Check out my other reviews of retro games: Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia - ruclips.net/video/ZT70UR2FG3k/видео.html Radiant Historia - ruclips.net/video/8C6FTxpbsFI/видео.html Xenosaga (3 Parts) - ruclips.net/video/sAWtWkfJKbg/видео.html ruclips.net/video/tFBSkIHpPL8/видео.html ruclips.net/video/KhVno_1EHSQ/видео.html
this is real though, i was 5 when i played this game, im 26 and still play it, i have a god son who i got to play this game, and his words at 6 years old were this is better then fortnite!
Loved it on the Dreamcast, loved it on the Gamecube. Sunk a lot of time into it, including getting the Sky Fang. Was really looking forward to this vid, especially I knew you at least liked it from a previous vid. Haven't played it in a while, but one thing I do appreciate about modern games is how many of them are taking steps to make the games faster / more streamlined. And even then, I've really come to appreciate the turbo/speed-up modes.
The only thing the world needs more than a remake of this game is a sequel of this game. Or at least a spiritual successor to build a new world out in a similar fashion.
This is one of those JRPG's I would absolutely replay if given quality of life upgrades, like a FF option for your walking speed and battles. It's strange to think that they've perfectly captured the feel of a adventurous pirate themed JRPG like twenty years ago and it hasn't really been topped in that regard.
This one hits hard. I also played the Cube version because I didn't have a Dreamcast but that's for the best because the small additions really do sound like Quality-of-Life improvements. Less battles with more XP to make up for it. Piastol and the Bounty Hunts are fantastic and add a bit more flair to the already fantastic world-building. I love just exploring because you get rewarded for them. The airship battles are exhilarating and it makes you wonder why RPGs don't do something similar in their titles. This was just a fantastic pirate game and a great RPG that I can easily recommend to anyone who is a fan of the genre.
Pretty sure less encounters on Gamecube got debunked. They had to compress some things like the OST/Music to fit the game on the small Gamecube CD. You don’t see Cupil’s reaction when there is a Cham nearby since the Gamecube has no VMUs. Both versions have their own quirks tbh Gamecube added content is really nice tho
Cupil has a sort of hidden evolution tree, his evolutions vary based on how you feed him. The Chom lets you reset him so you can try for better/different results. Theres a specific order to get him to his Ultimate form.
Do you know that the 3 main characters of Skies of Arcadia are also in Valkyria Chronicles? Vyse and Aika can be selected as squad menbers while Fina is the medic that can get injured squad mates out of the battlefield.
@@Zabes10I'm given to understand that Skies of Arcadia's director Burst into tears when they saw the Skies of Arcadia track in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
I love this game so much, that I know on the original Dreamcast version, you could hear the disc spin up every time a random encounter was about to happen, so if you paused quick enough, you could avoid the battle. So much pausing in this game, yet none of that hampered my love for it.
This is the game that made me an RPG gamer. I played the GameCube version. My only complaint remains the same today as it did back then, way too frequent random battles. It’s crazy how little it sold for reference Baton Kaitos a game that less people seem to have heard of sold more on GameCube than SoA did on Dreamcast and GameCube combined.
Maybe if it got that PS2 port, it might have fared better in the long run. The Gamecube wasn't really the 'home' of RPGs even though it had some bangers.
This is literally one of my top 3 game sof my childhood. This game shaped what a perfect RPg should be more than even Final fantasy did. A shame we never got a sequel.
I'd rather have a prequel about the war before the previous rain of destruction and hopefully explaining the black moon. But at this point I'll take anything SoA related
Skies has been a game I always wanted to give a go, these days with so many game choices and options for access it's time that is the greatest conflict in getting to games I wanna try. My younger self had time and no games while my older self has games and no time.
Put this one high on your priority list. I hardly play new games nowadays. I game a lot but i tend to go back to childhood games. I never played SoA before this week… Man this is an incredible game. Been a while since i enjoyed a “new” games experience that much. I gotta say that i came in with an open mind and fell in love with the charm of the game. Pacing, gameplay, charm, story, characters, music are all amazing to me
Amazing video. I started playing Skies in 2001 and it took me like 17 years to complete it b/c life got busy and I don't play much video games. This game desperately needs a re-release and a sequel. It's really too bad Rieko Kodama (one of the main creators of Skies, among other legendary Sega titles), passed away in the recent years.
I genuinely love this game and even now the title screen with its music gives me a surge of emotion. I love it even though it has its bad points that you so correctly pointed out.
Skies of Arcadia is one of my favorite games, but I agree with many of your criticism. I haven't played it in ages though and am still hoping for a port to modern systems, maybe with some QoL improvements (most notably skipping animations, especially in ship battles). Vyse and Aika are also playable units in one of my other favorite games, Valkyria Chronicles, and I try to use them there whenever possible. Fina is there too, but she isn't named and not exactly playable (she's the medic that evacuates fallen units). Choms are there because there are several paths Cupil can take in its evolution. They branch off depending on the number of Abirik Chams. For example: Cupil evolves into a blade with 2 Chams. If you feed it 2 more chams, it turns into a cone. But if you feed it an Abirik Cham before feeding it those 2 extra Chams, it turns into a cannon. Afaik it will always end up at the same final form if you feed it all Chams and Abirik Chams, but the way there is different. Choms reset Cupil so you can take a different path.
Quickly scrolling through some comments, I haven't seen anyone address this, but you CAN skip your characters' S-Move animations (only your characters, only their s-moves) by pressing Start or Z roughly 1~3 seconds after the animation starts. There are a few other things I can address if you'd like (such as your weapon color having nothing to do with your defense/resistances but I can tell you what does), but that one seems like something I should explain right away.
You didn't look too well then, several people have mentioned it. It's still unintuitive if it only allows the skip in the first few seconds. The elemental defenses, guides state that it does have an affect, and it seemed to have an affect for me when I played it too.
