Skies of Arcadia is one of the most beloved JRPGs ever, and for good reason. It’s one of the few games ever created that manage to completely immerse players into its world and had them live through a breathtaking adventure. It mixes heavy and comedic themes, lovable characters, exciting storytelling, and a gorgeous atmosphere. It’s a perfectly unique game, typical of the Sega Dreamcast era.
Yes, this is the same uniqueness that doomed the console. While some claim Skies of Arcadia didn’t age well, like with how slow the battles can feel at times, I think I could spend a day explaining why is it so good. I’ve personally always wished to see a new game in its fascinating world, and obviously some of its developers share this sentiment. Kenji Hiruta, who worked on Skies of Arcadia, mentioned on Twitter recently that he strongly wishes to make a sequel.
Strongly. I really really want to develop the sequel. https://t.co/QDCydPd00s
— 蛭田健司 Kenji Hiruta (@k_h00) January 13, 2020
Thank you for a lot of comments! It’s really impressive. I’ll organize all your comments and submit it to SEGA directly, and let SEGA know your passion about Skies of Arcadia! pic.twitter.com/sz7xNZxCUX
— 蛭田健司 Kenji Hiruta (@k_h00) January 15, 2020
As you probably already know, seeing only desperate and thirsty Skies of Arcadia fans would click on this article, Skies of Arcadia first released on October 5, 2000 on the Dreamcast in Japan, under the title Eternal Arcadia. A GameCube version was later released in 2002, Skies of Arcadia Legends, adding tons of new side-content. That version sadly lacks a fun element from the original, a mini-game regarding party member Fina and her weapon Cupil, seeing that it used the Dreamcast’s VMU to play.
Anyway, let’s think about all this in a rational way. Obviously, Kenji Hiruta’s words don’t mean a new Skies of Arcadia game is coming. Even by a stretch, this could only be considered to be teasing something if someone like an ex-producer of the original game were the one to say these words. I hate to say it this way, but if you check the game’s credits, Hiruta was “just” a programmer back then, and he currently doesn’t work at Sega anymore.
But hear me out. I believe what Hiruta hopes to achieve is to motivate fans to be even more vocal than usual, as this could push things around. It’s not like Skies of Arcadia fans aren’t already super vocal, mind you. As you probably already know, Skies of Arcadia is strongly linked with the Sakura Taisen franchise (and the Valkyria Chronicles franchise). In fact, Kenji Hiruta also worked on Sakura Taisen. I’ve read and covered on DualShockers pretty much every single interview with Sega developers regarding Project Sakura Wars (check out our translated playthrough). The game’s development director, Tetsuya Okubo, also worked on Skies of Arcadia.
One of the elements which often came out of these interviews is the fact that Sakura Taisen‘s developers thought many times in the past about making a new Sakura Taisen game, but a new game project never truly launched. That was until 2016, after the Sakura Taisen franchise won the fan popularity poll at Sega Fes 2016. In these past 20 years, developers at Sega have definitely thought about bringing back Skies of Arcadia more than once, so the possibility isn’t zero. However, I think it’ll be really hard for it to happen unless it goes through the Switch and Sega Ages remaster route.
I think the best shot we have at a new Skies of Arcadia game project is to show our enthusiasm for the original game. This way, Sega could end up asking M2 to remaster it on Nintendo Switch, via the Sega Ages ports. While Sega Ages on Switch is only made of arcade and fairly retro titles as of now, and while it might take over a year from now, I think that Dreamcast games will definitely end up releasing through that path.
M2’s developers already mentioned they can run NAOMI games on Switch, after all. Moreover, Rieko Kodama, one of the main producers of Skies of Arcadia, is now working at M2 on the Switch Sega Ages ports. We can only wish Kodama and her team have the opportunity to bring Skies of Arcadia back. After such a remaster is successful and the fans proved their enthusiasm, maybe then a sequel or a new game wouldn’t be a dream anymore.
The post Why I Hope Skies of Arcadia Could Get a Remaster or Sequel on Nintendo Switch by Iyane Agossah appeared first on DualShockers.