Let's Sperg Skies of Arcadia: Legends - A JRPG that is not permanently stuck up its own ass

[AngeloTheWizard]

I haven't done one of these in a hot minute. Why not?

What is Skies of Arcadia?
An actually really fun turn based combat RPG featuring Sky Pirates, mysterious crystals, an evil empire looking to take over the world, all the classic hallmarks of the golden age of RPGs-except, it's on the Dreamcast instead of the NES/SNES. Created by Overworks, an internal dev team in Sega, Skies of Arcadia was made during a time where everyone was trying to copy Final Fantasy 7's darker and edgier styling, without anything that made Final Fantasy 7...good? (I have my own misgivings on FF7 but that's another thread) Rather than copy the super successful FF7 and become just another RPG chasing glory, Skies of Arcadia took a lighter approach, remembering there was a massive color palette to be used, and also created a massive cast of characters, each with unique and charming personalities. If it sounds like I'm gushing, I kind of am-this game is fucking good.

Is this a full run?
Yeah. I did a run on Twitch, but that was blind and also not as good. This thread, you'll be able to use it like a snarky, unofficial walkthrough that's full of swear words. Yay!

How can I play this game?
Well, good luck getting a physical copy. Depending on platform and seller, it ranges from $80 to almost $250! Luckily, emulators are a thing. I recommend the Legends version as it adds a whole host of bonus content, and it is the one we'll be playing today.

Is there anything I should know about this game that makes it frustrating?
Well sure, nothing's perfect. I have a few issues. Hitboxes for doors and ladders are weirdly stiff, the camera just does not like to turn in narrow corridors, and the combat can be a bit slow at times-I think this has to do with the counter attack mechanic but even then, the amount of time between characters doing their actions is very noticeable. Very annoying when you have like 6 enemies on screen.

Well, let's dive in.

 

[sasazuka]

I don't understand why Sega hasn't "shut up and take my money"ed Skies of Arcadia on modern consoles or Steam.

I have both a working Dreamcast and a working Gamecube but I can't afford whatever ridiculous three digit prices a physical copy for either console goes for these days.

 

[Marissa Moira]

I don't understand why Sega hasn't "shut up and take my money"ed Skies of Arcadia on modern consoles or Steam.

I have both a working Dreamcast and a working Gamecube but I can't afford whatever ridiculous three digit prices a physical copy for either console goes for these days.

Looks like someone didn't fill out the Sakura Wars survey.

Sega is asking what series you would like to throw money at next. Skies of Arcadia and Jet Set Radio are among them.

 

[sasazuka]

Was that survey a year or so ago? I think I did fill it out but I wrote in OutRun.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

We start with a mysterious ship being piloted by an even more mysterious young girl. She is being pursued, in classic "This is a Star Wars homage" fashion, by a very scary gunmetal grey ship. But instead of any respectable Empire captain or even a Darth Vader type, our captain is...this guy.

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This guy is named Alfonso. He is an Admiral of the Valuan Imperial Armada. Valua as we quickly find is pretty much colonial era Spain, and this guy is a massive prick-not because he's Spanish, but because he's an asshole. As a member of a wealthy family, his position was basically bought with hard, hard cash, and he has practically non-existent leadership and fighting skills. His combat is so non-existent that we don't even get a boss fight against him, despite him having the most punchable face in the entire Armada.

Alfonso gives the order to fire close to the girl's ship, but tells them not to score direct hits ("Careful you idiot, I said across her nose, not UP it!") The girl gets knocked the fuck out in the shelling, and Alfonso catches up, the girl being taken on board and the girl's ship left to fall below the clouds...all seems to be going smoothly for our initial villain, until an explosion rocks his ship. His crew quickly discovers that someone is attacking them!

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This game makes hilarious facial expressions.

The attacking ship is an Air Pirate ship carrying our heroes...and the rest of the crew they're a part of. The cutscene swiftly introduces us to our main hero: Vyse.

