Thread 718424841

Does Skies of Arcadia hold up? Is it worth downloading?

Wait for the remaster.

>>718425043
I'm fine with older games, I'm just downloading shit for Dolphin, I don't need a remaster and also I don't have a PS5 or Switch..

>>718424841 (OP)
It's great. The Gamecube version has extra content (including a rather important plot point) but worse audio than the Dreamcast original.

>>718424841 (OP)
Yes.

>>718425209
Is the worse audio a problem? I don't know shit about dreamcast emulation but I was hoping to just make everything easy and do it all off Dolphin. I'd probably just play the gamecube version and, if I like it, listen to the soundtrack on youtube.

>>718425596
NTA but I never had a problem with it whatsoever, outside of like one weird little section midway through.

>>718425596
It is noticeable if you compare the two versions audio but honestly its not that big of a deal. the pros of legends outweigh the cons.

Yeah it still holds up because its one of those rare games that only uses in-game gameplay for cinematics. there's no CGI except for the credits. the graphics may be old but it feels seamless when you play through it unlike those weird ps1/ps2 jrpgs that cut to weird low res bad early 00s cgi.

>>718425681
>>718425774
>>718425361
Alright I'm downloading it and I'll put some hours into it, thanks friends.

skies of arcadia is a really awesome game if you are in the mood to enjoy a games story.
the rpg itself will not blow you away. lots of random encounter battles that tend to drag on, but exploring the world was so cool and the game just felt very fulfilling.

the audio quality of the gc port takes a hit, but also there is a little more content. honestly I would say just emulate it, just make sure to look up the ost afterwards.

>>718425596
Like >>718425774 said, you can only really notice it if you compare them side by side. The difference is jarring. However, it's the kind of thing that only audiophiles care about. Only absolute purists would recommend the DC version over the GC version.
>>718426002
I envy you, getting to play this game for the first time.

The GC audio is a travesty and everyone that claims that
>it doesn't matter lmao
is a certified homosexual
that sucks cock

Gamecube releases suffer from being dubbed with no language options.
Some have undub patches floating around but I don't think Arcadia is one of them. Good luck finding a nip version.

>>718424841 (OP)
Yes, it's great. Played it for the first time last year. It's one of those standouts of the genre, it excels in every department. Sky pirates are cool, it's full of top tier waifus, and they give you an airship and turn you loose within the first hour or so. Airship battles are fun too.

>>718426203
undub version exists for both dc and gc but honestly its pointless since you're only changing grunt sounds theres no real voice acting

>>718425209
the audio being worse only matters because the music is 10/10.
the gc extras make it worth it however.

>>718424841 (OP)
i’d take sequels of this over mountains of sonic autism anyday.

>>718426002
based. there are some nice texture packs for the gamecube version on dolphin too

>>718426203
>oh no vyse is saying "cutlass fury" instead of "makabaka nippon retzu zetsu striku" it's over
who gives a fuck

>>718426392
im surprised nobody has made a modified gamecube iso for better music. it probably wont be playable on the real hardware but surely emulators can handle it right?

>>718426272
>theres no real voice acting
FIRE CONSUME MY ENEMIES
LAMBDA BURST!
BACK OFF
ALPHA STOOOOORM

>>718426139
There's a restoration patch which puts the dreamcast audio back in.

>>718426664
valkyria chronicles has more voice acting and its a strategy game lol

>>718426686
No there fucking isn't you retard
please prove me wrong anon... I've been waiting for a remaster for way too fucking long

Downloading from where? This game isn't available to download on any current digital storefront.

You'll just have to download someone's digital backup copy for free.

Growing up is realizing Drachma was the meta party member choice instead of Enrique

>>718426139
Based and absolutely correct-pilled. The audio downgrade on the GC version is unforgivable when the Dreamcast had that GOD TIER orchestral OST blasting out like it was trying to ascend your soul. That first time "Clara's Theme" hits and it's running on GameCube compression? Feels like getting dropkicked by a wet sock. Play it on Dolphin with the audio restoration patch or suffer eternal shame.

>>718426686
>There's a restoration patch which puts the dreamcast audio back in.
lol no
and there never will be because they didn't use cd audio

>>718424841 (OP)
play the DC version because youre only a real man in my eyes if youre willing to sit through the worst most excruciating encounter rates in jrpgs
to a warrior with pain tolerance like yours this should be childs play

>>718427372
I just use Reddit's rom site.

