samadust's Full Review: Skies of Arcadia for Dreamcast
Having been in development for over two years, Skies of Arcadia(formerly known as Eternal Arcadia) has been anticipated and drooled over by many. Yet, in the shadow of more popular and highly marketed greats like Grandia 2 and Phantasy Star On-line, it has been widely overlooked. Now with the finished product in my sweaty hand, I can attest to the fact that it is more spectacular than ANY RPG ever made to date!
There are many entry points to the discussion of SoA's superiority but I'll begin with the most typical and readily obvious one, the graphics. In the past, many an RPG has been touted for its effects, graphical splendor, attention to detail, character design and lighting/shadow effects. Games like Final Fantasy VIII and Chrono Cross, both for the Playstation, have been crowned as the undisputed kings of the RPG world 50% for their graphics and 50% for their gameplay and story line.
Well, in the purely superficial sector of the video game world, where graphics matter more than content, Skies of Arcadia has now replaced any previously reigning RPG's and is p*ssing on their graves.
Take the environs of FFVIII and upgrade their 3 dimensionality, cell shading, real time lighting effects, richness of color, depth perception, and solidity of scenery by a thousand and you are beginning to understand the masterful design of SoA. I was literally amazed by the complete-ness of the atmosphere, the sheer lavishness of the level design and depth of the 360 degree field of vision...all without a miniscule hint of pop up.
This is all heavily complimented by the option to switch to first person mode at almost any point in the game. In certain tight spots, the player can't use this option but in most others you can. Switching to first person, instantly gives you a ground up perspective of the beautifully designed world you're exploring.
You can stop to look at a patch of flowers swarmed by colorful butterflies, or a map lying on someones desk. You can look up above the houses and see eerily realistic smoke rising delicately from the chimney of a house while cottony cirrus clouds drift over head. You can stand high upon a floating platform perched above a village and look directly down eight stories below and still see kids running and playing, butterflies fluttering and smoke rising with the sharpest resolution ever seen from such a distance on a game. At long distance the resolution loses not and inch in ground. The design on the side of a floating ship is still perceivable at 1000 ft!
This first person mode lends a deeper level of immersion to the game that Chrono Cross and FFVIII, or IX for that matter, could only dream of. The in game cinema's are seamlessly connected to the actual play without that traditional jump in the graphics. The actual play looks every bit as good as the cinemas. Characters change their expressions as they speak, wave their hands accordingly, realistically and convincingly.
The character design is some of the best I have ever seen, and I have played a lot of games. Not only is the character design the best ever seen on an RPG, it also rivals games like Shenmue with its realism and attention to detail.
The main character, Vyse, wears an interesting sailor suit with what look like brown hide boots and a glass eye patch. His jacket sleeves are cut right above the elbows and the lower sleeve is attached to the upper by two red straps, revealing a small section of his bare arm. All of the characters in the game (even minor characters) are consistently designed elaborately with bright colors and no sign of repetition in conception.
I was utterly amazed by the expansive scope of the scenery. At the beginning of the game when you first reach the protagonists village, Pirate Island, you are immediately struck by the vastness of the underground cavernous port where the ship, appropriately dubbed the Albatross, is docked. Even the guy "swabbing the deck" is designed using many different textures and colors. Switching to first person you see lights shining from the ceiling which is 4 stories high and people moving around on the upper levels. Once outside, the beautifully crafted floating village rises around you, stairways and ladders lead to the sky, and a trip down a suspended walkway gives you a nice view from far off....I love this game.
I could go on and on about the graphical prowess but then you'd probably stop reading so onto the storyline. Again here, I have to give the game five stars to show that it is up to snuff with every other RPG that has been touted for its story element (Chrono Cross, Star Ocean etc.) but then I also have to add another two stars for originality. SoA does what all of those games did (or tried to do) and takes it a whole lot further.
While the story isn't the most original in the world, it definitely breaks some heavily trodden ground in the console RPG world. It neither conforms to the far too often used Medieval World environment with castles, kings and magicians, nor to the half Medieval, half technologically advanced world you see in games like FFVII. It creates its own, fresh new concept, so beautiful, so crisp even the most jaded old RPG'er will have to forget the past and step into this brave new world.
