Skies of Arcadia - The Ultimate Retrospective Review of One of The Greatest JRPG Legends 

I've never put as much work into anything before. So thank you for watching. I hope you enjoy it. Patreon: www.patreon.com/ABitMoreJordan Twitter: twitter.com/SoWhatAboutGame

R.I.P Rieko Kodama... you did so much and were a part of the best games in my childhood

"Personified the word 'adventure'". A paragraph and already summed it up perfectly. Much to Kodama and team. Many thanks to her and her legacy

I've always wanted Sega to make a sequel to this game. I have so much nostalgia for this game on the Dreamcast. I still quote Alfonso's "dispose of them" comment when the need arises.

It bums me out that in today's world of retro revivals, Skies of Arcadia still hasn't seen any re-release. This game would sell like crazy on the switch.

Such a good video! Thank you for doing this. Please ignore the requests from others to do shorter stuff... every youtuber does that, its so annoying. Keep it long ;) We love details!

Was good to see Vyse and Aika in Valkyria chronicles. :D

This is a fantastic homage to Skies of Arcadia and brought up some serious happy and sad emotions and memories in me. I adored the game so much and I still regularly think about it and the characters. I bought both Sonic transformed and Valkiria Chronicals just to spend more time with the Arcadia crew. Vyse and his ethos made me a better person. Thanks for this three hour trip down memory lane.

Skies of Arcadia, easily my all-time favorite game. Hands down. Warms my heart to see these retrospective pieces on youtube. Subscribed!

‘Then you go to upper city where the residents say things that make you want to puke… or maybe destroy the whole world’ loled at that, love that the villain’s motivation for total annihilation is just watching rich people be rich people Also, I’m grateful that you’ve produced such a meaty analysis on this game and its world. It more than warrants one!

You forgot to play hide and seek with the younger NPCs of the island. You also missed the Aika fan service scene where Vyse peeks into Aika's room as she is brushing her hair. Moments like this is why I love exploring around in JRPGs like Skies of Arcadia. Back then, games rewarded you as you tried to explore around the game world.

Excellemt video! Skies of Arcadia is a big part of my childhood, I beat it once on the Dreamcast and twice on the Legends version on the Gamecube and still remember most of the characters that you meet and recruit to your pirate crew. It's sad that the most that Vyse, Aika and Fina have nowadays is cameos on Valkyria Chronicles. I hope a remaster could be made to modern systems (adjusting some things like the random encounter rate) so more people can play it for themselves.

This game was my childhood. Played it on GameCube. Love it. If i had money, I’d fund a Remaster.

50:18 The circles and X are inverted in japanese culture, they use circle for confirmation. It's also why most sony consoles use the circle button to confirm, while we on the west use the X instead.

This is one of my favorite JRPG of all time. Still play this game to the day and still will for a long time.

Love watching and listening to this while I work because I don't have time for games, and I've never played Skies, but it looks fantastic, and excellent commentary. The final note to leave on, leading to the patreon video was perfect too! "Remember that monkey they sent into space 40 years ago? Well, he's back! With a vengeance!..." 🙈

Amazing job on this! And I agree with you about ship battles, I don't understand how anyone can hate them. 🐬

11:30 your dad being mvp #wholesome

These grand retrospectives of retro games I am nostalgic about or missed out on (like this one), make my long nights of driving that much easier to get through, so thank you for all the time you spent making these. It means alot and they fuel my gaming heart when I get these reminders of which games to show my twin girls when they are old enough to enjoy them! Keep up the great work! #ThankYouFromNorway

1:01:40 This is the moment when many of us Skies of Arcadia fans were dreaming of Aika x Fina shipping. At least I was when I first played through this game.

One of the best ever. Needs a remaster or a sequel

Perfect video! Loved every second. Didnt want it to end 😊

Multiple mechanics for Skies of Arcadia went into the games Wizard101 and Pirate101. Apart from just the artwork, and general mechanics and theme, if you hold down the left mouse key, you can have a rudimentary PoV mode, allowing you to look above you at fully detailed ceilings, cave roofs, skies, etc., until you release the button. In the Wooded Cottage house in W101, where a dream pony appears now and then in a glade on the property, you can see the butterflies around flowers on the property the same as the butterflies you can see in the garden in your starting SoA home of Pirates Island. The Humongofrog in W101, will vomit up wizard hats, as homage to the sewer boss who vomited up skulls in Skies. Pirate101 is, unfortunately, far more rudimentary in terms of ship battles, to Skies, but, the graphics of the game are still top notch.

Nice, been looking forward to this one! And 3.5 hours no less, good gravy! This is gonna be good.

