Skies of Arcadia

Vyce, a young sky pirate, encounters a strange girl being kidnapped by the evil Valuan Empire. Rescuing her he sets off on a quest to get his own ship, save the world, build a pirate base and hopefully get some plunder along the way.

Overall the game is an extensive mix of strategic sky battles, empire building and classic RPG action. The graphics are beautifully animated if rather basic, but some of the lighting effects are excellent and the sky battle sequences are gripping. The sound works well with the game and is rarely intrusive, while the background score is excellent.

The standout feature is the air battles, which feature excellent action sequences and a strategy-based mechanic that makes you have to anticipate your opponent and outthink as well as outfight him. However, this is supported by a strong plot, excellent characters and a huge variety of side quests. There are literally enough sidequests to keep a player busy for hours (at one point we abandoned the main quest for ten hours to hunt "Discoveries"). The controls were easy and intuitive, and elements that may have seemed complex were clearly explained before use. The tutorials from older mentors also made sense in the context of the game.

On its downside, I would have liked to have access to more ships, as this version of the game only has two, and more upgrades. The ship upgrades seemed to focus mainly on weapons and armour, understandable as they are pirates. Also, you can run into a great many random encounters getting around the map, and although they can be dodged it can take you far out of your way. Also, there is simply so much to do it can be easy to leave areas wondering if you've got everything you need.