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

[sasazuka]

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

I wish they'd at least put out a new version of OutRun Live Arcade for current gen consoles although the absence of it is at least understandable, since Sega's Ferrari license expired in 2010 (though I think they were still able to sell it on the XBox 360 for another year or two due to getting a Ferrari sublicense from Turn 10).

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.

Sonic Adventure already had a bunch of ports and I didn't need to buy it again, especially considering I already had the Dreamcast version. In fact, I have two copies of it for Dreamcast alone since I got a second copy when I bought a working Dreamcast from Kijiji in 2009 (it was one of several games the guy included) and I have a digital copy for PC I got as part of a Humble Bumble.

I don't have the original Jet Set Radio but I do have a copy of the sequel, Jet Grind Radio Future as part of a combo disk I got from a thrift store that also came with Sega GT 2002 for the original XBox (but playable on the XBox 360 if you have backwards compatibility installed). The sequel was alright but not really my bag.

I suspect Skies of Arcadia would've sold better than those two games on XBox 360 due to the rarity and secondary market value of the Dreamcast and Gamecube versions compared to those other titles.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

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

last i checked, it was around 80 too 90 dollars.

 

[Dom Cruise]

last i checked, it was around 80 too 90 dollars.

Very expensive but not impossibly so.

 

[LegoTugboat]

A true classic that deserves some love. Lighthearted but also with some serious moments.

A note that Skies of Arcadia was the Dreamcast original, and Skies of Arcadia: Legends was the Gamecube remake, which featured extra sidequests, improved graphics (such as individual fingers instead of one blob for hands), and reduced the encounter rate by about 50%.

Spoiler

Aika - Delta Shield is basically a giant fuck you to magic, plus goes first in a turn.. If it didn't exist, the game would be much harder. Epsilon Mirror... is pretty crap, but looks cool.

I found Omega Psyclone helpful for that rough area where you're getting 12-13 SP a turn, letting you nuke tougher enemies then Lambda Burst. It's heavily overshadowed by Rain of Swords, but

Also, Alpha Storm in fact attacks in a V shape, starting from where Aika's position is and spreading outwards.

Vyse - Skull Shield nullifies normal attacks, and automatically counterattacks, so it's... very situational.

Cutlass Fury's a staple hit thing hard attack. Pirate's Wrath is a staple hit things with roughly the force of a nuclear weapon.

Red/Green magic - Both generally helpful. Green has lots of nice healing spells, but you'll eventually stick to Sacrun or Sacrulen. Increm and Incremus are a 25% boost to attack and defence, so you'll hit harder and be tankier.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

Oh right yeah, I forgot how much of a bitch the encounter rate could be if this was the Dreamcast.

When we left off, our heroes had just rescued a mysterious girl after stealing a heavily armed (and loot-loaded) military ship. Said girl is brought on board, and seems to have a dream of some mysterious place that causes my frame rate to fucking tank. Those of you who have played before likely know what's going on, but let's keep the foreshadowing vague and mysterious as a mysterious voice appears to tell the girl she must "replace Rami" and something about the Moon, while also not trusting anyone. After this brief dream sequence, our mysterious girl wakes up, and we finally get a name for her: Fina.

A brief aside, but Fina will be joining our party later in the game. Right now she's got the big NPC energy and won't be signing on, but she will later. She's the dedicated Mage I mentioned earlier and it shows-her physical stats are trash, but her magic is through the roof. I'll detail her more when she joins up.

Once she introduces herself, we get a sudden introduction to the Swashbuckler System. Unlike most games with dialogue choices, Skies of Arcadia keeps score, bitch. Picking the right choices (even if it's an obvious "BUT THOU MUST!" situation) results in increasing your "Swashbuckler" rating. Wrong choices can subtract but some choices are just neutral. Usually when you get three choices, the game expects you to think like a ship captain-brave, but not reckless, and recognizing when tactics and cunning are more needed than bravado. Here, telling Fina she has a great name gets us points.

(Also, running from battle makes you lose points while fighting gets you points. We need to hit a certain level before we can do some of the side content, so don't go running too often)

Fina asks what an Air Pirate is, and Vyse and Aika explain that they're Blue Rogues, who only attack armed military ships while Black Pirates (the other Air Pirate faction) will attack anyone. The Blue Rogues tend to be more Robin Hood types, helping those in need. This is another common thread, for most of the early game, Fina doesn't know shit about fuck and asks a lot of questions that sound stupid to the rest of the party, but luckily give us, the audience, a peek at the world building.

