Skies of Arcadia for Sega Dreamcast - No Nostalgia Review | hungrygoriya 

I absolutely loved the small touch during boss battles that when your HP gets low, the song starts to shift into minor keys and get a little slower, but once you heal up it hits the key change to go right back to normal. I've never seen another game that does that, ever. (Could be a gamecube thing because that's the only one i've played, but still it was an awesome small detail)

Aika is amazing, and her and Vyse's relationship was very natural and sweet. Each time she and Vyse did their patented celebratory high five, I smiled.

I forgot how many things this game did incredibly well.

Great review, i really like how much love this game is recieving these days from expensive figures, mentions from sega, discussion about the game and review like this, great job, keep the good work

I love this game to death. One of my favorite games from childhood. I would do anything for a modern remake

One of the most overlooked, underrated games of all time. SOA should've been recognized alongside the likes of Zelda, Mario, Donkey Kong etc

14:53 LOLOLOL!!!! I bet when your at home you probably say “Fire consume my enemies, Lamdba Burst!!!” All the time. Another great video, with amazing Dreamcast noises!

Another great review! You're one of my favorite channels! I've only played Arcadia on the Gamecube and its one of the best JRPGs I've ever experienced. I agree with you about the ship to ship fighting issue though. I wanted ship battles to be a refreshing change of pace but it always felt like a confusing slog. If you have a PS2 you may want to try a game called Rogue Galaxy. It reminded me of Skies, except you play as Space Pirates instead of Air Pirates. It might be worth checking out. Thanks again for this video!

I enjoy the pre-battle console noises in D2. You can always tell when a monster is about to pop up, makes for a weird layer of ambiance.

This is one of my most wanted games, I'm so happy to see you reviewing games from this era. It's kind of funny to me, personally, as late 90s and early 2000s RPGs are my bread and butter, and things like repeated voice clips and flashy magic attack animations are something I'm so used to (or personally enjoy) that I never even notice them xD Also, you are reaching the era where instruction manuals are going to become peripheral or even useless, sadly. And I can promise you in future games, battles will speed up, and character models will gain fingers around the PS2 era xD

That was a great in-depth review that covered many facets of gameplay. I appreciated the touches of humour! I don't have any strong desire to pick this up, at least not soon, but your review gives a good impression of what to expect if I do, thanks!

Great work on this lengthy review with a ton to cover.. every review has new slick transitions, etc that keep them engaging. Beautiful work!

That thumbnail got me wishing I was a sky pirate.

Very thorough review, hungry! I remember hearing the title for this game back in the day, and I actually got a Sega Dreamcast on launch or shortly after for that Christmas in 1999. I never ended up playing this game, but hearing your critique of the cutscenes disrupting the momentum of battle really resonated for me. My brother had a PS1 at the time, and had Final Fantasy 8. I remember being really disheartened at how long it took to go through the animation cycle of summons, such as Doom Train, Shiva, Ifrit, etc. Some of them would take several minutes to move through, and using them throughout the entire game really bogged it down for me ever wanting to play a lot of JRPGs during this era. I was still having a lot of fun with Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy 6, Illusion of Gaia, Ys III, etc.

I always love your in-depth reviews--probably the best out there. Also, I totally hear you on your complaints about battle animations and repetitive voiceovers that became common during the CD-era. Unfortunately, this can still be an issue with some RPGs today, though developers have gotten better at making it less annoying, and we don't have super long CD load times to deal with. I agree that this one of the things that makes 16-bit RPGs so appealing, we didn't have to suffer through any of that.

Another beautiful review! I laughed at the "remember your mantra" coffee mug cameo. 🤣

Great review! I've only played this one two years ago and immediately became one of my favorite RPG of all time. Loved the story, the setting, the unique yet simple battle system and the soundtrack. The older I get I definitely feel that a lot of RPG in this generation can feel like huge dedication in comparison to older titles from the 8 and 16 bit generations because of it's length and sheer amount of hours it can take to complete, but I guess that's just me. I do find your annoyance with voices very fascinating and I don't know why lol.