@@Sortyourselfout-cu7en I didn't read all comments, no, but I didn't see it mentioned in the first 20 or so I read so I said it. Anyway, I can assure you that your weapon color has absolutely no bearing on how much damage you take, ever. If you're looking to reduce damage from specific colors, the only way of doing so is to equip one of six armors (Nasrean Mail to reduce all Red damage rather than just magic as the in-game text states, Insulated Mail to reduce all Purple damage, Silver Armor to reduce all Silver damage, etc, all six such armors reduce damage by 20%), or one a select few Accessories (Thermo Ring reduces all Red and Purple damage by 50%, Behemoth Ring reduces all Yellow damage by 20%, Silvite Ring reduces all Silver damage by 20%, etc), or one of six weapons to reduce damage by 20% (Thunder Cutlass reduces all Yellow damage, Dream Cutlass reduces all Blue damage, Grendel's Wing reduces all Green damage, etc). These effects are additive, not multiplicative. For example, equipping Gilder with Nasr Pistol, Thermo Ring and Nasrean Mail at the same time means that he will take just 10% as much damage from Lord Bane's Explosive Powder as he would with the same total Defense stat but none of those items. Changing his weapon's color, on the other hand, has no effect at all. As a general rule, anything an enemy does that isn't one of the magic spells available to the player will have the same color as the enemy's icon border, but there are exceptions (Tortigar is a Blue enemy but its Ice Storm is a Purple attack). Piastol's Tempest Dance is Blue so equipping everyone with Daccat's Tunic reliably offers better protection than statistically "stronger" armor, Ramirez' Silver Eclipse is Silver making Silver Armor the way to go, Galcian's Terminal is Yellow but Elastamor has low Def so it doesn't give much benefit unless paired with other anti-Yellow gear, etc.
3:00 Overworks (AM7) developed also: Sakura Wars 1-5 (with RED Entertainment), Valkyria Chronicles (PS3), Shinobi (PS2), Dragon Force, Streets of Rage 2&3, The House of The Dead, Altered Beast. They also helped Platinum Games with Bayonetta. Main producer of Skies of Arcadia worked also on Phantasy Star 1-4, and Magic Knight: Rayearth. Very talented dev team, and most underrated in Sega of Japan. Unfortunately after fusion Sega with Sammy, this studio was disbanned (restructurization), because people said in late 00's ,,Sega have no RPG's'', and after that they bought Atlus, who killed them for good.
In case nobody explained already, Cupil's evolution path is determined by the number and order of Cham types fed to it. Choms allow you to reset back to scratch.
Skies of Arcadia Legends was one of my childhood favorites, and I still find myself returning to it time after time even after all these years. I actually replayed the entire game just a few weeks ago, and honestly I still think it holds up remarkably well. Like, despite the slow tempo I really think it's still such an engaging and remarkable experience, the world of Arcadia feels so alive and brimming with secrets and sights to see, I don't think I'll ever tire of it.
Something that I consider very neat is that since the game its based on both treasure island and the age of discovery the bad guys are based on Spain that why every character that is from Valua name is spanish and why the first boss is a bull (thats also why alfonso choltes look like a high nobel matador ). Another cool detail is that the characters Dragma, Gilder, centine and others' names are based on currentcy
Its been over 10yrs since i played skies of arcadia on my dreamcast if im not wrong the worst part i had with this game was collecting all the unique discoveries especially that 1 small flock of birds that took me like forever to find because it was too small
As someone who owns both the Dreamcast and Cube versions of this game but who hasn’t played it yet, thank you for making this video. I’m look forward to my experience with this pirate saga soon.
Sega don't have dev team to make Skies of Arcadia remake, CS1 milking Yakuza forever, and CS2 is mostly Sonic. CS3 R&D was closed in 2018 due to bad sales of their games + ATLUS cannibalized their game sales (= Sega dont need own jrpg dev team anymore, because they have ATLUS), and developers behind Skies of Arcadia and Valkyria Chronicles were part of that departament. Capitalism sucks.
My favorite game ever! I've always thought that if we could get a game with Skies of Arcadia characters, Grandia II battle system and Xenoblade's world it would be the ultimate JRPG
You can get different variants of cupil depending in what order you feed it chams and special chams. So a chom would let you redo that. There's guides on how it evolves on game faqs
Vyse is also a playable driver in Sonic and Sega Allstars Transformed. One of the very few Mario Kart Clones that can compete with the original. He also has his own race track themed after his home town.
@@TheKisekiNutApparently the SoA track in All Stars was shown in advance of release to the director of the original game and it brought a tear to his eye.
Since Sega is finally making new games for there old IP like crazy taxy, shinobi, and golden axe. The dream of seeing a Skies of arcadia remake/remaster/sequel while still uncertain is now no longer an imposability
This was one of the games that got me into rpgs in general. Id love to play it again. Not a perfect game but it was incredible at the time. Thats a hell of a list on the patreon too. Legit couldnt go wrong with any of them
This game is amazing and it changed my life when I first played it. It's a large inspiration behind our efforts to make a spiritual successor to it. The feeling, charm, and pure passion is something I hope we can even halfway hope to match.
Wow. Bringing back memories of my playing this on the Gamecube in 2003! I've played the game four times; this is how much I loved it. Looking at the graphics and hardware/software limitations back then really tells how far we've come since I'm playing FF7 Rebirth. Funny what 20 years will do, huh? Here's to hoping the game makes a comeback with QOL improvements.
Yeah the Choms. You can use certain combinations of feeding order of them and chams to get certain weapons for Fina. I've never done it myself I looked into it with the same question and that's what I came up with. Seems a bit more trouble than it's worth imo.
I feel like any counter point I could make toward any of your negative highlights on the game would make me feel weird because i will admit, I am blinded by my biases and personal experiences with this game so I’ll refrain from taking a combative stance and just respectfully disagree. It’s in my personal top 5 of all time. With that said I appreciate this video regardless because, well thought out video essays like this will help in the long run when the ones in charge are sitting around discussing if they should do the right thing and bring this game back for modern consoles so thanks for your contribution toward the potential reality where this game may come back.
Thank you for this video. Skies of Arcadia is one of my favorite jrpg of all Time. What I love of this game is this feeling of living a real adventure with a big A. The history of Fiona is inspirite by the Castle in the Sky by Miyazaki. I real would love to have a remake of this game.
Skies of Arcadia was a classic RPG game on Dreamcast and the gamecube port of it was cool too. I agree with the stuff you pointed out about the flying in the world map with the ship. Flying through the sky it always made you interested in exploring and seeing the cool stuff that was out there. Like you say though, the encounter rate is really high in the world map and so battling happens a lot. I think if they did a modern remaster of this lowering the encounter rate in the world map just a little would be a really good thing. The battles and the story in the game was pretty nice though I really had a lot of fun with the battles and exploring the dungeons.
