Skies of Arcadia Preview

For years now people have been begging Sega to deliver a new installment in the Phantasy Star series (which some claim to be the pinnacle role-playing game series). Ever since the Sega Saturn was released, there have been rumors of a new, fifth Phantasy Star - despite Sega's claims that the fourth game was indeed the final. These rumors lasted through the Saturn's life span, but never proved to be true. Likely due to the cries of fans everywhere, Sega released a Phantasy Star collection late in the Saturn's life in Japan, but there was still no true sequel.

When news of the Dreamcast began to hit the gaming populous, once again rumors of a new Phantasy Star came into play. It seems that among Sega users, the Phantasy Star series - more than other classic Sega series, such as Shinobi, Alex Kidd, Space Harrier, or Streets of Rage - had them the most starved for a sequel. While we're still waiting for a new Phantasy Star, it seems Eternal Arcadia may just be the next best thing. Originally titled Project Ares, this Dreamcast role-playing game is being developed by the same team that brought you the Phantasy Star series.

The game takes place in a time of great expeditions and floating island cities. You play as Vice, who along with his friends Aika and Fienna, rides on an airship with the Dain group in search of a new continent. The airship is equipped with heavy artillery, but it only attacks military and air forces, not merchants. That is the law of being a Blue Sky Pirate, of which you are a member. You soon learn tha ta large enemy nation is using airships equipped with highly advanced technologies to take over the floating islands and make them into colonies. Eventually, the Blue Sky Pirates and the enemy nation will struggle against each other over the new continent and the power of the Moon Stones (explained later).

The main base of the Blue Sky Pirates is located on a small floating island. Their ship is docked at a hidden location in a huge underground basement, and only small ships are docked on the outside to prevent raising suspicions from the military. Different families, including Vice's mother, live on the floating island, working on the farms and growing crops for food in the island. Something worth noting is that when you enter their houses in the game, the screen doesn't fade to black and change scenes Instead, the roof disappears, and you can see the interior of the house. You can then seamlessly move in and out of the house.

The world of Eternal Arcadia has six moons in all: green, red, purple, blue, yellow, and silver. You can only see one of them if you are situated in one area. You will eventually venture into different areas of the world, and you will be able to see the different moons. Sometimes, a comet is born out of these moons and crashes onto Earth. These fragments of comets, called Moon Stones, are not just beautiful in their appearance, but they yield magical properties as well. These Moon Stones can be used for different things, such as weapons, and can be sold at a high price. Weapons made out of the stones have different elements depending on which moon they came from. For example, red is fire, yellow is lightning, and purple is ice. Aside from their ability to be used as weapons, these elements can be used for casting magical spells. For example, yellow can cast a lightning spell called Voltes; red lets you cast a fire spell called Burnie, and purple casts ice spells like Glacie .The Moon Stones can also be used as fuel for some of the flying ships.

The battle scene at this point seems to use the traditional style by giving commands through a series of pop-up windows on the screen. You will use different weapons and magic with the help of the Moon Stones to battle against your foes. It is not yet known whether a battle between airships will be featured in the game, but it seems like a pretty fair bet. Ike Sato's Gameplay Impressions:

We recently acquired a playable demo of Eternal Arcadia at the Tokyo Game Show that we think contains enough of the game to give us a good idea about what to expect from the final product. The first thing you'll notice is that Eternal Arcadia's graphics and music are very well done. The characters don't have real-life proportions nor are they "superdeformed," but they are a happy medium between the two. All the characters' faces are filled with emotion, and their expressions change quite frequently. There are no voice-overs, but you will occasionally hear the characters scream, shout, or cry, depending on the situation (this includes during battles). The music and the sound effects on the playable demo showed a lot of potential. The music used during battle in particular brings a lot of mood and atmosphere into the game.

You will control Vice, the main character, and roam freely on the field map. The field map is composed entirely of 3D polygons, and the L-R trigger can be used to rotate the camera angle 360 degrees around you. Although quirky at times, the camera angles in the field maps are quite comfortable. Hopefully, it will be tweaked even further during the completion of the game. Your view is primarily in the third-person perspective, but you can hit the Y button to change to a first-person perspective, letting you look freely around the field map. When you enter buildings, the walls fade away so you can see the interiors while still being able to see the outside. In the playable demo, you start out in Vice's hometown, and you can visit item shops, talk with neighbors, and play hide-and-seek with kids. When you're done being social, you can head for the docks to take the helm of the airship.

You fly the airship from one place to another across the world map. The game then uses a perspective similar to that used in flight-simulation games - or even one reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon on the Sega Saturn. The L-R triggers are used to change the altitude, while the analog pad is used control the direction of your ship. The D-pad changes the camera angle, so you can see the ship from behind, the side, or even from the top or bottom. A cursor appears at the top of the screen if you can dock into a specific location. The only minor problem we've seen is that there is noticeable slowdown in the world map because there is so much going on in the environment. Picture this: floating islands on the world map full of flowing waterfalls, flying birds, desert plains with huge rocky mountains, and asteroid belts - it certainly isn't easy for the game to keep a constant frame rate. Hopefully, this problem can be resolved in the final version as well. While traveling across the world map, you may encounter other ships. The playable demo only let us converse with the crew of the other ships, but hopefully the final version will see more interaction between ships. You also have random encounters with enemies during your flight. What's great about the battle-encounter sequences is that there are several variations to it instead of just one or two basic effects. We've seen at least half a dozen or so different types of battle-encounter sequences so far.

The battle uses basic commands such as attack, defend, use items, magic (which is called Kojyutsu), special attacks, and charge. A gauge at the top of the screen tells you the number of guts points in your party, which are used to execute special attacks and cast magic spells. Additionally, each character has Kojyutsu Points (KP) with which to cast magic spells. (Try to think of them as magic points .) You only consume one KP with any spell you cast, but you also use a number of guts points for casting the spells. For example, the fire spell Burna consumes two guts points and one KP on your character. For a special-attack variation on that spell, it uses even more guts points. The theory is that the more guts points a magic spell or special attack uses, the more powerful they are. Guts points are replenished little by little after every turn, but you can also use the charge command to replenish them more quickly. The battle is turn based, although it is presented as though it is running in semi-real-time (a good example might be Konami's Suikoden for the Sony PlayStation, except at a slower pace). Also, even when your character has finished attacking in that turn, if you look closely, you can see that the characters are still "fighting" by parrying attacks and swinging their weapons (although they're not damaging their opponents). The visual effects both for magic spells and the special attacks are fantastic. Final Fantasy VIII had great special attacks and spells, but some of them were just plain too long, especially after seeing them more than a dozen times. Eternal Arcadia offers eye candy that is as impressive, but the effects in this game are short enough that you won't get fed up of them.

We were very interested in this game after just seeing footage of it in action. Now that we've played through the demo, we're very excited. Eternal Arcadia is due for a summer release in Japan. A US release date has yet to be announced by Sega, but it seems a safe bet that it'll be brought to the States.