Just found this channel with this video and subscribed. This is one of my favorite games and I like the presentation of it in this video. Keep it up

Ended up watching your twitch stream (as dafatfat) because I ran across your RU-vid channel. Great job on both fronts.

You did a wonderful job with this review! I’m so glad you incorporated those lovely Dreamcast sounds into this video as well. That was such a nice touch during your streams and it was nice to hear it again. I had just managed to wipe that Lambda Burst dialogue from my memory, so thanks for bringing that gem back again 😄

HG nice video as always. You did a great job describing the game and what it was like experiencing it as an adult. Fun fact the producer of this game, Rieko Kodama, was also the producer of Phnatasy Star 4 and the main artist for Phantasy Star 1.

In a time, when games seemed to strongly steer towards more and more crazy plot twist, insanely deep lore and other things, Skies of Arcadia was nice and refreshing on how straightforward it was. And still, it managed to tell a fantastic story, have great characters, and so many more admirable things I don't have enough words to describe Thank you for linking the nice ending cover in the description :)

Excellent review. High quality footage, well-edited and very well articulated points :)

Excellent review! Thanks! I'm hoping for a port to the switch someday, so I can give this game a try.

Just found your channel…great video!

I appreciate the chugging and grinding noises of the Dreamcast that were in both your playthru and the review. Before I started this I wondered if they would be here in some regard and you didn't disappoint. I had already mentioned it to you but I have this on Gamecube which I have heard with much verbosity by most is the "inferior" version (I don't care.) When Gamestop had a huge sale on Gamecube games back in 2010 or so I picked up both this game and Evolution Worlds since they were two Dreamcast games I had seen that I always really wanted but never got into Dreamcast to buy one for a similar reason - the library never really stuck out for me to pick up the system. When I played it I didn't get that far before my whole memory card was corrupted. A decade later and with new memory cards maybe I should give it another try especially after watching your review. I might but this up to my play list after Final Fantasy IX (which is also upcoming) and this review also got me into wanting to play Grandia. I also plan to get back to your other videos that I've missed soon-ish. I remember this was the age that voice acting in games started to head to professional actors after getting whoever was around to do it. It also was in the time that games like Soul Caliber II offered the option for both English and Japanese voices. I thought to myself, "Why didn't they offer that here too?" but hours of voice acting is probably much harder to condense to disc with two versions over a line or two of battle dialogue. I saw that there is a de-make patch for the Gamecube version to restore the Japanese voices to use on emulation but I'll probably end up playing what is on disc and have Lambda Burst, "Fire Consume my enemies" etched into my brain as well - it can be friends with Pit's "Hiyayayaya!" from Smash Brothers and Sora's "I fight for my friends" from Kingdom Hearts. There's a lot of intricacies that you noticed that I'll have to see myself to comment on more along with the bouncing (my thoughts stem from the old days of rubber hose animation) to the idle animations of enemies cutting the air (Playstation era flourishes) to the long turn battle system making me think of DnD second edition. More to get into for another time. Lovely review as always

I second relating to Drachma! My soul must be that of a grizzled old man, because I thought he was the best back when I played this as a teen. He reminded me a little of old warrior Hudson, my favorite character from Gargoyles. This game is on my "to be played again" list. I've got the Gamecube version which tones down the random encounters a little bit. The Dreamcast version was brutal. Sometimes it was every step or two that a battle would break out. My hat's off to you for making it through! It's a hidden gem of a game and I'd love to see either a sequel to this, or to the PS2 game Rogue Galaxy (Another excellent RPG in this same vein).

Great video as always. Are you going to cover the early "Tales of" or Fire Emblem games? Valkyrie Profile? Disgaea?

Great review as always. I’ll be checking this game out.

I really enjoyed your review. Thank you for yet another awesome video. 🤙

That Dreamcast at the end reminded me of an early 2000's industrial song.

I do hope we get more reviews like this from you. Love it. 😁

Amazing video. I always wanted to play this game. I wonder if the gamecube version fixes the loafing error bug.