Honestly if they ever ported or remade this game, the best QOL they could do is let you turn on and off the random battles (while flying) at will. Obviously you need to level up but at times, it’s nice to be able to just explore without worrying about random battles.
Super moves can be skipped. I am positive i did that tons of times pressing the start button in my gamecube. Regarding Galcian, I wouldn’t say he is an “honorable” man who treated the body of Gregorio with respect because of his honor. Galcian values power. He respected Gregorio because of how strong he was. Galcian despises the royalty and high classes of Valua because of how vane and weak they are. Alfonso above all others since he was given a high rank not out of merit but out of vanity. Galcian is a bit like Genghis Khan in that respect. I love him as a villain.
The frames are actually different depending on the special move Vyses Cutlass Fury can be skipped anytime until he jumps in the air. But Aikas Lambda Burst can't be skipped after the words "Fire Con..." It's weird
@@loneskankster2242 I think it's bug or engine problem. But in Sakura Wars 3-5 who runs on Skies of Arcadia engine you can skip animations in any time, which is weird. And in Skies of Arcadia you can't skip animations for magic attacks, healing or buffs / debuffs.
17 hours ago? I started the game 3 days ago LMAO. Haven’t watch your video yet but this is easily one of my top 10 now! I just got the second crystal UPDATE: Just beat the game 3 weeks later. One of the greatest game of all time. They should remake this so more people enjoy it’s genius!
My god did I love this game as a kid on gamecube. I played it I believe 3 times back to back until one day my brother sold it back to gamestop because I was playing it to much
no way your first playthrough and u got a mace hand drop!! thats like a 1% chance omg ive been playing for years and have never got it 😭 thanks for this video....u are so real for it. the world needs more skies fans.
I'm so glad you finally got to play this. I bought it the day it came out for Dreamcast after falling in love with the Official Dreamcast Magazine demo and have played through it numerous times on Dreamcast, GameCube, and most recently emulation in January. It still holds up, but it could definitely use some modernization. A note about the Moonfish quest and the lore hidden behind it: That was an addition to the GameCube version and was not present on Dreamcast, which is why it's locked behind that quest and not part of the main storyline.
Got it Day 1 on the GameCube and played it to completion. It’s right now the #5 best JRPG of all time on my list. Sure it could use some QOL improvements today. But I’ve gone back to it several times and it’s still very much good, fun and addicting.
One of my favorite things about this game, is that it doesn't do what you expect. Any other JRPG, you might get captured and end up in Valua in the mid game... but you wouldn't do much there until the end. It's Antagonist land, you stay away until you have no choice... But in this one? Not only do you go there basically immediately, you do it twice before you're captured and taken there. You go there at least 4 times in story, but it's always different. Likewise, each Gigas is summoned and dealt with differently. It keeps them from getting boring.
There are 2 versions of Chams. Normal Chams, which give one level to Cupil and Abirik Chams, which give multiple levels at once to Cupil. This allows for evolution variants depending on when you feed what Cham to Cupil. The variations aren't that massive, but some are a bit better than others. Choms allow Cupil to regurgitate all Chams he has consumed, so you can feed them to him again in maybe a different order for a different evolutionary outcome.
it is one of my favorite games I never finished. I remember grinding levels and then I got to I think it was the 2nd time you fight your dopplegangers and I was so strong I couldn't beat them and pretty much soft locked my run.
One of my favorite RPGs. ...I have to get my Gamecube out of storage again, just for this! As close to the spirit of One Piece without being One Piece you can get.
Without even watching, lemme put it to you this way: I can get a Sega Dreamcast in several locations where I live. I can't get a copy of Skies of Arcadia. Do you know why? Because all the owners wanna keep their copy of the game. That's how good it is.
I imported Skies on an American disk and finished it in seven days. Then I bought the game again for a UK release. Both on Dreamcast. I later bought a gamecube just for the legends version. I've also just watched a full playthrough from someone else on RUclips. Safe to say. I love this game. I even spent hours on the VMU with the silly mini game. Has it held up? I think so.
I was close to getting this game way back when the Dreamcast was still alive, but wasn't able to. It looks like a very charming adventure and I'd like to give it a try, but I have no clue how to play it nowadays. Getting a working Dreamcast or Gamecube and finding a physical copy of the game doesn't sound like a super easy task. Perhaps it can be emulated, but I've never emulated before, so I don't know how to do that.
This is a game that deserves a true remaster, rebuilt from the ground up while ironing out the small issues the game has. I would love to see this game redone in the style of a modern nintendo game or dragon quest 11. Think there was word of an HD remaster or whatever, but I think this game deserves more since its such a great game. Heck another one that needs a full on remake is phantasy star 4. I hate that Sega abandoned their rpg series, unless it's a microtransaction or DLC filled mess.
I’ve tried to play this, I wanted to like it so much, but I just couldn’t get into it. The amount of random battles is ridiculous too. Would love to play a version with QoL improvements though.
It's a jewel and deserves a sequel. No need for gore, nudity and high graphics. Just a good story, a nice and fun battle system. No one cares about that anymore
Fantastic assessments of the game. The only thing I'd quibble with is that I don't think most of the things you listed as examples of the game aging badly are actually a result of age; the encounter rate and animations were criticisms even at the time, the "but" in "this game is absolutely amazing, but..." On top of the combat balance issues, I'd also argue that the elemental affinity thing was undercooked since you could switch to their weakness at the press of a button with no reason to do anything else. Also, while the shipboard battles were amazing and giving crew assignments was a great way to make you feel like you were running an actual ship, they were also way too drawn out, with most of the later ship fights (especially the Gigas battles) feeling like massive HP sacks where the enemies couldn't really hurt your ship. I still love the game despite those issues, though. If the crew gathering appealed to you as much as it sounded like, you probably owe it to yourself to check out the Suikoden games if you haven't before, as well as Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes next month. That's pretty much their whole thing, with running your own army and recruiting people to staff your base as a major part of the series' draw.
The encounter rate, even on the GameCube version is too high and brings this game down a point. Still a 9/10. There's a mod to gain the ability to turn off encounters and it really helps the game. With that mod 10/10
This game looks really fun. I think one of my friends did a lets play of it. I should watch it. Although I am sorta worried about the parts in the creepy areas. Well, if I watch a lets play I won't have to go through there alone. I'm glad you had fun. I hope you have a great weekend and a wonderful easter at the end of the month. I can not believe how close we are to another holiday. I hope you get to play more oldschool games like this and have a good time with them.
