Thunderball

I withheld making any sort of comments about this game, until I could get about 10 hours into it(I'm at 13).

I've played a lot of RPGs in my day. I've played the NES Final Fantasy, the SNES FFs, The Manas, the Chronos, Xenogears.

While they are all incredible games, this one takes the cake in my opinion.

It's got an excellent storyline, fun to love, easy to hate characters. A really cool "evil empire". Airship battles(!!!!). Bounty hunting. Deceit. Trickery. Whales.

I mean, really, this game has the whole package.

Yes, the random battles are tedious, but if it weren't for the random battles, I think the game wouldn't be the same. You're an adventurer. Never sure where you're going, or what's around the corner. The random battles are what makes it feel that way, to me at least.

I've seen things in this game I've never seen done in an RPG, and I've seen things I've seen done 100 times over.



For those who have played this I'm at this point

Go buy this game now.

Gallant Pig

Ugh, I thought they would have removed the random battles after nobody liked it in the DC version. I played the game like 3 years ago? Fun but I don't see a need to return. Anyone who isn't sure if they'll like it could always buy it for like $10 on a DC.

Thunderball

Why would they have removed them? They have really toned them down from what I Heard.

THey added about 10 hours of gameplay, some new discoveries, and a new villian.

Gallant Pig

Everyone bitched about them on the original game. Everyone preferred how Grandia II didn't have random battles. Thought they could have fixed it somehow. TBALL if you like Skies of Arcadia, check out Grandia II, it's just as good if not better.

Thunderball

Eh, I'm always the oddball with RPGs. I enjoy random battles.
I played Grandia II, didn't like it.

jeffdsmith

Grandia II is a very good game. SKOA is my favorite RPG as well though. It's just so good. I beat the DC version, almost done with the cube verison. The cube version has offered a surprising amount of new things to the quest. Worth playing again.

Even those people that arn't typical RPG players are loving this game. I can't get my brother (sports only gamer) to leave my apartment now.

AgtFox

All you SoA newbies...where were you when this game originally came out for the DC?

I'm still debating whether to get the GC version given that I already own and have beaten the DC version.

Heck, I had to look high and low for SoA on DC when it first came out. Every time it would come into stores they would be sold out. Finally found one. This is truly one of the greatest RPGs ever.

Thunderball

AgtFox : It's happening again on the Cube most stores are sold out, this title was massively underordered.

jeffdsmith

Pretty good site:
http://www.planetdreamcast.com/soaworld/

Thunderball

For the "where were you when this was on the DC"..

I was just buying my PS2 and was h aving a lot of fun with it. The Dreamcast just wasn't getting as much attention as it should have.

olie029

What are some of the new things on the GC version? I beat the DC version and boy was it fun. I simply love the ship battles. Especially the last one.

Thunderball

Hey Olie, couldnt' agree more actually. It's a great game.

From what I understand they added "wanted" battles.
They added some new discoveries
They added a crew member or two (from what I've heard)
They added Piastol, The Angel of Death -- a bounty hunter that's hunting down Vyse and company.
They added a backstory for a guy named Ramirez(dunno who he is yet, I think he's a Valuan Admiral)

Few other things, some cosmetic stuff too.

tonyc3742

I played the DC version....
while the huge number of random battles did tend to frustrate me [not so much the battles themselves, but just that going into a 'dungeon' meant 2-4 hours at least, and I sometimes wanted to play, but didn't have the time to invest], I think two of my favorite things about that game are the characters and the feeling of adventure. The characters really had personality; Aika had that perky attitude. I really felt as if they could be real people I knew.
Also, the sense of adventure I got--certainly, ultimately, we had to save the world [in an RPG? no...] but other than that, I really wanted to see what was behind that next horizon, just like Vyse and crew did. I literally smiled almost through the whole game, it was that kind of feeling [except when I was saying PLEASE let me get out and save!]
The fact that the graphics were quite beautiful, and the spells/spell effects were cool too, doesn't hurt.
Man, now I'll have to hook up the DC again and replay this one....
I also liked Grandia II, it was definitely different and 99x more linear, which suited me to counter act the wide world roaming of SoA.
If just half of Sega's games were as good as that, and if they could advertise them, the DC might still be on the shelves....

Gallant Pig

The extras are sounding pretty cool. I'll have to pick it up when it drops in price. And if anyone hasn't played this game and doesn't own a DC, get it!!

olie029

Man this really has me itching to hook up the DC and play it again. I rember hunting down the game for weeks till I found a store that had it. My favorite Character was the air pirate guy that is being hunted by the air pirate girl lol Loved the double pistols

madara

Really glad your enjoying the game Thunderball!
I most definitely agree on all your points. Not since Grandia 1 did rpg like SOA convey the exuberant joy of youngs starting an adventure in their world with such a strong feeling of discovery.
Im glad this one got ported over because many others as good dont, its testament to japanese developers and importance they still play in future of gaming.

Outlaw

I love this game . The characters are fun and the music is still great. the reason I bought the new version was for the Vyse backstory part, didn't know about the Ramirez backstory but thats nice to know and i'm glad they put that in there too The extras put me over the edge. Especially (note: do not click unless you have played through the DC version) for these characters .

Dragon Fly

Yeah, back in the day when this game came out on the dreamcast I pushed FF 9 aside to play it. I agree with Tball, this is one of the greatest RPG's ever. Who cares about random battles, they have been the staple for RPG's since the dawn of gaming. Grandia is a good series, but I don't want every game the same.

TheOne

Finished the DC version long ago and Grandia II too.

SofA battles remind me of the Final Fantasy series. Turn based.

But I really enjoyed the ship battles. It's kinda cool the way it is implemented.

Luckily I still have my save before the "big" battle. So I can just roam around and fight or look for "easy" ship battles to slate my thirst if I ever decide to go back to this game.

olie029

I love the ship battle versus the yellow Giga.

darkside

This was one of my favorites on the Dreamcast. Glad you are enjoying it. I just sold off my Dreamcast version for $25 so I will definitely pick it up again on the GameCube.

The random battles never ruined my enjoyment of the game on the DC. I actually like turned based RPGs like this and the ship battles were the most fun I had had since Panzer Dragoon Saga.

Breakfast with Girls

Yep, probably one of, if not the, best game for the Dreamcast.

CharlesC

I didn't mind the random battles when I was only 13 hours in either. Just wait until you have to get from one end of the map to the other and it takes you 2 hours.

Thats my only complaint about this game though. I'm not real experienced in RPGs but I had a lot of fun with this one. I tried Grandia II, gave it about 15 hours but I could never really get into it. Too linear for my taste and too much talking.

RichC2

Yeah, I hated the random battles in the DC Edition. As for the plot, I found it extremely underwelming and generic. While the exploration bits were neat, the game was still sub-par overall...

...it did show a lot of potential though.

trigun

The random battles were a major pain the butt in the DC version when you were trying to find some of those harder to find discoveries (has flashbacks of the roaming discoveries). But I'll be darned if I wasn't going to nab every one of em