It is always refreshing when a reviewer can discuss how they have changed as a player over the years and still remain balanced in assessing the game as presented. Fantastic work! The Voice Acting and Anime Style lend well to advances made by this generation of console, though we should be able to turn off battle animations. Even Advanced Wars does this (even if it makes AW less fun to watch). I have to agree. I am more of an old man with baggage type now too. Long are the days where I could identify with the casts of Grandia II or Evolution. I still enjoy these titles though. The mug bit was perfect. I am constantly reminded just how the Dreamcast was great for RPG’s and Fighters alike. I could only winder what the timeline where it was a commercial success was like. And there is surely a CR2032 Battery graveyard somewhere. Those VMU’s were power thirsty.

Another great video, as usual! (Just a quick tip, this is the second time I've heard "overarKing" when it's "overarCHing")

I can say that while the Gamecube version of Skies of Arcadia (which is the version I originally played) did miss out on VMU support, it had some extra sidequests and more importantly, was much quieter to load. Wow is that Dreamcast loading for battles something!

I enjoyed your review a great deal. Thank you!

I picked up the latest Star Ocean on ps4 and I got the heavy reminder that a lot of our older games loved using voice lines as often as they could. I always hear about this game, but have never picked it up myself. It does look engaging for sure! I do like that they gave you the animal riding equivalent of a pony ride. Great review!

Oh heck yeah, SoA was awesome. Loved this review. I'm subbing and looking forward to more!

I really enjoy your thoughtful reviews and Canadian accent. 🍁

11:50 Funny thing. If you stop moving and go into the main menu at the moment you hear the disc spin up, it usually interrupts the encounter. With the right timing, you can almost entirely skip past battles.

Holy moly this channel is underrated! I've just binged a good 10 reviews (all wonderful), and subscribed. Your reviews are the single most well constructed and written reviews I've ever seen.

I have strong nostalgia for this game. A friend let me borrow it in middle school and insisted I play it after commenting I wasn't into RPGs. Long story short I fell in love with it and I still consider it one of my favorite games of all time. I actually played it again recently and although I still love it, I won't deny the encounter rate is annoying. Funny you mention Drachma being the most relatable as I totally agree. I preferred Gilder as a kid as he reminded me of Han Solo, but I appreciate and connect with Drachma way more now. Great review !

I've been curious about this game for about 2 decades, as well as why it has a reputation as a must play on Dreamcast and GameCube for RPG fans, so it was great to see a detailed review of it.

This video was very helpful, thank you! I had some experience with the Dreamcast, like 15 years ago, and I do prefer the same types of games. I still love the console and its graphics tho. Sega has that way of at least having me try different things. I had similar issues with early cd games (ff7 for example is too in love with its cinematic videos on your abilities, so some moves take like 5 min), so while I appreciate it has a good story, maybe I'll play battles with the volume down. I love that instead of shelves and shelves of games, your set up is a simple collection of your Sega Master System games. I dont think I noticed that before.

The end of battle cheering was also used in Grandia. It would be from the character who struck the last blow in that battle. For example, Justin would say "Alright, we won!" or Feena would say "Not bad, eh!"

I spied some Crazy Taxi and Vigilante 8 in the stack of Dreamcast games there. Was that yours or a hypothetical/generic collection? Regardless, good work as always. You're always so clear about what you like or don't like and why. Sounds simple but being really clear and cogent is a skill.

Glad you got to experience this game. It is one of my favorite games of all time. You mentioned the young characters being about half your age, so I assume you are my age. I actually did get to play this game around when it came out, so I was about 14 and the characters were all older than me and it's true they didn't bother me as much then. It is what eventually what led me to become disinterested in JRPGs, as I got older, I wasn't interested in playing bright eyed or angsty teen characters haha. Gilder is my favorite character personally and was even back then. Shame you had difficulty with the ship battles, I love them and eventually got to a point of being great at them, one of the unique mechanics of Skies. I have the Dreamcast copy and adore the laser sounds it makes, but I also own the GameCube version which has some faults, but overall the loading is much faster and they decreased the amount of random battles somewhat in that version. I play it on my Wii mostly these days. Anyways good review, I disagree on some of the stuff you don't like, but then again, seeing all those features(voice clips, running around the battlefield and interacting with enemies, etc) when they were new to the genre was cool. Anyways, good review, glad you loved it.

