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Skies of Arcadia

One of my favorites as well. Great theme, atmosphere and characters. Great sense of adventure (perhaps only rivalled by the also fantastic Grandia). Loved the ship battles as well. Only ever played the GC version some years after the original's release though, so I'll have to check out that recommended DC OST.

My hope is that the Valkyria team will eventually manage to revisit this property even if chances of that are slim. That said, maybe that new Valkyria RPG they are currently developing will bring back some elements and qualities of Skies of Arcadia, and perhaps even have some more cameos as well.
 
Krejlooc said:
Any other hidden gems? I've run into so many casual game players over the years who unexpectedly had some awesome dreamcast games from way back when. Like one of my fraternity brothers in college, who otherwise had absolutely no interest in video games or anime or anything like that, had played Grandia 2 on his dreamcast when he was younger.
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Not much. The only other cased game he had was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and NFL 2K. Lots of bootleg burned games, but nothing in those of note outside of Project Justice.

I plan on taking my old copy of Skies and trading it in towards a boxed copy of Earthbound, just so people can enjoy the game without me hogging two copies.
 
Cheshire_Buddha said:
Not much. The only other cased game he had was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and NFL 2K. Lots of bootleg burned games, but nothing in those of note outside of Project Justice.

I plan on taking my old copy of Skies and trading it in towards a boxed copy of Earthbound, just so people can enjoy the game without me hogging two copies.
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Have copies of the Dreamcast skies of arcadia gotten to earthbound prices?! Holy crap!
 
Still waiting on that HD version they teased on youtube. Please tell me that guy no longer works at Sega? Might be working on it my ass.
 
Game holds a special place for me only because I bought my dreamcast and this game, never played it before my cousin borrowed it, never returned it and moved out of state and sold it some months later. He jokes that when we get old, we're gonna talk about how he still owes me for that.
Oh, and he made sure to tell me how awesome it was after he told me he sold it.
 
For anyone that is a fan of this game, you may also like to know a mod exists "Skies of Arcadia: Legends Maeson"

Rebalanced Character stats

Rebalanced Magic, Supermoves and Healing Items

Modified Equipment with new effects and attributes

Modified Ship Equipment, Ship Magic and Crew members

More difficult enemies and bosses

Tougher Ship Battles

Restored Unused Ship Beta items
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I've always wanted to play Skies of Arcadia just based on Vyse and Aika being my favorite two Valkyria Chronicles units.

Are they as cool in the game as they are in VC?
 
I wanted Legends so bad when I was a kid. I had some magazine with an ad for it that just grabbed me and I would always be looking for it any time I went to a game store, but I never did find it so I never played it.
 
Well I own this on my Gamecube. Replayed it a couple years ago. Remains one of my all time favorites. A sequel would be amazing with the exploration aspect.
 
I don't know what you're trying to say, OP, but Skies of Arcadia is one of my favorite games, hands down. I have so many good memories playing that game. It's a shame it's never received a sequel, or at least a re-master.
 
Skies of Arcadia is my second favorite RPG of all time, just barely behind Chrono Trigger and just slightly ahead of the Baldur's Gate series. I own SoA on both the DC and the GC, and I have my DC copy ripped via the broadband adapter so that I can play it on my PC via Null Emulator. It's been some time since I played through it now, I think it's time for a new play through!

I'd seriously pay good money for an HD remaster on Steam, or even a sequel. :(
 
The GCN version was absolutely the best 15 bucks I ever spent on a game. The entire game from start to finish is absolutely alive with charm. Also helped scratch my Harlock itch, I always wondered if some aspects of Skies were inspired by Matsumoto's work.
 
rochellepaws said:
Easily one of my top 10 games I've ever played. Some of my favourite parts to it were:


  • Diversity of the world, maybe generic but I love the idea of ice, jungle and rural Japan continents.
  • Battle music changing in accordance to your health
  • Much like in Valkyria Chronicles it had a council of "bad guys" who were more shades of grey than pure evil, with relatable motivations and often redeeming features.
  • Having your own base and being able to recruit crew around the world for various benefits
  • The variance of battle types between ship and regular, very important to have this variety for breaking up monotony in rpgs
  • I'm a big fan of slow paced rpgs which gradually open up over time rather than throw everything it has into the first 10 hours. Skies was constantly developing and bringing new mechanics and features at you even 40 hours into the game. I always felt the more I played the better the game was getting.

I'm not really pushed about a HD remake since the gamecube version holds up and I'd only want a sequel if it was the original crew making it. What I'm really curious about is where are these masterminds behind Skies and the original Valkyria Chronicles and what are they doing now? They're some of the finest minds in the industry and have surely been under utilised so far.
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Perfectly stated why I love Skies of Arcadia. I'd love a version for the Vita or PS4. I rank it as one of my favorite RPGs alongside Final Fantasy 9, Dragon Quest 8, and Persona 4.
 
rochellepaws said:
Easily one of my top 10 games I've ever played. Some of my favourite parts to it were:


  • Diversity of the world, maybe generic but I love the idea of ice, jungle and rural Japan continents.
  • Battle music changing in accordance to your health
  • Much like in Valkyria Chronicles it had a council of "bad guys" who were more shades of grey than pure evil, with relatable motivations and often redeeming features.
  • Having your own base and being able to recruit crew around the world for various benefits
  • The variance of battle types between ship and regular, very important to have this variety for breaking up monotony in rpgs
  • I'm a big fan of slow paced rpgs which gradually open up over time rather than throw everything it has into the first 10 hours. Skies was constantly developing and bringing new mechanics and features at you even 40 hours into the game. I always felt the more I played the better the game was getting.

