History VideoGame / Skiesofarcadia

* StalkerWithACrush: Clara, who is absolutely determined to marry Gilder, whether he likes it or not. He doesn't. In her defense, she's pretty much the nicest stalker imaginable. Not so nice is Vigoro and his obsession with Aika. Note that his first meeting with her has him trying to ''rape her''. The game plays further instances of them meeting as comedy.

** Aika almost getting raped by Vigoro in a [[PrisonRape Valuan prison cell]] was toned down heavily.

** Vyse's Skull Shield negates any physical damage for one turn. However, it only blocks regular attacks, exempting magic and super moves, and Vyse himself, being your most powerful party member physically, can do a lot more. The only time it really comes in handy is when you fight [[BonusBoss Lapen]] and [[BonusBoss Elcian]] in the port, or while Looper-hunting early on, before Vyse has reliable access to Rain of Swords on the first turn for proper farming.

* BonusBoss: The Bounties in the port; special mention should go to Lapen, Daikokuya, and Lord Bane. Piastol is an example of [[ThatOneBoss That One]] BonusBoss, since she has to be fought four times before finally giving up, and she gets ''much'' stronger with each iteration. Vigoro also gets a BonusBoss battle after his change in occupation.

* EvilCounterpart: A BonusBoss in ''Legends'', which consists of counterparts to Vyse, Aika, and Fina.

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Weirdly, played with. On the one hand, they don't call him [[MeaningfulName Vigoro]] for nothing, and Aika dislikes him for the rest of the game. On the other hand, he's more [[LaughablyEvil comic]] [[SmugSnake relief]] than anything else for most of the game, and his higher-ups in the Admirality food chain are treated as worse people than him. [[spoiler: He even halfway makes a HeelFaceTurn as a BonusBoss.]]

* RocBirds: One of the BonusBoss ship battles is against a roc. It is large enough to dwarf Vyse's ship, the Delphinus, which is one of the largest craft in the game. You can also find its nest nearby, a single egg from which is said to be enough to feed an entire town for a lunar cycle.

* StupidSacrifice: Alfonso in the beginning kills his Vice Captain in a bid to preserve his reputation by pinning the Blue Rogues raid on him by stating that he was TheMole. The murder was AllForNothing since he didn't account for '''1''': The Blue Rogues letting the survivors go home free after they stole everything, and '''2''': Said survivors making it back to Valua first and submitting an accurate report which pretty much had "'''Alfonso betrayed us'''" as the headline.

* EasterEgg: Playing the Dreamcast disc in a CD player will yield a message from Vyse, Aika, and Fina that warns you not to play it like a regular CD. It’s made even funnier because they’re self-aware they are characters in a video game.

* EasterEgg: Playing this game in a CD player will yield a message from Vyse, Aika, and Fina that warns you not to play it like a regular CD. It’s made even funnier because they’re self-aware they are characters in a video game.

--> '''Vyse''': We can't save the world from a CD player, so put us back in a Dreamcast so we can do our job!

* CameraScrew: The Great Silver Shrine. Outside, you're upside down. Inside, the camera rotates a lot so that you're always right-side-up. It gets weird.

The game received an UpdatedRerelease for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube called ''Skies of Arcadia Legends''. It reduced the random encounter rate to a more sensible level (and increased the XP rewards accordingly), added in new {{Bonus Boss}}es, Discoveries and {{Sidequest}}s, and inserted the content that was originally tied to the Dreamcast's VMU minigame.

** The villains cover much of the spectrum: Belleza is an AntiVillain who is fine with espionage and betrayal, but generally tries to avoid murdering people due to her TearJerker backstory. Vigoro [[spoiler:can pull a HeelFaceTurn]] despite coming [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil scarily close to raping Aika]]. Gregorio is a PunchClockVillain and honorable guy who [[spoiler:pulls a HeroicSacrifice]] to save the heroes. Ramirez is presented as a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide Galcian]], [[AxCrazy De Loco]], [[SmugSnake Alfonso]], and [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Empress Teodora]] are basically pitch black.

%%* FiveManBand: [[TheHero Vyse]], [[TheLancer Aika]], Gilder & Enrique (who take turns at TheSmartGuy), [[TheBigGuy Drachma]] and [[TheChick Fina]] form one.

** Magic, overlapping with TooAwesomeToUse due to the fact that itcosts both MP and the precious Spirit Points you're saving for special attacks. Even more so in the later part of the game, where you'll likely be spamming Delta Shield (which blocks both incoming ''and'' outgoing magic) to block incoming stat-reduction yellow spells and instant-death silver spells.