>>718425596
Comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNugQ37VUqw
Seemingly the problem is that the Dreamcast used InVision's CyberSound middleware -- which never got Gamecube support because InVision went bankrupt. So they had to use the MusyX sound tools by Factor 5, and things didn't go perfect on the move.

>>718430928
That's honestly not that big of a drop. Definitely the dreamcast is better for an OST but I imagine you'd be too distracted by the visuals to really notice a bit more crushed audio, it's basically the same.

>>718424841 (OP)
yes.

>>718427443
They both great. I just prefer Enrique.

>>718429982
Ah yes, by Mr. Megan Treed. Great Archive, that!

>>718424841 (OP)
I tried this game once and it was so unbelievably childish I just couldn't play it.

>>718424841 (OP)
yes x2

>>718432504
you need to unlearn shame

>>718430928
i honestly thought it was because gamecubes disc was too small and the dreamcast came on 2 discs.

>>718432504
Don't worry, you'll grow up someday.

>>718432756
>>718432838
>>718432961
It's one of the few games where I just couldn't look past it.

>>718432504
i appreciated it more when i replayed it when i was older because drachma became a highly relatable and based character. when i was a kid i thought gilder was based, turns out drachma was the based one all along.

>>718425043
>remaster

They lost the source code long ago brother. They aint going to redo all of it.

The only likely rerelease of the game, unfortunately, is through the Switch 2 Online Gamecube emulation service.

is there an uncensor patch for the dreamcast version?

>>718433329
thats just playing the jp version with a english "undub".

>>718424841 (OP)
>someone brings up the soundtrack or says the english version isn't kino
ignore, just play the legends version it rules

>>718433150
It's one of the few where I could.

>>718433258
>tfw you beat the game, read the personal ending for each of the crewmembers and find out that Drachma pretty much immediately dies post-game

>>718433150
is it the artstyle?

>>718424841 (OP)
>>718425361
they all died in valkyria chronicles anime for some reason....

>>718434112
Everybody's gotta die sometime, Red.

>>718424841 (OP)
Back off! ALPHA STORMMMMM!

>>718425209
whats the plot point so I can play the classic Dreamcast version ?

DAD-WAS-ZIZI

>>718432504
I, too, remember when I was 12 and let my friend borrow the game, who then proceeded to loudly complain
>YOU ARE JUST CHANGING COLORS THIS GAME IS FOR BABBIES
He, too, was a fucking retard

>>718433891
it hit harder than i was expecting, old bastard had a good end though all things considered.

if you want to make it harder save your ship hp upgrades until you get the final ship like I first did

>>718432504
It starts cute and colorful, but some grim shit does happen later.

>>718436284
I do this every single save except maybe the first time I played it. There really aren't that many fights in the first ship, and it just feels like a waste to use it on them.

>>718436471
>grim shit
hot shit*

>>718436517
the upgrades are passed on so it's technically not a waste

>>718438283
>the upgrades are passed on
Well shit.

>>718430928
That's really bad. Dreamcast it is.

>>718424841 (OP)
I've heard the pacing or the gameplay was shit, and the story doesn't sound that great, so I never bothered

>I'm gonna skip out on all these new sidequests, boss battles and story content because the music is worse
Autism. I know, "where you do think we are" and all that, but this really is the height of autism.

>>718425043

I fucking wish.

>>718439202
some people really hate turn based games and they suck at jrpgs in general so they run in circles more than they have to (enter random encounters more)

>>718439242
Whenever I've played an updated re-release of a game like this that adds new content, it's either filler at best or actively makes the game shittier at worst.

>>718439640
Nice cope. I know Atlus rereleases probably mindbroke you but this is not one of those cases.

the proper experience is to finish Legends THEN listen to the de-vaselined ost while you bask in the glory of this 8/10 masterpiece

Alright since nobody else has been honest I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get called a zoomer by a bunch of faggots. Skies of Arcadia is SO FUCKING SLOW. Everything you do takes ages. The climbing takes ages. The combat takes ages. The cutscenes take ages. Holy shit every single attack animation is 30 seconds long. You think it won't bother you at first but I couldn't keep playing without increasing the speed. I had the same issue with Xenosaga. These games just absolutely did not value your time even slightly. If you can ignore all of this, it's a classic game and very unique. The audio is definitely fucked like other anons have said as well, though.

>>718424841 (OP)
Oh no!

