History YMMV / SkiesOfArcadia

* CanonFodder: Lots of jokes about literal cannon fodder aside, there are a lot of little details throughout the world of Arcadia that the fanbase has pounced on.

* {{Woolseyism}}: Chris Lucich and Klayton Vorlick, the two-man localization team, worked 80-100 hours a week every week for months to first put together a rough Japanese translation, then [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skies_of_Arcadia#Localization to essentially re-write the entire game from scratch]] to create something that would play better to a Western audience. The results speak for themselves; ''Skies of Arcadia'' remains a quotable and beloved title for its witty, earnest English dialogue even today.

** Pow's ability might not be amazing, but Meridia's Jester effect does literally nothing, since a ship's gold value is irrelevant.

** Galcian crosses this when [[spoiler:he summons the Rains of Destruction on Valua]].

** Justice Shield halves the damage from the majority of attacks.
** Delta Shield blocks all magic attacks and is invaluable against instant death attacks. It does unfortunately also block your own healing spells and the like, but the functionally identical items you'll [[MoneyForNothing eventually be swimming in]], as noted below, work just fine.
** Pirates' Wrath deals massive damage for a not-unreasonable amount of SP. It can devastate bosses. Especially if Vyse's equipment is up to date.
** Most Bounty fights can be easily dealt with by spamming Justice Shield and Delta Shield every round until you max out your SP meter, and then casting the normally AwesomeButImpractical Prophecy for massive damage. It probably won't TPK your opponent, but they'll definitely be seriously hurting and easy pickings to finish off.

*** Moonberries in general. Depending on how thorough your exploration is, on top of a little bit of luck from enemy drops, you can easily pump Moonberries into Aika or Vyse to have them learn strong single-target or crowd-clearing magic attacks in no time at all. With a few Focus turns, you can simply wait out the enemy to unleash very powerful S-Moves just a few hours in the game.

*** Better. Recruit Ilchymis, upgrade the item shop at your home base, and he'll be able to sell you seeds. As in, the items that provide the given party member with a '''permanent''' stat boost. And given the MoneyForNothing nature of this game, you can very easily pump your party members full of seeds and transform them into stupidly broken Arcadia-walking deities.
*** Magic Boxes cast a spell on demand for free (albeit with a chance of breaking) but also don't factor in the user's Magic stat, allowing them to be used as the primary damage source for underlevelled characters during a speedrun.

* ThatOneAttack:
** Ramirez's high-damage, full-party damaging attack 'Silver Eclipse' can easily put the party at risk of a wipe.
---> '''Ramirez''': Where there is light... THERE IS DARKNESS!

* TheWoobie: Fina. [[spoiler: Over the course of the game she loses everyone she's ever known prior to coming to Arcadia, and ends up having to help personally kill the other remaining Silvite due to how insane and vengeful he'd becomee. She pulls through to the other side thanks to Vyse and Aika; it's one of the reasons fans see the trio as OneTrueThreesome.]]

** Torpedoes typically have their high power and ability to hit on "target lost" turns balanced by poor accuracy. Recruit TikaTika as a crewmember and they'll become perfectly accurate, making them the primary damage source in the late game during speedruns.

--> Ramirez: Where there is light... THERE IS DARKNESS!

-->'''Daikokuya''': [[PreAssKickingOneLiner "Money makes the world go 'round!"]]

* {{Moe}}: Belle is a pretty but ditzy girl who is trying to get the basics of her job down.

** How the bloody hell did Lapen build a Moonstone Cannon?

* GoddamnedBoss: Bosses, plural: Barta and Rupee. Daikokuya also counts. Both are fairly tough BonusBoss fights with unexpected gimmicks.

* CultClassic: Few have heard of the game and even fewer have played it, but damn near everyone who did loved it.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: One of the criticisms of ''Skies of Arcadia'' is that its late-game battles are basically identical. Aika uses Delta Shield (blocks magic), Enrique casts Justice Shield (reduce all damage by half), Fina uses Focus to charge the SP Meter or uses items to heal the party that get around Delta Shield, occasionally pulling out Lunar Winds in emergencies, and Vyse either also uses Focus or attacks an enemy with Pirate's Wrath. Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum, until either everything is dead, or you have a full SP bar to use Prophecy, which will almost always ''cause'' something to be dead. There's very few enemies or boss battles that provide a counter to any part of this strategy. And while it's absurdly effective, it can take the edge off of fights when you know that most enemies can't get around it.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: One of the criticisms of ''Skies of Arcadia'' is that its late-game battles are basically identical. Aika uses Delta Shield (blocks magic), Enrique casts Justice Shield (reduce all damage by half), Fina uses Focus to charge the SP Meter or uses items to heal the party that get around Delta Shield, and Vyse either also uses Focus or attacks an enemy with Pirate's Wrath. Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum, until either everything is dead, or you have a full SP bar to use Prophecy, which will almost always ''cause'' something to be dead. There's very few enemies or boss battles that provide a counter to any part of this strategy. And while it's absurdly effective, it can take the edge off of fights when you know that most enemies can't get around it.