You are Vyse, the son of Dyne, the leader of the Blue Rogue Pirates, the Robin Hood of the pirate world. In this world, Arcadia, there are floating continents and islands everywhere, the open sky is like the sea between land masses and people traverse these spaces with flying ships that sail across the blue. Beneath this world there is no sign of land, above there are two moons and one sun.
You begin raiding a huge ship of the imperial fleet of Galcian. This imperial fleet has just kidnapped a mysterious character named Fina and the Blue Rogues inadvertently rescue her while pillaging the ship. While rejoicing from their huge score, the Blue Rogues invite her to their island and welcome her to stay with them.
After this point things quickly become very interesting. The dialog is amazing! It's totally text driven but extremely balanced between humor and resolution, trivial, story enriching matters and direct story line. It's never long winded yet never too short and non descript. The characters banter back and forth with each other playfully yet never so much that it becomes annoying (like on Chrono Cross).
The interaction between characters is very convincing, realistic, very unlike what we've become used to. The unnatural, sluggish way that RPG dialog usually chugs along is totally absent in SoA. The persona of each character is built skillfully through their speech and they never say ridiculous things that are obvious results of a bad Japanese to English translation.
The above listings are only half the battle. In the end, in order to complete the consummacy of a game, especially an RPG with over 60 hrs. of gaming content, there must be a cleverly designed combat system and overall continuously streaming gameplay.
Many games, especially RPG's, can lose your attention with drifty objectives and slighted, lethargic gameplay with a slovenly interface and game control. Messy control can single handedly ruin a game in its tracks (Draconus for instance; check out my Draconus review). When the control and gameplay are both smooth, crisp, precise and clean it can overrule even the cr@ppiest of graphics and the most conventional of story lines.
Skies of Arcadia has the most beautiful controls and status screen interface I have ever seen. There is nearly no loading time between game and interface and the menus zip in and out of the screen at light speed. Accessing your status and rearranging your items, super moves, and weapons has never been easier before. Its easy to understand and quick unlike Legend of Dragoon. On LoD there was a 3-4 second interval between game and interface that drove me crazy. Then the menus were sluggish to move around and cluttered with unnecessary junk.
One of the biggest gripes that people have with RPG's is the battle load times and the disparity between exploration mode graphics and battle mode graphics. Traditionally, the graphics you see while exploring are ten times sharper than those you see while in a battle. The battle mode representation of an environment is usually disgustingly blocky, full of jaggies nothing but an ugly, distant shadow of the actual surroundings.
In Skies of Arcadia, the battle mode surroundings are exactly...read my lips...EXACTLY like the in game graphics. There is no jump in the graphics at all when you go into a battle, they are just as crisp as before and the battle takes place in the exact spot in which it began, you don't get transported automatically to a more convenient, spacious area.
I was astounded at the level of resolution the battles were performed in. The characters during the battles look just as they would during an in game cinema and the enemies are intricately designed with glints from the sun, and details from swaying clothing, limbs and hair down to the inner circle of their eyeballs. To top this off, the transition from play mode to battle mode is the smoothest, quickest and most beautiful I have ever seen. When you enter a battle, the screen disolves in a variety of ways. Sometimes it breaks into a million squares or triangles and drifts realistically into blackness while other times it separates from your screen like a piece of paper blown in the wind then shatters itself and the pieces get swept away in tornado like whirlwind. These descriptions hardly do it justice. You'd have to see it.
Afterwards the battle screen appears and the fight begins quickly avoiding long battle load times that plagued previous RPG's to the point of exhaustion. How many times have you felt like throwing the controller at the screen when you get sucked into a battle right before you make it to the safe area or the save point? Long battle loads make moving around laborious and slow but SoA's quick transitions are a godsend.
The battles are......(tear rolling down cheek)...."they're beautiful man". Think back to your favorite RPG battle mode ever....Chrono Cross, Breath of Fire, FF Tactics, Star Ocean etc......then flush 'em all down the toilet. SoA's battle mode is revolutionary. It combines the stability of turn based combat that has become typical of RPG's with the freedom of moving about the battle field known in games like Star Ocean. You don't get to move your character around with the analog stick but after giving a command they will run to their target enemy and ready themselves for attack instead of remaining stationary in line with their comrades. All players move about the battle field like in a real fight.