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Vyse is one of the most intelligent JRPG protagonists ever created. That is no exaggeration. In universe it's very likely his father, the Captain of the Albatross that Vyse is currently standing on, was grooming him to become a captain in his own right and it shows. His plans are more thought out than "let's just do a thing" for starters, he has some solid leadership skills behind him, and while some of his inspiring speeches are a little corny, he speaks honestly and even a little bluntly at times. He very quickly became my favorite protagonist in a JRPG and it'll be hard to unseat him-you'll learn why as we go along.

Grappling hooks pull Alfonso's ship in, and Vyse leaps from the Albatross to the deck of the Valuan ship. He is quickly joined by his childhood friend, Aika.

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The whole "childhood friend" in most RPGs always bugged me-typically, they're always either love interests or just don't act like how friends really would. While Aika is a love interest (hell, one of two! This game has a goddamn love triangle!), she also constantly banters with Vyse, teasing him and calling him out for his bone headed moves (especially in dialogue choices, we'll get there).

Since we're also in the middle of a bunch of soldiers, we get introduced to combat as well.

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Battles take place on a sort of grind like thing, but don't think you can move around much. Characters move on their own for the most part. Some attacks care about enemies on a line, or close to each other, or whatever, but this isn't Fire Emblem-no tactical movement or anything.

The enemies we're dealing with are called "Ferratus". We'll meet others later on called "Praeses" which are much weaker-Praeses die in one hit from either character, Ferratus actually have a bit of health. Skies of Arcadia has many unique systems, the first we'll be dealing with does not involve that giant bar you see at the top of the screen, but rather, you notice how the enemies have colored borders? The borders represent their element. The game has six elements, and we can start using two-Earth (represented by Green) and Fire (represented by Red). We'll get access later on to Purple (ice), Blue (Water/Wind), Yellow (Lightning) and Silver (Void-ish?) Each element has its own unique damage bonus or penalty when you attack with it, and right now, you have Green which does less damage when hitting Yellow, or Red, which has no bonus or penalty.

Being dumb, I read this chart completely wrong and thought Green had a bonus against Yellow. It doesn't matter until the boss, but don't be dumb.

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Also, after every battle, whatever color your characters end in determines what kind of Magic Exp. they get. Each character gets their own normal experience, but magic experience is kind of shared-each battle gets you some amount of Magic experience, then each character gets that amount of magic experience in each color a character was using at the end of a fight. So if Vyse was Red and Aika was Green, they would both get some Red, and some Green points. If they're both Green (like I was), they get Green points for each character using green. Basically, if you want to powerlevel a color of magic, set everyone to that color.

Right now, Green is best until Vyse and Aika both get Sacri, the first healing spell. Each element has six spells associated with it, and each character learns at different rates-you can see that Aika is gonna learn the first spells a hell of a lot faster than Vyse, and has already learned the first of the green spells from this one fight. Of the elements we have, the spells are as follows:

Green: Green has all the healing spells, there's only 4 of them to be fair. Sacri is first, then Sacres is the third green spell learned, Sacrum is fifth, and Sacrulen is the last spell and is worth grinding for on everyone. Healing amounts are static and cannot be enhanced by any means. Sacri heals 500, Sacres heals 1,000, Sacrum heals 1,000 to the whole party, and Sacrulen is a single target full heal. As far as other spells, Noxi and Noxus are the second and fourth spells. Noxi is a single target, poison damage spell, while Noxus expands that to the whole enemy team. They each have a chance of inflicting poison, a permanent debuff that does damage every turn, but wears off after battle. Trust me, you'll want Green more for the Sacri line than the poison, because if you want damage...

Red: ...You want to come here. The first, third, fourth, and fifth spells are all of the "Pyri" line (Pyri, Pyres, Pyrum, and Pyrulen), and they all do the same thing: Fire damage on the entire enemy team. Yes, it starts with a massive AoE burst and just gets more potent from there. Even the support spells are offensively minded, as the second and sixth spells are "Increm" and "Incremus". Increm increases offense and defense for a single character by 25%, Incremus does the whole party in one go.

