Future Sega Steam Port Suggestion #2: SKIES OF ARCADIA

[atlantean]

A lot of folks have been mentioning Skies of Arcadia here and suggested it in my last post regarding Shining Force III, so that's the game I'll discuss with this entry. But first, it's important to mention where SoA fits into Sega's overall history and why it's still so well-loved by gamers lucky enough to have experienced it.

To understand why so many gamers are still relatively unaware of just how large Sega looms in the history of the RPG/SRPG genre, you need only consider the timeline of their two most "recent" major releases: Skies of Arcadia and Valkyria Chronicles. VC came out roughly a half-decade ago on the PS3 and SoA first appeared on the Dreamcast well over a decade ago. Before that, most gamers chose the PSX over the (VERY underestimated) Saturn, and in so doing missed an absolute treasure trove of incredible games, RPG and otherwise. You have to look all the way back to the Genesis...the GENESIS!!!...to find an offline Phantasy Star, Sega's original flagship sci-fi RPG that went toe-to-toe with Square's also-excellent Final Fantasy games on the competing NES and SNES. It's fair to say that a high percentage, if not a large majority of current gamers weren't even born during the height of Sega's dominance. And among those that were, Skies of Arcadia was very likely the only great Sega RPG they've ever played. It literally bridges the gap between a sadly forgotten era and the gamers who otherwise might not have a clue why Sega was...and stil is...so important, especially to the RPG genre.

Originally a much-anticipated title for the Dreamcast (and re-released a few years later on the GameCube as Skies of Arcadia: Legends with even more content), Skies of Arcadia lived up to the hype and then some. With a massive world map made up of floating islands and tons upon tons of side-quests to complete and secrets to find, its quest could easily surpass 70 hours. The relatively small cast size (you never had more than 4 in your party, and supporting members like Drachma and Gilder rotated in and out) turned out to be a strength instead of a weakness, as it allowed for amazing character development and interaction. Even the enemies of the game range from diabolical to sympathetic, and a lot of things happen through the course of the story that give layers to what could easily have been one-dimensional characters. One of my personal favorite things in SoA were the surprisingly strategic ship-to-ship battles, where timing and position were key to maximizing your best weapons and keeping your own ship repaired (side-mention: the in-engine animations of the cannons and torpedoes were AWESOME).

The three most prominent protagonists of Skies of Arcadia will be familiar to anyone who's played Valkyria Chronicles: Vyse, Aika, and Fina (in VC there are three "Fina" triplets who share medical duties for your team). So to anyone who's never played SoA and wonders what all the "treasure", Aika's fear of ghosts, and "hailing from a faraway land" are in reference to, there's your answer. Sega even remembered to get the characters' voices consistent between SoA and VC, which is a big plus to me at least. Not only was it great fan service to include them in VC but all three have regularly served vital roles on my team. Another reference from SoA in Valkyria Chronicles is Valua; in SoA it's the name of the Empire whose plans you're out to thwart.

Special mention here MUST be given to Skies of Arcadia's music. For anyone who truly appreciates outstanding music in videogames, SoA is an absolute MUST-PLAY. From the sweeping orchestral opening to the culture-specific tunes and instrumentals as you travel around the world of Arcadia, it's one of the few games I've actually bothered to seek out the soundtrack for. My two personal favorite songs are in Horteka and Yafutoma. The latter, "Yafutoma Dawn", is classic Asian instruments and a soothing melody that perfectly matches the watery area surrounding the city. Horteka's song though, called "Kingdom of Ixa 'taka", is my favorite videogame song of all time, and is one I regularly play in my iTunes library. Its ambient calls amid the amazing drums, flute, and guitar are simply magnificent, especially if experienced through headphones.

The only issues that would be seen as potential negatives for Sega in bringing a direct port of SoA to Steam are its now-dated (but still beautiful) polygonal graphics and the old school random battles. The former can obviously be updated, and just imagining an HD SoA (we actually got a small preview of the possibilities in Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed's SoA-themed track) gives me goosebumps; it'd be incredible. As for the random battles, the storyline alone was enough to keep me and many others playing back in the day (Lambda Burst helped as well, for anyone who knows what I'm referring to ;) ), but those can be tweaked to help expedite the flow of the gameplay should a port ever be made.