I am finding out that there is a lot of things that are missing in the Dreamcast version, seems like I should play the Legends version again and finish the game a fourth time(or more) lol
but stop after the first game because everything else is basically garbage, especially the latest entry with crossbow wielding molested children one-shotting tanks and cartoon villains taken out of rejects of nickeledeon shows.
Galcian does respect strenght and honor but that doesn't mean he feels he needs to be honorable, he feels he's above honor. He respect ruthlessness more than honor, it doesn't cost him or hinder his plan to show a bit of respect Gregorio's remain, if he could have took any advantage of it in any way he would've, by comparisom he held most of Valuan people in contempt so he doesn't care raning moonstone on them in a show of strenght.
One of the greatest rpg Even if the gamecube version is very good, we have to take into account that the original dreamcast version is in 480p resolution (compared to only 480i on gamecube) and above all that the gamecube music is very compressed compared to the original version, which is quite obvious when you know the dreamcast version. Just for the much better music sound quality, I can only recommend the dreamcast version for the best sound experience on original hardware or emulation
I'm playing SOA legends on my gamecube. At the very end of the game. It holds up really well. Fantastic game. I didn't plan on exploring and doing everything, but the game really sucks you in.
I failed to finish this game because the disc had a flaw and my Dreamcast wouldn't read it past a certain point no matter how I tried to fix the disc. Maybe I'll give it a go on an emulator.
Choms are given because of Abirik chams. Basically cupil has a whole evolution/growth chart that the game doesn't really explain, and it's nonlinear. If you give Cupil an Abirik Cham at certain points, he'll become an entirely different weapon. They all eventually lead to the final form once Cupil's got all the abiriks and the chams. But before that, you have situations like, if you give cupil enough chams to become cupil blade, then give it an Abirik, it will become Cupil Cannon. There's no other way to have Cupil Cannon. And that leads to a totally different upgrade path where you've got Cupil Lance, Club, Spike. Some of these have much higher attack values. For example, Cupil Weight has 172 attack and gives Fina dodge. But the only way to get there is to go from Blade -> Abirik for Cannon, then regular chams till Lance, then another abirik for Pan, then more regular chams till weight.
Sega: ,,Let's rerelease same game (Persona 3) 5th time, or 10th (Sonic The Hedgehog 1&2)'' Skies of Arcadia and other games from Saturn / Dreamcast: ,,Can i have a remaster too ?'' Sega: ,,No''
@@TheKisekiNutAnd no one should pay that much for the game. Imagine paying more money for it right now than when the game was brand new + it does not support the developers in any way. I would recommend everyone to play this on PC emulator (dolphin is amazing) or do like me and get a GDemu for Dreamcast
I Bought it 10 years ago, at that time it was still expensive (70 €), now it prices are crazy. However i have incredible memories for this game that was for me the best j rpg ever produced. I play it again 3 years ago and i agree when you say the game is slow... but you can skip special move when pressing Z button. I also dislike the fact that there are too much fights in the skies it is very frustrating when u juste want to explore. I know that there is an item to reduce fight frequency but you net to get a lot a moonfishes beforr having it
Check out my other reviews of retro games:
Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia - ruclips.net/video/ZT70UR2FG3k/видео.html
Radiant Historia - ruclips.net/video/8C6FTxpbsFI/видео.html
Xenosaga (3 Parts) - ruclips.net/video/sAWtWkfJKbg/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/tFBSkIHpPL8/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/KhVno_1EHSQ/видео.html
The MUSIC I still remember!
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: yes.
I wish we got a port of Skies of Arcadia.
"The best time to play Skies of Arcadia is as a child. The second best time, is right now"
I forget who said it, but they summed it up perfectly
this is real though, i was 5 when i played this game, im 26 and still play it, i have a god son who i got to play this game, and his words at 6 years old were this is better then fortnite!
A RUclipsr named Majuular said it in his video on this game.
@@1XRazorx five years old? Such heavy text game?
Loved it on the Dreamcast, loved it on the Gamecube. Sunk a lot of time into it, including getting the Sky Fang.
Was really looking forward to this vid, especially I knew you at least liked it from a previous vid.
Haven't played it in a while, but one thing I do appreciate about modern games is how many of them are taking steps to make the games faster / more streamlined. And even then, I've really come to appreciate the turbo/speed-up modes.
The only thing the world needs more than a remake of this game is a sequel of this game.
Or at least a spiritual successor to build a new world out in a similar fashion.
Crazy how barely any RPG ripped off the ship combat, closest I can think of is the Sand vehicle in Wild Arms 3 and even that isn't the same.
This is one of those JRPG's I would absolutely replay if given quality of life upgrades, like a FF option for your walking speed and battles. It's strange to think that they've perfectly captured the feel of a adventurous pirate themed JRPG like twenty years ago and it hasn't really been topped in that regard.
No game matches it for the premise it brings to the table.
This one hits hard. I also played the Cube version because I didn't have a Dreamcast but that's for the best because the small additions really do sound like Quality-of-Life improvements. Less battles with more XP to make up for it. Piastol and the Bounty Hunts are fantastic and add a bit more flair to the already fantastic world-building. I love just exploring because you get rewarded for them. The airship battles are exhilarating and it makes you wonder why RPGs don't do something similar in their titles. This was just a fantastic pirate game and a great RPG that I can easily recommend to anyone who is a fan of the genre.
Pretty sure less encounters on Gamecube got debunked. They had to compress some things like the OST/Music to fit the game on the small Gamecube CD. You don’t see Cupil’s reaction when there is a Cham nearby since the Gamecube has no VMUs. Both versions have their own quirks tbh Gamecube added content is really nice tho
I definitely enjoyed the airship battles
Cupil has a sort of hidden evolution tree, his evolutions vary based on how you feed him. The Chom lets you reset him so you can try for better/different results. Theres a specific order to get him to his Ultimate form.
Yeah a couple of comments mentioned the same, I was under the impression it was one linear progression. So that's interesting to know!
Do you know that the 3 main characters of Skies of Arcadia are also in Valkyria Chronicles?
