Skies of Arcadia is an excellent game that, despite the obvious looks of a port from the Dreamcast, is worthy of a buy to any RPG fan. The fight interface is simple yet very organized, the fight statistics (HP, MP, etc.) is intuitive and the play style is excellent. Controls are alright, not the best. But considering you're either running around talking to alot of people or sailing around in an airship, it's not really important. What is important is the gameplay.
This is the best stuff of the whole game. There is a whole slew of variety in the game. Of course you have your main quest, but wait! There's more! You can actually hunt down pirates and get rewards for capturing them. The problem is finding them (or in one or two cases, they find you). You can discover and uncover a huge world that is varied through the journeys of developing your crew on an airship. And don't think there is any small measure in these things alone, there are many things do and discover throughout the world of Arcadia.
The plot is slow (naturally), but it is not until about half way through the game that the plot picks up speed, real fast. You (the main charecter) are Vyse, son of an undercover air pirate who is against a tyrannical nation called Valua. You begin the quest by finding a moonrock, a rock from the six different moons that has special powers and abilites (i.e. magic attacks, healings). But really, they are used for powering ships, their real use comes out later on. That's all about the beginning. There is much more later on.
The learning curve of the game is very balanced, surprisingly balanced. My only complaint is the whole random fighting thing that is charecteristic in so many RPG's (sometimes). It get's downright annoying at times when you want to travel from one end of the world to another and your run into so many enemies. But I guess its for the sake of ExP.
Finally, the sound and graphics. This is really what gets a negative point. Sure, it's a port of the Dreamcast game, I'll give Sega that. But they could have touched the game up a bit more with the graphics, and maybe the sound, but that's nitpicking. Both sound (and music) and graphics are good, but they could have been better.
Overall, despite the game's look of a port and the overuse of the random battles, the game really compensates (and beyond) with the gameplay, plot and style of the game. 8.5 out of 10
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