Skies of Arcadia is a 2000 role-playing video game developed by Overworks and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. Players control Vyse, a young air pirate, and his friends as they attempt to stop the Valuan Empire from reviving ancient weapons with the potential to destroy the world.
Skies of Arcadia uses traditional Japanese role-playing game systems such as turn-based battles and experience points, but puts greater focus on exploration, with the player flying an airship in 3D space. The development team included staff who had contributed to the Panzer Dragoon, Phantasy Star, Sonic the Hedgehog and Sakura Wars series.
Skies of Arcadia received acclaim and is frequently regarded as one of the best Dreamcast games, although it underperformed commercially. A port for the GameCube, Skies of Arcadia Legends, was released in 2002.
Gameplay
Skies of Arcadia is a role-playing video game (RPG) with an emphasis on world exploration.
Plot
Setting
The game takes place in the fictional world referred to as Arcadia, where six civilizations coexist on floating continents orbited by six moons of different colors. Led by Empress Teodora, the empire seeks the Moon Crystals to reawaken the Gigas and take over the world. Teodora directs the Valuan Armada, a fleet of warships led by admirals Galcian and Ramirez, to find them. Upon the Silver Civilization learning of this plan, they send Fina to find the Moon Crystals first. The title was changed to Eternal Arcadia in 2000,
Development went smoothly, attributed to the increased power and easier architecture of the Dreamcast in comparison to the Sega Saturn. They decided to make entering buildings in towns seamless, without loading, and to use an expressive anime art style to more clearly show facial expressions and emotions of characters, both of which they felt had been lacking from recent popular RPGs such as Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII.
Development began for the Sega Saturn, with battles on land and the tops of trains. After production moved to the Dreamcast, the motif of traveling the skies was set, inspired by the Age of Discovery. At the time, Japanese role-playing video games portrayed mostly darker worlds, but Overworks was more interested in creating an optimistic protagonist who explored the world. They took care to portray Aika and Fina, Vyse's female friends, on equal footing with him, rather than being saved by him. The historical architecture and ancient civilizations are attributed to team member Shuntaro Tanaka, who majored in history at university and conceptualized the world and scenario, inspiring the "discovery" aspect.
The Japanese Dreamcast release date was set for September 14, 2000, but delayed to October 5, 2000, so the team could create a paid "trial version" for concurrent release. The release was promoted in Japan with posters and television commercials. During launch month, and spanning eight months total, Skies of Arcadia was adapted as an official manga in every issue of Magazine Z, supervised by the development team. A soundtrack was released on CD on the day of the game's release.
Localization
Eternal Arcadia was renamed Skies of Arcadia for its Western releases, which Sega felt better expressed the premise and story to Western audiences. It was localized by Chris Lucich and Klayton Vorlick. The localization was completed in four months, with 80- to 100-hour work weeks, on a script of over 2,000 pages.
Skies of Arcadia Legends port
In October 2001, shortly after Sega's announcement that it would abandon the Dreamcast to make software for other consoles, Sega announced that it would port Skies of Arcadia to GameCube and PlayStation 2. US developer Point of View Software was brought on to help with the conversion, though the original staff from Overworks continued to work on the game. However, by April, Sega announced that the PS2 version would be delayed, and by May, rumors spread that it had been cancelled, though this was refuted by Sega. In August 2002, Sega announced that the PS2 version was cancelled in favor of focusing on the GameCube release, which was, as of October 2002, 80% complete. with Infogrames distributing for the latter territory. A port for Windows was announced in early 2004, but never released.