Vyse and Aika can be selected as squad menbers while Fina is the medic that can get
injured squad mates out of the battlefield.
Had Vyse and Aika in my party that entire game! Both Sega
I did, Vyse was also in one of the Sonic racing games I believe, not sure which one. I think it also got a Skies of Arcadia themed stage too.
Sonic transform since you can make the care aerial, and boat forms and The Skies of Arcadia track is one of the best in that game
@@Zabes10I'm given to understand that Skies of Arcadia's director Burst into tears when they saw the Skies of Arcadia track in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
I love this game so much, that I know on the original Dreamcast version, you could hear the disc spin up every time a random encounter was about to happen, so if you paused quick enough, you could avoid the battle. So much pausing in this game, yet none of that hampered my love for it.
Wow wish I knew this when I was a young lad
This is the game that made me an RPG gamer. I played the GameCube version. My only complaint remains the same today as it did back then, way too frequent random battles.
It’s crazy how little it sold for reference Baton Kaitos a game that less people seem to have heard of sold more on GameCube than SoA did on Dreamcast and GameCube combined.
Maybe if it got that PS2 port, it might have fared better in the long run. The Gamecube wasn't really the 'home' of RPGs even though it had some bangers.
You could make them less common in the options from what I remember
Dang that seems crazy to me. Because skies of Arcadia was such a definitive RPG for my brother and I as teenagers
@@spacewargamer4181 you can’t
This is literally one of my top 3 game sof my childhood. This game shaped what a perfect RPg should be more than even Final fantasy did. A shame we never got a sequel.
I'd rather have a prequel about the war before the previous rain of destruction and hopefully explaining the black moon. But at this point I'll take anything SoA related
What were your other top games?
@@mikesmith9972 Star fox adventures and Custom robo.
Skies has been a game I always wanted to give a go, these days with so many game choices and options for access it's time that is the greatest conflict in getting to games I wanna try. My younger self had time and no games while my older self has games and no time.
Put this one high on your priority list. I hardly play new games nowadays. I game a lot but i tend to go back to childhood games. I never played SoA before this week… Man this is an incredible game. Been a while since i enjoyed a “new” games experience that much.
I gotta say that i came in with an open mind and fell in love with the charm of the game. Pacing, gameplay, charm, story, characters, music are all amazing to me
😊
Amazing video. I started playing Skies in 2001 and it took me like 17 years to complete it b/c life got busy and I don't play much video games. This game desperately needs a re-release and a sequel. It's really too bad Rieko Kodama (one of the main creators of Skies, among other legendary Sega titles), passed away in the recent years.
I genuinely love this game and even now the title screen with its music gives me a surge of emotion. I love it even though it has its bad points that you so correctly pointed out.
right!!!
You can skip special moves by hitting start in the first few seconds on the animation.
Seems a bit odd that you can't do it after that window passes, good to know though.
Skies of Arcadia is one of my favorite games, but I agree with many of your criticism. I haven't played it in ages though and am still hoping for a port to modern systems, maybe with some QoL improvements (most notably skipping animations, especially in ship battles).
Vyse and Aika are also playable units in one of my other favorite games, Valkyria Chronicles, and I try to use them there whenever possible. Fina is there too, but she isn't named and not exactly playable (she's the medic that evacuates fallen units).
Choms are there because there are several paths Cupil can take in its evolution. They branch off depending on the number of Abirik Chams. For example: Cupil evolves into a blade with 2 Chams. If you feed it 2 more chams, it turns into a cone. But if you feed it an Abirik Cham before feeding it those 2 extra Chams, it turns into a cannon. Afaik it will always end up at the same final form if you feed it all Chams and Abirik Chams, but the way there is different. Choms reset Cupil so you can take a different path.
Beat me to the punch with that comment.
RIP Reiko Kodama
Hers is the Game Dev loss that hurt me the most
And R.I.P. Creative Studio R&D3 (2018) - Overworks devs worked in CS3.
Quickly scrolling through some comments, I haven't seen anyone address this, but you CAN skip your characters' S-Move animations (only your characters, only their s-moves) by pressing Start or Z roughly 1~3 seconds after the animation starts. There are a few other things I can address if you'd like (such as your weapon color having nothing to do with your defense/resistances but I can tell you what does), but that one seems like something I should explain right away.
You didn't look too well then, several people have mentioned it. It's still unintuitive if it only allows the skip in the first few seconds. The elemental defenses, guides state that it does have an affect, and it seemed to have an affect for me when I played it too.
@@Sortyourselfout-cu7en I didn't read all comments, no, but I didn't see it mentioned in the first 20 or so I read so I said it.
Anyway, I can assure you that your weapon color has absolutely no bearing on how much damage you take, ever. If you're looking to reduce damage from specific colors, the only way of doing so is to equip one of six armors (Nasrean Mail to reduce all Red damage rather than just magic as the in-game text states, Insulated Mail to reduce all Purple damage, Silver Armor to reduce all Silver damage, etc, all six such armors reduce damage by 20%), or one a select few Accessories (Thermo Ring reduces all Red and Purple damage by 50%, Behemoth Ring reduces all Yellow damage by 20%, Silvite Ring reduces all Silver damage by 20%, etc), or one of six weapons to reduce damage by 20% (Thunder Cutlass reduces all Yellow damage, Dream Cutlass reduces all Blue damage, Grendel's Wing reduces all Green damage, etc).
These effects are additive, not multiplicative. For example, equipping Gilder with Nasr Pistol, Thermo Ring and Nasrean Mail at the same time means that he will take just 10% as much damage from Lord Bane's Explosive Powder as he would with the same total Defense stat but none of those items. Changing his weapon's color, on the other hand, has no effect at all.
As a general rule, anything an enemy does that isn't one of the magic spells available to the player will have the same color as the enemy's icon border, but there are exceptions (Tortigar is a Blue enemy but its Ice Storm is a Purple attack). Piastol's Tempest Dance is Blue so equipping everyone with Daccat's Tunic reliably offers better protection than statistically "stronger" armor, Ramirez' Silver Eclipse is Silver making Silver Armor the way to go, Galcian's Terminal is Yellow but Elastamor has low Def so it doesn't give much benefit unless paired with other anti-Yellow gear, etc.