After this conversation, Dyne yells down at Vyse and Aika to get their butts to the bridge, and we can take control again. Luckily the Albatross has no treasure to speak of, but it does have a badly placed barrel. No I don't know why it's there.

Getting up on deck, Dyne gives Vyse a bit of a chewing out. Vyse counters with "I was only a little late" and Dyne counter-counters with the fact that being a little late can cost lives on a ship. And he's right, you know. Eventually Vyse is ordered to go chat with Briggs who's at the helm.

Talking to the Navigator reveals a fact about "sky rifts". In universe they'll send ships down into Deep Sky where they get crushed by the pressure. In practice, they're really just walls for until much later in the game-the game has to block us somehow, since we have the Airship already and that's usually a late game upgrade, so instead of rivers, mountains, and other stuff blocking foot travel, we have a bunch of shit blocking air travel.

Talking to the guy at the helm allows us to take the wheel, and explore Arcadia with our own ship! Well it's not our own ship yet. We'll uh, we'll get there. We need to head to Pirate Isle, but first, see that island in front of us? Fly to it and mash on the A button to find...

A Discovery! These things can be found all over the world and come in three forms: Storyline, Static, and Moving. Storyline discoveries are found as part of the story, such as proving the World is Round which is more significant than you think. Static discoveries do not move, but are invisible until discovered. Moving discoveries do move, but are thankfully visible. It's a collectable, and oh god, how Skies loves its collectables...

In the original Dreamcast, you had:
64 Discoveries,
30 Chams for Fina's "weapon" Cupil (plus 3 special "Abrik" chams),
and depending on your definition of collectable, there are also 22 crew members for the ship we get later in the game. Ha...

Oh wait, we're playing Legends, which adds:
More Discoveries for a grand total of 89,
and 24 Moonfish

So on top of all the chests we have to get, we need to get as many discoveries as possible, find all the crew men, get all those moonfish so we can get the best shit in the game and also discover the last two Discoveries in Legends, AND get Fina's ultimate weapon by collecting Chams. I'm regretting the "full playthrough" promise now.

Anyway. We sail on South to Pirate Isle, and dock the kick ass Albratross in a secret base hidden inside the very island itself.

The crew hauls out a massive pile of gold and other loot, before Vyse and Aika offer to show Fina around. Dyne, however, has other plans and orders them to bring her up to his office. You can wander around, chat with people, even hit the tavern for a special scene or buy stuff in the weapons, armor, and items store. The weapons and armor you can get aren't exactly super important, though it wouldn't be a bad idea to pick up some Curia Crystals (Curia heals status ailments and we won't get the spell itself until Fina joins us for good). May as well just book it upstairs to Dyne's office.

Dyne proceeds to grill Fina, demanding to know where she's from and why she was sailing alone. We get a choice to either Defend Fina or sit and listen, and while your first instinct may be to play defense, don't. If you don't, you get a boost to Swashbuckler (signified by a certain audio cue). Aika will instead jump in but Dyne will tell her to shut the fuck up. He needs to ensure his people's safety and if Fina is remotely a threat, she's gone.

Fina explains that she cannot answer his questions, not because we are dirty Air Pirates-she is very thankful for us saving her, but she is under strict orders to tell no living soul about the purpose of her quest, even if it costs her life. Dyne, being the reasonable authority that he is, recognizes when someone means what they're saying and accepts this answer, even chuckling to himself about how he loses this battle. She's given freedom to wander the island as well.

After the grilling, touch the right side of the bookcase in Dyne's Office to open a secret area. Descend the ladder and open the chest for 150 gold. Next, head topside to the main island. Aika heads to her house to "freshen up". Her house has a handkerchief on the side, covering a hole which we can peak through and see this absolutely scandalous image! Vyse gets something thrown at him and yelled at for this, by the way.

Now for loot. First off, on top of the massive fucking ladder to what's called "Lookout Island" finds us a treasure chest with 3 Sacri Crystals. Descending back down is required, singing Snake Eater as you do it is optional. Heading across the bridges to the mini dock, we find another chest with 3 more Sacri Crystals. Finally, there's this stone tablet next to Vyse's house in the middle of the map, accessing it gets us into a secret area in the hangar with a chest that has another Moonberry in it.