The command list comes in a half circle that you cycle through. <Run<Guard<Item<Attack<Magic<Focus. All of those are obvious accept for the Focus command. With the focus command, you can instruct one character to perform a move that will build up SP (spirit power) for your group that can be used by anyone to perform supermoves or magic. The magic and super move displays are beautiful and colorful, flashing lights and creatively conceived effects splash around screen in perfect resolution and all at 60 frames per second.
The moves are interesting and pleasing to pull off, even the well constructed minor enemies show equally as pleasing eye candy when they attack. The lighting effects are scrupulous and unlawfully addicting. One of the enemies sends out a bright white string of rings that lights up the whole screen and bursts into your character......exquisite.
The game progresses at a dazzelingly coherent pace. It moves along nicely and the cinemas connecting the different scenes are very entertaining. The extreme cleanliness of the graphics and the absolute beauty of the traveling field between towns, cave's, dungeons and cut scenes is unlike any ever seen before. For instance, the travel field of games like FFVII, Chrono Cross and Legend of Dragoon (I'm picking on these games because they have been called the best in the genre) all sucked. Chrono Cross' travel field wasn't too bad but comparatively, it could have been drawn by a three year old in fingerpainting workshop.
In SoA, you travel between different areas in a gigantic ship, through an accurately depicted blue sky. In this sky you can see highly resoluted ships floating in the distance, an entire array of meteorologically exact clouds, remote islands and expansive chunks of floating land masses. Ocassionally you'll encounter a battle with flying creatures that land on your deck or you will have to fight against the evil band of Black Pirates who oppose the Blue Rogues. In this case you will have to use a strategy to pit you ship against theirs. You can use cannons and spells to fight them ship to ship and as the game progresses, your ship becomes stronger and you can buy upgraded cannons and equipment.
The ship battles are so nicely done, they look like you are playing a cut seen. You give the orders and they are carried out with dialog and player controlled maneuvers...you have to see it to understand. Flawless.
There are many VMU games that can be downloaded from the game itself. You meet characters along the way who will give you these games. Also, the characters you meet around the towns you'll encounter are much more three dimensional than ever before. They move while they talk and have many more interesting things to say than "My name is Valmar, nice day today huh?".
The conversations you have with the many people you meet are informative and colorful. And as you explore each town, you can press the action button in front of almost anything and get some sort of descriptive phrase or thought from the main character.
"There are many different types of Loqua berries inside of these boxes. I've never seen so many before. I wonder how many there are in the world".
Almost everywhere you look you will find some sort of description which is a very welcomed segment of exploration themed games. And, one more spear through the heart of the beast of cliche RPG's is the soundtrack. All jokes aside, if they released a soundtrack of this game, I would not hesitate to rock it on my discman. While playing the game I wear professional headphones. The sound is so full and well orchestrated I found myself stopping to listen quite often. At the beginning when you first make it to the underground cavern of Pirate Island, the mood enhancing music slips into a darkly orchestrated murky theme complete with a haunting bassline, tense strings and an eerie flute. I sat and listened, marveling at how appropriate it all was. The foot steps change accordingly, the music changes often again stabbing a spear into the dreadful heart of the beast of repetition and it all comes through in perfect stereo.
I am astounded by this game. Typically, when you anticipate a game as much as I have anticipated this one, read about it excessively and create these lofty images of it in your head, you are setting yourself up for some level of disappointment. But in all honesty, this game FAR exceeds my lofty expectations of it. It has totally defeated the graphical, musical, gameplay and storyline splendor I had projected of it and replaced it with a loftier, lovlier, more complete, more solid, more amazing, more orgasmic opus to the gaming world than I could have ever imagined.
If it sounds like I am gushing profusely over this game it's only because I AM! This is the game. I can't find anything bad to say about it. The most complete and playable RPG in existence. One of the largest in scope, the most beautiful in graphic achievement, one of the absolute coolest of story lines. I can't say enough. Let's see Grandia 2 and Phantasy Star On-line, then I'll nominate SoA as the Game of the Year! Across all boards and lines drawn between consoles, I think anyone who is a fan of RPG's should buy a Dreamcast if only just for this game. No RPG fan should be without it.
This is the reason why I play games.................
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