That leaves the only thing left that we can do to help Sega decide to make Skies of Arcadia an upcoming Steam port: simply ASK. My money is on the table, guys. How about the rest of you?

[from small town]

After watching Persona 5 trailer yesterday, I wish Sega ask Atlus to port it to PC.

As for old games, I'd like Vanquish too

[🅱🅴🅷🅴🅻🅸🆃 ⚔]

i would suck ♥♥♥♥♥ for it!

[Aya]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Airgfx:

Vanquish please... -__-

That'd require Sega to sell it to Zenimax Media, since Shinji Mikami works for them.

[[sMil3]]

I just want Shining Force 3. Panzer Dragoon Saga would be nice too.

[Mr. Pickles]

I hope this do this as well. This is a game that I was most definitey interested in but as time went by I decided to pass on it, would definitely scoop this if it comes out on steam :D

[Rapture]

I would buy Sky of Arcadia in a heart beat .....been wanting to play it , missed buying it on Game Cube........cost a arm, and leg to get new unopened copy on Amazon now days. Remake it , or update it to HD, and it will sell.

[reoman56]

Skies of Arcadia on steam you say?

Instant buy, I say!

[nacho_chicken]

I bought this just because I wanted to support SEGA porting its console RPGs to PC.

Skies of Arcadia or Resonance of Fate on Steam? Sign me up.

[atlantean]

I never imagined this thread would garner such a big response; seems I'm far from alone in my love for Sega's classic RPG franchises. Thanks to everyone here for taking the time to post; I would think somebody at Sega has very likely seen this thread (as well as its sister threads for Shining Force III, Dragon Force, etc.) since the sales response of Steam for Valkyria Chronicles was so overwhelming. Money has that effect on gaining a corporation's ear. All we can do now is wait and see whether the message has gotten through that we'll happily pay for more of that mountain of amazing IPs they've been sitting on for so long.

[Aoife Croi]

Honestly, I believe that Sega should release Legends on Steam with Workshop/modding enabled so that fans can put in the work to update it if they need 2015 graphics so badly. I mean, 1080p SoA would be beautiful, but I don't think it really NEEDS it that badly. I don't think Sega would really take any losses if they just did a minor button-mapping and a minor compatibility modification to the game. At the most basic level, all it needs is an options menu with PC options, and the button mapping to e playale on PC. Granted, I know nothing about this sort of thing, but that's all I could imagine being necessary.

And along the lines of improvements they COULD/Should make if they did want to sink money into the port:

-Slider for encounter rate***
-Remastered Sound Design***
-Retextures/Updated Graphics (Possibly run in the VC engine for the graphics?)***
-Additional Content (I NEEED MORE SHIP BATTLES <3)
-More in-depth island customization(?)
-More in-depth Ship customization(?)
-Sellable Moonberries. (I know this seems stupid, but 100%ers really get messed up by maxing Moonberries and being unable to open chests)***
-More/Full Voiceovers(?)***
-Fix the Elemental weaknesses/chart. (Not sure if it was wrong in-game as well)***
-More Supermoves for the 4th party member slot? Like, Each character that CAN be in 4th slot should have a full set of Supermoves, at least in my opinion. (I always thought these were super cool, and when the 4th members showed up I always felt like they were less important.)***


Now, I know that list above is asking a lot, however, I want to note that I would buy this game ten times over even WITHOUT the optional upgrades. I would literally buy a copy for every single friend of mine just to get the word out. The game is so amazing, and I want everyone to experience it in its full glory. However, the more things added from the optional list, the more money I would be happy to spend on the game. I would imagine that it would run for $20 like VC did with just a basic port. But if the above were included I'd be more than happy to pay anywhere from $30-45. I'd also be fine if they included some extras as DLC rather than directly in the main game. But the ones with "***" NEED to be fixed in the game if they were to go the extra mile, IMO.

