Skies of Arcadia Legends: 99.8% Completion, doh D:

Pulled out and dusted off the GC for this game. I said I'd play this game eventually, so now it has finally happened. A miracle it is! With a new pair of batteries for the wavebird, I only wish there was another game I want to play on the GC so it's not wasted on just one game... but anyway, I'll concern myself with that later.

Story - 3.5/5
Surprisingly I enjoyed the whole idea of sky pirates, as opposed to the real world sea and that there really is no "land". So the story follows Vyse, a newbie pirate who wants to sail the world, encounters mysterious girl on a mission and decides to help her and in turn he CAN sail the world (and save it) while doing it. The story itself wasn't very deep and the devastating events that do happen don't feel particularly devastating like it should. It could be because basically everyone is so extremely positive, absolutely nothing can go wrong... and if it does, no worries, we can overcome it! That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it sure makes the story a bit less realistic, thus in turn making it less engaging (for me anyway).

However upon saying that, I noticed myself playing it continuously... less for the story but more for the journey to that part of the story. That will fall under gameplay.

There were a few lolwut? moments like sailing into space and still breathing! and our ship can destory a planet-sized monster/creature/thing!

Characters - 2.5/5
Speaking of engaging, I didn't feel much connection with the characters. Again probably because of the absolutely blinding positivity everyone radiated. I won't say it was completely positive throughout the whole game... Ramirez, Belleza and Drachma had darker moments.

About the three main protagonists though... There was little to no character development. They came as they are, they left as they are. That's probably my main gripe with the characters. Vyse is the perfect hero - good looking, cool, strong, smart, a leader - the guy's flawless. Aika is the hyper happy spontaneous girl and Fina is her opposite. They balance each other out a bit too well perhaps. There was nothing really "deep" with any of them.

It was too obvious there was a triangle relationship happening with the three main characters too but at the same time, they're too friendly with each other to have anything really happen. If the story were to continue, I bet Vyse would end up with someone completely different.

Gameplay - 4.5/5
Now, the gameplay was deep. Deep as in there was a whole lot of stuff you can do.

Battles revolved around Spirit Points. At the beginning of every turn, you automatically get a certain amount. Unused points get carried over to the next "round". Casting spells and special moves relied heavily on those points, so as soon as you figured out how spirit points works, battles were relatively easy. I'd end up using the same set of moves all the time (magic protection, damage halved, charge up, unleash deadly move, rinse and repeat) which made it a bit, dare I say, boring. There were still difficult battles outside of the main storyline as sidequests so I still had my fill of challenges.

Some fun challenges were some of the ship battles. It still required a whole crap load of spirit points to do things but the fighting tactics offered variation.

A negative on gameplay was the pacing during battles, may it be with people or ship battles. You had to watch your ship circle around the enemy a few dozen times before the round was over or watch your player run to the enemy for a point blank gun shot (lol Gilder)... The little animations felt unnecessary and it all just made the game go slower than it should. At least you can skip special move animations, but not spells and the enemies' special moves D: ....

Traveling is a bit of a bitch too. I got lost so often, it's not even funny. However the book of polarity was godsend and made traveling a little less stressful.

Side quests were greatly fun. Cham collecting, moonfish collecting, ship battling, wanted battle battling, fishing if you care... even though the story lacked, the extra content there was there made it more worthwhile.

This game also seems to like to fight with me for the best camera position. Some camera positions are rather questionable and usually leaves me pretty frustrated.

Sound - 3.5/5
The voices were lol and benefitted little for being there. It gave an idea of the certain character's personality a bit more but the character design themselves spoke more than the voices themselves. Considering the date of this game, I'll let it pass.

The GC version is well known to have the shitty BGM version compared to the DC and true, it did sound pretty old school. It made the game feel more ancient than it really was. Trading the bgm for new content... eeh, a little iffy but the content did give the game a new level of difficulty.

Some tracks totally had a Wild ARMs vibe, which makes me wonder if either party found inspiration from each other... Either way, I found myself loving those tracks in particular :b

I also noticed this one sound glitch during battle. Some random person's battle grunt noise would be heard from nowhere during battle sometimes. Often occurs before a player's turn.

Graphics - 3/5
I'm surprised at the draw distance in this game (during ship sailing). I often found discoveries by paying attention to the smallest specs in the far distance.

Speaking of draw distance and just rendering in general, there were quite a few graphical glitches here and there. Walls would disappear (Dangral or Soltis, I think) and Aika would fall from the sky after that 12 spirit point special move. Nothing major but it sure makes the same less solid.

Less about glitches... the actual character renders were a bit kiddy. Kind of reminds of the issue Tales of Legendia had where characters look younger than they should. Facial expressions were kept anime-style which made it a little awkward looking but I got used to it afterwards. Again, considering the age of this game, I will let it pass!

Overall - 3/5
Indeed at 99.8%, it's frustrating as hell, but it cannot be helped. I seemed to have missed a treasure chest (and I bet I know which one) that is unattainable now that prevents me from getting the "Vyse the Legend" title which is a bit of a shame.

The ending was more or less predictable 'cept the wtf giant planet. I was expecting a bit more to the ending boss... and the planet didn't cut it, sorry.

If only the game was a bit more deeper in terms of story and character. The ending was almost a bit like Suikoden... in fact, the whole crew collecting and base creating was very Suikoden. Speaking of base creating, I wish there were more customization options. I should, like, pull out a Sim game just to relieve myself of that urge.