
Players can stop at many locations ranging from small towns, to major cities to deserted lands. The over-world is traversed by piloting an airship & the player can eventually (with upgrades) travel to any part of the land. Advancing the storyline means playing through these dungeons, defeating enemies (random encounters), collecting treasure, solving puzzles & normally defeating a boss. Gameplay is primarily made up of dungeon exploration from the 3rd-person perspective. Skies of Arcadia is a traditional turn-based RPG. Each of these playable characters are as interesting as the main trio with Drachma’s being incredibly deep & meaningful. After getting to know her & rescuing her from the Empire again Vyse & Aika agree to help her find the stones.Īlong their long & difficult journey they will be joined by many other unique characters all with their own motivations including the moody Drachma who has an unfortunate secret, Gilder the cocky air pirate & Enrique, a prince of Valua unhappy with its direction. It turns out that she is on a mission to find the moon stones & stop the Valuan Empire from getting their hands on them. Two young air pirates that inadvertently end up rescuing Fina, a girl from the Silver Civilisation. The Air Pirates consistently clash with the Empire in battles in the air & it is during one that we are introduced to Vyse & Aika. The Empires warships are feared by all throughout the land except the Blue Rogues, a band of Air Pirates. The Valuan Empire is led by Empress Teodora & her will is imposed by her warship senior admiral, Galcian & his No.2, Ramirez. In present time, the tyrannical Valuan Empire, are seeking the moon crystals to awaken the Gigas & take over the world. The 6 civilisations stopped fighting, buried the Gigas, sealed the Silver one away & hid the moon crystals. The most powerful of the civilisation, the Silver Civilisation used their Giga to call in the Rains of Destruction that pulled meteors out of the sky crashing down to the planet below. These giant living weapons were controlled by 6 moon crystals & caused massive destruction to the world. Thousands of years before six civilisations, each existing for one of these moons, went to war & created Gigas. The planet has no surface & is orbited by 6 moons of different colour.

The game takes place on floating continents in the skies of Arcadia. It was later ported to the GameCube as Skies of Arcadia: Legends with lots more added. There is no doubt that Skies of Arcadia is the forgotten RPG of the noughties having originally appeared on the Dreamcast only.