''[[https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5314/ Hold B to Skip Encounters]]'' is exactly what it seems; a mod that disables RandomEncounters while the button is pressed. It is only compatible with the ''Legends'' version.
** ''[[https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2859/ Skies of Arcadia: Legends Maeson]]'' is a rebalance mod that significantly reworks character stats, items, S-Moves, Magic, and ship combat to be much more difficult, while making aspects of the game more useful as a whole. Contains DummiedOut equipment that went unused in the game. The latest version of the patch is also compatible with the above ''Skip Encounters''.

* {{Gainaxing}}:
** Belle, one of the crew members you can recruit, is rather bouncy. Especially since she's also a GenkiGirl and source of much [[InnocentFanserviceGirl Innocent Fanservice]]. Did we mention you can end up talking to her while she's [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything polishing an artillery shell]]?
** For that matter, Bellena has some impressive (though subtle) jiggle physics.
** For a male example, you have Pinta's belly jiggles.
** The ''really'' interesting bit is that your two female companions (and a vast majority of other female characters, including Piastol, an otherwise leather-clad dominatrix-looking type) do NOT have any jiggle physics to speak of. This implies that it isn't an artifact of the physics engine, but instead something that someone spent development time on simulating.

* WeaponOfChoice:
** CoolSword: Vyse.
** PrecisionGuidedBoomerang: Aika.
** PowerFist: Drachma.
** MorphWeapon: Fina.
** {{Handguns}}: Gilder.
** RoyalRapier: Enrique.

-->Alfonso: I didn't mean to interrupt one of your intellectual monologues. I came to tell you that Vyse has broken into the mines.
-->De Loco: [[SarcasmMode ...And you figured this out all by yourself? What gave it away? Was it the alarm? Maybe it was the sirens.]]

* {{Evil Brit}}s: The Valuans, by and large, despite their Spanish names, draw most heavily on traditions of British villains as {{Evil Colonialist}}s that are either coldly self-interested intellectuals, self-absorbed fops, or honorable old gentlemen too loyal to a corrupt system to change it.

* ChefOfIron: Gordo and his bistro.

** The moons, moonstones, and civilizations, all six colors: Green, Red, Purple, Blue, Yellow, and Silver, with a lone discovery in the Dark Rift hinting to a Black Moon.

* ContrivedCoincidence: The Daccat's Island portion overall.

* TheEmpire: Though, like most JRPG examples, Valua can only lay claim to some parcels of wasteland. Their only colonies (excepting Yafutoma, which is quickly liberated by Vyse and his pirate counterparts in the east) are Esparanza and Ixa'Taka; acquiring governorship of the latter is viewed by Alfonso as [[ReassignedToAntarctica a horrible punishment]].
* EncounterBait: The Black Map is an equipable acessory that increases the random encounter rate, and also makes it impossible for enemies to run away.

* {{Evil Brit}}s: The Valuans, by and large.

** The best example is the Bleigock (the aforementioned "acid-spewing rabbit"), a gigantic blob in the game's sewer level. What made him twice as bad was that not only does he come from nowhere, but after beating him, you ''immediately'' have to fight a boss that IS related to the story. That sequence sticks is one of the toughest parts of the entire game, partially because it happens so early and your healing options are very limited. It thematically fits, eating the corpses thrown down from the arena, but it appears in an unassuming empty room guarding the ladder to ''another boss fight''.

* FireIceDuo: Sinistra(fire) and Destra(ice).
%%%% Zero Context
%%%* FiveManBand: [[TheHero Vyse]], [[TheLancer Aika]], Gilder & Enrique (who take turns at TheSmartGuy), [[TheBigGuy Drachma]] and [[TheChick Fina]] form one.

%%* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere

** Vyse's Skull Shield negates any physical damage for one turn. However, it only blocks regular attacks, exempting magic and super moves, and Vyse himself, being your most powerful party member physically, can do a lot more. The only time it really comes in handy is when you fight [[BonusBoss Lapen]] and [[BonusBoss Elcian]] in the port.
** Most super moves fall into this category, due to being either too situational to get much use or outclassed by other super moves that do better damage relative to their spirit cost.
** Magic, overlapping with TooAwesomeToUse due to the fact that is costs both MP and the precious Spirit Points you're saving for special attacks. Even more so in the later part of the game, where you'll likely be spamming Delta Shield (which blocks both incoming ''and'' outgoing magic) to block incoming stat-reduction yellow spells and instant-death silver spells.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Vyse is quite the playboy of the skies, but he attracts his share of creepy admirers, as well: the butterball moneylender Osman, the Ixa'ness demons, the rich bachelor Daikokuya...

** Now Bellena's CleavageWindow, on the [[UpToEleven other hand]]...

* ForbiddenZone: The Dark Rift may fool you into thinking it's the most terrifying environment imaginable. Deep Sky takes it UpToEleven.

* BlindingBangs: A little girl standing on the balcony of Sailor Island's inn.