** Yeligar, the Yellow Gigas, is made out to be an incredibly powerful beast that had to be completely sealed away by the ancient civilization and multiple characters will tout at its supposed destructive power. In practice it is one of the easier ship boss battles in the game with its low damage output and lack of debilitating mechanics. The only attack that might cause trouble is its highly telegraphed WaveMotionGun which you can completely shut down if you blast it with your own first, something that you will have no trouble doing at every opportunity.

** More area specific (and outlined in greater detail below) are Gravers, dangerous South Ocean monsters with instant kill attacks that come very early in the game.

* ValuesDissonance: Vigoro's character and especially his AttemptedRape of Aika would ''not'' be played for laughs these days.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: One of the criticisms of ''Skies of Arcadia'' is that its late-game battles are basically identical. Aika uses Delta Shield (blocks magic), Enrique casts Justice Shield (reduce all damage by half), Fina uses Focus to charge the SP Meter or uses items to heal the party that get around Delta Shield, and Vyse either also uses Focus or attacks an enemy with Pirate's Wrath. Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum, until everything is dead. There's very few enemies or boss battles that provide a counter to any part of this strategy. And while it's absurdly effective, it can take the edge off of fights when you know that most enemies can't get around it.

** The localization is not without contention however, since some censorship and writing alterations applied, particularly with regard to mature content such as references to Aika being assaulted by Vigaro when captured by him, or late game scenes depicting Ramirez' devotion to Galcian.

** Vyse can count as this as well. Unfailingly optimistic and driven, ends up personally exploring the entire world and becoming a world-famous pirate to the point of imposters showing up to cash in on his fame, thwarts an evil empire [[spoiler: and the man who tried to seize control of it, and then the man after that who tries to destroy everything, and then sails off into the sunset with ''two'' [[ImpliedLoveInterest potential girlfriends]] who don't show a hint of jealousy towards each other.]]

** Pirates' Wrath deals massive damage for a not-unreasonable amount of SP.

* GoddamnedBoss: Well, bosses, plural: Barta and Rupee. Daikokuya also counts. Both are fairly tough BonusBoss fights with unexpected gimmicks.

** [[spoiler:During the final encounter where Ramirez's fused with Zelos,]] Silver Nightmare, which allows him to possess a member of your party for one turn and use the character's own offensive S-Moves against the rest of the party. The move has 100% accuracy and automatically preempts every other attack and defensive S-Move; it can range from moderately annoying (if he possesses Fina and uses Lunar Winds) to very, very dangerous (if he possesses Vyse and uses either Rain of Swords or Pirate's Wrath). Most of his other S-Moves cause high damage, but are relatively easily countered.
** Not the first ThatOneAttack that Ramirez has either. You will quickly come to dread hearing the words

** And in the same fight with ''that'', he may sometimes use Silver Tundra. It doesn't really ''hurt'' (at least no more damage per character as that ''other'' attack...) but boy does it ''ever'' look cruel. It involves a character being thrown into a tornado of ice that repeatedly cuts at them, then dropped down ''stomach first'' onto another icicle that ''impales them''. ''OUCH''.
** Also during the final encounter, Silver Binds if only for how cool it looks.

** Lapen. Let's see...he summons three durable mooks at a time that can each cause relatively high damage. He has an immensely powerful area attack that can easily knock out several characters, even with damage-mitigating special moves in play. He has a single-character attack which usually causes instant death. Good thing you saved an [[TooAwesomeToUse Aura of Valor]] so that you can instantly get a Prophecy off on him. Right? ''...Right?''

** Mileage will vary according to taste, but whether or not the Great Silver Shrine is a fun little BreatherEpisode or a boring slog depends on how you feel about three-dimensional mazes with sleek sci-fi imagery at odds with the rest of the game's aesthetic and devoid of random encounters.

* TheWoobie: Fina. [[spoiler: Over the course of the game she loses everyone she's ever known prior to coming to Arcadia, and ends up having to help personally kill the other remaining Silvite due to how insane and vengeful he'd become.]]

** However, the localization is not without problems, since liberal censorship was applied, especially with regard to mature content such as references to Aika being assaulted by Vigaro when captured by him, or Ramirez obsessively talking about Galcian in later scenes of the game.

*** The flight through South Ocean to reach Ixa'Taka is no better. The strong winds constantly force you back and reduce your ship's speed to a crawl, and due to the way the game handles RandomEncounters you can expect a battle after every other inch of progress. The only enemies encountered besides the latest [[GoddamnBats Looper]] variant are Gravers, which have access to [[OneHitKill Eternum]] at a point in the game where you almost certainly do not have any Death resistance available. And you better be ready to hold the control stick forward after every battle, as remaining idle for even a second will result in the wind undoing much of your progress.

** Yeligar, the Yellow Gigas, is made out to be an incredibly powerful beast that had to be completely sealed away by the ancient civilization and multiple characters will tout at its supposed destructive power. In practice it is one of the easier ship boss battles in the game with its low damage input and lack of debilitating mechanics. The only attack that might cause trouble is its highly telegraphed WaveMotionGun which you can completely shut down if you blast it with your own first, something that you will have no trouble doing at every opportunity.