Epic retrospective! I'll rediscover this game alongside this video. Thanks!

One fun thing of the game, especially with the PoV function, is that different areas have different patterned treasure chests. I honestly liked the PoV function of the game the best. The beauty of this game can never be undersold. It was even worth it to look up, as some ceilings had mosaic patterns, as well.

The jungle music of Horteka village is one of the best Jungle theme music I have heard in any video game. I remember making a flash game and even tried to test out how the Jungle music from Skies of Arcadia fitted in with the flash browser game and even got interesting responses from Deviant Art from people who played it.

thanks for making this awesome review and recap

The Green Giant Gaigas reminds me of an Eva or an Angel from the Neon Genesis anime. The the way how it holds its head in confusion reminds me of a Eva Unit 01 going Berserk uncontrollably. Wouldn't surprise me that SEGA got inspiration from Neon Genesis since they were part of funding the movies back in the 90s.

Such an incredibly special game to me. It’s been great seeing the outpouring of support from the small group of people who cherish this game celebrating Kodama. Can’t wait to watch all the way through!

amazing video, love long ones like these! new subscriber!

My favorite jrpg ever ! Wish it will get a re-release soon !

Nice thoughtful discussion. Looking forward to your next

Just got a Japanese copy to practice and the nostalgia of course. I used to wake up 2h before school just to cram in some more Arcadia. This review was a masterpiece btw. 🐬🐬🐬

I need a port of this on my Switch. It is one of the only RPGs that my brother really liked that I don’t own now. It is also the last RPG he ever finished before he stopped playing RPGs and starting playing exclusively FIFA and CoD. When I saw him actually doing airship battles that looked very dynamic for the time I knew the game was something special and I almost stopped playing my own PS2 RPG collection just to watch him play for hours and hours over the weekend. If it weren’t for him playing and enjoying Skies of Arcadia so much I wouldn’t have gotten interested in watching him play Gamecube RPGs so much and he never would have bought Tales of Symphonia to play with me, allowing me to get interested in the Tales series myself and buy my own Tales game and personal favorite game of all time, Tales of Legendia.

I watched a bunch of videos on Skies of Arcadia and this certainly was one of them. Bravo.

Just need my dream of Skies of Arcadia HD Remaster w/dreamcast soundtrack and GCN content. Amazing video!

2:04:00 Belleza is perhaps one of the best characters in Skies of Arcadia, sadly she never becomes a playable character. I would have loved to play as Bellena in her saucy Belly Dancer outfit. Wish there was a figure of her I could get.

Thanks for the great content. Keep it up man!

Great work man! I'm sure I'll enjoy this video just like the other ones

I had to stop this video half way and go start the game myself because you sold it so well!

I remember the long ladder in Metal Gear 3. At least there is a song playing while climbing 😊😊😊

About the comments of where everyone lives, one thing that should be mentioned, for those who haven't played, it does show massive cities. However, you only visit small areas of them. But, you can see the size of them in areas you don't visit in the backgrounds... In Nasr, you can see this large marketplace below the walkway you have access to. Some places, like Valusa and Yafutoma have gated areas that you can see huge cities behind with living areas, that you just can't access, but, are there.

2:52:20 Thinking about it now, you have a point there! On the Dreamcast and the Gamecube if you hit the start button, you can skip the parties animation attacks. 3:14:19 I need to get this game back! That was fun!

Oh man I've probably seen this video 50 times. Love listening to your videos while level grinding haha

Love your video! This game is one of the best RPGs of all time! I remember playing it for hours in my younger days. My brother and I still quote lines from the game 20+ years later. Rieko Kodama is truly a legend. May she rest in peace. Your video honors her well!

When I got Daccat's Coin, I had the option of selling it as an antique for exactly enough money to pay for all the upgrades for the ship. However, I held onto it, and ground left and right in fights to make up the money I could have just had in one go. My rationale for this was, this was something I could save for future generations of my family. A family heirloom, and a tale to go with it of how I got it. In my mind, a pirate may want treasure, but this seemed like something someone with Vyse's temperament and character would have done.

Skies of Arcadia is by far one of the most underrated games. Though, having played the original version years later, I have no idea how I managed to not go crazy with the random battle frequency. No wonder the sound of the Dreamcast loading is something I have nightmares about. They need to remake this, well...the GC version.

Great video from my favorite game! Thanks for showing Rogue's Landing, it also gives me hope we'll get a remake one day. 🐬

Awesome video about an awesome Game! I played it ten years ago, but loved it wholeheartly! Thank you 🐬 Also, no mention of the subquest extra about the Pirate Bounty Hunter?