One of my favourite games of all time. Still have my original Dreamcast copy. Really hope we see a new release on modern consoles at some point.

Is this your first review for a "modern" system? I don't recall seeing any previously, so that's really cool, if so! Skies of Arcadia is a game I never got around to playing, but have always meant to -- and after seeing your review, it seems pretty clear I'd enjoy this one! If you plan to continue sifting through the DreamCast library and are looking for something a bit unusual, may I recommend Space Channel 5? Even if you're not typically a fan of rhythm games, Space Channel 5 is... an experience. Though it is completely overshadowed by its sequel, which is sadly only available in English as part of Space Channel 5 Special Edition on PS2, or as a download on PSN (you can get it on DreamCast in Japan, but that version never made the jump to Western shores). Definitely a game I'd love to see your take on, though, as it's always fun hearing people's first impressions of it. It takes a lot of people very much by surprise. ;) Also, if you're willing to jump a bit farther ahead than DreamCast at any point, there's a semi-obscure RPG on the Wii that I rank among my top 10 favorite of all time, which the Skies of Arcadia footage in this review made me think of. The game is called Opoona, and it's a highly underrated game IMHO. It doesn't seem like much at first, but the world in the game is one of the most fleshed-out and lived-in I've ever experienced in a video game before, and is just INCREDIBLY expansive (thus why Skies of Arcadia kind of made me think of it). Hell, the game world actually has its own art history, complete with its own artistic movements (standardism, revolvism, etc.) which are defined by classic paintings and sculptures you can actually go see at in-game art museums. And each piece of art is signed and dated, with the descendants of a lot of their artists actually surviving as NPCs within the game you can talk to for additional backstory, and the locations for every nature painting being based on actual locations within the game that you can visit yourself if you want to. That's the level of detail we're talking here. The battle system is something else, too. Your main characters are aliens called Tizians that all have balls called "bonbons" floating either above their heads or beneath their torsos, and you attack by hurling those bonbons at the enemy. Which means you don't just choose "attack" -- you also have to aim your bonbon, and charge up a meter to indicate how hard you throw it. It will then fire off in an arc at the specified angle and speed, which you sometimes need to use to your advantage to hit enemies from the top, or -- if you have boomerang-style bonbons -- from the back. And of course, since your weapons are bonbons, equipment isn't swords and armor or anything -- no, it's things like bonbon cores and coatings. Deck your bonbon out with a titanium core and spikes, or a diamond core and flames! It's literally unlike any other RPG I've ever played, and is just an incredibly fascinating game. Oh, and the music was scored by Basiscape, led by Hitoshi Sakimoto of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story fame, so the game also has an absolutely GORGEOUS soundtrack. Anyway, yeah... apologies for the long comment and the random recommendations, but if you're taking the lid off the Pandora's box of newer games, I figured I might as well pass along a few recommendations for unusual titles I think you'd probably enjoy. ;) And either way, thanks for another great review!

I played the GameCube version of this right around the time that the Wii was relevant and you could still get it for cheap, and I'll probably need to play it again; I didn't remember most of what I saw in this review. I have heard that it has fewer encounters, and a few extra bits of content, and it's possible that it makes the ship combat easier, too, because most everyone I talk to says how tricky it is, but I didn't have trouble with it. I do remember really enjoying this one, and how the discoveries really made you feel like an adventurer. I was also surprised by how visually diverse they were able to make the different sections of sky; I wish games like Skyward Sword and Bioshock Infinite would've taken some pointers.

My Dreamcast hangs up after cutscenes sometimes as well, I wonder if the laser isn't finally starting to go.

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed watching

I'm really glad I found your channel. You are so pleasant.

when i was a kid, i found out that if you stop walking when the dreamcast makes that noise, it doesn't complete loading the random battle. Saved me a lot of time that way :P

I love Skyes of Arcadia so much... Even with all this flawless haha. Also loved Pinta Quest on the Memory Card unit. It's a hard to revisit game and anyone can suggest to try it on Game Cube if really have the interest . But somehow I will always going for the Dreamcast Version. Edit: Have you ever tried Valkirya Chronicles? Vyse n Ayla are playable characters in that game... Love having them on my main party.