I recommend giving both to Aika-the one from here, and the one you got from Antonio. This unlocks her Alpha Storm and Delta Shield Super Moves I mentioned in my last post. We wanna get her to Lambda Burst ASAP, but Alpha Storm is gonna also hurt a lot of enemies going forward.

After this, advance the plot by going into Vyse's house. His mom (who is only ever identified as "Vyse's Mom", no name given...in a game where even much more minor NPCs get names) invites Fina to dinner, and Aika shows up and suggests they all watch the sunset at the top of Lookout Island...which requires going up that fucking ladder again (SNAKE EATERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!)

While watching the sunset, Vyse talks about getting a ship of his own and seeing what might lie beyond the sky, beyond the sunset. His motivation? He just wants to see if he can do it! After this, Moon Stones fall from the sky, one of which hits an island nearby, a place called Shrine Island. Vyse and Aika decide to head out the next day and go grab it, and since they've already proven themselves to be more than capable of taking on an armored pig (which is more than can be said for some Dark Souls players), I don't see the danger at all. It's not like something will happen while they're away, right?

The party sleeps for the night. In the morning, make sure to chat with both Mom and Pop-Mom gives us Sacres Crystals, which heal 1,000 HP, and Dad gives Vyse his cut from the raid: A bitchin' Purple Moon Stone. This allows us to set our weapons to Purple, and use Ice in battle.

Purple Magic teaches us the Crystali line of spells, getting Crystali as the first, then Crystales as the second, with Crystalum and Crystalen as the fifth and sixth purple spells learned. All of these spells are single target Ice damage spells of increasing potency. The third spell learned is Silenis, which silences enemies and prevents them from casting. Silence can also be inflicted in ship fights, though it is not permanent like it is in normal encounters, and is oddly useful against, oh, guess what, THE FINAL FUCKING BOSS. We'll get there, just realize that Silence is not as useless as it sounds, because a lot of bosses DO NOT HAVE the usual immunities-this is not Final Fantasy where the bosses are immune to everything. The fourth spell is Panika, which causes confusion. Not used in Ship Battles and less useful in normal fights as Confusion just means enemies can attack each other, and randomly wears off as well. Both Silenis and Panika are single target.

Next Time: We hit Shrine Island!

Bonus: Music Content
Blue Rogues Ship (Plays while piloting the Albatross)
Air Pirate Secret Base (Pirate Isle Hangar)
Air Pirate Isle (Pirate Isle Aboveground)

 

[Oh Shit I'm Sorry]

Still have a Cube copy but no clue if it still works ok (never leave games at friend's houses, kids). Plan on going back through the Cube library at some point and this will probably be 2nd after TTYD. One of my favorite memories of previous playthroughs is cheesing the fuck out of all the optional superbosses by using Enrique's skill to halve damage every turn while Aika and Fina focus boost and/or heal and Vyse does normal attacks or assists in healing or whatever until the meter is completely full and I can blast them with the super. Cheap as hell, but it worked.

Kick-ass soundtrack, too. Dungeon Cave is kino.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

Still have a Cube copy but no clue if it still works ok (never leave games at friend's houses, kids). Plan on going back through the Cube library at some point and this will probably be 2nd after TTYD. One of my favorite memories of previous playthroughs is cheesing the fuck out of all the optional superbosses by using Enrique's skill to halve damage every turn while Aika and Fina focus boost and/or heal and Vyse does normal attacks or assists in healing or whatever until the meter is completely full and I can blast them with the super. Cheap as hell, but it worked.

Kick-ass soundtrack, too. Dungeon Cave is kino.

Oh yeah, the cheese is plentiful in Skies for those of you who love experimenting. I mentioned the final boss not being immune to silence, I didnt mention that he relies on physical attacks. Or that a lot of bosses arent immune to the Petrification that Fina can throw out, stopping them dead for a few turns as you beat the shit out of them. Or, or, or, or...theres lots of ors and ways to fuck bosses sideways, or you can just power through with all your super moves and say fuck you.

 

[slartifartblast]

last i checked, it was around 80 too 90 dollars.

Cripes, god bless that battered gamestop employee when highschool age me rolled up to the counter and asked if they had a copy. Dude managed to find me a disk that had no case and sold it for like 15 bucks.

Not gonna lie, one of the few disk-based games that I kept a physical copy of.