Jordan what you are doing covering games like skies which is my all time fav jrpg is amazing keep up great work. I played on Dreamcast and at 36yrs old now i still look on those days playing this as a kid as some of best in my life.

Another awesome retrospective

Oh Skies of Arcade. I remember I had 2 videos I downloaded as a kid (one of the Little Jack in a random ship battle, the other was the party fighting the giant bird boss in Rixis) and based solely of those 2 videos I saved up and bought a used Dreamcast and Skies of Arcadia. It was the first system I ever bought for myself (was like 15 or so) and the first/only Sega system I ever had (fun fact since I had only ever had Nintendo systems NES/SNES/N64 I did NOT get a memory card with the system so for the first few days I played the intro section at least 10 times before I picked one up). It could have easily been a horrible game with me wasting the months it took me to save up for it. But it wasn't! To this day it's one of my favorite games ever! I remember when the GameCube version came out I picked it up thinking it was a sequel and was upset when it wasn't. Now though I think you're right. It doesn't need a sequel. It's perfect as a stand-alone. Though I would love a HD remake/remaster. Sadly I sold my Dreamcast and games in my early 20s for some reason but thankfully I still have my GameCube version. Great video for a great game. Just recently found your channel and I LOVE these huge videos you do! Thank you for the content! :)

i dont have time to play my fav jrpgs so i love how story focused your vids are

I always take Gilder. He has the best final Super Move of the supporting characters. "YOU MESS WITH ME. YOU MESS WITH CLAUDIA!"

Pausing right here. 1:36 I'm my mind when I would read his dialog I would i gave him a voice that would sound like Tim Curry.

Vyse Aika and Fina formed a thruple and you can’t convince me otherwise.

When I was a teenager playing JRPGs, I often level grind early so the latter parts of the game are not as annoying for me. I got that from my Pokemon on GameBoy days, early on I would level grind every 10 levels during each story arc early so by the 5th or so major place to visit I end up leveled up to at least 50 so I can make a dash towards the game's end. In skies of Arcadia I started level grinding my way to level 50 before going to that Eastern Culture, so during that part where you finally got the big ship with the Moon Stone Cannon and you start recruiting your crew for your Pirate Base, that was when I really level grinded my way up so I could get through that annoying Turtle Boss easier than most. And I only have to thank my experience from Pokemon on GameBoy for that sort of strategy.

Great video Jordan! This game looks amazing! Need to play this now 🐬

I still have this on my shelf, found the gamecube version for 60e years ago, luuuucky~ I need to play it this year for sure.

Multiple mechanics for Skies of Arcadia went into the cel-shaded cartoon, Storm Hawks.

I have no particular nostalgia with that game, I was already 25yo in 2004 when I buy it on the GameCube, had already played plenty of great JRPGs such as FF6/7/9, Grandia, and every Phantasy Star games, and traveled, worked and lived in about 26 countries... and yet, that game is gonna be a revelation to me! Never before I felt the call for adventure as I did with Skies of Arcadia, Grandia was close, Tales of Symphonia wasn’t bad either, but Skies was at a different level! Since that time, I have played the game a countless number of times, and it still today, along with Phantasy Star IV (another game by Rieko Kodama, thank you so much madame) my favorite game ever. It’s a great video you did here, and a fantastic love letter to that game.

🐬. Took me a while to get to this.. damn holiday season. Great video!! I sold my copy on the game cube about 15 years ago, and regret it so much.

Do your long form! Also, I’m glad there’s a tiny community for this game. Not becoming a franchise is like your favorite show getting canceled after one season

A long one. Professor, you are a legend.

The best use of magic in this game is healing between battles since it only costs 1mp and 0 stamina to do so. I loved every moment of this game and my best friend and I were in to it at the same time so it created a nice shared memory for us. Thanks for the long form review! I hope we get a switch port eventually.

🐬really like this format, separating the story section and the review section, made it easier to watch with no worries of getting spoiled

Thank you for this, it's one of my favorite games of all time and a Dreamcast classic. I skimmed through comments and didn't see anything addressing this, so I'm sorry if this is a double comment, but actually in the original Japanese, Ramirez IS very queer-coded. In the confrontation with him after killing Galcian, he says "He was my everything," which is obviously not included in the English. I can't remember the other instances off the top of my head, but perhaps that's why you got The Vibes from them. (It also makes him crying and losing his mind at the end make even more sense.)

Didn't know about this one until now. Skies of arcadia sounds like a great Dreamcast era game.