I'm not really pushed about a HD remake since the gamecube version holds up and I'd only want a sequel if it was the original crew making it. What I'm really curious about is where are these masterminds behind Skies and the original Valkyria Chronicles and what are they doing now? They're some of the finest minds in the industry and have surely been under utilised so far.
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tumblr_ni4sqfXOa31qgf1i8o1_500.gif
 
Skies of Arcadia was fantastic I don't remember as much about it as I would like but it was way ahead of its time.

Also I really liked the idea that Vyse... (ending spoilers)
Isn't ultimately forced to pick one of the girls to be his love interest. So many games hammer down one character that the protagonist ultimately likes and the other is basically shafted. The game doesn't outright state it but I always thought that Vyse gets both girls and they are all happy with that, no drama about picking one or the other and bringing out jealousy between the girls to create an extra conflict, they are all together (romantically or not) and happy.

I seriously don't get why this game isn't on PC yet... actually I do, fucking Sega.
 
Still my favorite RPG of all time, and has always been a regular in my Top 3 GOAT games. Got a play-thru on deck on Dreamcast and have been having a blast with the game again. The game stil looks beautfiul over VGA. The cast of characters are so likable, and the game gives off a really positive vibe when I play it. Just playing the game makes me happy. Ship battles really are cool too. They never really seemed to be replicated in other games. The ship battles have such cinematic flare to them as well. They look really good, even in 2016!

Skies of Arcadia is definitely one of my most desired remasters too. I'd love to own a truly definitive version of the game in HD. The content and gameplay tweaks of the Gamecube versison, with the uncompressed audio of the Dreamcast version would be sweet! I'll always love this game.
 
I feel like I missed out by not playing this back in the GC days. I'm guessing it has turn-based combat, and sadly I just can't do that anymore.
 
One of my first Dreamcast games.

I remember when a bunch of DC exclusives started porting over to PS2 and Gamecube when the ship was sinking and feeling betrayed. Solid, fun RPG. Glad more people got to play it.
 
Amazing game. One of my favorite games ever which is surprising considering I generally detest JRPGs.

Few games give the sense of discovery and adventure this game does.
 
Krejlooc said:
You used to be able to tell well in advance when you were going to get a "random battle" in the dreamcast version because you could hear the drive spin up long before the battle, lol.
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Hahahaha, yep. The disc drive has a heart attack before each battle. At least you're never surprised!


Also Aika is one of my favorite party members in any RPG. Lamda Burst is godlike in a game with so many random battles.

"FIRE CONSUME MY ENEMIES!"
 
Love the game.

While I guess I would like to see some more attention given to it from Sega, a sequel seems kind of unnecessary given how a lot of the appeal was discovering the world, and by the end of the game, you've done that. I guess there could be a reboot or HD remake or something, but I don't feel that a direct sequel should be the way to go.
 
Pieman0920 said:
Love the game.

While I guess I would like to see some more attention given to it from Sega, a sequel seems kind of unnecessary given how a lot of the appeal was discovering the world, and by the end of the game, you've done that. I guess there could be a reboot or HD remake or something, but I don't feel that a direct sequel should be the way to go.
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Direct sequel? No, I agree with you it's pretty unnecessary, but I think the world they built was ripe for more adventure and story. If a sequel was ever made, I would have liked to see a new cast of characters, possibly in a different time period entirely.

Jawbreaker said:
One of my all-time favorite games. It had so much character!

tumblr_n7c2ye4Kx61sq67v0o1_r2_400.gif
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I can hear all the sound effects perfectly lol.
 
LAMDBA BURST!

Yeah. Later half of the game is beaten by using this OVER AND OVER.

The game is great but that fucking battle strategy was a let down.
 
Celine said:
I gladly take the compressed music over the DC too high encounter rate.
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Sure. This is not my case, depends on our preferences in the end.

I remember this moment in the end game where you can launch Rain of Swords directly at the beginning of the fight (because you reached the required Focus amount), and one-kill everyone.

Leveling becomes much faster after this.

The fact that we are talking about this game, as the masterpiece that it is, after all those years demonstrates how well designed it is. Rieko Kodama really knew her stuff about RPGs.
 
clintar said:
Game holds a special place for me only because I bought my dreamcast and this game, never played it before my cousin borrowed it, never returned it and moved out of state and sold it some months later. He jokes that when we get old, we're gonna talk about how he still owes me for that.
Oh, and he made sure to tell me how awesome it was after he told me he sold it.
Click to expand...

Who the fuck sells someone else's games? Dick move.
 
Awesome game.

The developers also created the Sakura Wars (Sakura Taisen) series. Unfortunately the only game that made it to the west was Sakura Wars: So long my love on the PS2 and Wii. (It is the fifth game in the series). It's a mecha strategy RPG with dating sim elements, so you can kind of see why it mostly stayed in Japan. Good game though, so if that sounds like it's up your alley then it's definitely worth checking the game out.
 
Dawg said:
The director from Skies of Arcadia is the same guy who directed Valkyria Chronicles. Some of the characters in Valkyria Chronicles are from Skies of Arcadia, such as Vyse:

latest


15771505645_b99809f4fd_b.jpg


Always thought that was a pretty neat detail.
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VC is also a much better game.
 
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