It's the crown jewel of my collection and I'm proud child me actually bought it when I did.
Fuck Sega for never doing anything with this game except as crossover fodder.

>>718436592
the attempted rape? it surprised me a little

>>718440190
I agree. That's why I dropped the game eventually.

>>718440190
I can tolerate most of it with the exception of sky battles. Holy fuck, those have to be the most drawn out gameplay segments of all time. I'd have to bust out a podcast or something every time they popped up

>>718440190
That's what I meant when I said I've heard people shitting on the pacing of the game

Are we getting these threads because a remake is about to release?

>>718440387
Don't give me that kind of hope...

>>718440387
I hope not. Remakes should be illegal.

>>718440492
it's been in the making for a while now

>>718440589
We're getting our 200 dollar statue and we're going to like it anon
https://youtu.be/x4BWbr1rVdc?si=XaenOpXd-xqgEzlb

>>718425361
Does Vyse fuck both of them?

>>718433321
>They lost the source code
I'm still shocked any time I hear something like this. I still have PC game discs from 2003 despite moving a hundred times since then but not one of the devs who labored over a game can't safeguard the fucking source code?

>>718440924
__yes__

>>718434112
Vyse was resurrected in VC3 ovas

>>718440956
Sega is retarded. This isn't anything we didn't already know.

>>718440956
It's not always about safeguarding. JP devs are notorious for throwing out source codes to make room for new projects.

>>718440387
No we get them every so often due to the cult fanbase here (me and two other anons) desperately wanting a remake or sequel and trying to manifest it into existence

>>718424841 (OP)
>Does Skies of Arcadia hold up?
I remember it being fucking amazing as a teen. I don't know how it holds up. I remember it had a shitton of random encounters and amazing music.

>>718433321
That's not a rerelease, that's just some soulless, corporate zombie shit. Literally just emulation you have to pay for, but worse.

>>718440387
They should just hire that studio that did remakes for Trials of Mana and Romancing Saga for Square Enix
Any other remake, especially the one that aims for realism like FF7 would ruin the game

Maybe some based autist will remake the game in Unity like that guy did for Daggerfall. Then you could get the Dreamcast music, the Gamecube content, the uncensored threeway sex scene between Vyse and his gfs, and a button to toggle off random encounters and speed up ship battles.

>>718441096
>throwing out source codes
not wise, they could've sold it to microsoft so they would train their AI on it

>>718426790
do they have the same VAs there (in Japanese)?

>>718441096
How much room could source code possibly take up

>>718424841 (OP)
It's enjoyable if a bit basic. The main gimmick is the airship battles but they can a bit tedious to get through. I think there are a lot of better JRPGs from that era to sink 50+ hours into.

Sega hasn't re-released any of the Sakura Wars games since their initial respective releases either.
Does Sega just fucking throw out all their non-Sonic games after completing them?

>>718441096
>>718441404
I think it's more similar to how movies or TV shows have become lost media, during cleaning someone that don't know better throw out trash and it happens to be the last existing reel.
When source code is lost someone is just throwing away old computers and it had a HDD with the last copy of the source. It'll probably be very rare to happen today with online collaboration systems like git.

>>718440924
They all sleep in the same bed, platonically. Then they have sloppy threesomes, platonically.

>>718441685
Hell of a deal

>>718441685
Vyse only fucks Aika platonically
He and Fina are definitely lovers

>>718441671
Partially, but sometimes there was genuinely a mindset of "well, we're done with this, and probably never gonna need to use it again (not thinking about the prospect of remasters and the like because it's 199-something), may as well throw it out"

>>718442204
i can't even comprehend intentional source deletion as something that ever happened. compression existed in the 90s as well.

>>718442168
And Aika & Fina eat each other out. Platonically.

>>718442204
I'd say that's reasonable logic, if it weren't for the fact they were already arcade re-release collections out by then, hell, Mario All-Stars had been out at least about 4 or 5 years by the time Sega was working on all their Dreamcast games, and somebody should've saw that and think maybe it would be a good idea to save these games fro future release

Fuck they arleady did that since SoA got a re-released on the Gamecube, they didn't think it was worth saving for future consoles now that they were out of the console game?

