Skies of Arcadia: Legends (2003) [GameCube] critique

The age of exploration has dawned upon the world of Arcadia. Brave adventurers set sail across the vast skies in search of treasures untold. And, where there is treasure, there will be Air Pirates.

– Skies of Arcadia

And what an age it was. In 2000, the world of gaming was well into the time of 3D, which had an especially huge impact on role-playing games, ushering in the medium of greater visual storytelling. This created games with highly stylized characters and settings. The backswing to this was the alienation of some gamers, or so producer and director Rieko Kodama felt. She and a small team of Sega developers formed a company named Overworks and set out to create what essentially would be a swan song to the RPGs of old that catered to a more general audience.

Skies of Arcadia: Legends is the re-release of the 2000 Sega Dreamcast game for the Nintendo GameCube, featuring slightly enhanced graphics and extra playable content. It’s a game with a somewhat simplistic story and character motivations compared to the more complex and morally gray aspects of its brethren of the time. But is simplistic necessarily a bad thing? Can a good story be told even if the characters’ reasons for their actions are clearly spelled out rather than mysterious or ethically ambiguous?

The story begins with a young woman dressed in white sailing alone across the vast skies of Arcadia. We waste no time getting straight into things with the appearance of a massive steel warship, captained by a regal-looking chap referred to by his crew as Admiral Alfonso. The ship fires concussive blasts upon the helpless young lady, and she is knocked unconscious and taken aboard Alfonso’s ship. Bad guys established.

Unbeknownst to Alfonso’s crew, another ship hides within the clouds nearby and ambushes the war vessel, getting close enough to allow a single raider to board the deck. Here, we are introduced to our protagonist, Vyse of the Blue Rogues. He is soon joined by his literal partner in crime, Aika, who won’t let Vyse hog the fun and glory (not to mention potential treasure!). I’m personally big on narrative, so I dig that a few short lines of dialogue from Vyse and Aika tell us all we need to know about them and the situation, for the moment. They’re pirates; the bad guys are the Valuan Empire; and Blue Rogues specifically target Valuan ships for their higher-caliber booty. Mind you, all of this is roughly within the first five minutes of the game. Good, good start.

After receiving the order from their captain—who also happens to be Vyse’s father—to infiltrate the ship, Vyse and Aika rush off to take command of the bridge. Ultimately, they succeed in taking Alfonso’s ship and rescuing the young maiden Fina, who is a bizarre entity to the Blue Rogues, with her strange clothes and cryptic purpose. It’s a great opening scene that throws you right into the world and story, without needing to rely on long cutscenes and hefty dialogue to tell you what’s going on.

The next major piece of narrative shows us exactly how hated piracy is by the Valuan Empire. While Vyse and Aika are on an errand to retrieve a large chunk of moonstone—used as fuel and for weapon smithing in Arcadia—the Armada strikes back at their island home, not necessarily for what happened with the cowardly Alfonso, but simply because Lord Admiral Galcian seeks to rid the world of pirates and all their ilk (and this was well before Cutler Beckett came along). The sheer number of ships Galcian sends to deal with one island—not to mention the man himself accompanies the fleet—shows us how serious this guy is about his job. The island is shot to pieces and Captain Dyne surrenders at once, sending the women and children into hiding. Galcian agrees to only take Dyne and his crew, showing that he has some semblance of honor and professionalism—something that plays a major factor in the story later on. Lucky for us that our heroes weren’t around to be shackled as well.

And so our tale begins proper. Vyse and Aika must rely on their resourcefulness and never-say-die attitude in order to rescue their friends and family. Skies of Arcadia is essentially a coming-of-age story. A young man must become a leader and ultimately change the world around him for the better. Is it original? No, but does it need to be? We still enjoy a good hero’s journey, and Skies of Arcadia does not disappoint on that front, and on many others. The world is bright and colorful, one might even say whimsical, which stood boldly in the face of other role-playing games of the time. Rather than being a socially awkward loner with past traumas, Vyse has a strong, loving family, and naturally makes friends and allies along his journey. His character arc is one of affecting the world and others with his actions and principles. Aika is much the same, and the two bounce off one another wonderfully throughout the game. Their chemistry is lightning and never gets tiring to watch. Fina’s joining the team adds an even greater dimension as she is timid and quiet compared to Vyse and Aika’s intrepid nature.

Skies of Arcadia is a rare gem that mixes strong characterization with equally strong world building and effective storytelling that wastes nothing getting its points across. Most of the cast wear who they are on their sleeve, and that’s okay. Not everyone has to be a mystery in need of slow unraveling, though the game certainly has a few characters who are. Good and evil are made clear, but there’s still room given for some to walk the line between.

