Skies of Arcadia was developed by Overworks for the Dreamcast and was published by Sega in 2000. It is a classic JRPG-style role playing game with turn based combat, leveling up characters, an open world that can be explored with airships; the works. The theme is heavily influenced by pirates and steampunk, so if you like one or both of those subjects (like me) you should get a kick out of this game. There was also a remake of this game available for the GameCube.

Pros:

What makes this game really awesome though, is the focus on the best part of most JRPG’s; the airships. In this game the whole world is pretty much “in the sky” so exploration in three dimensions can get pretty fun. I have had a lot of fun finding treasures, exploring, upgrading my ship, etc. But the best part (though maybe not perfect) is that you fight other airships with your airship. Throughout the game you end up dueling it out with sky pirates, military ships, several boss battles, and even crazy huge monsters. Pretty awesome.

Fun side note: many of the characters make cameos in several other universes and games.

Cons:

Though personally I don’t think that any one part of this multifaceted game is the best in its genre, the fact that it has it all, and then some, is what makes this game so good. It’s got a good and challenging storyline, and you’ll be happy wasting many hours just roaming your world in search of new discoveries and treasure.

One downer though is the crazy bad voice acting, especially for the characters named Enrique and Fina. That being said, once you get numb to how bad it is, it actually starts become unintentional comedic relief. So… I guess that makes it a bit better.

All in all, I really enjoyed this game and had almost no points of boredom with it (except for being stranded on that island). I would highly recommend it as an essential part of any Dreamcast collection.