I love the reference to Garfield. "Candy, candy, candy, candy"

I have a Skies of Arcadia refrigerator magnet. I love this game. I do have to agree with you about the voice acting in battles. It got to the point where when I knew I'd be getting into battles I'd turn the volume off and put on my own music. The enemy encounter rate is sinful and the battles do take way too long, but the story is so good that I overlooked it. I didn't play this one until about 5 or 6 years ago. I wish I had played it when it came out. This would have blown my mind back then. Drachma is my favorite character and also the one I related to the most. That issue with freezing and not being able to save sounds like either your dreamcast is having issues or the game disk needs a resurfacing. I had no problem. This is one game I'm glad I got this and the Gamecube version when they were cheap. Also I totally noticed that Lunar The Silver Star Sega CD disk. That is my all time favorite rpg. I actually own 5 of the 7 disk variants.

Even as I am here much older than before I still liked Vyse just as much now as I did as a kid just because he reminded me of my own brash youth.

Excellent review as always hungry! Have you played a lot of Dreamcast games? I am debating picking one up and I'm kind of on the fence as to whether it'd be worth it.

Can't wait to listen to the vid. Thx HG.

The sound of your Dreamcast disc drive spinning sounds eerily similar to the JAWS theme 🦈 building up that tension before every "random" encounter 😅

lmaooo oh my god your blurb about relating to the older, perhaps a bit-too-jaded secondary character is exactly how i feel now. I've been playing thru PS1 rpgs, and this is exactly how i feel thru so many of these

I've tried this title out on GameCube, but watching this Dreamcast footage I think I gotta try that version. The lighting looks so cozy.

I loved Skies of Arcadia, but it sure has some frustrating parts and yeah, the map didn't help me much lol Great review!

I never had a Dreamcast, nor played any of that system's games. The little controller gamepod looks pretty cool though. Thanks for the review.

Its funny that you mentioned the brick hands everyone has. The game was also ported to the Nintendo Gamecube. That version lost the VMU stuff and compressed the music so the whole thing can be on one disc, but added some new sidequests, weapons, and slightly updated the visuals. One of those visual quirks were the hands. All playable characters and Admirals all have fingers whether in cutscenes or combat. IMO, all it did was make the brick hands in everyone else that much more jarring, but it never ruined the game for me. Glad you enjoyed the game. I never played the Dreamcast version myself, but I will always appreciate its uncompressed music. EDIT: Another change for the Gamecube version is that the random battle rate has been decreased and the experienced gained has been increased. Though its only something people who played the Dreamcast version will notice. Anyone playing the Gamecube version first will still feel that the game throws a lot of random battles at you.

You are my favorite RU-vidr! Great review.

I cannot play any of these old RPG games without a fast forward button mapped to something on my controller. Everything feels like it's specifically designed to waste my time. The first time you see a Guardian Force summon in FF8 it's pretty cool. By the tenth time, it's already rage inducing. And you're gonna watch it 100 more times. This is the true boon provided by modern emulators. I played many of these kinds of games as a youngster, but as an adult i cannot sit through the tedious animations. Anyway - great video. Your work is well done.

Love Skies of Arcadia. They did port it to the GameCube and that version has quality of life improvements, added content, and better loading so if you ever need more well then there you have it. Excellent review as always hungrygoria. 😌

This really needs a port to modern consoles so I can sell all my DC and GCN copies to collectors. My favorite way to play currently is GCN version on Dolphin with all the settings maxed. Looks really good. This is my favorite game of all time across all genres. I want a port, and I want a remaster. Sega, do it please jeeeeez you can’t find this game under $120. Any time a game is selling for 100 it absolutely needs to be ported. That’s money you are leaving on the table for investors. I was super sad when I heard the artist of Skies, and Phantasy Star passed away this year.

