So I finally got Skies of Arcadia

TrevJ

Member
May 2, 2001
1,959
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38
Ottawa
As I was walking past the previously played games section of the video store I work at, I was shocked to see that SoA:Legends was finally up for sale, and for the very reasonable price of $19.99. With my discount, I ended up getting it for about $18. The only problem is that the disc looks pretty fucked up, but for that price I'm willing to take the risk. Now I can finally play the other good Gamecube RPG (Tales of Symphonia being the second good Gamecube RPG).
 
Always been curious about that game, but it's not on PS2 or PC (unless I'm mistaken) so I'll probably never play it.
 
I've only played up until the first save point, which is about 5 minutes in, so I don't have much to go on, and it didn't come with a manual so I'm still figuring out the mechanics and nuances. I guess my only complaint so far is random battles; I'm not a fan of them, and since I've been playing ToS for the past week and a half I've been a little spoiled on that front. That said, I'm really looking forward to the point when I can freely explore, since there seems to be lots to find based on what I've read.
 
Random battles during dungeons and stuff were appropiate IMO. There weren't too many and they never got annoying. The world map is another story, though. There are shitloads of random battles and they're not appropiate and it gets very annoying. I've heard they've dumbed down the amount of random battles on the world map for the GC version, but I think it's still irritating (wait until you have to cross the South Sea. Jesus Christ). Fortunately, you get a device about halfway through the game that allows you to cruise the world map without a single encounter. That's really the game's only failing point IMO.
 
What an awesome game! I've got the orginal for the Dreamcast. The random battles can be annoying, but I love all the side quests and extra stuff you can do in SoA, like the whole finding land marks thing. Plus the storylines pretty good and progresses well. Been meaning to go through this game again for a while now.
 
I played the original DC version to death. It's pretty good, but I do have a few complaints.

#1) Random battles. You encounter them way to often and they last far too long. The dungeons lasted way too long and were often pretty frustrating.

#2) Linear storyline. Seems to be the problem with most console RPGs, you have absolutely no freedom to do things how you want to. You're strictly tied to a linear path.

#3) Unoriginal storyline to the extreme. Magic gems, Ancient civilisations, Evil empires, all the standard console RPG fare.

Still, it had its good moments. When they weren't annoyingly frustrating, the battles were pretty good, and the ship battles were great. Plus, its got plenty of length, so you'll be playing it for a while before you complete it.
 
Awesome game. Crossing the large sea (the first time) is the only place where random battles really annoyed me.
 
I was, but I stopped when I got to the Moon Stone Mountain in Ixa'Taka because:

a) South Ocean sucked ass; I mean, what the hell were the developers thinking? Not only does it take forever to cross, but there are tons of random encounters, and, like in every other area of the game, there is at least one enemy with an instant death attack, which is in itself a terrible design decision. I wasn't too eager to continue playing after that.

b) Once in the mines, I couldn't leave, and after playing for about an hour I hadn't found a save point and I had to go to work, so all that progress was lost and I haven't felt the urge to start the mines over again.

c) I got Doom 3, so that distracted me for a while.

I plan on continuing at some point because overall it has been quite a good game thus far, but once I entered South Ocean, things got a little sour and I haven't felt the desire to continue yet.