Sega and Kodama have described Legends as a "director's cut". It uses a mix of the original game's code and code newly written for the GameCube. new side quests and subplots, new hidden discoveries, and a "Wanted List" of new enemies to find.
| MC_NGC = 84/100
| CNG_SDC = 9/10
| EGM_SDC = 9.33/10
| EGM_NGC = 9.17/10
| EPD_SDC = 9/10
| EPD_NGC = 8.5/10
| EuroG_SDC = 9/10
| EuroG_NGC = 8/10
| Fam_SDC = 33/40
| Fam_NGC = 32/40
| GI_SDC = 9/10
| GI_NGC = 9/10
| GameRev_SDC = A−
| GameRev_NGC = B
| GSpot_SDC = 9.2/10
| GSpot_NGC = 7.5/10
| GSpy_SDC = 9/10
| GSpy_NGC = 4.5/5
| IGN_SDC = 9.2/10
| IGN_NGC = 8.5/10
| NGen_SDC = 4/5
| NP_NGC = 4.5/5
| RPG_SDC = 10/10
| RPGFan_SDC = (D.T.) 94%<br />(4, 5) 93%<br />(1, 3) 91%
| RPGFan_NGC = (J.G.) 95%<br />(K.C.) 93%
| rev1 = Official Dreamcast Magazine UK
| rev1_SDC = 8/10
Skies of Arcadia received "universal acclaim" according to the review aggregator Metacritic. IGN praised it as "one of the most solid games visually on the Dreamcast ... TThere's so much to explore, so much character, and a great story that you don't mind being retold again." Jeff Lundrigan of NextGen wrote, "Despite the problems—which it shares with practically every other Japanese RPG—Skies of Arcadia is an impressive, thoroughly delightful game that no one should pass up." Despite the generally positive reviews, many critics noted that it was sometimes difficult to explore the game world due to the number of random encounters. During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Skies of Arcadia in the "Character or Story Development", "Console Role-Playing", "Console Game of the Year" and "Game of the Year" categories; all were ultimately awarded to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Final Fantasy IX, SSX and Diablo II, respectively. The game was also nominated for the "Best Console RPG" and "Best New Game Character" (Vyse) awards at The Electric Playgrounds Blister Awards 2000, both of which went to Valkyrie Profile and Ulala from Space Channel 5, respectively.
Game Informer later listed it as one of the top 10 Dreamcast games. In a 2017 retrospective from Metacritic on the highest-rated exclusive games (at time of release) per platform, Skies of Arcadia placed third for the Dreamcast, behind Soulcalibur and Jet Grind Radio. In 2023, Time Extension included it on their "Best JRPGs of All Time" list.
GameCube port
The GameCube release, Skies of Arcadia Legends, received slightly less positive reviews. GameZone gave it a score of nine out of ten, saying, "The main problem with this game is that it feels a little dated, especially when you compare it to FFX or other games coming out shortly. Other than that it is a great game."
A common source of the lower scores were the graphics, with criticism coming from the fact that they had not been substantially improved despite more powerful hardware and over two years passing from the Dreamcast's release. GameSpot named Skies of Arcadia the best GameCube game of January 2003.
Legacy
Cancelled entries
In addition to the cancelled PlayStation 2 and PC releases The development team had shown interest in creating a sequel, or a portable iteration for the Game Boy Advance during the development of Legends for the GameCube, but neither materialized. In February 2003, Overworks president Noriyoshi Ohba announced that a Skies of Arcadia sequel had entered the planning stages. However, in a December 2004 interview, Kodama stated that while there had been plans for a sequel, the project was put on hold indefinitely while many members of the team were pulled into working on Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love.
Starting in 2010, Sega began a campaign of releasing HD remasters of Dreamcast games digitally on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, including games such as Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure 2 and Jet Set Radio. Sega renewed the Skies of Arcadia trademark later in the same year, though a re-release did not materialize.
In other media
Skies of Arcadia characters have appeared in Sega properties. Multiple characters appeared in Sega's 2008 video game Valkyria Chronicles, another title directed by Shuntaro Tanaka. "Vyse Inglebard" and "Aika Thompson" appear as optional members of Squad 7 and are listed on each other's "Like" list. Vyse and Fina made minor cameos in some of the accompanying Valkyria Chronicles anime as well. Outside of the Valkyria games, Vyse has also made some appearances in some Sonic the Hedgehog related media. He is a playable character in 2012 Sega racing game Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, which also features a racetrack based on Skies of Arcadia, where the participants must drive and fly through the Blue Rogue's home-base while eluding attacks from the Valuan Empire. Vyse also appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book adaptation of Transformed featured in Sonic Universe #45, and again in the Sonic comics for the "World Unite" Sega character crossover story arc.