Remembering all those good old RPGs, you stop and think about all those few that were quite good and those that you regret ever playing. And well, there is some good ones out there but not all of them are as we expect. But anyway Skies of Arcadia was originally released for the Sega Dreamcast console, and was one, if not, the best RPG for its plataform at the time. Although it was an excellent game, it had its problems, the graphics were ok at the time, the game suffered certain jams if you played long enough, sometimes the screen would go completely black etc... But over all a good game, better that most RPGs for that platform at the time. There were certain features that made this game unique, like being able to look for discoveries and look for certain types of rocks for the little pet (cupil) to eat. Skies of Arcadia Legends is a gamecube-enhaced version of the Original Skies of Arcadia, the enhanced features include more side quests like a moonfish hunt, playing a role as a bounty hunter and being hunted down by one. The graphics have been enhanced to meet gamecube standards, and a much better sound has been added. The game is much the same as its Dreamcast version except for these changes.
The storyline is excellent, one of the best ones I've seen, it has some improvement from the Dreamcast version, now the characters have more of a backround than before, and for instance they explain how the main character got the scar on his cheek.
The visual effects are excellent overall, specially that of the super moves and spells. Graphic wise, well they could have done better considering the capacity of the GameCube, the characters still look a little polygonal, but hey its all good, with a storyline and visual effects like those, you'll barely notice.
Sound is improved in the gamecube version as well, sometimes you couldn't hear what they we're saying in the Dreamcast version. Music is one of the best qualities of this game, in the boss fights it even changes as the battle progresses depending if you're party is winning or losing.
Gameplay is also good, sailing through the sky with a ship or walking on land, both have good camera angles. The Battle system itself isn't too complicated and its cool, whether battles be on land or on the deck of your ship. And the star feature of all, the ship to ship battles, which introduces a whole new battle system to gaming and is also divided into ship battles and boss ship battles.
The characters are realy well defined as far as personality goes, and the world around them is also well planned, with lots of places to visit and new lands to discover. There are new side quests available now, as mentioned before, the classic search-out-your-crew, discoveries and more bonuses. Also the swashbuckler rating feature that there was before has more options now, for those who don't know what it is, its basically the recount of your actions as a person, sort of a reputation meter, this changes the way people treat you and see you.
Over all this is an excellent game, a little easy to finish, but with the side quests and all, it can get really difficult.
| Skies of Arcadia Legends | ||||||||||
| Story/Plot: | 9 | Graphics: | 8 | Sound: | 8 | Gameplay: | 9 | Misc.: | 10 | 8.8 |
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