As far as learning rates go, Vyse is pretty slow on green magic out of everyone, but takes the least amount of XP to max out Red-he learns it slightly faster than the dedicated Mage of the party! Aika, despite her affinity for flame, learns it slower than Vyse, the dedicated mage, and a third character we'll be meeting much later. Meanwhile, Aika is right behind the dedicated mage for learning green magic, while Vyse is the second slowest (that said, the gulf between him getting the last spell in the green chain and the actually slowest learning character in the game is massive-1300 XP worth massive). Luckily, we don't have to worry about maxing out for a long time.

After defeating the soldiers, the cutscene shows that we apparently didn't make a dent in their numbers-Vyse and Aika are still surrounded by five soldiers. One of them even taunts about how the kids are outnumbered, until one of them gets shot in the fucking head by this guy:

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Meet Vyse's father, Dyne. This dude is awesome, if his opening line didn't clue you in. He is also captain of the Albatross (the ship you see in the background) and all things considered, a reasonable authority figure as well.

He orders Vyse and Aika to head below deck and make their way to the bridge, and our heroes use the distraction caused by his arrival to make a break for it. We land below deck, and we can now take full control.

Keep your eyes peeled for these boxes, or anything that even looks remotely like a treasure chest. There's a lot of one time dungeons in this game, and a lot of the bonus content relies on you getting at least 90% of all treasure chests. There's not much to get on the Valuan Battleship (that's what the Save Points call this ship), but there's enough to worry about.

Head to the only door, run through the hallway, and into the next room. Alfonso taunts the party and sends a bunch of soldiers to stop you-for some reason, his last line ("Dispose of them!") is fully voice acted, I don't get why. You're thrown into a fight with 4 Praesus enemies, which would be scary if they didn't die in one hit to an element they're strong against...and even if it's Aika, who's physically weaker, doing the hitting.

I should probably take a moment to explain how these guys work in combat. Vyse is not your usual jack of all stats you get as a protagonist, instead, his stats are oriented towards physical offense. His magic suffers, and his speed is average. Aika, meanwhile, has low physical offense and defense, but her magic defense is good along with her magical offense, and her speed is second to none-seriously, after a few levels, Aika will start going first practically every round. The only things moving faster than her are speed buffed enemies (which you can counter by speed buffing your team) and any action hard coded to go first in a round (this includes, but is not limited to: Guard actions, defensive super moves, certain boss attacks, etc...). If something needs to be done yesterday, assign it to Aika.

After the fight, in the corner of the lower floor is a chest with more Sacri Crystals. These things behave exactly like the spell-500 HP to one party member. Head up the stairs, the path is a bit linear due to crates blocking the way. At a certain point, Alfonso will scoff at you and make his exit. Continue along, and duck along a side path for a chest with 50 gold in it.

Head into the room Alfonso went into to find a save point and another chest with 2 Magic Droplets. These items each restore 1 MP. Each spell also only requires 1 MP to cast it, so Magic Droplets never lose effectiveness as far as restoratives go, which is nice. Alfonso's locked the big door to the hangar bay, so you're forced to take another exit, and descend a ladder on the side of the ship.

This game loves long ass ladders, and the climbing animation is slow. Get used to hearing Snake Eater in your head.

Alfonso is ready to make good his escape, with his Vice Captain assisting him. However, Alfonso has plans...

"Valuans are dicks" counter: 1

Vyse and Aika see the whole thing, and challenge Alfonso. Alfonso, being a pompous prick, decides its not worth his time and instead throws his war pet at them:

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I honestly do not know why there was a door if Antonio was just going to come bursting out instead. It's clearly big enough for him!

BOSS FIGHT: Antonio the War Pig
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While not particularly difficult, Antonio does quite love counter-attacks. This battle system allows anyone to counter any normal attack from anyone. Bosses seem to have a higher counter rate than most regular enemies, and Antonio will punish you for playing too loose. His normal attacks do about 60-80 damage, and his counters do the same amount.

