Even fifteen years after the game's release this title still comes up in casual conversation sometimes. It makes sense, because this game shook up the traditional JRPG formula in some meaningful ways. There are even some ideas in here that continue to inspire across the genre lines. At the same time though this game has some pretty serious roadblocks that might prevent modern gamers from enjoying it as much as gamers fifteen years ago enjoyed it. This is my third play-through of the title and after 20 hours of play this time around I decided to shelve the game for a while. But before I do I want to spend a little time reviewing this title and breaking it down.

--The Good--

One of the parts of this game that I enjoyed the most over the years, but something that does not get discussed much in general, is this game's overall positive tone. The main character has both parents, has not suffered any ridiculously traumatic loss, and navigates all his problems with agency and optimism. He doesn't complain or whine about his lot in life, and even as he works to save the world he does not lose his own personal sense of fun and adventure. I'm not saying I want all my games to be like this, but when the market is so saturated with gritty worlds and anti-heroes I'm happy for the chance to take a break from all that muck.

Another important element of the game is how it manages to capture the spirit of exploration. Lots of people have already talked about how you can fly around in your ship and actually discover landmarks like a real explorer. But this theme of exploration permeates deep into the game's philosophy, gameplay, and writing. What I find fascinating is that even though this is a sterotypically linear RPG with invisible walls and everything, it still manages to create the feeling of freedom and fresh air and a do-as-you-please attitude. The writing, the art aesthetic, and the three-dimensional design of the game's spaces is a big part of that. Other games worried about their tone could learn a lot from studying this title.

--The Bad--

The main problem I had with this game is the length of time it took to complete it. This game is full of padding that really stretches out the final hour count. Random battles can occur as often as every 15 seconds in dungeons and when you are flying around in the ship. Side quests can send you back and forth across almost half the map. Boss fights and ship-to-ship battles can sometimes stretch to over an hour (it took me 90 minutes to fight the final boss when I played this game on the Dreamcast fifteen years ago). It's not that I mind long-form games. I have spent 300+ hours in Skyrim without a single moment of regret. But this title is unconcerned with holding the player's attention, and so by the end of the 40+ hours it will take to finish this game you will really feel the weight of those hours. I think this is a result of the different gaming culture of the year 2000, where games had fewer competitors and could afford to be more relaxed and rambling as a result.

Another problem I encountered in the game may not be a problem for everyone, but it is something to be aware of as the gaming industry grows and matures. As I already mentioned exploration is the core theme of this game, and part of exploration is encountering new cultures you have never encountered before. This game includes a variety of cultures for that very purpose, but the way these cultures are portrayed is lazy. There is only a thin layer of writing over a vast number of thoughtless cultural stereotypes.

--The Verdict--

This game has a special place on my shelf and in my heart. Some of it is based in real appreciation for what this game managed to accomplish, and some of it is based in nostalgia. I'm a modern gamer and I'm also someone who played this game when it was first released over fifteen years ago. I have a foot in both eras as I write this. And as a result I understand that this game is also a product of its time and many modern gamers who do not have a history with this title will probably struggle to enjoy themselves. If you have a special fondness for JRPGs, or if you are interested in playing games of historic value, then I definitely suggest this title. It does some interesting things along those lines. But if you are just looking for an RPG to spend some time with there are probably more modern options that will do a better job of respecting your time and effort.

I started Skies of Arcadia at the urging of friend, who gave me a copy for my wedding. After some urging, I started the game during Covid, thinking it would be a cool way to kill some time.

I really enjoy JRPGs, and had never heard of this one, so figured lets give it a whirl.

Starting off, I thought the music was good, nice and upbeat, captured the feeling of exploration and wonder.

The graphics aged surprisingly well, living up to GameCube being one of my favorite retro consoles.

The setting/story, as with most RPGs is where this game really manages to create something unique. The setting is a steampunk-like world, that is islands floating in the sky. The cast fly around on airships, struggling versus an evil empire, hopping from island to island. Its a cool concept, what really helps the feel is that it is very upbeat, especially for a JRPG. The main cast are Air Pirates, primarily interested in adventure and exploring. The lead doesn't fit the stereotype of emo wreck, but instead is upbeat and cheerful.

Probably the coolest thing about the game is that in addition to traditional turn based fights as a group, you have ship vs. ship battles, which feel distinctly different. This really reinforces you are air pirates, and that ships are a HUGE part of your game. Now these battles, while frequently awesome, do take a while, mostly due to the inability to skip animations, but these were hands down my favorite part of the game.

The actual cast of characters I don't think is too memorable, with the exception of the two main villains who I found pretty compelling, and one of the side members, who I thought was cool. This hurts some of the investment into the story, but exploring and learning about the world was still fun.

The gameplay and battle mechanics are rather uninspired. They aren't bad, but they also aren't great, and I think they along with some lack luster cast members are what holds the game back the most.