I played this back in the day and loved it. Maybe it helped that I was 14 back then. The feeling of exploring and fighting with ships was so cool and unique. Even to this day I wish they would make another Skies of Arcadia game. Along with Shenmue it is my favorite game for the Dreamcast. I went through so many batteries playing Pinta Quest on the VMU. I always had it with me in the car when I waited in the car for my mom to buy food. The graphics were so amazing compared to Playstation 1 that I had before that I really thought that graphics could never get better than the Dreamcast or at least didn't need to be since they were perfect. Of course now it looks dated. Interesting that you had issues with the ship battles being hard and boring. Personally I found them very fun and if anything they were too easy and there wasn't enough of them. Especially after you have gotten the better ship and upgraded your guns and such. If there were more end game enemies to fight I would keep playing that game for longer. even with the fairly negative review this just makes me want to play it again. I replayed it last about a decade ago. It could have quicker animations in fights though I agree. I think the gamecube version had that m´but I never played it.

Thanks for the great review. This was a great one from my experience. The game cube version cleaned up some of the issues in the original. If you can find it for a decent price, play through that version in a couple years. You won't be disappointed.

Did you play the GameCube version of Skies of Arcadia as well? That was the version I played.

I forgot how loud the Dreamcast could be. While I didn't experience (Or remember) any crashes it could be an issue with the system you have. Also, what did you think of the base building features? It was one of my favorite aspects and time sinks

This is another one of those where OC ReMix did another great number: 'Horteka Stomp.'

Clearly this game lacks pant-suits and has pig-tails instead of a pony-tail character as I've come to expect from 16 Action and RPG games. That surely would have helped the protagonists, right? A lot of the characters feel a little too "the 90s" or early 2000's specific, but overall it was a fun and charming experience to watch this one with you. Its nice to see the updated "fast travel" mechanic in this game, which feels like a fresh and supportive game mechanic vs some of the famous 16 bit adventures I've experienced. Thanks again for a detailed and thoughtful review, I enjoyed this journey with you live on stream and in the review.

I played this on Dreamcast years ago and loved it. The only downside was too many random battles, but this is ok given how good everything else was. Someone gave me the Gamecube version a few years ago, have not tried that one yet though.

I enjoyed your script for this review. Great game, quality nostalgia.

turn the game discs into coasters…. lol! i chuckled at that. i really like your reviews, thanks!

One of the very few jrpgs I played through. Skies of Arcadia caught my attention tru its, design, characters and it just looked like a fun adventure. Something like a short ova or a like a idk a Saturday morning cartoon. I had to played skies! And boy I was not disappointed! I hope for a sequel or a HD release! Glad vyse and aika made it in valkyrie chronicles!

I got my nes in 1987 and other then the Legend of Zelda, the Rygar and Kid Niki:Radical Ninja games paks were the 1st couple I received and loved for the system and still to this day, faults and all theyre some of my favorite games with some of my favorite chip bit tunes. Some of the rygar music made me feel so heroic some not so much but I think the good outweighs the bad.

You will die of heat stroke without a dhabu on that 10 second walk

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that found those loading sounds hilarious. 😂

Final Fantasy 8 suffered from the same problem when it comes to battles. Those Guardian Forces were a must use and it felt like forever every time I had to use one. Must be something about that era of video games. I didn’t really play many video games during the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, & Dreamcast era due to my children being born and making it extremely difficult. Though I do need to get a shout out for one of my all time favorite RPGs of that time: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It is awesome!

My absolute favorite RPG of all time. Contender for my favorite game too. Thanks for reviewing it, and I'm glad you liked it almost as much as I did.

I Remeber playing this when it first came out. I loved it. I would bring the vmu to school to play the mini game. That battery died too quickly.

I have a deep appreciation and love for this game - it's not my favourite by any means, but it does EVERYTHING well, and has several surprisingly deep system, customizable bits, a shit ton of actually interesting side quests, a great story, a fantastic and unique world to explore, and virtually nothing about it is cookie cutter