There are admittedly some flaws to both the gameplay and story, but the good far outweighs the bad. It’s a shame Skies never achieved mainstream appeal, sadly tethered to two doomed game systems. Had the deal for a Playstation 2 release not fallen through, things would assuredly have been different. Alas (or perhaps for the best, depending on your perspective), this diamond is forever a cult classic, unknown to most and adored by the few who have played it. Both versions are excellent, but I lean toward the GameCube Legends edition for the extra content. Skies of Arcadia stands as the last hurrah for the golden age of RPGs—a time of chivalrous heroes, battles against the forces of evil, and that never-ceasing drive for adventure and exploration (which is essential if you’re a sailor worth any measure of salt). Games like this only come along once in a generation.

The 8-bit Review

Visuals: 9/10

Right away, you can see the striking visual designs the game boasts under the direction of Kodama, which have aged remarkably well. Every part of this game is crafted with meticulous detail. Some of the lighting and shadows are less striking in the Legends edition, however, due to the two-disc Dreamcast game being compressed onto one GameCube mini-disc. Unless you’re familiar with the original, though, you probably won’t even notice.

Audio: 8/10

Again, the compression plays an unfortunate factor when it comes to the wonderful music of Skies, which had to be slightly sacrificed for the entire game—as well as the exclusive content—to fit on one disc. Some of the background instruments are cut out of Legends, but you probably won’t realize unless you’ve heard the soundtrack of the original game. Once you’re aware, however, it’s difficult to dismiss.

Gameplay: 9/10

This is an incredibly smooth game. No absurdly long cutscenes; no boring loading screens or zoning; battles play extremely well and the action within is tight. You can even switch your weapon’s element with the touch of a button mid-fight. However, the battles are the one sticking point to this otherwise flawless experience. Skies suffers from a high random encounter rate, which was reduced in the Legends re-release, but can still become tedious while dungeon crawling or sailing the open world. Thankfully, you can acquire an item to further reduce the encounter rate, so it’s far from a deal breaker.

Narrative: 10/10

As stated, I’m a narrative guy. Skies delivers when it comes to story, exposition, and especially characterization. The players on this stage are all striking, both in their designs and their actions, each leaving a lasting impression on you. There’s something that feels personal with this story. You feel like you really get to know these people and their struggles, and you can’t help but to root them on, even the villains in some cases. The world building is some of the best you’ll ever see in any medium, as well. Arcadia comes off as lived in and believable, even with ships flying around everywhere. The overall narrative is tight and well structured, lacking any kind of expositional bloat. It’s a movie-type story without needing to literally be one.

Themes: 10/10

Again, nothing in this game is necessarily original, but the themes on display are timeless and still resonate. Vyse is a modern-day Hercules who must overcome ever more daunting obstacles and odds as everything around him escalates. Villains are clearly bad, heroes are clearly good, but a more complicated story isn’t automatically a better story. Skies owns its simplicity and makes no apology, nor should it. Good-versus-evil and coming-of-age are well-worn tropes, but this game does those tropes extremely well.

Uniqueness: 10/10

Many RPGs that preceded Skies of Arcadia rewarded the player with a fancy airship in the latter half of the game, which usually shrank the game’s world significantly. However, airships are commonplace in Skies and the sky itself is called the ocean. Below the ocean lies what is known as Deep Sky, a mysterious place resembling Hades in Greek mythology—a land of the dead. Much of Vyse’s world is shrouded in obscurity and urban legend. Not only is there traditional turn-based combat, you also engage in battle between airships in the sky, resembling a chess game with cannons. Originally, Overworks’s concept for Skies was going to center around trains, but with the upgrade to the Sega Dreamcast, flying ships became the focus, giving the game an even greater degree of individuality and character. With the added bonus of full 360-degree movement as soon as you acquire your first ship, and an overworld you can travel end to end without zoning, this game stood out among others of the time and before.

Challenge: 7/10

Sadly, this game lacks much of what the more hardcore gamer might seek in a role-playing game. Although battles can’t usually be won by simply mashing a single button, they quickly fall into a routine once you understand the elements and various weaknesses. Boss fights also hardly require more than some basic strategy to overcome. Healing items are cheap, and healing magic is absurdly powerful and easy to acquire. If you want more challenge, you’ll have to seek out the bounties exclusive to the Legends edition, which level as your party does, so that won’t help you much. Piastol—also a Legends exclusive—does not level, but she is nonetheless one of the more formidable foes in the game. Getting through the main story, though, is little more than a spring breeze.

Personal: 9/10

Time to gush. Skies of Arcadia: Legends is one of my favorite stories period, be it games, movies, television shows, books. It stands tall and proud. It’s not overly complicated, whether speaking of story or gameplay, and for some that might be a turnoff. That’s solely for you to decide. This game has its hiccups, many of which I’ve listed here, but what it does right pales the not-so-great parts. I can’t honestly give it a 10, but what is art if not imperfect? Skies of Arcadia: Legends gets my highest recommendation.

Aggregated Score: 9.0

Kayan, aka KLWarlord, is a fledgling fantasy author who also happens to like video games quite a bit, with a particular taste for RPGs. He’s also a swordsman, and does enjoy swinging a blade around between writing and gaming. Check him out (and maybe his writing while you’re at it) at his Twitter/X handle: @KL_Warlord