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Thunder of Fury is Antonio's one special attack, and as you can see, it's hitting Vyse like a ton of bricks for 200 damage. You have a max of about 500 on both characters right now. And yes, you can get counter-attacked, and then blasted with Thunder of Fury for a cool 260 damage minimum.

On rare occasions, bosses will do an "Assess Damage" move. This move does nothing, and is literally a free turn for you. Antonio will likely do it at least once.

So how do you beat him? Simple: Start by using the Y button to switch both Vyse and Aika to red elements, indicated by the color of their weapons. While it doesn't do extra damage, it also doesn't do less damage like Green does. Use basic attacks, and let your Spirit build up-Spirit is that big bar at the top of the screen. When it maxes, have Vyse use his Cutlass Fury Super Move for tons of damage. Have Aika or Vyse use Sacri Crystals if anyone dips too close to half their health, or less. Antonio is insanely slow and will usually go last in the line up, so you only have yourself to blame if you screw up and let someone die.

Defeating Antonio grants a Moonberry, along with a pile of XP and gold. I'll get into Moonberries in my next post where we'll detail Super Moves and the Spirit system.

Alfonso, surprised that we kicked the shit out of his war piggy, makes good his escape after promising we'll see him again. Vyse and Aika give chase, to no avail. Aika calls him a coward, but then...

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This will be a common thread. Aika likes to get paid.

On another note, the mysterious girl Alfonso grabbed? Well, he didn't take her with him, and so now, we get to take her with us and be the awesome rescue party. She's taken on board the Albatross as she dreams of home...spoilers: It's really far away.

With that, the Battleship is cleared, and we're on our way back to our home and headquarters. Next time: Magic! Super Moves! A Swashbuckler System! Mysterious girls and Moon Stones! Tune in next time!

EDIT: Let's get some music up in this bitch. I'll be posting the ones you'll have encountered by this point.

Opening Theme (Plays during the opening movie on game startup)
Main Theme (Plays in the Game Start menu)
Military Facility Dungeon (Valuan Battleship Music, plays in a few other dungeons)
Battle 1
Boss Battle-With Bonus Dynamic Shift! (The Boss theme changes depending on how you're doing, in this track, it shifts to the "boss almost dead" version)
Blue Rogues Theme (Plays during boarding cutscene)

Bonus Content: Antonio Boss Fight Video

 

[Marissa Moira]

Was that survey a year or so ago? I think I did fill it out but I wrote in OutRun.

A new one just came out.

They're launching a Sakura Wars TV series that follows after the game, so expect a new survey with that one as well.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

The Farms don't like my images, hang on, there's gonna be some editing going on.

EDIT: We did a lot of links. Screw it, we'll do it this way, better than trying to do a shitload of inserted images.

 

[sasazuka]

A new one just came out.

I went to the Sega survey page but the link just goes to a "Survey Closed" page and the contest expiry date (March 25th, 2019) fits my vague "year or so ago" mental timeline of being approximately when I last filled out such a survey.

I have a feeling I might have also voted for Skies of Arcadia if they had let us pick two or three options, though I'm fairly certain there was a write-in option where I put OutRun.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

one of the best JRPG i have ever played. truly felt like i was in a adventure. sucks there is no definitive version that fixes the sound and gives us all the bonus content from the gamecube version.

 

[LullerDerbyRollin]

I fucking love this game more than I do breathing and everyone so far in this thread I love.

 

[ChucklesTheJester]

CUTLASS FURY!

Can't wait to see ya explain moonberries.

 

[mandatorylurk]

I loved the Dreamcast game, in another thread I said it's one of my top 3 most favorite games. I never played the Gamecube port but reading here there was extra stuff in it I feel like I've missed out on some stuff then. The middle act with Vyse playing Cast Away is one of my favorite videogame moments that I stayed up all night just exploring and feeling I was actually able to make things the way I wanted to, and you actually get to in the game. I was a kid when I played it but that part always felt like a direct response to the Cloud-less parts of FF7 on disc 2 or 3.

