One of the best RPGs from the 6th gen.Great in many ways.
Skies of Arcadia is one of the best RPGs I've played from the 6th gen and that's something I don't say lightly since I've played lots of 6th gen RPGs,including many great ones such as Final Fantasy X,Star Ocean TTEoT,Wild Arms 4,Shadow Hearts Covenant,Dragon Quest 8,Paper Mario Thousand Year Door,Tales of the Abyss and the list goes on and Skies of Arcadia is right up there with those games.
The first thing that made this game stand out to me is the fact it's world map is set out high in the sky and you'll see floating land in which you can/will need to explore and you and other people will use airships to travel around.
The story for this game is interesting and very creative and uses elements of fantasy,mythology and Sci Fi quite well and has a romance triangle and love stories in it too and has complex problems that relate to high ranking people in the empire and how some of those people relate to those opposed to the empire as well as conflicts within the empire itself and the story has great plot twists and surprising revelations and it can be exciting at times and can feel like an epic journey because of the fact you're traveling around the sky and exploring new regions of sky and exploring the land masses(you'll need to increase/decrease altitude because some land masses are higher/lower than others)and because of the cultural diversity too.
The story is about how thousands of years ago,ancient but very highly advanced civilizations existed and lived on floating land masses high in the sky used technology to create Gigas with are giant,living beings capable of mass destruction and used moon crystals to control them.War broke out and the civilizations used the gigas against each other and they nearly wiped each other out I won't give away what happens next but lets just say an epic event caused the war to end and the moon crystals were sealed away so it meant the gigas couldn't be used for mass destruction anymore.
Thousands of years later(which is the time period you will play in)a powerful empire led by an empress and power hungry military commanders are searching for the moon crystals because they want control of the gigas.A mysterious girl named Fina is searching for the moon crystals and gets captured and rescued by a bunch of rebel sky pirates named the 'Blue Rogues' ,the Blue Rogues are rebelling to empire rule so they constantly attack and try to sabotage anything that's related to the empire and Fina meets Vyse and Aika who are the three main party members but other characters join your party and they go in search of the moon crystals hoping to find them before the empire does and their journey means they will need to deal with empire military forces and rival pirates who will attack anyone simply to steal and all the plot twists,story surprises and more complex story elements come into the story,same with the romance triangle.
What helps make the story great is the characters are often interesting or are involved in the story in a way that makes them interesting.
For people who've played Valkyria Chronicles,you might appreciate Vyse and Aika being Valkyria Chronicles characters because in Valkyria Chronicles it did say Vyse and Aika came from far away lands.
However,I must say the story disappointed me in a way that it doesn't give closure for certain things that I wanted closure for.
The battle system is turn based and is based around the spirit system.Special attacks and magic require spirit and trying to balance out charging up enough spirit for powerful attacks whilst using spirit for spells on enemies that are vulnerable to particular spells or healing spells to keep your party members alive requires careful thought.Keep in mind this game was released back in 2001 so for it's time it's battle system was fairly good.
You'll need to do lots of level grinding though,and early in the game it can be tough when you haven't had much chance to level grind and you aren't given much opportunities to save your progress.
Part of the fun is exploring the sky for land(like I said you can increase/decrease altitude to find land masses at different altitudes)and exploring the land masses when you do find them.Some land masses have no people but might have items or secret bosses.The towns have their own culture(some are old style rural villages,or influenced by Asian culture or middle eastern culture and built in deserts,there's a jungle village built high amongst the trees)and the town inhabitants follow a particular culture and you can and will sometimes need to talk with NPCs and explore the towns to make the story move forwards or for side quests.
I like it how the game makes you make that little bit extra effort to explore if you want to find hidden places,items,secret bosses or other secrets because land in the world is rare but it gave me a more rewarded feeling when I did find new land,like I was a true adventurer.
The game play also has airship battles which takes place on grids and some of them are optional(you'll see the airship before you battle it)but some are mandatory and the way you position your ship on the grid will determine whether it can attack,cannot attack,has a critical hit advantage.You can also choose which cannon to use which affects the amount of damage you do to an enemy.I didn't find these segments much fun but I appreciate them being in the game because of the game's theme.
The game definitely stood out visually for it's time,for a 2001 release the visuals are very polished,colorful and smooth and the animations look smooth and the character appearances make the characters seem interesting.
The towns have unique details such as how you'll see bridges built over the edge of a town/floating landmass and when you are near it or walk over it you'll feel like you're really high in the sky and there's beautiful waterfalls and I love the Asian style bridges that go over a lake and that are near Asian style buildings in the village of Yafutoma and I like how many objects in
Yafutoma are made from wood for a traditional Asian feel.I like how the rural style villages have windmills but some villages are high tech/futuristic and some areas have lovely waterfalls and there's dungeons that look like ancient temples but have futuristic things about them too.
Overall,this game is definitely one of the best RPGs released during the 6th gen and it's very rare and expensive now so if you're a JRPG fan you should pick up a copy of this game while you can if you own a Dreamcast or Gamecube.