Part 1: Update 1 – Air Pirates

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The game opens on a shot of the Silver Moon. That's not poetic phrasing, these are six moons and this is the Silver one. It is a poetic opening however, because moons are a big theme of the game.



A woman in a strange craft darts across the moon.





Pursued by a huge, lumbering battleship.



Vice Captain: Admiral Alfonso, her ship's in range of our cannons.

The Vice Captain is the guy in white armour next to Alfonso.

Excellent. Prepare to fire concussion shells on my command but avoid hitting her ship directly. We need her alive so we can “question” her”.











Hah hah hah. The Empress will be very pleased with me. I'm sure to be rewarded...rather handsomely, I might add.

An explosion rocks the ship with no screenshottable animation.

What? Where did that come from? It sounded like an explosion. Status report, now!

Observation Soldier: Th...the lower hull has been hit! Someone is attacking us!





Note the helmets, by the way. Those aren't weird back-crest things, they have the top of their helmets flipped up so they can see.

Observation Soldier:Th...that flag...Air Pirates!!!





Air Pirates indeed! And not just any Air Pirates, that's the flag of the infamous Dyne Pirates.



The little blob you can see between the ships is the girl's craft falling beneath the clouds. The camera zooms all around the ships and the craft during this cutscene so you can see it better in the video. Non-pre-rendered backgrounds make for far more interesting camerawork.

I'm going to shut up for a minute now because our man in the crow's nest is about to do something so incredibly stupid it cycles all the way back around to awesome again.









Yep. He jumped off the crow's nest of a moving ship in the hopes of catching a rope tied to another moving ship and the way down, then slid down the rope (just typing that makes my hands burn, by the way) with a cutlass in each hand just so he could get to the deck full of soldiers before everyone else.



The soldiers recover well, but the Dyne pirates have them totally outclassed in burns, both ice and rope.



I'm Vyse of the Blue Rogues and in a few minutes I'll be relieving you of all your valuables!

Valuan Soldier: Heh heh...Attacking us all by yourself? You're either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. We'll be tossing you overboard.





Oh hi, I'm Aika. I'm a Blue Rogue like Vyse...and we're robbing you.

Valuan Soldier:You dare mock the Valuan Empire with your insolence? Kill them! And toss their corpses over the side!!







I'll talk about the battle system in a separate update, but suffice to say these pose pretty much no threat. All Valuan soldier enemies have Latin names, by the way. These ones are Ferratus, which literally means “iron-clad”.








_{This track isn't on the OST so I was forced to record it from the game.}

Valuan Soldier: Imbeciles! What do you two think you can do against the five of us? Take 'em out!



And then he gets shot in the head.



Dyne: Professional Badass

Dad!

We'll take care of these guys. Make your way to the bridge and shut down the engines.

And, when we're out here, remember, it's “Captain”, not “Dad”...got it?

Yeah, yeah. Aye aye, “Captain”. Heh...Aika, shall we go introduce ourselves to the captain of this ship?

I'm ready when you are!

Alright! Let's go find the bridge!

They charge off into the ship. The remaining four guards make no effort to stop them in fear of becoming the remaining three guards.


Click for video!



Vyse drops from a hole in the ceiling into the ship, giving us control of the characters for the first time. Right in front of Vyse is a chest, and being pirates Vyse & Co. are all about the booty. The game actually keeps track of all the chests you find and if you want to unlock everything you have to find every single one. I'll be doing this, naturally.



The stats screen. I'll go into depth about stats later, but for now the important one is the title at the bottom, Vyse the Unimpressive. This is our Swashbuckler Rating, which increases as you go through the game, getting Vyse a more and more fancy title.







The girl from the intro is slung over the Vice Captain's shoulder.

Normally, lowlifes such as yourselves would never have the opportunity to bask in such greatness. Consider yourselves fortunate.

Yeah...right...who's the girl? I never thought someone of your...stature would stoop to kidnapping.

Hah! You're very observant for a rogue. However, I cannot waste my time dealing with you. I simply must get going. I think I shall have you exterminated like the pests you are.





And then it rains soldiers.



These may look like the Ferratus from outside, but they're actually a new enemy with batons instead of swords. They're called Praeses, which means something like a governor or bookkeeper. They're so weak that even Aika can kill them in one hit. As an aside, the game is rigged so that both Vyse and Aika level up after the two fixed fights.

After triggering that cutscene and fight the area is full of flashing alarms and sirens, plus random encounters with both types of soldier to boot. The flashing lights and sirens are annoying and make all my screenshots turn red.

But sirens or no sirens however, Alfonso is upstairs and so that's where we're going.



I am very busy. I do not have time to deal with you personally. Now, if you'll excuse me...

He was waiting just by the exit to the room so he could taunt us across the walkway. Alfonso does this a lot.



And then he runs away. He does this a lot as well.



The room Alfonso fled into contains this gigantic door, but is suspiciously free of Alfonso.



So long, Rogue. Hah hah hah!

He waited on the other side to taunt us, naturally. As if a thing like a foot thick steel door is going to stop Vyse the Unimpressive.

This is the only other exit to the room.





It leads outside the ship, which is surprisingly free of slipstream.



It makes up for it with an abundance of lens flare. Gah!



And at the bottom of the Ladder of Lensflare is this door, behind which is a cutscene.


Click for video!

An even more gigantic door. This cutscene has a lot of character animation so I'm going to let it play out almost entirely in screenshots.



Alfonso. Preening as usual.



Good work. I have finished my preparations as well.