 

[Billy_Sama]

Cripes, god bless that battered gamestop employee when highschool age me rolled up to the counter and asked if they had a copy. Dude managed to find me a disk that had no case and sold it for like 15 bucks.

Not gonna lie, one of the few disk-based games that I kept a physical copy of.

I remember getting my copy at Gamestop along with Resident Evil 4 and Contact for the DS for a buy 2 get 1 free deal. I am still glad I still kept my Gamecube collection especially with prices before and after the pandemic hitting and games getting closer to triple digits.

 

[ChucklesTheJester]

You know given we play as a crew of pirates it makes sense to have the RPG trope of stealing everything not nailed down.

Also when you said you can use silence in ship fight. How does that work? I am trying to picture in my mind if it makes everything on the ship make no sound, or just the crew, or it snipes the captain with it, making him seem like a slient era flim.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

You know given we play as a crew of pirates it makes sense to have the RPG trope of stealing everything not nailed down.

Also when you said you can use silence in ship fight. How does that work? I am trying to picture in my mind if it makes everything on the ship make no sound, or just the crew, or it snipes the captain with it, making him seem like a slient era flim.

Most of the time, status effects do some sort of bubble around the target so I'm going to assume it's like a field of silence or some shit. Or maybe you just target the Magic Cannon. Eh? Makes more sense in Gigas fights.

Anyway, with our new found ice powers, let's head to Shrine Island! It's up north of us, and comes into view pretty easily. Attempting to sail beyond the island, well, there's another big island in the way and also a massive fog bank limiting visibility. Attempt to go further because you're me and you've played this game results in Aika yelling at Vyse to go back to Shrine Island. (The fog is relevant to the plot, we'll see it next time)

Along the way, meet my "favorite" enemy: Loopers. There are a million and one different loopers, including two "boss" variants (A Giant Looper that's a ship fight and a hidden mini-boss called Elcian). Some theorize that Loopers are the ghosts of dead sailors, but I call them annoying little shits. Loopers, as a whole, have incredible evasion and ungodly magic resist to the point where they will happily no-sell most of your magic attacks and most physical attacks. The only reliable way to deal with them is physical super moves like Vyse's Cutlass Fury. Most of the time, they'll show up, and either run away, or blast your party with magic, and THEN run. That said, even if they do run, you usually get a little tasty Magic XP for the trouble.

If you end up doing a bit of grinding, you can head back to Pirate Isle and get the better weapons on offer. It's not a bad idea since they do result in quite the boost to damage. Armor's not needed yet, but it's also not a bad idea, especially if you run into certain enemies...

Forgive me for the crude joke...but that's what she said! The exterior of Shrine Island lacks random encounters and also has a save point. Use it, and head inside. Inside, we find that the impact of the Moon Stone has allowed for a metric fuckton of water to pour inside, and the Moon Stone is at the Bottom. We're given a choice on how to reach it, and the correct option is to try and drain the water, swimming to it will not work because Aika can't. It's also probably too heavy to lift anyway, if it's not floating already.

The enemies inside Shrine Island are a slight cut above our overworld enemies, pretty much all of them have some sort of gimmick. One of the monsters in Shrine Island we can find outside (at current time) is the Marocca. They are tanky fuckers, however, a this point, Vyse should be able to one-shot them with his blade set to Purple if you picked up the better weapon at Pirate Isle. While durable, that's their only thing. They also have a chance of dropping a Marocca shell, an accessory that improves defense by 6 and is outclassed by just about everything. Everything else has something extra: The Flestiks (introduced here as Vyse blows one the fuck out) can cause Sleep with their attacks, and with your party being only two people, it's a bit of a problem. Luckily they sometimes drop Curia crystals. Sleep does wear off, but it's just not fun.

Also, we can fight Loopers in here but I only ran into one and he immediately fled so...eh?

First we need to head upstairs and out the door. Head to the camera's right to find a treasure chest with 2 Sacri Crystals in it. Then, walk over to the crystal and interact with it (i'm running off to see if there's treasure to the left. There isn't). The entire fucking temple structure sinks into the ground, but this allows us to access other areas, so it's all gucci.

