Sailing the Blue Skies since 2001.
Skies of Arcadia Legends (DC/GC)
I love Skies. With all my heart.
If my art gallery couldn't tell you that, then perhaps these gushing comments for the game from my old Neomega Top 25 Games Ever list will (which, btw, it placed 5th of All Time at that time...things have probably changed with all of the staffers since then, though :p ). ^^
I recall the first time I picked up this game. I read about it in the DC official magazine, and had just finished Grandia II, so I wanted to try to find this game and give it a go. Sounded like a lot of fun. It took me a long time to find a copy, but finally I discovered the last copy at Circuit City for $35. I got an incredible bargain for such a quality title. I popped it in, and put in 50 hours of my life into the game, and I didn't even get the chance to beat it (second disc started skipping...). That's how involving and incredible this game is. With the best cast I personally have played as in a RPG (Vyse is quickly likable with his sense of justice and 'go-get-em' attitude, and Aika's feisty and cute behavior and Fina's silent, shy exterior are both played out excellently), beautiful graphics (for the DC) and music, a great storyline, an awesome battle system (well, other than the fact there are so many of them...silly random battles) for ships and land combat...I could go for days praising just the DC version. But then Sega released Legends for the Gamecube. And not only is the game experience still as great as it was, but they expanded on it and somehow made it even better. It's truly an engrossing RPG, and definitely a classic in this modern era of gaming.
I think only Persona 4 has managed to top the cast of Skies of Arcadia to me, as a side note. They really did a great job on their development and script translation here.