I Played Skies Of Arcadia For The First Time - Does It Hold Up?

Check out my other reviews of retro games: Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia - https://youtu.be/ZT70UR2FG3k Radiant Historia - https://youtu.be/8C6FTxpbsFI Xenosaga (3 Parts) - https://youtu.be/sAWtWkfJKbg https://youtu.be/tFBSkIHpPL8 https://youtu.be/KhVno_1EHSQ

"The best time to play Skies of Arcadia is as a child. The second best time, is right now" I forget who said it, but they summed it up perfectly

Short answer: yes. Long answer: yes. I wish we got a port of Skies of Arcadia.

RIP Reiko Kodama

This is one of those JRPG's I would absolutely replay if given quality of life upgrades, like a FF option for your walking speed and battles. It's strange to think that they've perfectly captured the feel of a adventurous pirate themed JRPG like twenty years ago and it hasn't really been topped in that regard.

Do you know that the 3 main characters of Skies of Arcadia are also in Valkyria Chronicles? Vyse and Aika can be selected as squad menbers while Fina is the medic that can get injured squad mates out of the battlefield.

This is the game that made me an RPG gamer. I played the GameCube version. My only complaint remains the same today as it did back then, way too frequent random battles. It’s crazy how little it sold for reference Baton Kaitos a game that less people seem to have heard of sold more on GameCube than SoA did on Dreamcast and GameCube combined.

Cupil has a sort of hidden evolution tree, his evolutions vary based on how you feed him. The Chom lets you reset him so you can try for better/different results. Theres a specific order to get him to his Ultimate form.

The only thing the world needs more than a remake of this game is a sequel of this game. Or at least a spiritual successor to build a new world out in a similar fashion.

Skies has been a game I always wanted to give a go, these days with so many game choices and options for access it's time that is the greatest conflict in getting to games I wanna try. My younger self had time and no games while my older self has games and no time.

Crazy how barely any RPG ripped off the ship combat, closest I can think of is the Sand vehicle in Wild Arms 3 and even that isn't the same.

I genuinely love this game and even now the title screen with its music gives me a surge of emotion. I love it even though it has its bad points that you so correctly pointed out.

This one hits hard. I also played the Cube version because I didn't have a Dreamcast but that's for the best because the small additions really do sound like Quality-of-Life improvements. Less battles with more XP to make up for it. Piastol and the Bounty Hunts are fantastic and add a bit more flair to the already fantastic world-building. I love just exploring because you get rewarded for them. The airship battles are exhilarating and it makes you wonder why RPGs don't do something similar in their titles. This was just a fantastic pirate game and a great RPG that I can easily recommend to anyone who is a fan of the genre.

I love this game so much, that I know on the original Dreamcast version, you could hear the disc spin up every time a random encounter was about to happen, so if you paused quick enough, you could avoid the battle. So much pausing in this game, yet none of that hampered my love for it.

Skies of Arcadia is one of my favorite games, but I agree with many of your criticism. I haven't played it in ages though and am still hoping for a port to modern systems, maybe with some QoL improvements (most notably skipping animations, especially in ship battles). Vyse and Aika are also playable units in one of my other favorite games, Valkyria Chronicles, and I try to use them there whenever possible. Fina is there too, but she isn't named and not exactly playable (she's the medic that evacuates fallen units). Choms are there because there are several paths Cupil can take in its evolution. They branch off depending on the number of Abirik Chams. For example: Cupil evolves into a blade with 2 Chams. If you feed it 2 more chams, it turns into a cone. But if you feed it an Abirik Cham before feeding it those 2 extra Chams, it turns into a cannon. Afaik it will always end up at the same final form if you feed it all Chams and Abirik Chams, but the way there is different. Choms reset Cupil so you can take a different path.

3:00 Overworks (AM7) developed also: Sakura Wars 1-5 (with RED Entertainment), Valkyria Chronicles (PS3), Shinobi (PS2), Dragon Force, Streets of Rage 2&3, The House of The Dead, Altered Beast. They also helped Platinum Games with Bayonetta. Main producer of Skies of Arcadia worked also on Phantasy Star 1-4, and Magic Knight: Rayearth. Very talented dev team, and most underrated in Sega of Japan. Unfortunately after fusion Sega with Sammy, this studio was disbanned (restructurization), because people said in late 00's ,,Sega have no RPG's'', and after that they bought Atlus, who killed them for good.

You can skip special moves by hitting start in the first few seconds on the animation.

Really happy to see a longer essay type video with some life backstory. Excellent vid!

This game needs a Renake/Remaster!

Super moves can be skipped. I am positive i did that tons of times pressing the start button in my gamecube. Regarding Galcian, I wouldn’t say he is an “honorable” man who treated the body of Gregorio with respect because of his honor. Galcian values power. He respected Gregorio because of how strong he was. Galcian despises the royalty and high classes of Valua because of how vane and weak they are. Alfonso above all others since he was given a high rank not out of merit but out of vanity. Galcian is a bit like Genghis Khan in that respect. I love him as a villain.