The Dangers Of A Slow Comic Week

Having exhausted the inspiration provided by X-Factor #10 (and let's have big hand for Peter David folks, for giving us so much to talk about!), I turn. . . to video games.

I always feel a bit weird talking about video games, because well, I'm cheap. Which means I usuall don't play games until months after they've been released, which tends to limit the effectiveness of my words. For example, I got Timesplitters: Future Perfect this July, as a late birthday present. But the game's been out since August '05, so anybody that wanted it, has likely already got it, you dig? But, what the hell. This blog is nothing, if not a place for the dumping of my useless opinions.

So I beat Skies of Arcadia: Legends for the Gamecube last night. It's been out for about four years, so you can probably get it for about 10 bucks now. It's your pretty standard RPG, about a world where ships sail in the sky (is it just me, or is that really common? I only own like four RPGs, and that's the setting for half of them). You're Vyse, a young Blue Rouge, aka a nice Air Pirate. A Robin Hood sort, you live to piss off and rob the authorities. You start off the story raiding a Vaulan Imperial Cruiser for your father, with your friend Aika. Cue the standard "rescue of strange girl" sequence.

And you go from there. Eventually you get your own ship, go out do a little exploring. You come back home, it's time to rescue your friends. you get into trouble, get some help, etc., etc. As far as the story goes, it's got the basic "evil people attempting to unlock sources of massive power with the plan to dominate the world" thing going.

The combat is pretty simple to deduce, and since the people in your party will rotate and change over the course of the story, the ways to win change as well. There's all sorts of different side quests, like collecting bounties, or capturing Moonfish for the pet of a young girl that's being cared for by a doctor, and people to recruit for your crew, none of which is essential, but it's the kind of stuff that goes a long way to establishing your rep. Also, throughout the story, there are moments where you'll be given a choice as to what to do, since you are the Captain and all. Depending on your decision, your rep may improve or not, and in ship battles, it can determine whether you'll be at a disadvantage or not for that round.

Two minor beefs for me. One, too many random battles. I know they help to boost your level, and they're a staple of RPGs everywhere, but there are times when you're traveling from one land to the next and you can't fly for five seconds without triggering another freaking random fight with the local wildlife.

Two, I would have liked, after beating the game, to be able to save and then go out and keep exploring, finish all the side quests, but that's not an option. The last save opportunity is the one just before you kick off the series of three battles with your final opponent. As an additional minor complaint, I'll say I was a little annoyed that when I started the final battle of the three, my characters were in the same state, health-wise, they'd been in at the end of the first of the three slugfests. This is despite the lengthy ship battle in between. My characters didn't have any chance to recover? At all? Nobody's got more than 1100 HP, but I'm fighting a guy with 40,000?!

It really put me behind an 8-ball, that's all I'm saying.

Still, I would highly recommend this, especially for the price you'd be able to get it for nowadays. Although, if you played the original Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast (anyone? anyone?), you could safely pass this by, it's just a somewhat updated version. A little added content, to go with a more powerful system. Or at least, that's what the box says.

8.3 out of 10.