*Love this review!* ❤

An amazing game with a world of discovery. This game was breathtaking. lol I totally understand about the victory catchphrases. Vyse's "Huh, that was easy!" is burned into my mind and I've been saying it for the past 20 plus years when completing easy tasks. That soundtrack is is super epic. From the slow and easy Nasultan theme to the energetic Ixa Taka Horteka Stomp. Still sad over Drachma. Bittersweet

as a 38 year old who first played this game at 17 and still enjoys it to this day, I have no idea what you are talking about in regards to the characters. The only character I've never been able to relate to was Gilder. The poon hound skirt chaser was never my favorite character. I did love Clara tho, but that's beside my point. Basically, what I hear is "I missed out on this game when I was young enough to care about 'these damn kids' and I'm too old now to really care about anybody but the crotchety old man." Kind of amusing, because even when I first played this game, Drachma was my favorite character, essentially anime Captain Ahab, and I found his tendency to just up and dump Vyse and Aika whenever their plans didn't align with his a legitimately funny aspect of the game, especially once the game itself began acknowledging it as a running gag (Drachma has left the party...again). I'm not even 5 minutes into the video and it sounds like you hate the main characters just for being kids, even though you say you don't. I'm honestly trying to understand where you're coming from, but it's kinda sad in my opinion when people feel the need to allow their age to dictate their enjoyment of a game. I feel like if that's the case, why even bother to continue playing?

Yeah the game has some issues of the time specially for Dreamcast, but are all passable and the experience is fenomenal in the end, a little tip about the enemies that can cause instant death with a spell, you can use Aika delta shield to avoid the spell (that considering if you don't have Gilder with his Aura of Denial, which negates every attack or spell effect that cause a status ailment) aside of that I'm glad that you enjoyed the game.

I would pay $300 to buy this game but with voice acting added and a massive graphical update and maybe adding anything the original team wanted to that they couldnt before but no other changes. Hell i would LOVE a sequal too since while yeah it ended in a complete way but it still left it open to "what will Vyse and crew do now" which could lead to so much .

one reason i want to play the dreamcast version is because it has much better music over legends. i wish this game had a remaster which kept the legends content and the dreamcast music.

Now you just have to hunt down the GameCube port of this amazing little gem. Dubbed "Skies of Arcadia: Legends", it fixes nearly every problem with the DreamCast title. Battles happen about half as often but give you way more rewards; there are more Discoveries on the world map to find; combat load times - well, load times in general - are cut in HALF (or better); there are some optional near-the-end-game side quests and Bounties to take on, and the character models for the main cast (basically, anyone who ever joins the party in battle) get an upgrade - no more oven mitt hands! You can also skip more of the in-battle animations for Skills and Super Moves, and the tiny "skip it" window is more or less gone now. If you ever get a hankering to play through Skies again, track this one down (I got my copy pre-owned for about $60 online a few years ago) and give it another whirl. It'll be even better the second go-round.

Finally playing this but the Gamecube version. So I guess I don't have grinding gears noise for a warning... I still love the Dreamcast though!

No. Youre not spoiled. There was this weird period of time in the early-mid 3d console era where devs were like "oh, we made this awesome animation/voiceovers"! So you need to see/hear every single goddamn time! Tales of Symphonia did this too on the Gamecube. I got my brother the ps2 version and his gf at the time made him quit playing it because people shouting attack moves every 5 minutes annoyed the crap out of her. (I still to this day hear Rightous Indignation! in my head as I type this. And I played that game 20 years ago). Hell, I got Tales of Arise last year, and they *still* havent put a "bark control" setting for how often chars actually shout special attack names. It gets real old real fast when you do combos. Bark/acknowledgement settings have been pretty standard on PC rpgs since the late 90s so I was surprised. Fortunately, most modern console rpgs give you the option to skip summons/massive attack cutscenes. So you can view them if you want, or press something to skip through.

Wild Arms 3 (PS2) is actually pretty similar with more relatable characters, better ship combat, and snappier combat. No voice acting though, but some damn good art direction and wonderful music. Just a recommendation for what to play next!

I like it, but took a long time to complete it, because of the high random encounter rate. I love the world and music though. I played it when it was new, so I was 16 years old at the time. I used to play Pinta's Quest in class. I never had the game hang on me, but the loud loading is supposed to be like that.

Great review! This is one of the two classic rpgs on the Dreamcast alongside Grandia II. Skies had the better story and world while Grandia had better characters and my all time favorite rpg battle system. Dreamcast sadly didn't last long enough to build up the library it deserved...