Head back inside and go to the first door you came in through. A new enemy is now added to the encounter tables: Latros. Originally called Seekers, they've been renamed, but they still hurt just as hard. They only appear in the interior areas, and can hurt for a lot. Additionally, while only being a little bit more resilient than Maroccas, they take way longer to bring down as you do not have their elemental weakness-Macorras are Blue and can be killed easily with Purple attacks, Latros are Silver and are only weak to Yellow, which we won't have for at least three more Let's Play Updates. To make matters worse, they can appear alongside Flestiks, and one of them getting a sleep off on your team is damn near a death kneel with one of these fuckers around.

On the plus side, they can drop Vidal Seeds. Seeds are the way to improve your stats, and Vidal Seeds increase HP by 30. It's only a 3% chance so don't go farming, since Latros are a pretty rare enemy and its a pretty rare drop, but Latros also drop 123 gold-only Loopers drop anywhere near as much (105) and everything else doesn't even drop half as much. Just be careful and you'll come out on top.

The door we came in from now leads to an exterior walkway, and on our first trip, we run into a "mini boss" encounter of two Macorras and a new enemy, the Grouder. While it looks ridiculous, it's no joke, packing nearly 300 HP and a lot of defense, and it also hits hard-not only with basic attacks, it has access to two Blue spells-Wevli (offensive wind based attack) and Panika (causes confusion). It can also do an "Eerie Wail" attack, which is a line based damaging attack similar to Aika's Alpha Storm. Luckily, these enemies are like Latros-we can only fight them in the exterior areas. If beaten, they have a 4% chance of dropping a weapon upgrade for Aika: The Throwing Blade, her only upgrade for a couple of towns. We'll fight them later in the next "section" of overworld, and they're much less of a threat when you have more levels under your belt, but they demand caution here. They're Purple aspected, so flip back to Red weapons and go to town on them, Vyse's Cutlass Fury can get some good mileage here.

Continue along the walkway-its a straight path so it doesn't matter. The next door is underwater, so Vyse opens it and books it as a flood of water gushes out. He then goes inside once it drains. Head to the first door to the left and exit to get to a small side path that leads to a chest with a Moonberry-you saw this chest when you opened the water gushing door. Head back inside, then up the stairs and out the only door. Once again, the path is linear. Follow the exterior path until you reach a door, then go inside. On your right is both the next door and a chest with 2 Sacres Crystals. Continue following the path until you reach the handy end of dungeon save point that signifies it's boss time. Heal up, save, admire that my Vyse made it here with exactly 666 HP, and then open the door. Once again, Vyse barely gets clear as a torrent of water washes clean the sins of Man.

Inside, the heroes have made it to the Moon Stone, and while it's massive, they soon have other concerns...Aika notices the rocks nearby are moving! Soon, they combine to form Voltron-I mean, our next boss, the Sentinel!

BOSS FIGHT: SENTINEL
​

1,171 HP, 80 Defense, and solid attacks add up to "welcome to the endurance match, fuckos!" Luckily, Sentinel is practically a retread of the Antonio fight. He has basic attacks that hurt for a good chunk, but the real danger is when he uses Target Search. This is a warning that he's loading up for Blaster, which hurts way more than Thunder of Fury ever did-see that 176 damage? That's with Vyse using Guard, which cuts damage in half. Extrapolate from there, I know you are all some clever sorts.

So basically, have Vyse and Aika guard every turn after Target Search so they don't get blown the fuck out by Blaster. Otherwise, stay healed up, have Vyse use Cutlass Fury where he can. I didn't do it myself, but if Aika has Crystali (likely after dealing with all the Blue element enemies), she can use that-it only costs 1 SP, and while the Sentinel does have slightly better magic defense compared to regular defense, there's no chance of her getting counter-attacked. It's better than her throwing her stupid boomerang at least. Use Crystals to heal, since healing magic will cut into the SP you kinda need for Cutlass Fury.

Once you finally bring the bastard down, Vyse and Aika secure the Moon Stone and do a little victory dance for it. However, on the home front, things are not looking so good...

Next Time: A new villain! More kidnappings! Moby Dick! All this and more!

Bonus Content: Sentinel Boss Fight
Dungeon Cave Theme (Plays for Shrine Island and a few others)

 

[Oh Shit I'm Sorry]

last i checked, it was around 80 too 90 dollars.

Only 20-30 more than the cost of a brand-new release game so pretty cheap, at least in comparison to other Cube titles. PSO for example will run somewhere between 120-150 at the cheapest and then there's the real monsters of Path of Radiance which will run around or over 300 and fucking Cubivore which has one result on Amazon at fucking 600 bucks. When it comes to games turning into expensive collector's items the GameCube may be the king.