...preparations to dispose of a traitor.

Vice Captain: P...please! Your excellency!!! What are you doing?!



To keep my glorious reputation from being tarnished, you must be sacrificed...

Vice Captain: N...no! You can't do this!

Wrong.





“But Empress, my own Vice Captain betrayed us and allowed the Air Pirates on board...I could do naught but dispose of the traitor myself.”

So, this is how Valua treats its people...

Actually, Vyse is wrong here. Alfonso is just an asshole who'd throw his own mother to the wolves in a heartbeat.

What?!



After seeing you kill an unarmed man in cold blood, I can't allow you to walk away from this. Draw your blade, Alfonso!

Hands up everyone who expects Alfonso to actually fight us.

Hah...an uncivilised Rogue such as yourself wishes to challenge me?

You aren't worth my effort, but perhaps you'd like to meet one of my pets. Come, Antonio!



What? What is that thing?!

He's my personal war beast. I was going to leave him here, but it seems I've found a use for him after all. Antonio! Trample the pests...and make their deaths as painful as possible.

You, you and you. You had your hands up. Get the hell out of my LP.

Boss battle: Antonio



The boss music in Skies of Arcadia is fun. It's three tracks in one, and changes depending on how well the battle's going.



Antonio is big, beefy and powerful. He hits a lot harder and has a lot more health than any enemy we've encountered so far, but if you know you're doing he's a pushover. Just keep Aika focused on, well, Focusing and healing and Vyse working on Cutlass Fury and you'll be fine – just don't let anyone get below 200hp.



And that's why you shouldn't let anyone get below 200hp. Thunder of Fury is Antonio's signature attack and hits really, really hard for this stage of the game, but just keep at it and he'll go down in flames before long.





Victory pose!


The real prize from this battle is the Moonberry, which will let Aika learn a special move like Vyse's Cutlass Fury.


Click for video!



Taunting while stood in the lifeboat.



Vyse chases after him, but too late.



Remember this scene, it's one of the few times you'll see Vyse without a grin welded to his face.

Well, even if he was a coward, he was a coward with gold...



It doesn't last long.

We haven't had a catch this big for quite some time! The people back home are going to be impressed.



You're right. She sure doesn't look like she's from around here. I wonder why Valua was trying to kidnap her in the first place.

Hmm...I wonder where she's from...

The screen fades to black and into a strange scene.





Am I...am I home?



A flash and another strange scene.



Elder...

Elder: However, watch...yourself. ...do not...allow...trust...

Elder...

The screen fades to black as a voice cuts through the dream.



Hmm...her breathing's more regular now. I think she'll be alright.



Now there's a sight to wake up to.

Look! She's coming to...





You're aboard our ship, the Albatross.

I'm Vyse. Don't worry, there aren't any Valuan troops around, so you'll be safe here.

Y...yes. Um...thank you very much.

Haha...you don't need to thank us! The Blue Rogues are always there to help people!

My name is Aika. It's nice to meet you. Hey, could you tell us your name?

My name...my name is Fina.



The first of the Swashbuckler choices! Getting these right boosts your Swashbuckler rating and gets you one step closer to a new title. The correct answer here is “That's a geat name.”. Either of the others will get you scolded by Aika for being insensitive.

Fina, huh? It's a great name...it's so...so feminine.



Fina is unconvinced.

Geeze, you try and compliment someone...and nothing...no reaction whatsoever.



Aika's laugh is almost painful on the eardrums.



Fina's is more of a timid giggle.



Don't tell Fina, but nobody has actually mentioned the words “Air Pirate” yet.





Vyse and Aika exchange shocked glances at her powers of mind-reading.

What? You were out sailing by yourself and you don't know what Air Pirates are?

Oh...I...I'm sorry. It's my first time travelling.

Basically, Air Pirates are sailors that attack other ships and steal their cargos.



Ahaha...you don't have to worry about us. We're “Blue Rogues”.

See, Air Pirates are divided into two factions: The Blue Rogues and the Black Pirates. The Black Pirates will attack anything in the sky, especially merchant vessels and unarmed ships. However, we Blue Rogues will only take cargo from armed ships, especially the Imperial Armada.

We steal from the rich and keep the gold. But, we use the gold to save people that need our help. That why we helped you. Don't worry, we aren't trying to kidnap you or anything. Just relax and enjoy the trip.

Umm...sure.



Dyne is not a man to be kept waiting.



Oh well...I guess that means we have to go. Alright Fina, we'll see you later! Try to get some rest.

And we're now free to explore the ship. There's nothing of much interest here, but I'll chat to the crew members in the next update.



This ladder leads up the the bridge, where Dyne is waiting.



You know the routine. Swab the decks...and they better be clean.

But...but Dad!! I was only a little late!!

On a ship, being a little late can cost lives.

And one more thing...while we're on board, it's not “Dad”, it's “Captain”, got it?

Yeah, yeah...I got it.

We're heading home to Pirate Isle. Go report to Briggs...see if he needs you for anything.



The crest on the wall behind Briggs is the symbol of the Dyne pirates, just like on the flag.

Briggs: Pirate Isle is southeast of here. Just head south first and it's just past the valley of islands.

Head south through the valley of islands? Aye aye!

Briggs: Alright, let's get moving then. Full speed to Pirate Isle!



And there you have it. We just finished the tutorial dungeon in which we pissed off the First Admiral of the most powerful country in the world and stole his ship, and now we have control of our own pirate airship.

This is going to be quite a game.