hello, i played this a little bit today on a whim. on most maps you can go into first-person and remove the hud, so here are some screenshots. i don’t know if i’ll keep playing.
i like that the game seems to have a lot to do with exploring and ancient civilizations and stuff. does it keep this up? does grandia do that? i just wanna explore.
Forget JRPGs, play Riven
When Skies of Arcadia came out for GameCube, I had just concluded that I might never have the patience to play a JRPG again. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ship battles are fun and I like the sense of discovery. I don’t remember the overarching story, but I do remember highlights such as being stranded on an island and entering the Dark Rift.
I’m again unsure that I’d be able to tolerate a JRPG, but I figure I at least need to try Earthbound at some point.
it feels like it does, which is the important part. for the first half.
Those screenshots are so pretty! I’ve been meaning to play this one, along with Grandia 2 for like, over a decade. I swear I’ll get to both… Some day!
boring Dreamcast JRPG takes:
Skies of Arcadia is a bad “game” but a good experience, even after you realize the plot is just mashing up several Miyazaki movies because Vyse is a good protag and he makes you want to join along in the hilarious bullshit he’s doing (see: everyone else they run up against) and a lot of the audiovisual elements follow along (every fucking game should have a different version of boss battle themes when you start winning). I guess the ship battles are okay but they’re more puzzle than strategic battle and the regular fights are FIRE CONSUME MY ENEMIES
Grandia 2 is a better “game” because it has an interesting battle system (my first fight against the final boss resulted in canceling every attack it tried until it died and that’s cool) but a worse product because said system is shoved into a “God is evil” plot and oh god it’s so anime it hurts. also, the dub Ubisoft stuck the game with is perfect and I will hear no other opinions on the matter
if you’re going to play one, play Skies (this is totally ignoring the fact that Grandia 2 is why more available thanks to a modern PC release and a godawful PS2 port) (I mean, you could just as easily emulate either the DC or GCN version but it’s not the same, you really need to hear the poor Dreamcast’s drive spin up like a plane taking off every time a battle is nigh)
These are probably its two biggest appeals. Navigating all that airspace for treasures, new sights, and strange areas or instances was a really cool feeling. Once you get your own ship and start building a crew, things unfold to be more addictive and compelling. You can feel all the freedom and wonder of the open skies, but every once in a while I’d get a certain sense of dread, based on resources left and fear of the seemingly never ending clouds below becoming their own kind of abyss.
Even for its time movement was pretty clunky. Random encounters are too often and oh so slow. As @notbov said though, good experience, still feels unique.
Grandia II was edgy and troped out back then but it plays very well. Between that and Skies, def recommend the latter overall.
I love the first Grandia. It’s extremely charming and the OST rules. Really rough dub though.
while Grandia 2 is still worth a play, if you don’t, please look up a picture of the final boss
it’s a butterfly with the face of the pope for a crotch
Why would you not keep playing, unless there were no more game?
(This is one of the very best JRPGs I’ve ever played.)
I actually really loved the dub in Grandia when I played it in 2009. Feena and Justin come through as total sweethearts in the English voice acting IMHO.
I seem to remember getting through the south seas being hateful.
loading up old jrpgs in emulators and using cheats to try to make them into adventure games as much as possible is I guess the path my life has taken
I’ve done this a lot yes
I have been afraid to go back to Skies of Arcadia because as an adult, I think it might be kind of a slog to play? I don’t want to ruin the memories. Let me know how your playthrough goes because I’ve been sort of contemplating a playthrough the past few years.
It always was kind of a slog, plenty of people complained about the encounter rate on release and the late game upgrade of being able to fly above the clouds or having most battles cleared instantly with ALPHA STORM doesn’t excuse it
(I’m mostly here to piss on nostalgia 
)
i’ve only played abt two hours so far, cleared shrine island and i’m at the part where you have to go back to the pirate base island. but i can already say the slog is real, i was gonna go back into shrine island to get a treasure chest i missed but it was a long walk and so many of the random encounters have 5+ enemies that i just gave up
but i wanna see the environments in this game, so i’m thinking abt trying @parker’s method just to explore more
What’s this? No, suffer constant battles with RNG and party management!
(really though this is the only way I can imagine replaying a ton of RPGS now)
alright yeah i threw on some action replay codes and i am living my fullest life with no random encounters. here’s some more pics
