Skies of Arcadia Legends
On December 26, 2002, an
enhanced port,
Skies of Arcadia Legends was released in
Japan for the
GameCube. It was subsequently released in
North America on January 27, 2003, and in
Europe on May 23, 2003.
Legends features slightly enhanced graphics, shorter loading times and some additional content. The game also includes the Dreamcast's downloadable add-ons, and some new scenes, some of which tell stories of events that happened prior to the game.
Differences
Legends is unable to make use of the Dreamcast's external hardware, such as the
rumble pack and
VMU, to let players know when many treasures or events were near. For example, in the Dreamcast version the official
Sega VMU would start to beep whenever there was a Cham in the area. Cupil would also appear on the VMU screen to guide players to the Cham's exact location. Since the GameCube version has no VMU, Cupil would instead start making a "Pyu!" sound and appear in the corner of the screen as an icon when the player was on top of a Cham. Finally, the rate of random encounters is slightly lower in the GameCube version but experience points earned are higher per battle to make up for this.
There are not many significant graphical differences between the two versions; even the texture
level of detail bias remains the same despite the GameCube's more powerful texturing abilities. However the
GameCube does make use of its improved hardware to reduce saving and loading times. The majority of character models have gained some additional polygon counts. In addition, the GameCube version does not require the use of a second disc, whereas the Dreamcast version does. However, in order to fit on the single GameCube disc, the music in
Legends is of a lower quality than the Dreamcast version.
Legends, as well as the original English-language Dreamcast version, have stronger censorship of mature content.
[19] All traces of cigarettes are removed, shops serve Loqua juice instead of alcohol, and one female character's attire is altered to be less revealing.
[19]
New content
24 new discoveries are in
Legends. These are scattered throughout the game and reduce the difficulty somewhat as they act as a very large source of income for the player. In addition a potential
lookout, Domingo, can be recruited earlier. Another alteration between the two versions is the inclusion of Moonfish and a ship flying near Sailor's Island flown by a doctor, Doc, and a young girl named Maria. Maria has a pet bird, which turns out to be a Hamachou. Moonfish, fish which are invisible to the naked eye, are placed throughout the game for the player to collect. When prompted by the distinctive sound Moonfish make, Vyse is able to see Moonfish with a special adjustment to his headgear. When returning these Moonfish to the Doc, Maria's bird begins to grow, and eventually it turns into a fully grown Moon Hamachou and is added to the journal as a Discovery.
Another addition to
Legends is Piastol, a woman who hunts air pirates under the nom de guerre "Angel of Death". Piastol is after Vyse because she mistakenly believes that he killed her father, Admiral Mendoza of Valua, seven years before the story began. One night, her father's ship, the
Aquila, caught fire. Dyne's Blue Rogues saw the ship aflame and staged a rescue mission to find survivors. However, Piastol thought it was they who set the ship alight and attacked the first person she saw, which was Aika. Aika came unarmed thinking it was a rescue mission, so Vyse defended her from Piastol's throwing knife and received a scar on his cheek which remains to this day. When Mendoza's corpse was found and examined, it turns out it was a sword wound that killed him instead of the fire. From then on Piastol planned to avenge her father's death by hunting down any and all air pirates. It is later revealed that Piastol is Maria's older sister, who was traumatized by the same incident and believed her sister to be dead. Piastol is armed with a scythe and Eterni spells, along with a Deathhound at her side. She has an attack called Tempest Dance, which becomes longer and more deadly each time Vyse and company fight her.
A third major addition to the
Legends version is the inclusion of a wanted list, with large bounties to be rewarded when the player defeats any of these foes. While some of the
NPC's on the wanted list are present in the original, most of them are entirely new to the GameCube version. As with the new discoveries, the "Wanted List" provides another source of income for the player. The "wanted list boss battles" are markedly more difficult than the rest of the game (including the other boss battles), partly because they level up when the player characters do, meaning that they will be consistently difficult regardless of the player's current level.
Also added were the three secrets which could be unlocked by getting most of the requirements for Vyse the Legend. A new discovery, a new music track for Nasultan and post-attack Nasr, the best set of swords for Vyse, and a murderously hard battle against an old "friend."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skies_of_Arcadia
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