I will never give up my copy of Skies of Arcadia: Legends

Don't make shorter videos Jordan!! Forget the detractors that want you to abridge your format! We love the longer videos, it's what we come for!

I think the most you would get out of me about a game is "I don't know, it was good". Excellent work

I’d watch it but I still am playing it for the first time, might come back when I finish it. Love it so far. Rip Rieko Kodama

One of my favorite games of all time. I put so many hours on this one back in the day. I only played the Dreamcast version, maybe I should look into the GameCube version some day. Thanks for making this video, cheers!

1:33:16 This world is actually a donut! If you fly off the top of the map, you come back on from the bottom. If it was truly round, you would come back on halfway across the top or the bottom which you flew over.

I'm here for the long form videos to be honest. I play it while I "try" to sleep.

🐬This video kept popping up in my timeline, but I’ve never played Arcadia! Out of curiosity and my new love for RPG’s that’s been slowly growing I decided to give this vid a shot and boy do I wish playing this as a kid! An amazing story and what looks like insane gameplay. It’s definitely going on the list so I’ll update when I’ve beaten it for myself one day! Amazing video man you got a new sub right here!

This should get a remaster treatment just like Grandia. Awesome RPG, one of the greatest rpgs I've ever play played

39:00 This is the scene in the game I love the most. They are stranded in the Desert town and the only thing to do is to go to the pub and watch the beautiful Belly Dancer Bellena. And that is what Vyse chooses to do instead of listening to Aika's complaining. This also leads to an interesting part of the game where Vyse, Aika and Fina gain the trust of the beautiful Belly Dancer Bellena who becomes quite a trusted ally to them.

Amazing video! 🐬

🐬 im a father of 6 from the UK. Born in 1985 so skys arrived at a great time for me! Only played it on the dreamcast but loved every moment. Thanks for all the effort you put in to this video 🙌🏼

wow! seems like your Skies of Arcadia was my Grandia 1 : o ngl, it sounds like this was a pretty good game I slept on ^^ wild story, interesting. i like the expressive-ness on the 3D models ^^ adorable.

Lol I'm doing a replay of this myself and just left ol Pirate Island with Fina and only then did it click with me that Vyse's Mom doesn't have a name. I don't know why, but i just assumed she had one too. I like the name Janice though, maybe I'll see if i can edit the text to fix that 😅

Skies of Arcadia is my all time great RPG, remember playing it when it came out on the Dreamcast and spending hours into it, Great story, Graphics and soundtrack. Still got my original Skies of Arcadia which I brought back then.. never had a chance to play the GameCube version but would be nice to play at some point.. Such a great video and also the love for this great game 👍 Would love to see a follow up or a remaster so people who missed out on this great game.. 👍👍❤️

Suikoden, Silent Hill then Skies of Arcadia?! You’ve been hitting home runs with me my friend. Those are my personal favorites too!

Been waiting for this ❤

This video propels me back to the beautiful innocence of my youth and to those emotions that will never be replicated again in adulthood. Thank you for the wonderful time

Everytime I remember this game, I get frustrated again that this game is still stuck on the Gamecube and Dreamcast with no open source in sight. I freaking love the world and nowadays, I dream of what the world would be like if the game were remade with modern tech. Like imagine a SOA remake that visually looks like the Valkyria Chronicles series. After all, some developers from SoA went to work on it and even Vyse and Aika show up as playable characters in the first game (or well alternate versions of them. Vyse Ingalbard, Aika Thompson, and a nameless Fina who has 2 identical sisters). But alas. Sega is too busy milking Sonic and Persona to care about their bringing their older franchises back.

Absolutely loved this video! I got so emotional towards the end just cause this game really means so much to me. I’m glade you enjoyed the game as well! 🐬🐬🐬🐬

Dude, absolutely loved this video! Man, did I love this game. Might be the best game I've ever played...wish I still had the game and the Dreamcast to play it. I hope they one day remaster this game...or even just release it in it's current state for modern consoles

A great video. Thanks for making it! This is truly an amazing game. It's beautiful, touching, epic... simply my favorite RPG of all time! 😊

