Skies of Arcadia was first released on the Sega Dreamcast. The game when it came out was acclaimed by almost all reviewers, and although i never owned a DC i do remember friends that had it spoke very highly of the game... Fast foward 3 years and you have Skies of Arcadia Legends, its been updated with new features, streamlined battles, touched up graphics, so read on...

GRAPHICS: 6/10
When this game came out for DC the graphics were top notch and although the character models have been touched up since the original, overall they definately dont live up to Gamecube's capabilities. There are some moments where they shine pretty well though, and overall its still not bad to look at. Also, this game does not have any FMVs like new Square games, its 100% real time 3d in that you run around scenes and dont run around on top of prerendered pictures.

SOUNDS: 8/10
The sounds overall are good, well integrated effects with good musical tracks. There are some moments where the character voices come in at semingly wrong times but its barely worth mentioning. One thing worth mentioning is on the games start screen the music is awesome, very clear and cool sounding. This makes you quite interested to hit start and begin... Unfortunately thats by far the best music you'll find in the game, and it never sounds that high quality again.

CONTROLLS: 9/10
No complains here, its an RPG, everything is precice and responsive but there are a few moments where the camera could follow you better. However thats easilly fixable by just using the C button or R&L to move it as you move.

GAMEPLAY & STORYLINE: 9/10
Its good, very good. This RPG is also the first ive ever played with a more than one style of of fighting and it integrates perfectly into the setting. There are regular turn-based battles, puzzels here and there and the standard issue spells, super attacks, and TONS of weapons and armor. Also the unique feature is the ship battles. Where as the game progresses you fly ships and get your own. With this you can upgrade the ships weapons and armor. These battles are interesting and mix up the game play a bit. Also there are ways to switch your weapons abilities through moonstones in battle which adds to the strategy.

Also there are all kinds of things to do aside from th main plot, like Wanted battles (that involve ship battles) where you have to find wanted pirates. Then there are moonfish and discoveries. The discoveries are found by searching lands along your travels and lead to items, lost treasures, and just give u cool stuff to look for.

The story starts out a bit light but picks up quite a bit, its just a great RPG.

OVERALL: 8.9/10
I almost go as far as to give it a 9 but Sega and Overworks could have spent a little more time bringing the graphics and music up to par with Gamecube's capabilities, that aside its a definate 9+/10. However they did add a LOT of other stuff to do, and overall its a VERY VERY good RPG. Probably the best one ive played since FFVII. Everyone who has a Gamecube - BUY - this game. There is definately 60 hours of gameplay here and maybe more, i havent beaten it yet.