Overall, I'm glad I played it, and I 100% see why people consider it a cult classic, but I do not think its a must play JRPG, though its worth checking out of if you are a fan of the genre.

This is a game that hasn't exactly aged well, in terms of gameplay. It's very much a product of the JRPGs of its time, which is both a good and bad thing. Albeit, one critical difference with Skies of Arcadia (SoA) versus your typical Final Fantasy entry is the pacing, SoA isn't in a rush both in and out of combat. Combat is your traditional turn based affair, but animations are unskippable and VERY long. Between these long animations and an intro and outro animation for entering/exiting battle, most battles, even trivial ones, will take a few minutes. That might not sound like a lot, but it adds up especially with the high frequency of random encounters... the Dreamcast version (which I haven't played) apparently had an even worse random encounter rate. This is often a big criticism of the game, and honestly it is warranted. That said, something that is cool about the combat is how your characters do run around and engage with the enemies to make the battle feel more active than it is. Of course the downside to this is how it prolongs all animations. It kind of feels like Crono Cross, where your position and enemy position does matter for your abilities and spells, but you don't have control over the randomized movement.

There are some noteworthy additions to an otherwise traditional combat. First is the mechanic around shifting your elemental type. This is an interesting mechanic, because it not only impacts the damage you deal, but it also affects the types of spells you learn. So you have control over which spells you want to prioritize/learn. You can also switch your elemental attack type on the fly and still attack in the same turn. This is a neat idea, but it is significantly held back by its opaqueness:

This chart is never given to you. Someone painstakingly came up with this via trial and error. I suppose the good news is most of the time, an elemental weakness and resistance only affects your damage by 10%. Except for purple/red. It's fine to have a kind of rock, paper, scissors mechanic. The issue is how poorly this is communicated to you. Sometimes an enemy will use an elemental type, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are affiliated or identify as that element. So even paying attention, sometimes what you would expect to be the weakness isn't. So I did find myself more frustrated with this elemental shifting than on board with it. So it's honestly best to just use elements that give you XP towards spells you want.

This mechanic I felt more sour on than positive, but the other noteworthy mechanic I am more firmly on board with was the ship battles. They developed a second turned based battle system exclusively for ship battles (or dog fights since they are in the air?). This allows you to plan out the actions for each party member for a given turn, then an animation plays out. You are given information about the four actions that are color-coded. A green square means equal footing between you and the enemy, yellow means slight advantage to the enemy, red means enemy has advantage, a triangle means you have advantage and the icon for your special weapon means it can be used on that turn. This ends up feeling a bit like battleship in a good way. These aerial dog fights feel epic and the animations do breath life into the battle drama. That said, there is a downside. And if you haven't already guessed it... the animations are VERY long and unskippable. Some aerial battles can easily last 30 minutes and roughly 2/3s of that time is spent watching unskippable animations. So it is really cool, but they should have made the animations skippable. This ship battles felt significantly more tactical. Which is a good thing in my book, even if it's flawed.

So combat had some really interesting ideas that don't age too well given the slow as molasses pacing of the combat. What does age well, in my opinion, is the highly stylized anime art style and steampunk world building. I do also like the boxy texture that most Dreamcast games had. I find it appealing, even if it's a bit weird. Something that I do find odd is how the game is praised for being so up beat, like that's a novel thing. Most games/media are up beat, even at the time of the release of SoA... that said, I don't think the upbeat story is a bad thing and it is well done. It's just not novel or noteworthy like people seem to like to state. Sure Final Fantasy 7 certainly was a lot darker than SoA, but all the Mario games are the definition of upbeat. And many other franchises.

I do think the ending of SoA is one of it's strongest elements though. Most of the story is pretty silly, padded with some darker moments sprinkled throughout. Where the game is exceptional is with it's world building. I'm just a sucker for Steam-punk aesthetics and while a world of floating islands is outrageous, it's still really fun to explore it and it feels unique. It's a combination of Jules Verne's Sci-fi meets the whimsical splendor of a Studio Ghibli movie. The only real negative I have to say about exploration is the random encounters... which honestly dissuaded me from exploring more because of how annoying random encounters were.

The game also featured a mechanic around building a base and crew for your Air Pirates. Both are interesting and give you a sense of progression, even if they are mostly just set dressing. Neither really fundamentally alters gameplay. But it is neat to leave your base and come back to a more bustling village.

SoA was a neat little gem. It had some interesting ideas that would have been cool to see expanded on and developed in a sequel. Sadly we never got that. By modern standards, the game is very slow which will turn a lot of people away from this game. I do think it's art direction and world building are unique enough to make this game worth checking out. The aerial dog fight combat is cool, even if flawed due to the long animations. Overall glad I finally played this game. I remember wanting to way back in the early 2000s when it came out. But I never got around to it.