3:00 Overworks (AM7) developed also: Sakura Wars 1-5 (with RED Entertainment), Valkyria Chronicles (PS3), Shinobi (PS2), Dragon Force, Streets of Rage 2&3, The House of The Dead, Altered Beast. They also helped Platinum Games with Bayonetta. Main producer of Skies of Arcadia worked also on Phantasy Star 1-4, and Magic Knight: Rayearth. Very talented dev team, and most underrated in Sega of Japan. Unfortunately after fusion Sega with Sammy, this studio was disbanned (restructurization), because people said in late 00's ,,Sega have no RPG's'', and after that they bought Atlus, who killed them for good.
This game needs a Renake/Remaster!
Tell Sega to stop milking Sonic and Yakuza. They barely doing something aside those two franchises.
@@nr2676They just got a massive announcement 2-3 months ago and are bringing back franchises like Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, etc LOL
In case nobody explained already, Cupil's evolution path is determined by the number and order of Cham types fed to it. Choms allow you to reset back to scratch.
Really happy to see a longer essay type video with some life backstory. Excellent vid!
Skies of Arcadia Legends was one of my childhood favorites, and I still find myself returning to it time after time even after all these years. I actually replayed the entire game just a few weeks ago, and honestly I still think it holds up remarkably well. Like, despite the slow tempo I really think it's still such an engaging and remarkable experience, the world of Arcadia feels so alive and brimming with secrets and sights to see, I don't think I'll ever tire of it.
Something that I consider very neat is that since the game its based on both treasure island and the age of discovery the bad guys are based on Spain that why every character that is from Valua name is spanish and why the first boss is a bull (thats also why alfonso choltes look like a high nobel matador ).
Another cool detail is that the characters Dragma, Gilder, centine and others' names are based on currentcy
Its been over 10yrs since i played skies of arcadia on my dreamcast if im not wrong the worst part i had with this game was collecting all the unique discoveries especially that 1 small flock of birds that took me like forever to find because it was too small
Some of the discoveries were whack, but I had a good time with it overall. A lot of them I just bumped in to on the world.
Nice! Path of radiance next? Both of them are my most wanted ports to switch
One of my all time favorite RPG‘s on my favorite console. The Dreamcast was truly special.
My wife bought a copy of this game years ago, still haven't played it. Going to have to bump it up on the backlog, because this looks pretty good.
As someone who owns both the Dreamcast and Cube versions of this game but who hasn’t played it yet, thank you for making this video. I’m look forward to my experience with this pirate saga soon.
One of my absolute favorites. Definitely in my top 15 games.
One game I wish they remade the ship battles with todays tech would be insane!
Sega don't have dev team to make Skies of Arcadia remake, CS1 milking Yakuza forever, and CS2 is mostly Sonic. CS3 R&D was closed in 2018 due to bad sales of their games + ATLUS cannibalized their game sales (= Sega dont need own jrpg dev team anymore, because they have ATLUS), and developers behind Skies of Arcadia and Valkyria Chronicles were part of that departament. Capitalism sucks.
My favorite game ever! I've always thought that if we could get a game with Skies of Arcadia characters, Grandia II battle system and Xenoblade's world it would be the ultimate JRPG
You can get different variants of cupil depending in what order you feed it chams and special chams. So a chom would let you redo that. There's guides on how it evolves on game faqs
Ah interesting, I was under the impression it was a linear progression. That's cool to know.
Vyse is also a playable driver in Sonic and Sega Allstars Transformed. One of the very few Mario Kart Clones that can compete with the original.
He also has his own race track themed after his home town.
Vyse, Aika, and Fina are also playable characters in Valkyria Chronicles 1 & 3. Vyse as Shocktrooper, Aika as Scout, and Fina is Medic.
I saw! Shows that Sega didn't forget about Skies, at least for a while. Their stance on it now? If the rumours of the remaster are true, then great.
@@TheKisekiNutApparently the SoA track in All Stars was shown in advance of release to the director of the original game and it brought a tear to his eye.
Since Sega is finally making new games for there old IP like crazy taxy, shinobi, and golden axe. The dream of seeing a Skies of arcadia remake/remaster/sequel while still uncertain is now no longer an imposability
This was one of the games that got me into rpgs in general. Id love to play it again. Not a perfect game but it was incredible at the time. Thats a hell of a list on the patreon too. Legit couldnt go wrong with any of them
This game is amazing and it changed my life when I first played it. It's a large inspiration behind our efforts to make a spiritual successor to it. The feeling, charm, and pure passion is something I hope we can even halfway hope to match.
Wow. Bringing back memories of my playing this on the Gamecube in 2003! I've played the game four times; this is how much I loved it. Looking at the graphics and hardware/software limitations back then really tells how far we've come since I'm playing FF7 Rebirth. Funny what 20 years will do, huh?
Here's to hoping the game makes a comeback with QOL improvements.
Yeah the Choms. You can use certain combinations of feeding order of them and chams to get certain weapons for Fina. I've never done it myself I looked into it with the same question and that's what I came up with. Seems a bit more trouble than it's worth imo.
@21:41 "... where a dancer takes a shining to Vyse, and vice (Vyse) versa." 😁
I feel like any counter point I could make toward any of your negative highlights on the game would make me feel weird because i will admit, I am blinded by my biases and personal experiences with this game so I’ll refrain from taking a combative stance and just respectfully disagree.
It’s in my personal top 5 of all time.
With that said I appreciate this video regardless because, well thought out video essays like this will help in the long run when the ones in charge are sitting around discussing if they should do the right thing and bring this game back for modern consoles so thanks for your contribution toward the potential reality where this game may come back.
the Dreamcast is still everything to me, thats a forever love : D
One of the most underrated consoles - my one broke unfortunately.
Thank you for this video. Skies of Arcadia is one of my favorite jrpg of all Time. What I love of this game is this feeling of living a real adventure with a big A.
The history of Fiona is inspirite by the Castle in the Sky by Miyazaki.
I real would love to have a remake of this game.
Fair answer: No
Real answer: WHERE IS THE REMAKE, SEGA?!?
Skies of Arcadia was a classic RPG game on Dreamcast and the gamecube port of it was cool too. I agree with the stuff you pointed out about the flying in the world map with the ship. Flying through the sky it always made you interested in exploring and seeing the cool stuff that was out there. Like you say though, the encounter rate is really high in the world map and so battling happens a lot. I think if they did a modern remaster of this lowering the encounter rate in the world map just a little would be a really good thing. The battles and the story in the game was pretty nice though I really had a lot of fun with the battles and exploring the dungeons.
