It’s actually a very long RPG by today’s standards (it took me 60 hours to complete, and I am an RPG fan).
I’d say the turn-based battles when fighting normal enemies are similar to Phantasy Star, so they are an acquired taste, but the ship-to-ship battles are some of the best battles I have ever seen in an RPG.
The characters have real character too.
Only buy it if you can afford it though. Surely it can be emulated easily by now? I’m not up to date on this.
I wish someone would pull some strings and make some characters from Panzer Dragoon and Skies mysteriously show up in new Sega games. Like Gilius in Shining in the Darkness. Imagine a mysterious stranger who saves you and he happens to be Kyle who traveled back in time to another dimension… or something (it would be a fitting end for him when you consider his name).
I wouldn’t necessarily say that it would be a shame if we never saw a sequel. Skies was what I would call complete. What I would rather see is something that builds on the themes of the game (airships, empires, villains, noble villains, heroes and anti-heroes etc). There is room for growth there I believe.
I think it would be a shame to never get a chance to go back to that world or atmosphere, though (at least for the fans). Even Legend of Legaia got a sequel!
It’s been so long, I think if it wanted to sell and capture a new audience; it might have to be rebooted or turned into a spiritual successor. From what I’ve seen though, most times when this is done, the game doesn’t live up to the standards of what it’s mimicking. Just look at Crimson Dragon or Star Fox Zero for example. If you don’t have the same exact team; most times the soul of the game suffers dearly, or for the most part, is almost completely gone!
I’m also afraid of what an open-world-nature could do to this game. With a more open world comes
the loss of that fine tuned environmental detail we had, with more or less confined games. These games had a set space to work with and that space was always given artistic flare and attention to
detail. That’s one of the reasons I admire the fist game so much; I can appreciate the attention to detail found in the environments. Every space had it’s own character, like a sprawling unique painting!
In my opinion, a spiritual successor would just be a repeat of the first game. They might try too hard to capture the magic of the fist game without actually doing anything new. Just like Star Wars the Force Awakens just rehashed Star Wars a New Hope.
Would the environments be as creative, vibrant and varied?
Would you still be able to feel the exhilaration of discovering something for the first time?
Would the soundtrack be as epic, and organic as the first, setting the mood for the adventure?
Would the characters be as endearing, charming and full of chemistry just like the first game?
If it’s not the same Overworks development team as the first Skies of Aracadia, then I wouldn’t bother. Without the same creative flow of the original team, moving from person to person, the heart of the game will be lost to someone else’s interpretation.
There has to be room for one final adventure with Vyse and Crew. Why not just build on the relationships of the exiting characters and fly off to explore the (unexplored) Moons in new and exiting environments?
We can dream. First it needs to be economically viable. Keep in mind that even if a new RPG could sell even half a million copies, something else might still be a better investment.
I think the best thing Sega could do is take the best parts of PD Saga and Skies and build on them. It would take some extremely principled people to do it, not to mention it would need to be done in great or good economic times. These are not good times for the games industry as a whole from the perspective of an average consumer. You have to compete with giants and free to play games etc etc.
So, first thing’s first. I believe that if the Saturn had been more popular in the west, PD Saga would have sold 1 million+ copies (it would have been a cult classic like Silent Hill which started a long running series of mature games). Unfortunately, I can’t prove that. Maybe one day.
I think a hybrid of both Skies and Saga in terms of gameplay, visuals, story, and atmosphere would be quite simply, amazing! We just don’t see very many development teams which are allowed or given unrestricted, free-rains-creativity though.
I didn’t realise the game was worth so much these days. I think the more important question is whether you have around 65 hours available to finish the game. If you do, it’s worth it, provided that you can endure the numerous random battles. The characters and sense of discovery make up for the slower parts; at the end of the journey you will feel like you’ve experienced a truly epic adventure. The light hearted nature of the game, while not being childish, makes it stand out from most of today’s games. After Panzer Dragoon Saga, it’s my favourite RPG.
It’s the nature of the beast these days sadly. I think I will escape mainstream gaming for a while. The only game that really piques my interest at the moment is Bloodborne.
At least older games have been preserved so that modern gamers can go back in time.
Yeah, if you’re going to play an older title, Shadow of the Colossus is a more concise experience. I recommend it over Skies for the time constrained; you could finish it in a weekend. Although Skies of Arcadia was a magical experience, there is no doubt that it was aimed at old school RPG fans prepared to make a commitment. For that reason I will probably never play through Skies of Arcadia again.
Well u could do what I do. I’ve played it enough times the real way. Now I just use Action Replay codes with max stats and no random battles.
This allows me to take in the music, atmosphere and probably cuts 30 hours from the game. It’s nice being able to explore the environments without being interrupted by random battles; just fighting the boss battles and enjoying the ship battles! I can just sit back and enjoy the game’s strengths. I don’t feel like I’m cheating myself because I’ve beaten the game the real way many times before!
On a side note: it’s funny how I can always replay Panzer Dragoon Saga and never feel like I’m grinding! The game is so well balanced and never a chore!