentimes it means you can skip random battles entirely and move at a tremendous speed compared to huffing it on foot. It also usually comes on the heel of a big story moment. Everybody knew how big a deal it was to finally get your first mount in World of Warcraft. In Skies of Arcadia, it goes a vertical step higher; you get a flying pirate ship fairly early on in the game. This traversal method takes advantage of some very basic tenements of video games.
- Flying is cool
- Ships are cool
- Flying ships are really cool
It’s not just the ability to move in three dimensions, it’s the fact that surprises, secrets, other ships, dungeons and throughfares are all over the place on the world map, meaning you can’t just coast along on a single axis and expect to find everything. Every time I leapt into my dope ass magic pirate ship and the sky presented itself to me, I was bathing in bliss. Fantastic.
Thankfully I played the Gamecube port, which to my shock REDUCED the random encounter rate. Look, I’m all for constant random battles and getting into a groove with my party. Gaining experience, learning new skills, all that. But there’s a limit; I don’t want to have to see the battle loading screen every few steps, or every few seconds. It discourages exploration and frustrates even the most seasoned weeb such as myself.
What helped Skies of Arcadia in this regard is the two main battle themes. They are superb.
The second especially gives me chills and epitomizes the spirt of the game; energetic atmosphere, threats abound, mystery around the corner. There are other memorable tracks, but these two stand alone. With the combination of unique party members, their attributes and this music, I was never bored in combat. When you’re asking a player to spend dozens of hours fighting enemies, or more, you need to meet them halfway with excellent design and spectacle. Overworks satisfied their share in this regard, and then some.
My favorite part of the entire game was the scenario surrounding the seasoned fisherman, Drachma. This old salt, straight out of Moby Dick, is seeking vengeance on the sky whale, Rhaknam. His wife and son, along with his crew, were killed by the beast. He’s single minded. He sees Vyse and friends as a detriment to his quest and tries to abandon them. This is not your typical party member who joins at the drop of a hat. His conflicting demeanor is a wonderful contrast to the rest of the group. His visual design kicks ass. This isn’t a simple side quest, or reward lure for killing a giant monster. There’s layers here, and the storytelling is about as emotionally resonant as you can get with characters that look like marionettes with no voice acting. The twists and resolution to this mini-storyline was terrific. I still get chills when I hear Captain Drachma tells Vyse to wake the others. “It’s him. Rhaknam is here.”
As is typical with a lot of RPGs and their minutia, I totally blanked on many of Skies of Arcadia’s systems. Like how you get different colored crystals after the battle, or the details of the struggle with the evil empire, or even some of the main party members. But it’s not the whole package that typically makes a game stand out on the 500, it’s key moments that I refuse to forget. This delightful RPG has dozens of them: getting marooned on an island all by yourself, building a base, finding treasures in the sky, escaping through the steel doors in your ship, air combat, Vyse shouting PIRATE’S WRATH!, the soundtrack, the easter egg appearances in Valkyria Chronicles and Aika and Fina’s relationship to name a few. I doubt it’s aged well, and I’m sure to newcomers it would be considered slow as mud but in terms of charm, characters, original setting and presentation, Skies of Arcadia is a treat. YARR!!!!
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