Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire Steam Charts & Stats

[b]The Chunky Planes That Could[/b] I first tried the demo at release and found the flight controls buggy, so I decided to wait. But those stubby little planes stuck with me, and after a few updates, I gave it a proper chance. The flight mechanics, especially in simulation mode, have improved a lot and now feel great. They're what I'm here for, bear that in mind. I can play a dozen other RPGs, but none will have this feature combination of ground walking and free flight sections. Yes, [i]Skies of Arcadia[/i] and Final Fantasy offer airships, but these are just alternate ways of world map travel. After an expensive anime intro got me pumped, I found the real game initially hard to connect with. It's unvoiced, packed with social lore about a whole tribe, and introduces a big cast quickly. The heavy use of quest markers made me a little wary. But I wanted to fly, so I kept going, enjoyed the 90s video game grass (I love that shade of green), chests hidden in various nooks, the pleasant music: You know, that console feeling? A warm simplicity, nothing too complicated is happening yet, mixed with antipication! After some intro questing – yeah, gotta walk back and forth, though the story bits you receive are nicely written rewards if you let them into your heart – I finally got to the flight exam and like I already said, the all-range flight mode is great now, you can switch between planes on the fly and they come with different abilities (one has a generous turbo boost), there's tokens to pick up, all cool, and the maps require you to both get close to the ground and up in the air. The transitions into battles are beautifully handled, with some nice camera swoops and animations. The combat itself is fairly traditional: you issue commands and watch the action unfold. Animations can be sped up. It’s not revolutionary, but well-executed, and nearly all attacks have unique effects like debuffs or damage over time. It rewards paying attention to descriptions. On foot, the movement does feel a bit stiff. Characters sometimes bump into invisible walls or struggle with terrain, but in a way, it fits the world, pilots who are more at home in the air than on land. Same happens in the air, and I'm not quite happy with how the levels / arenas are fenced in with dithered white airstreams that are sometimes hard to read and, if you get stuck in, are deadly to your plane. Lost some progress during the hideout finding level, where you're supposed to push through (while taking damage) a wind barrier. In general, always make sure to CLOSELY watch your selected plane's health bar in the lower left corner, especially when navigating tight spaces! Now about our old friend [i]Skies of Arcadia[/i]: I played that on the GameCube years ago. Yeah, [i]Sky Oceans[/i] rips some visual cues wholesale, like main character Vyse's outfit, but the tone here is more personal, less carefree, and the gameplay is different enough. I think there's room for two. Will update my review over time.