Honestly if they ever ported or remade this game, the best QOL they could do is let you turn on and off the random battles (while flying) at will. Obviously you need to level up but at times, it’s nice to be able to just explore without worrying about random battles.
Xenoblade is a very fitting choice of music at the start. The series is the closest to a spiral thematic sibling as I can think of.
Super moves can be skipped. I am positive i did that tons of times pressing the start button in my gamecube. Regarding Galcian, I wouldn’t say he is an “honorable” man who treated the body of Gregorio with respect because of his honor. Galcian values power. He respected Gregorio because of how strong he was. Galcian despises the royalty and high classes of Valua because of how vane and weak they are. Alfonso above all others since he was given a high rank not out of merit but out of vanity. Galcian is a bit like Genghis Khan in that respect. I love him as a villain.
You can skip special moves when you press the start button. But it only works for the first 2 seconds or so, I don't know why you can't skip it later
Yeah someone commented that earlier - seems a bit odd that you can't skip it after that window passes, but good to know.
But you can't skip magic attacks, you can skip only special moves. This is BS.
The frames are actually different depending on the special move
Vyses Cutlass Fury can be skipped anytime until he jumps in the air. But Aikas Lambda Burst can't be skipped after the words "Fire Con..."
It's weird
@@loneskankster2242 I think it's bug or engine problem. But in Sakura Wars 3-5 who runs on Skies of Arcadia engine you can skip animations in any time, which is weird. And in Skies of Arcadia you can't skip animations for magic attacks, healing or buffs / debuffs.
@@loneskankster2242 yeah that makes it even weirder
No game I have played has impacted me the way Skies of Arcadia did back in 2001.
17 hours ago? I started the game 3 days ago LMAO. Haven’t watch your video yet but this is easily one of my top 10 now! I just got the second crystal
UPDATE: Just beat the game 3 weeks later. One of the greatest game of all time. They should remake this so more people enjoy it’s genius!
My god did I love this game as a kid on gamecube. I played it I believe 3 times back to back until one day my brother sold it back to gamestop because I was playing it to much
Damn, that's rough lol
I hope you slapped your brother, and that he slapped himself afterwards.
no way your first playthrough and u got a mace hand drop!! thats like a 1% chance omg ive been playing for years and have never got it 😭 thanks for this video....u are so real for it. the world needs more skies fans.
The game truly begins on the 2nd disc. Perfection.
I'm so glad you finally got to play this. I bought it the day it came out for Dreamcast after falling in love with the Official Dreamcast Magazine demo and have played through it numerous times on Dreamcast, GameCube, and most recently emulation in January. It still holds up, but it could definitely use some modernization.
A note about the Moonfish quest and the lore hidden behind it: That was an addition to the GameCube version and was not present on Dreamcast, which is why it's locked behind that quest and not part of the main storyline.
Interesting to know! The articles I saw only went over the surface level changes between versions, and didn't see that was an addition.
every time I hear that title screen I shed a little tear of happiness
"... a title."
Perfectly thorough review of Ecco
I've always wanted to play this one, so I'm hoping it receives the remake treatment at some point. Amazing video man!
It's an awesome game, highly recommended!
Reminds me of Nostalgia for the Nintendo DS
Got it Day 1 on the GameCube and played it to completion. It’s right now the #5 best JRPG of all time on my list. Sure it could use some QOL improvements today. But I’ve gone back to it several times and it’s still very much good, fun and addicting.
That rhaknam and drachma scene hit me hard when I played this for the first time at 15...this game needs a HD remaster
One of my favorite things about this game, is that it doesn't do what you expect.
Any other JRPG, you might get captured and end up in Valua in the mid game... but you wouldn't do much there until the end. It's Antagonist land, you stay away until you have no choice... But in this one? Not only do you go there basically immediately, you do it twice before you're captured and taken there.
You go there at least 4 times in story, but it's always different.
Likewise, each Gigas is summoned and dealt with differently. It keeps them from getting boring.
Thanks for the video!
There are 2 versions of Chams. Normal Chams, which give one level to Cupil and Abirik Chams, which give multiple levels at once to Cupil. This allows for evolution variants depending on when you feed what Cham to Cupil. The variations aren't that massive, but some are a bit better than others. Choms allow Cupil to regurgitate all Chams he has consumed, so you can feed them to him again in maybe a different order for a different evolutionary outcome.
While I sadly did not play Legends growing up, I have played it since and loved it
it is one of my favorite games I never finished. I remember grinding levels and then I got to I think it was the 2nd time you fight your dopplegangers and I was so strong I couldn't beat them and pretty much soft locked my run.
One of my favorite RPGs.
...I have to get my Gamecube out of storage again, just for this!
As close to the spirit of One Piece without being One Piece you can get.
Without even watching, lemme put it to you this way: I can get a Sega Dreamcast in several locations where I live. I can't get a copy of Skies of Arcadia. Do you know why? Because all the owners wanna keep their copy of the game. That's how good it is.
I imported Skies on an American disk and finished it in seven days. Then I bought the game again for a UK release. Both on Dreamcast. I later bought a gamecube just for the legends version. I've also just watched a full playthrough from someone else on RUclips. Safe to say. I love this game. I even spent hours on the VMU with the silly mini game.
Has it held up? I think so.
I was close to getting this game way back when the Dreamcast was still alive, but wasn't able to. It looks like a very charming adventure and I'd like to give it a try, but I have no clue how to play it nowadays. Getting a working Dreamcast or Gamecube and finding a physical copy of the game doesn't sound like a super easy task. Perhaps it can be emulated, but I've never emulated before, so I don't know how to do that.
Speaking of Dreamcast JRPGs, hope Grandia II is somewhere on your list. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.
I believe they're already on PC anyway so that won't be an issue to jump in to if the urge takes me.
This is a game that deserves a true remaster, rebuilt from the ground up while ironing out the small issues the game has. I would love to see this game redone in the style of a modern nintendo game or dragon quest 11. Think there was word of an HD remaster or whatever, but I think this game deserves more since its such a great game. Heck another one that needs a full on remake is phantasy star 4. I hate that Sega abandoned their rpg series, unless it's a microtransaction or DLC filled mess.
I believe word of that remaster just vanished after a couple of months, nothing else since.
