|
Sega Dreamcast Reviews Skies of Arcadia Airships rule the skies, the world is facing an unforeseen doom and only an apprentice Air Pirate can save it. This is the land of Arcadia, you are Vyse a brash and optimistic youth ready to bypass any barrier between him and his goals. Vyse and his crew of freedom seekers who want nothing but to unshackle the world from the preverbal chains of annihilation and it's up to you to make this dream a reality. The battle system will seem familiar to you immediately and you shouldn't have too much trouble deciphering it without the use of a manual. Through the progress of the game you will be granted crystals that add different elements to your weapon. Every enemy has their achilles heel in one of the elements, the hard part is trying to figure out which element is it. You also have very typical ways of fighting like magic and special moves. Battle are random and are in practically every dungeon and in the sky as well. The random battle rate is perhaps too high and it seems like your stuck in a battle every 15 seconds. Inside this game is a vast number of mini games that will aid your quest and distract you from your goal. You have Pinta's Quest, a VMU game where you find items get gold gain exp and fight other airships. You also can hunt for Chams for Cupil to enhance his strength and form, this is more so not a side quest since Chams are very vital in this game. You can also make discoveries, discovering new things are worth gold plus it's fun to try and find everything. When you have an airship you can hunt for crewmembers some require an item or some other means for them to join the crew. Since every crewmember isn't mandatory this is a side quest. You also have a swashbuckler rating, by answering questions in the game your rating will increase or decrease a high rating makes people more acceptable to Vyse. All of these things make the game seem longer and defintely increase the ammount of time you will be playing. Too often these days do we see games where there is only one little side quest or place and it's refreshing to see so many different things added to the game to make it more fun and interesting to play. This game has superb graphics, not the best on Dreamcast but they are quite good. The resolution is high and the characters all have their different quirks and facial expressions to make them unique from one another. They are slightly deformed (large hands on some of them) although this game tries to make them in-between realistic and deformed it slants closer to the later however. The sky is a little too foggy for my taste in the beginning it will be very hard to get around or see where you are going, because of all the clouds and mist blocking your view. However this adds to the realism if you consider the fact that there will never be a perfectly clear sky. Dungeons in this game all have a different look you have typical cave dungeons building ones ancient ruins underwater ruins and all the usually looking dungeons. But their is a lot of them and all of them which look different will make you take notice. The towns in this game are also all unique from one anothers, the people in them are recognizable even from a distance you can tell who's who. Each town is large and some times it's hard to see. You have a fully rotating camera which makes everything easier on the eyes and makes things easier to see in the tighter corners. The audio on this game is top notch as well, you will have to sit and listen to it to get a full grasp of it. The music perfectly blends in with the background and the whole idea of whatever it is your doing that you may not even notice it. The music fits perfectly with the scenery and the feel of the game and you will hum along with the different tunes of the game. The game does contain voices but in drips and drabs, it gives you a feel of the conversation and it seems spontaneous. In other games that contained voices you can tell when something is going to be spoken by the scenery but here they pop out of no where. However I would have preferred entire conversations with voices instead of just a sentence from a character. The Good - +60 Hours of Game Play - High resolution, great backgrounds and character design - Mini-games were fun and added to the replay value - Had a classic RPG feel and a Modern Look The Bad - The story felt used and was too basic - Characters were basic and not too original - The voices were used too sparingly and the same quotes were repeated - Random Battle rate was too high - Battles became boring too fast and too easy at the end - The Game, Cupil's Chams and Pinta's quest took up too much memory space and forced you to waste your precious batteries. The replay value on this game was pretty high but I doubt you'll pick it up more than twice especially if you did everything your first time through. The fun factor was pretty high although the game became frustrating at times; the fun of the game outweighed the frustrating. The fast pace moving of the story made the game seem more fun than it should have been. Overall I felt this was a very good game and one of the finest games I played on dreamcast. Like I said before this game contains over 60 hours of game play if you do everything your first time through, and is has enough challenge for the die hards RPG players. You won't be disappointed give this game a spin 10 days of a memorable adventure. That's a Dy$e Guarantee. D.Turner |
Latest Interview
 
ROG Newsletter
Forum Posts
Re: youtube videos on your wii Re: youtube videos on your wii Re: youtube videos on your wii Re: youtube videos on your wii
|
Flights - Loans - Loans - Scottsdale Landscaping