Well, thanks to all the people who cried “Skies of Arcadia rules!!” on this thing we call the internet, I finally bought, and finished, Skies of Arcadia. It owned. I haven’t found all the discoveries yet, but I’m working on it.
Any and all SoA discussion is encouraged now that I can join in.
The original? Or the updated version?
I never managed to pick this one up yet, but supposedly this is one of those games that actually earns its classic status instead of being hyped up.
The updated one, but the old one is good too.
I dont suppose you find the random battles annoying? Even after enduring the incessant random battles of the old Phantasy Star games (not to mention Shining The Holy Ark), I sometimes found them grating on my nerves. Personally, I thought the game needed more ship-to-ship battles but I hear that the GameCube version added “bounties” to the game where you can hunt down wanted criminals etc.
A sequel to Skies of Arcadia with a Grandia 2 style combat system (where you see your enemies coming) would rule IMO.
Apparently the random battles were turned down for the GC version. The bounty battles are fun (if incredibly hard). The characters in general are great, especially Piastol and Zelos/Ramirez, both of which I’m trying to make models of right now.
Edit: Ok, apparently even Piastol wasn’t in the DC version. Let me just say that, from what I’ve heard, the DC version seems to be severely lacking in sidequests etc compared to this.
i personally didn’t take issue with the random battles save for a few parts. however i think that could more be attributed to the stupid enemies you fight in those areas. the places i am referring to are the maw of tartus, flying around ixa’taka (not so bad once you get strong enough), and the area north of ixa’taka.
i actually thought out a skies of arcadia prequel with a much darker atmosphere 
A Skies of Arcadia prequel where you play as Daccat would be cool 
Like Arcie said, Piastol wasn’t in the Dreamcast version. I’m interested in playing this updated version of the game, but since don’t have a Cube it’s out of the question at the moment. There’s a PC version in the works that is supposed to feature even more features so I think I’ll just wait for that.
The random battles did get on my nerves on more than one occasion… but for some reason they were never bad enough to make me want to stop playing the game. I think it was the characters, atmosphere, and exploration that made this game so great rather than the battle system, although the ship battle system was really well done.
Little known “fact.”
SPOILERS!!!
In the scene where Pirate Isle gets attacked, and Galcian and Ramirez are talking on the bridge of their ship, the “original” dialog (read: one of the writers was testing to see if the other was still awake) went as follows:
No matter, it appears the battle is over. Retrieve the girl and bring her to me. Capture the Air Pirates. We'll need to interrogate them when we return to Valua. And be sure to destroy their ship as well? And if they resist, Lord Galcian? What does Your Excellency wish me to do if the situation arises? I don't think they're foolish enough to resist. However, if something should happen? Burn the village and kill them all. Let the bodies rot in the sun and leave one of our flags to set an example for others who may defy us. And what of the chickens? ... And sodomize the chickens.Heaven knows what Ramirez would have done to the Flamingos.
Why are so many characters in Skies of Arcadia named after currencies?
Drachma
G(u)ilder
Centime
(and in Legends)
Rupee
Lira
Actually, the twins were named after Chinese currencies, too
A few names were changed, just because they didn’t work in English (for instance: Clara in the original version was named “Crone”… which was just bad :D). The whole idea was that they were all pirates, and what do pirates want? Money
There were a ton of other references in the original script… some of which stayed in tact, and some of which were removed because the reference was too heavy-handed (i.e. Rhaknam the whale was originally named Mobius, or Ixa’taka was originally called Montezuma).
he wasn’t going to be the main character, but he certainly was in the party
there were just so many clues and mysteries as to the history of arcadia that one could easily build a prequel out of it.
Playing as Daccat wouldn’t be much fun. You know you’re gonna spend all your money anyway, then leave an annoying treasure trail for others to find, before putting two hideous bosses just before your big prize.
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]I dont suppose you find the random battles annoying? Even after enduring the incessant random battles of the old Phantasy Star games (not to mention Shining The Holy Ark), I sometimes found them grating on my nerves. Personally, I thought the game needed more ship-to-ship battles but I hear that the GameCube version added “bounties” to the game where you can hunt down wanted criminals etc.
A sequel to Skies of Arcadia with a Grandia 2 style combat system (where you see your enemies coming) would rule IMO.[/quote]
With agreater focus on air combat, I’d agree, I would also prefer a better setting that takes more advantage of the 1930’s style sci-fi that it is based of.
i thought realtime air battles would be cool with the designs they already had in place.
you would have a propulsion button and a way to go in reverse).
special/main cannons would shoot forwards- you’d aim by pointing the ship about at different angles. if the ship was moving laterally across the screen, you would have to lead it with your shots.
subcannons fire straight off to the sides, good for when you dash past another ship at close range.
to use torpedoes there would be a little area a decent distance infront of the ship and you would have to keep the enemy ship in that area as the torps locked on. then, when fired, they would be able to home in.
it would make great multiplayer
[size=9]5000th post in liberal district! do i win something?[/size]
No, you don’t win anything.
that’s ok… it seems i had the 5001st anyway
curse you niel!!!
You know that little duck thingy that you feed those moonfish to in Skies of Arcadia Legends?
I have a keychain of that thing in my Eternal Arcadia LE Box for Dreamcast, along with the other goodies in that box. I never could figure out where that bird was from, up until I played the GameCube release. It kind of annoys me, how much stuff apparently was cut from the Dreamcast release. It definitely isn’t a space issue… it all fit onto a 1.5 gig GameCube disc, so I fail to see how LESS features couldn’t work on two 1 gig Dreamcast discs.
yeah, i was talking with someone about that recently. i remember seeing an ad for skies in some magazine and it boasted the ability to captain 65 different ships. if the ability to buy and sell ships was left in, then the dancing crew member’s purpose would have made sense.
i think a lot was cut from gunvalkyrie too. and i don’t mean the stuff that was intended for the dreamcast version- i have a demo disc which shows whole new levels (a temple? a different civilian base?) and i really want to play them even if they were incomplete 
Well, that’s complete balls for a start. You still only pilot the Little Jack, the Claudia (for about 5 minutes) and the Delphinus.
don’t forget the boat that you take to shrine island and aika & fina’s crappy little nasrean boat!
i think fable takes the cake for the amount of features reported and subsequently removed in the next interview.