Amazon.com Product Description
Grab the wheel of your airship and prepare to embark on an adventure of legendary proportions. You are Vyse, a young member of the Blue Rogue pirates. Together with your childhood friend Aika and a mysterious girl named Fina, you are locked in an epic struggle with a powerful enemy nation for the fate of the world. You must gather your own crew of air pirates and journey through uncharted skies to obliterate the empire from every corner of the map. Along the way you'll wage battles against savage monsters and evil pirates as you make a name for yourself on land and in the sky. For the first time you can experience the complete story of this critically acclaimed RPG, with hours of new gameplay containing additional background stories for key characters. Interact with a brilliantly animated cast of characters, monsters, and villains, explore astounding environments, and unravel a dramatic and twisting story line. You can explore six enormous virtual lands with landscapes ranging from massive deserts and quaint villages to the cold reaches of outer space. Customize your own airship and gather up to 22 crew members to help attack or protect against other ships. There is hand-to-hand and ship-to-ship combat featuring spectacular spell effects, amazing special attacks, and an improved battle engine.
It's been 5 years now... - Reviewed on 2007-12-30
2 customers found this review helpful.
I purchased this game when it came out in 2003 and couldn't wait until I got home to play it. The first day I played it, I spent 6 hours playing and not knowing where the time went. After I beat the game, I, of course, moved on with my life playing games, going to school, etc.. Still, I haven't found a game more satisfying to play than this game. But enough reminiscing, let me tell you why I love this game.
First off, the story. I know several elements of the game's story are a bit cliche, such as having to defeat an evil empire, finding a certain number of ancient crystals to protect innocents from being subject to their power, a love triangle, and such. However, the CHARACTERS of this game really make the story evolve from a basic plot to an exciting adventure story. Main man Vyse is courageous, cool, and likable. Far from the moody, depressed heroes of many modern RPGs. Everyone that Vyse meets in the game has a personality, and when these characters act, it really feels like they are actual people in an actual world that could exist. What they say and do is the most influential aspect of this game, making the story into a far deeper element than "beat the bad guys, save the world, get the girl."
The next aspect is the design of the game. This is an enhanced port of a Dreamcast title, so if you played this before, you won't find too many new things here. However, seeing all the action of the game take place in the sky on floating islands and airships is a whimsical sight to behold, and it really creates some memorable scenes in the game when all you can see is ships fight and the sky. The music is epic, from pirate themes to sorrowful tunes, the orchestrated music is wonderful. Unfortunately, this Gamecube port has lower quality music that the original. If you want cleaner music, I suggest the Dreamcast original. Another downer is the graphics. They are not bad by any means, but the full extent of the Gamecube's graphical power is not used here. Yes, it has higher polygon counts than the original, but several characters appear to be somewhat blocky. But to seriously look down on the game for that reason is folly. However, if perfect graphics are your dig, move on.
Next, the combat. Just like in the original, there are quite a few random encounters in this game. Not as many, but still a lot. I know many people don't like this, but that's the way the game is made. The actual combat is turned based, like many RPGs, but the most unique aspect of the combat is the Spirit Point meter. You get a certain amount of "SP" each round, and they are shared by all members of the party. They are used for magic and special moves, adding strategy and planning to the combat. The other unique aspect are the ship battles. They are similar to normal combat, but they are ship-to-ship, and they require different strategy because of the different weapons your ship can use. You slot in the moves and watch the battle go. Some may find this slow and frustrating, others, like me, do not.
The last thing is the extra stuff. While sailing, you can find hidden locations and objects called "Discoveries." Finding these will earn you money at local towns. There are more Discoveries in this version that the Dreamcast title. There is optional Moonfishing side story that lets you play through a subplot involving a vengeful pirate hunter, a doctor, a little girl, and a bird. This quest is also new. Also, there is a small list of strong bounties to collect, new to this version. Aside from those things, there is a special weapon just for Vyse later in the game, and a special boss to fight. Doing all this stuff increases your rank, changing the way people talk to you and the way to find new things.
Indeed, this game is not perfect, but I believe once you get involved in the game's many great qualities, you will overlook its small flaws. The intriguing setting and characters will entice you and make you want to keep playing. This is one of the Gamecube's more overlooked titles, and I recommend this title to anyone with a Gamecube. You won't regret it. I didn't, and haven't been for 5 years.
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