 

[Marissa Moira]

When it comes to games turning into expensive collector's items the GameCube may be the king.

Nope that title is held by the Sega Saturn.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is really one of the most expensive games on the secondary market.

 

[Islamic Creampie]

Nope that title is held by the Sega Saturn.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is really one of the most expensive games on the secondary market.

I went with the PAL version of Panzer Dragoon Saga to "save" money. All my friends still think I'm out of my mind for buying it. But yes, Saturn is ridiculous.

As for Skies of Arcadia, I only played the DC version, but it rules.

There's a lot of cool lore stuff that makes the world so interesting; the moons and their effects on the world, the hinting of the black one. all the stuff attached to the discoveries, the mysteries of the Deep Sky.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

No new update today, but I added some videos and the Dungeon Cave theme in my last couple posts. Enjoy my performances, even if these bosses are super easy.

 

[Marissa Moira]

I went with the PAL version of Panzer Dragoon Saga to "save" money. All my friends still think I'm out of my mind for buying it. But yes, Saturn is ridiculous.

As for Skies of Arcadia, I only played the DC version, but it rules.

There's a lot of cool lore stuff that makes the world so interesting; the moons and their effects on the world, the hinting of the black one. all the stuff attached to the discoveries, the mysteries of the Deep Sky.

I bought the Japanese version of Saga for 10 bucks, and then ran the converted iso for the discs through pseudo saturn and played the game in English on the actual console that way.

The Japanese version came with a poster and stuff that's missing from the PAL and NTSC releases. I think they still can be had for cheap for a complete edition of the japanese version.

Japanese saturn titles in comparison are dirt cheap. You could buy all the virtua fighters, fighting vipers, and fighters megamix for next to nothing.

 

[Islamic Creampie]

I bought the Japanese version of Saga for 10 bucks, and then ran the converted iso for the discs through pseudo saturn and played the game in English on the actual console that way.

The Japanese version came with a poster and stuff that's missing from the PAL and NTSC releases. I think they still can be had for cheap for a complete edition of the japanese version.

Japanese saturn titles in comparison are dirt cheap. You could buy all the virtua fighters, fighting vipers, and fighters megamix for next to nothing.

Yeah, there's a couple Saturn games I went with the JP copies over the western releases. Mr Bones, being one. Deep Fear is another, which is practically all in English anyway, and not 300 bucks or whatever the fuck the PAL copy is going for.

I had actually picked up the Japanese Panzer Dragoon Saga first, but wasn't aware of stuff like Pseudo Saturn at the time. I just grabbed a 4in1 and went to it, but ultimately wanted a proper English copy to play.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

I have a lot of fun memories of powering through Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II over the summer between high school and college. Given how exhaustively Sega repackages their Genesis releases, it’s sad that they neglect almost everything else. I would love to see them localize and release the Shining Force games that were left in Japan.

 

[AngeloTheWizard]

You know, I've been thinking. We did take out a Valuan Admiral's flagship, you think they might have anything to say about that? These guys don't look...oh hang on, I left the Australia-O-Vision on.

That's better. And also worse, that's a whole fleet of Valuan ships coming straight for Pirate Isle! Yep, it's time for the requisite "hero's village gets fucking Hiroshimafied" moment in our journey. The ships open fire on our village, and everyone starts panicking. Dyne, being the awesome dude he is, swiftly takes control and orders everyone underground. After a moment, he notices the flag on the lead ship, identifying it as Galcian's flag. Who's Galcian?

Meet Galcian. Lover of high collars, and so dedicated to rocking the "I'm obviously evil" goatee that he has his own secret stash of Just For Men's below deck. Seriously I didn't realize until this playthrough that his hair and his beard are different colors. Galcian is aided by his second in command Ramirez who I cannot get a better picture of than this. Galcian orders Ramirez to bring him "the girl" (Fina), as well as capture the Pirates and burn their ship. If they resist, he orders Ramirez to kill them all and let the bodies rot in the sun.

Valuans are dicks counter: 2

Luckily, Dyne is a smart leader and is not about to resist a fleet of that magnitude, instead surrendering to prevent loss of life. Vyse and Aika, still being at Shrine Island, are nowhere nearby to help, meaning when you get back, the village is pretty much blown to bits-everything's still standing, but several areas are smashed by rubble and inaccessible (such as Aika's house). The ladder to Lookout Island is also destroyed, so if you missed the chest the first time around, you won't be able to get that chest for a little while.