>>718442489
>hey boss the new programmer is building his PC and needs a hard disk
>oh, uh use this one
>hands over disk to be formatted where the post-it note that said "final source, do not touch" had fallen off

>>718427372
Nice try, glownigger

>>718442489
>>718442204
That happened a lot more in thew earlier bit eras, when people didn't really imagine things would be advancing as quickly as they did, and older systems and code becoming as obsolete so quickly. These days it really is more of a "it got misplaced/someone took it home/it was in a computer that got tossed" situation more than anything else. A lot of companies that aren't super IP conscious and protective are surprisingly lackadaisical with their data.

>>718442778
And that's why Sega doesn't make consoles anymore and can barely stay afloat as a publisher

I dunno about Sega but here's an interview with Square-Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda, per Gameinformer.
>I'm embarrassed to admit it, but in some cases, we don't know where the code is anymore. It's very hard to find them sometimes, because back in the day you just made them and put them out there and you were done – you didn't think of how you were going to sell them down the road.
They didn't throw them out intentionally but they didn't care enough to look after them because they figured they were done with it for good.

Say what you will about Nintendo, but they make damn sure they keep everything that they make.

>In February 2003, Overworks president Noriyoshi Ohba announced that a Skies of Arcadia sequel had entered the planning stages.[88][89][90] However, in a December 2004 interview, Kodama stated that while there had been plans for a sequel, the project was put on hold indefinitely while many members of the team were pulled into working on Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love.[91]

>Starting in 2010, Sega began a campaign of releasing HD remasters of Dreamcast games digitally on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, including games such as Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure 2 and Jet Set Radio.[92][93] In 2012, Sega brand manager Ben Harborne stated that a Skies of Arcadia HD was a likely next release, after Shenmue, as they were the most frequently requested titles for re-release.[92]
Any day now...

>>718443367
Man....

>hardest optional fight in the game is 3 brown girls
Do bounty bosses scale with levels in this game? I tried grinding until lv50 and they were still one shotting me with buffs. I had to cheese it with an Aura of Valor.

Aika - Tifa
Fina - Aerith
Drachma - Barret
Ramirez - Sephiroth

No black beard fight

>>718443529
>he doesn't know

>>718440956
The code isn’t the devs property, so they’d have to make unauthorized copies and lie about deleting them - which happened a lot. The company just sees useless data (the game is already out) they don’t want to pay to store and don’t want falling into a competitor’s hands.
In all honesty it’s not that crazy, people back then thought you could just hire new programmers to make it again and didn’t realize the entire industry would be flooded with foreigners, women, and other incompetents.
>What do you mean, just paint it again! We have pictures of the whole Sistine chapel! Can you really not copy something?
>Well saar, here’s the thing…

>>718443529
Dunno
But those optional fights all were quite fun. I remember that you always had to have some proper strategy in place to win them, you couldn't just steamroll your enemies with superior stats
These 3 were not that challenging though
I struggled way more with that one Gundam mecha that could one shot you

>>718443932
can't believe that Galcian reincarnated into this thing

>>718424841 (OP)
Doesn't this have a fanfic TL?

>>718444364
compare it yourself
https://files.catbox.moe/zjvf0x.xlsx

>>718443529
The Bounties do indeed scale as you level up. One workaround you can do is to use the permanent Stat Increase items, which won't increase the bounties stats.

>play SoA at 11, immediately becomes my favorite, most cherished game
>over 2 decades later and I turned out to be an unimaginable failure
thought I'd be Vyse, became Don instead
still 9 years younger than him, it's not too late bros...

>>718445089
busted!

>>718447343
you're doing alright anon, i believe in you

>>718440190
Complaints about speed are stupid since 99% of people playing today are doing so on an emulator.

>>718440190
you're right, it's a time sink even if you play on the fixed version (game cube).
but i enjoyed my time with it anyway. would never have bothered if not emulating with fast forward tho. FF7 is also a horrible time sink without emulating.

>>718424841 (OP)
Did anyone unfuck the localized script

>>718448661
those legs ruin it for me

>>718438824
Be warned: it's not just the music that is different
In the original Dreamcast version the encounter rate is ABSURD. You will fight something every two steps. The Gamecube version toned it down.

>>718448456
It's fine. Don't believe all the dumb shit you hear.

>>718450232
It doesn't mean much. Trademarks need to be renewed and it's happened to other properties in the past with nothing to show for it.

>>718450232
Oh boy I wonder what this coud mea-
>>718440739

You did get the secret cutscene, right /v/?

>>718440739
they fucked up Aika's semi-panties, it's more like shorts on those. length is all wrong compared to how it was in the game. i bet Fina has no details at all.

>>718451637
lulz