With the Dreamcast you used the VMU to beep and detect the powerups for Cupil, I wonder how they did that for the Gamecube. If they were to remake it for today you would just use the rumble feature.

 

[sasazuka]

With the Dreamcast you used the VMU to beep and detect the powerups for Cupil, I wonder how they did that for the Gamecube. If they were to remake it for today you would just use the rumble feature.

What about if I have one of those third-party Dreamcast memory units that have a lot more memory but didn't have the screen? I guess I'd have to plug that into the lower slot on the joypad and plug a VMU into the top one.

 

[LullerDerbyRollin]

I loved the Dreamcast game, in another thread I said it's one of my top 3 most favorite games. I never played the Gamecube port but reading here there was extra stuff in it I feel like I've missed out on some stuff then. The middle act with Vyse playing Cast Away is one of my favorite videogame moments that I stayed up all night just exploring and feeling I was actually able to make things the way I wanted to, and you actually get to in the game. I was a kid when I played it but that part always felt like a direct response to the Cloud-less parts of FF7 on disc 2 or 3.

With the Dreamcast you used the VMU to beep and detect the powerups for Cupil, I wonder how they did that for the Gamecube. If they were to remake it for today you would just use the rumble feature.

GameCube had rumble. We just used that and if you got close enough Cupil started making noises and had an alert on the screen.

 

[Marissa Moira]

The art book for the game is availible for free download at archive.org

Eternal Arcadia Visual Book : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This is a visual book from the game Eternal Arcadia (Skies of Arcadia) which was released for the Dreamcast and GameCubce in the early 2000's.

archive.org

 

[Billy_Sama]

I don't understand why Sega hasn't "shut up and take my money"ed Skies of Arcadia on modern consoles or Steam.

There are so many Sega games that fit that "shut up and take my money" category.

 

[Dom Cruise]

How much does a physical copy for the Gamecube version go for?

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

CUTLASS FURY!

Can't wait to see ya explain moonberries.

Moonberries are simple-in fact, I'll explain Magic and Super Moves and Spirit right now.

Spirit: Spirit is a resource. In each battle you have a big bar at the top of your screen, that's your Spirit. The max you have is determined by the members of your party and their max level. You get about 25% of your max spirit at the start of a turn, and can get more by taking the "Focus" action. Whatever Spirit you spend can't be used by other party members (obviously), and Spirit you get from Focusing can't be spent until the next turn. Spirit is used for both Magic and Super Moves, each spell and S. Move has its own cost. At a certain point in the game, Vyse gains the ability to channel two extra moves that can only be used if you have maximum Spirit. We'll get to those when we get there.

Magic: I've explained how you learn magic, how do you use it? As stated, every spell uses a certain number of Spirit Points. It only takes 1 MP to cast, the number you see is the Spirit cost, not the MP. You pick a spell, you pick your target, and away you go. I'll explain each element as we unlock them.

Super Moves: Our main trio of characters each have 5, and others we get only get 3. As our friend from the Ultima series pointed out, we need Moonberries. Each Super Move requires a number of Moonberries to unlock. Shit is rare-you do have a 2% chance of getting one from ANY fight, but don't count on it. Most non-ship based bosses will award one, and some can be found as treasure. To learn Super Moves, go into the Pause Menu, pick a character, pick S. Moves and select the next one on the list. If you have the berries, it unlocks.

I'll detail each character's list as we unlock them. So we'll start with Vyse and Aika:

Spoiler: Vyse Moves

Vyse Move 1: Cutlass Fury: He gets this for free. Costs 7 Spirit. Does a whole host of physical damage, quite useful, and is a good boss damage dealer for the early chunk of the game. It is resisted by the target's physical defense, so you aren't chewing through tanks. It's very good for Looper type enemies who have insane levels of evasion, but no real defense to speak of.