[Bigbazz]

I recently finished the Dreamcast version of Skies of Arcadia.. Honestly the game is a Masterpiece, it's a piece of gaming history that developers should look back on as an example of how a great storytelling adventure game can be.

I don't understand SEGA really, they abandon their loved franchises... Though with how they have run Sonic into the ground perhaps it's best that they leave them as they are. Still, games like Skies of Arcadia and Panzer Dragoon Saga should be brought to Steam for people to enjoy, even if it isn't a full HD Remake. What I'd give for a Skies of Arcadia sequel, the only thing I'd be worried about is them screwing it up... so perhaps it's left.

I haven't played Valkyria Chronicles and I wasn't aware Vyse was in the game, on a separate not is it worth me picking up?

Ursprungligen skrivet av I Can't Believe It's Not Murder!:

And along the lines of improvements they COULD/Should make if they did want to sink money into the port:

-Slider for encounter rate***
-Remastered Sound Design***
-Retextures/Updated Graphics (Possibly run in the VC engine for the graphics?)***
-Additional Content (I NEEED MORE SHIP BATTLES <3)
-More in-depth island customization(?)
-More in-depth Ship customization(?)
-Sellable Moonberries. (I know this seems stupid, but 100%ers really get messed up by maxing Moonberries and being unable to open chests)***
-More/Full Voiceovers(?)***
-Fix the Elemental weaknesses/chart. (Not sure if it was wrong in-game as well)***
-More Supermoves for the 4th party member slot? Like, Each character that CAN be in 4th slot should have a full set of Supermoves, at least in my opinion. (I always thought these were super cool, and when the 4th members showed up I always felt like they were less important.)***

I haven't played the Gamecube version but from the Dreamcast I thought.

1. Encounter rate having a slider seems like just a copout, you're supposed to be forced into doing the fights, especially as it's tied to your swashbuckler rating. Even so there are only a handful of places in the whole game where fights happen too often, and for a lot of it you even avoid them completely if you want. This feature would just be like a built in cheat.

2. The sound on the Dreamcast version was fantastic, better than the GC from what I read.

3. Voice-overs, that's a lot of work and cost on their part to add more voices to a primarily text based RPG, I can't see that being realistic at all.


The more you add to your wishlist for a remake of the game and the more it becomes unlikely that the game will ever happen as a port, If you could take the best bits from the Dreamcast + Gamecube versions and roll them out with some high res graphics you would have an amazing game and you're asking a lot less of the developer, much more likely to happen.

[atlantean]

@ Bigbazz,

To answer your question regarding Valkyria Chronicles, the answer is most definitely, assuredly, absolutely YES, it is worth picking up. Full price or discounted, it doesn't matter; just do yourself a favor (and the hobby, since sales figures are the only thing that really will ever motivate Sega and other publishers to bring back more of these great games) and buy it.

VC is one of the greatest, most incredibly well-crafted games ever made of ANY genre, let alone SRPGs. Its hybrid turn-based combat where you move your characters while actually under fire is something I wish every game like this would try. The cel-shaded artwork is amazing, as is the sense of atmosphere in the alternate history/world World War II environment the game takes place in. The voice acting (which spans the ENTIRE GAME) is top-notch and there are moments that WILL genuinely evoke emotions from you. I personally would place it above even Skies of Arcadia and say it is right there alongside Sega's Saturn Magnum Opus (which sadly and inexcusably the West only received the first Scenario of three), Shining Force III as their greatest game of all time. It was definitely my all-time favorite on the PlayStation 3 and I've already logged about 80 hours again on the Steam version (each play-through lasts roughly 40-plus hours but you can't unlock all the characters and medals in a single, maybe even two play-throughs, just to give you a heads up. I promise though you won't mind that a bit however).

So yes, just buy it and thank me later.

[Winged One]

i would love a SoA port, as far as JRPGs go it has aged exceptionally well, and is still far better than most of whats coming out these days

[joelanderssonswe]

Yes, bring it SEGA!

[landman]

Just "announced", Sonic Lost World is this year's PC port... maye there is luck and other ports come sooner.