Skies of Arcadia may be my favorite Japanese role-playing game, or even my favorite video game. I’m usually not into creating “top 5 games” lists or anything like that. But whenever someone asks for my favorite games, Skies of Arcadia is always the first to come to mind.
It has lovable and charming characters, a vast and colorful world, flashy battle system, cinematic ship battles, light-hearted story telling…. Aah! I could go on about this game forever. Aside from the high enemy encounter rate, I can’t think of much wrong with Skies of Arcadia. It avoids the spiky hair melodramatic JRPG character archetype and minimizes sappy romance stories that often bogs these types of games down.
It’s pretty much the anti-late 90s and early 2000s JRPG. It’s a world full of fun and adventure rather than death and despair. No matter how bad things get, the characters press on with confidence, hope and determination. If I wasn’t constantly moving forward with new games, I could probably play Skies of Arcadia at least once per year.
There are a lot of games I’d love for you to play, but I realize titles like Castlevania 64 and Blue Stinger have many barriers to overcome to find the fun. But with Skies of Arcadia, I can guarantee it’s a game filled with nothing but joy… And random encounters. Lots and lots of random encounters.