Move 2: Counterattack: Costs 1 Moonberry, requires 1 SP. Vyse adopts a defensive pose, getting the benefits of the Guard action (cut all damage in half) and also guaranteeing a counterattack on any physical hit. Its usefulness is limited-it only applies to Vyse, so it might have use in random encounters, but there's the distinct possibility that no one hits him (there isn't really a way to "pull aggro" so to speak). Bosses typically don't use physical attacks all that much, especially as the game goes on. Get it because you need to, not because it's good.

Move 3: Rain of Swords: Two Moonberries, and a whopping 14 SP. Vyse damages all enemies with a...I guess, force? Even though lightning is used, the damage is all physical, cannot be dodged, and is basically about 150% as good as his normal attacks but applied to everyone. Again, great against evasive enemies. The SP cost is a bit prohibitive but can usually be obtained by not doing anything turn 1.

Move 4: Skull Shield: Costs 2 Moonberries, 5 SP. Vyse renders the party immune to physical damage, and a specter counter attacks any enemy who tries it. At least that's what the Wiki says, when I used it, physical attacks still hurt I think? I only used it really in the end game, so eh. It's basically counter attack on crack, defending the whole party and smacking bitches who try it. Has its uses, but it really only acquired as a stepping stone too...

Move 5: Pirates Wrath: Costs 4 Moonberries and 21 SP. Vyse deals a punishing blow to a single target, dealing 750% of his normal damage! This is the most painful super move as far as I'm aware. It's only single target but it makes bosses cry for mommy. Undodgeable too, just for good measure.

Analysis: Vyse starts with a good one but only his offensive moves are really worth it. Feed him berries when you can but start with Aika and Fina first.

Spoiler: Aika Moves

Aika Move 1: Alpha Storm: Costs 1 Moonberry and 4 SP. Deals fire damage in a line, and unlike Chrono Trigger, Skies is very lenient on what it considers a "line". Helpful because enemies rarely line up for you. Very good attack, especially against enemies weak to fire, but loses out next to harder stuff like Lambda Burst.

Move 2: Delta Shield: Costs 1 Moonberry and 2 SP. Aika forms a shield around everyone that renders them impervious to all magic-including allies. This is a fucking baller super move, and is practically needed at some point, especially with bonus bosses. Items do pierce the barrier, so healing is still possible, just not spell-based healing.

Move 3: Lambda Burst: Costs 2 Berries, 8 SP. Aika just nukes the field with a burst of flame, and this move is pretty much a no MP Pyri spell, just way higher than it has any right to be. It is a "magic" attack and applies to magic resist, so certain enemies (fucking goddamn Loopers) can no-sell it. Still, it's a bitchin' move.

Move 4: Epsilon Mirror: 2 Berries, 10 SP. Aika makes herself immune to all damage and regains 10 MP. Not all that useful-only Aika gets any immunity, and 10 MP is not as useful as you might think it is-you're usually no more than a quick trip to an inn, and even then, it's easy to just buy a massive stack of MP restore items. They're actually quite cheap I think.

Move 5: Omega Psyclone: 4 Berries, and 12 SP. It's basically more potent, more cool looking Lambda Burst. Not nearly as impactful as Rain of Swords or other AoE supers, but it is magic if you need it.

Analysis: Get to Lambda Burst and stop. You really don't need to invest more.

How much does a physical copy for the Gamecube version go for?

Anywhere from 80 to 200. Good luck.

 

[Sir Wesley Tailpipe]

I don't understand why Sega hasn't "shut up and take my money"ed Skies of Arcadia on modern consoles or Steam.

I have both a working Dreamcast and a working Gamecube but I can't afford whatever ridiculous three digit prices a physical copy for either console goes for these days.

There was a PartnerNet leak way back, before the Atlus merger, that showed that there were XBox 360 builds of Skies of Arcadia and the first Shenmue, which were verified, but they never saw the light of day, ru ores to be canned because the port of Jet Set Radio and Sonic Adventure to the PS3 and 360 underperformed due to being overpriced for straight ports.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

There's also weird rumors of a PS4 and a switch port that pop up when you type Skies of Arcadia into Google. Not happening, probably won't ever.