Heading below ground and into Dyne's office has us meet up with Vyse's Mother, who informs him of what happened. We're given a choice of basically "give up" or "actually progress the plot" by heading out and saving everyone. Whatever we choose, we eventually decide to head on out to Valua to save everyone, but having Vyse decide that's the plan gives us more points, so may as well play along...

There's one teeny problem: We're two dumbasses on one ship that has no guns, it's practically a fucking sky canoe. Valua has lots and lots of guns. Eh...we'll figure something out.

Time to head back to the sky. Before you leave you can chat to the little girl on the dock and tell her you'll come back alive for more Swashbuckler points. Heading out into the sky, we need to head north of Shrine Island, where it got all foggy remember? Once we reach a certain point, a cutscene triggers. Aika thinks we're about to hit an island...but the ominous shadow below our ship is no island...it's a space whale! The game gives us a choice of Attack, Retreat, or Panic. Retreat is the smart choice-the game does not reward stupidity. Regardless of your choice, the space whale breathes ice at us and breaks our ship into smithereens. One brief passing out later, and we wake up on the deck of a new ship, roused to consciousness by a surly old bastard...

Meet Drachma. He won't tell us his name for a bit, but he's an old coot with a mechanical arm and an eyepatch. He is also a massive asshole, at least for now. He yells at us for allowing Rhaknam (the Space Whale) to get away, and then puts us to work on his ship. Vyse is stuck lifting heavy crates of supplies, while Aika does...she's off camera, doesn't matter. After lugging both boxes upstairs, Drachma (who introduces himself after the first box) invites Vyse to take the wheel. At this point, Drachma joins our party, and also gives us access to his Blue Moon Stone-which means I suddenly have a lot of mechanics to talk about!

First off, Drachma himself: The man is built like a literal brick shithouse, helped along by the fact that he starts at level 12! For comparison, Vyse and Aika are level 7 for me. His health and physical abilities are incredible, however, his magic sucks a big one. Not only are his magic stats weaker than anyone else, he takes the longest to learn any new magic bar none. Luckily, he comes with a few spells, including the all important Sacri, right out of the gate. Also, as you may have guessed from his obsession with the space whale, he's pretty much Captain Ahab. Now, his super moves:

Spoiler: Drachma's Supers

Unlike Vyse, Aika, and (later) Fina, Drachma and other secondary characters only get 3 super moves. His first move is Tackle, which costs 1 Moonberry to learn and costs 10 SP to execute. It deals a ton of damage a single target, far more than Cutlass Fury, and is pretty worth it. Second super move is Spirit Charge, which costs 2 Moonberries to learn and...0 SP?

So I think I mentioned the Focus command before. Spirit Charge is basically "double Focus". It also drops Drachma into a Guard action as well, allowing you to power up and defend at the same time.

His final super move is Hand of Fate, which costs 4 Moonberries and a whopping 25 SP. It causes instant death to an enemy-big whoop, eh? However, if the enemy is immune to instant death, it instead deals damage equal to 9 fucking times his normal physical attack! The animation has him squashing an enemy with his artificial arm expanded to massive size (insert your own joke here) so it makes sense that it's so damn powerful.

The problem with Drachma's moves is he won't be around long enough to really make use of them, and our berries are better spent on Vyse and Fina. If you get some extra though, feel free-his moves are big, after all.

And now for Blue Magic: The primary effect is wind based offensive spells of the "Wevli" line, we get Wevli first, then Wevles as our third spell, then Wevlum and Wevlen as our fifth and sixth. The spells get more powerful and also get a greater area of effect with each upgrade, starting from "hits adjacent enemies" at Wevli to "a tornado on the field" at Wevlen. Our secondary options include Quika as our second spell learned, which enhances everyone's speed and makes Aika even faster than she already fucking is. Our Fourth learned spell is Slippara, which is a sleep effect on all enemies all at once. Sleep is temporary, but it also stops any actions, meaning its kinda worth trying it at least once, if nothing else, might get a free turn out of it.

With a third character in the party, we now stand a better chance. Tune in next time for: Pirates! Ship Battles! Sneaking into Valua! Galcian being even more of a dick!

 

[TaimuRadiu]

>tfw you will never ever get an official Eternal Arcadia HD