Skies of Arcadia Legends

Thoughts

Skies of Arcadia is one of my all-time favorite games, especially when it comes to RPGs! I really like the world-building, music, magic system, and characters. Originally, I played this game on Dreamcast, which was a copy that my older brother had; that would be the original release, Skies of Arcadia, but I later got my own copy of this version for the GameCube. The two versions are very similar to each other, but there are a few differences like a bit more content in Legends but worse audio quality due to the compression required on GameCube discs.

Progress

Main Story: Completed
Highest Pirate Rank: ?

The World of Skies of Arcadia

Locations

The variety in locations through the game are always interesting to explore, each with their own unique soundscape.

Some areas and sequences of the game are downright scary, especially if tornados and dark places make you a little uncomfortable! 😬 I’ve written a bit about that sort of thing here: Nightmare - Recurring - Tornados.

Characters

I really like the variety of characters you encounter, not to mention how interesting the playable characters are! Vyse, Aika, and Fina make up the core party, with a few others coming along for part of the ride, namely Drachma, Enrique, and Gilder. One of the things I would change about Skies is having more time to use these latter characters as putting any resources into them ends up being something of a waste when they eventually leave. Enrique might be one exception as he’s in the party more consistently once you get to his part of the game.

The Story

I won’t put any spoilers here, but I love how the story takes you all over the world of Skies over the course of the game. It has that typical humble beginnings opening, but the characters learn of more grand plans putting the world at stake quite quickly.