I’ve tried to play this, I wanted to like it so much, but I just couldn’t get into it. The amount of random battles is ridiculous too. Would love to play a version with QoL improvements though.
It's a jewel and deserves a sequel. No need for gore, nudity and high graphics. Just a good story, a nice and fun battle system. No one cares about that anymore
Fantastic assessments of the game. The only thing I'd quibble with is that I don't think most of the things you listed as examples of the game aging badly are actually a result of age; the encounter rate and animations were criticisms even at the time, the "but" in "this game is absolutely amazing, but..." On top of the combat balance issues, I'd also argue that the elemental affinity thing was undercooked since you could switch to their weakness at the press of a button with no reason to do anything else. Also, while the shipboard battles were amazing and giving crew assignments was a great way to make you feel like you were running an actual ship, they were also way too drawn out, with most of the later ship fights (especially the Gigas battles) feeling like massive HP sacks where the enemies couldn't really hurt your ship. I still love the game despite those issues, though.
If the crew gathering appealed to you as much as it sounded like, you probably owe it to yourself to check out the Suikoden games if you haven't before, as well as Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes next month. That's pretty much their whole thing, with running your own army and recruiting people to staff your base as a major part of the series' draw.
The encounter rate, even on the GameCube version is too high and brings this game down a point. Still a 9/10. There's a mod to gain the ability to turn off encounters and it really helps the game. With that mod 10/10
It’s honestly not that bad when you get to fly above the clouds since theres no encounters there
Where may I find this mod? I want to enjoy the game but the encounter rate is way too high for modern age..
This game looks really fun. I think one of my friends did a lets play of it. I should watch it. Although I am sorta worried about the parts in the creepy areas. Well, if I watch a lets play I won't have to go through there alone. I'm glad you had fun. I hope you have a great weekend and a wonderful easter at the end of the month. I can not believe how close we are to another holiday. I hope you get to play more oldschool games like this and have a good time with them.
I am finding out that there is a lot of things that are missing in the Dreamcast version, seems like I should play the Legends version again and finish the game a fourth time(or more) lol
Would love a full on remake or new game set in this universe.
Look at Billy fucking Two parents over here, having at least three parents
You should review Valkyria Chronicles series.
I second this.
but stop after the first game because everything else is basically garbage, especially the latest entry with crossbow wielding molested children one-shotting tanks and cartoon villains taken out of rejects of nickeledeon shows.
@@nathanielknight1838I really liked 4. Didn’t get a chance to play 2 or 3
Port on Switch would sellout for sure. This is a game many gamers have been waiting for
Galcian does respect strenght and honor but that doesn't mean he feels he needs to be honorable, he feels he's above honor.
He respect ruthlessness more than honor, it doesn't cost him or hinder his plan to show a bit of respect Gregorio's remain, if he could have took any advantage of it in any way he would've, by comparisom he held most of Valuan people in contempt so he doesn't care raning moonstone on them in a show of strenght.
One of the greatest rpg
Even if the gamecube version is very good, we have to take into account that the original dreamcast version is in 480p resolution (compared to only 480i on gamecube) and above all that the gamecube music is very compressed compared to the original version, which is quite obvious when you know the dreamcast version.
Just for the much better music sound quality, I can only recommend the dreamcast version for the best sound experience on original hardware or emulation
I'm playing SOA legends on my gamecube. At the very end of the game. It holds up really well. Fantastic game. I didn't plan on exploring and doing everything, but the game really sucks you in.
you CAN skip the special move animations with "Z" or "start"
I failed to finish this game because the disc had a flaw and my Dreamcast wouldn't read it past a certain point no matter how I tried to fix the disc. Maybe I'll give it a go on an emulator.
Choms are given because of Abirik chams. Basically cupil has a whole evolution/growth chart that the game doesn't really explain, and it's nonlinear.
If you give Cupil an Abirik Cham at certain points, he'll become an entirely different weapon. They all eventually lead to the final form once Cupil's got all the abiriks and the chams. But before that, you have situations like, if you give cupil enough chams to become cupil blade, then give it an Abirik, it will become Cupil Cannon. There's no other way to have Cupil Cannon. And that leads to a totally different upgrade path where you've got Cupil Lance, Club, Spike.
Some of these have much higher attack values. For example, Cupil Weight has 172 attack and gives Fina dodge. But the only way to get there is to go from Blade -> Abirik for Cannon, then regular chams till Lance, then another abirik for Pan, then more regular chams till weight.
A game I always wanted play so badly on the Gamecube and Dreamcast, but the prices for this game on Ebay is so darn high..
It's why game preservation is so important, not everyone can splash £100 on one game.
Sega: ,,Let's rerelease same game (Persona 3) 5th time, or 10th (Sonic The Hedgehog 1&2)''
Skies of Arcadia and other games from Saturn / Dreamcast: ,,Can i have a remaster too ?''
Sega: ,,No''
@@TheKisekiNutAnd no one should pay that much for the game. Imagine paying more money for it right now than when the game was brand new + it does not support the developers in any way. I would recommend everyone to play this on PC emulator (dolphin is amazing) or do like me and get a GDemu for Dreamcast
I really want to play this game, hoping it comes to modern systems
emulator? I love this game, i want to everybody plays it at least once
@@uimasterroshi171 I don’t got a pc
I had on gamecube. Still praying for a port since i sold mine
Try the Dolphin emulator. It works great
Horteka/Ixa'Taka was my favorite part of the game.
Gamecube version have also one big downgrade - music is heavy compressed. Dreamcast version have soundtrack in higher quality.
true and the music in this game is epic, needs to be the quality of dreamcast!
Yeah that was a shame. Same held true for Sonic DX, the Dreamcast version was far better in more than just the soundtrack.
9.9.99 FF8 was released the same day!!
I Bought it 10 years ago, at that time it was still expensive (70 €), now it prices are crazy. However i have incredible memories for this game that was for me the best j rpg ever produced. I play it again 3 years ago and i agree when you say the game is slow... but you can skip special move when pressing Z button. I also dislike the fact that there are too much fights in the skies it is very frustrating when u juste want to explore. I know that there is an item to reduce fight frequency but you net to get a lot a moonfishes beforr having it
you sound like you have really cool parents
This game is fantastic 10/10
Its such a shame Vyse later was convicted of warcrimes 😞