The game Valkyria Chronicles, where the main characters later wind up, raised an immediate question about Fina, and the Silvites race as a whole. As has been seen, the color of the moon, and the stones from it, has an effect from these things upon the area, and all living things and people within it, as a whole. The silver moon and it's crystals have power to bring death to the living, and life to the dead. The Silvites lived on the Silver Moon, meaning they had unlimited resources to make silver crystals, unlike the Arcadians who had limited resources and tiny bits of crystal, not enough to make a fully powered crystal, like the Silvites could. It is noticed, other than the old man, the Silver Moon is devoid of life. Jump ahead to Valkyria Chronicles, and we see Fina, and her twin sisters Mina and Gina. It is known from Ramirez that both he and Fina have silver crystals within them. It is my theory that there was only ever one original Silvite who made his way to the moon to create the first extinction event, after giving up on mankind during the gigas wars. Most likely a geneticist. The old man. And he used his mastery over the crystals to make a clone race, made of his own genes, male and female, Fina types, and Ramirez types. This means Ramirez wasn't just a childhood friend, he was, genetically, her brother. And the old man only allowed one Fina and one Ramirez at any one time. One crystal in each of their bodies, and the Prime Elder keeping the main portion... There would always be an old man, a Ramirez, and a Fina, and that was it, because of this. The rest of the elders are all Ramirez, kept within silver crystal coffins one moment before death, still alive, but only the current Prime Elder still capable of moving, the current Ramirez expected to replace him when his time comes. This explains the psyche of Ramirez. It was the psyche of the old man, and, in time, he eventually came to the same solution the old man came to millennia ago, to rid the world of perceived corruption and start over. After it was all over, Fina made two sisters, because there could only be three, because there were ever only three. But now, they were all Fina types devoted to healing, without the rage and insanity prevalent among the male Ramirez types. This also raises the question, if there were only three people, one in the beginning, who built all the cities of the Silver Civilization? My theory, Cupils. Genetically created creatures made of, and brought to life by, the Silver Crystals, capable of transforming into whatever tool or device was needed. Which explains why the old man, the First Ramirez, created the Fina clone, devoid of the hostility of the Ramirez, and empathically linked to the Cupils to control the Cupils to build the city, the Ramirez clone removing her crystal when her job was done, and new Fina and Cupils units made when needed, the Ramirez units eventually becoming new Prime Elders, to be replaced by new Ramirez units, over thousands of years. Except, this time, the Ramirez unit was "corrupted" with new ideas by talking to the first non-Silvites in thousands of years, giving them the first new ideas in millennia, and he wouldn't fulfil his mission, or return, and the old man couldn't make a new Ramirez while he lived, so he made a new Fina unit with a Cupil to assist her, and she had the memories of all the past Ramirez's, which is how she knew about him, and why she was so naive, because she was only just made.

🐬 Wrapped up the video. I never had a Sega console and the Game Cube is the one Nintendo system I went without. This game looked really cool and it was fun watching and learning about it. Thanks for sharing the experience.

Just now finding out she passed away 😔 she did a lot for my childhood for one game that i wish got a part 2 for this amazing gem. one day I’ll play stream the GameCube title just cause I haven’t played that one yet. She may gone but won’t be forgotten ❤ great review!

Great game choices Jordan - SUikoden Alundra and SKies of Arcadia? Fantastic choices - hope you do brave fencer musashi What are some classic games you havent played yet

Skies of Arcadia is a great game and RIP Rieko Kodama

🐬 Fantastic video, watched it from start to finish. I played SoA back in February 2004 when I was 17 on my Dreamcast after my dad bought the game from a flea market. The best RPG and game on the console in my opinion, and the Dreamcast had many classic and well made games on it. I saw the reviews for SoA in 2000 but I was too into FF9, LOZ Majora's Mask, and Pokemon Silver to care and want for Christmas that year. Still have love for each of the games, but SoA is mos def a classic that more people should know about and play. And I also agree with you that there was a lot of things that the game did that was very impressive back in 2000, even now with the diversity of the different nations and their people, cultures, histories, economies, landscapes, and livelihoods. If we do get a remake I don't want any writers tied to it that is interested in parallel dimensions, multiverses, and what-if scenarios, I'm SOOOO sick and tired of that garbage infesting 'remakes' of video games/animes/comics/manga of old. A shame that that era of JRPGs and the previous ones will never return in the AAA circle again, but the indie market has taken care of that and if more people put their money where their mouths are when it comes to their love for quality JRPGs whether AAA or not, we MAY, and that's a BIG MAY, see a resurgence across the board as indie developers gets more capital and resources to more realize their dreams. Anyway I'm rambling, God bless in Jesus' Name. Ms. Kodama was a wonderful woman, the world is a worse place without her but she is no longer suffering.

You should try the Maeson mod for this game it makes it much harder, adds cut content, new weapons / new ship equipment rebalances magic and SP its pretty nuts

Radioactive Moonstones = nuclear powered Airships! Awesome! And how do you think they get their super special moves or learn to use magic? Radioactivity... from the moons! Comics did stuff like that all the time, so why not.

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