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Am I right in thinking that the concept and development was led by a -gasp!- lady?
Many ladies, iirc. I've got a feeling that all the senior staff were female. It's difficult - impossible, really - to say this without sounding patronising, but the difference shines through immediately. One of the many great things about Skies is that, of the three main characters, two are female, and yet there's absolutely no descent into the Japanese RPG staple of the love triangle. There's no attempt to have the male character fancy either of his counterparts, nor for either of them to harbour secret desires for him. It's just a completely natural sense of friendship.
*Everything* feels different to the usual. The art in the cut scenes feels European in terms of detail, but still looks to manga stuff in terms of composition. The use of colour is astonishing - it's such a vibrant game.
Aspects of the sound and graphics have aged, obviously, but only technically - the score's outstanding (particularly the title screen track, which is reason alone to buy the soundtrack) and the design of the characters and environments is still a real change from the super-deformed or ultra-realistic figures of games like Final Fantasy and the bleak, dystopian futures and cliched fantasy settings of western RPGS and cute JPN RPGs. Again, it's like a Japanese take on European design - there are elements of the sort of worlds you get in a lot of French games, for example, but from a perspective distant enough that it doesn't become a carbon copy and instead mixes it together with elements of its own native sensibilities.
If that makes sense. I think it does. Maybe.
I'm playing it for the third time now. Messed up both previous attempts. First was last summer, when I got forty hours in (up to Exile Island) before having to start the last semester of university and give up games which demanded anything more than five minutes play at a time. Tried to return to that save in June of this year, but found that I'd forgotten a lot of the plot and didn't want to have half an experience, so started over.
And then, did something stupid. Got twenty hours in, up to the point where Vyse gets seperated from Aika and Fina because of Drachma's obsession (trying to avoid spoilers here, Suedey, so you owe me ;]). Vyse meets the pirate who's a womanising gunslinger - forget his name right now. Got to that point, saved it. Suddenly realised that I'd forgotten to search for a certain discovery in the air around Nasr. Flew to the nearest Sailor's Guild, only to find that I'd been beaten to it by Domingo, and so wouldn't get to see any of the three secrets for 100% completion. Pissed. Off.
So I've had to start over for a third time. What's surprising is that it's still a pleasure to play through the early sections, even though I've done the first couple of hours four times now (they were playable on a Dreamcast demo disc, way back when). I'm up to Rixis now, so not too far away from when I had to abandon my previous game. Not an issue this time around - I've made sure that I've hunted out every last available discovery.
And yet, I've just found one in the skies above Horteka that I've never come across before - one of the super-secret Gamecube exclusives.
This is what makes it a great game. The senses of freedom and of your actions affecting the world are unparalleled for this sort of thing, and it's all smoke and mirrors. You have freedom to explore, but only in certain sections at certain times. The story and plot are totally static. You have no say at all in the makeup of your adventuring party. But you never notice these things while you're playing - then, you've got complete command of the skies. Search for undiscovered wonders, hunt out and destroy the ships of evil Black Pirates, collect bounties, help a traumatised child regain her ability to speak, feed a strange alien bird-thing, scour the world for items that'll evolve your one character's organic weapon to its ultimate form. Non-story quests, one and all. This is the freedom.
And the story! Fucking total pirate adventuring! As soon as you start the game you're boarding one of the evil empire's giant warships from your tiny wooden sail boat, intent on robbing them blind and using the money to help out the poor and needy. Mint! Then see your home island burned to the ground and mount a rescue operation to free your sailing buddies from the executioner's block in the coliseum at the heart of the empire. Boomf! Follow this up by setting out to make your own name in the world, only to come a cropper when you collide with a legendary giant sky whale. Yeeks!
And that's two, three hours into a seventy hour epic. Gargle!
I'm sorry. You see, I thought... I thought I was the only one. Sobs! Happiness! Gamecube owning SoA virgins - you make me sad. Sad! But there is hope - play it and you'll increase not just my happiness, but your own. Joy!
By the way, Meludreen, have you got around to Tales of Symphonia yet? I hear many good things, not least of which is favourable comparison to SoA. |
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