The gameplay in Skies of Arcadia will be familiar to anyone with experience in the role-playing genre. But despite its roots in turn-based combat, Arcadia brings to the table new ideas - and with them, the need for new strategies.

Combat

Skies of Arcadia offers gamers two distinct battle systems: standard turn-based hand-to-hand battles, similar to the fights in many other RPGs, and ship-to-ship combat in which massive airships square off to match wits and trade cannon fire. Each type of combat requires its own distinct tactics and strategies, though certain elements are common between the two.

Spirit

The spirit meter is the single most important element in regular battles. Each character brings a certain amount of spirit to the fight that enables the use of special combat skills. Spirit regenerates at the beginning of each round. The amount of spirit added to the meter in each round - as well as the party's maximum rating - grows as your characters advance in level and become stronger.

The spirit meter at the top of the screen is the centerpiece of combat. Learn to use it to your advantage!

Simply put, spirit is a collective pool of power that lets characters use special attacks such as S-moves, magic, and airship weapons. Whenever a character performs one of these advanced skill moves, it draws points from the group's spirit meter. A varying amount of spirit regenerates at the beginning of each round, based on the party's current level. Although the party can't perform spells and S-moves for which it lacks spirit points, basic attacks and using items requires no spirit and can be done freely. As your party grows in strength, the meter grows larger and replenishes more rapidly, but choosing the best combination of regular and spirit-consuming actions is always at the core of Arcadia's combat.

Later in the game, there are also two secret moves that can be executed when the party's spirit meter is full. The better your leadership, the stronger these skills will be!

Magic

Magic spells in Skies of Arcadia are handled somewhat differently than in most games. Each spell, no matter how weak or powerful, requires exactly one magic point to perform. However, every spell also consumes spirit points, which means that the number of special attacks and spells you can execute in a single round hinges on how much spirit you've accumulated during the course of battle.

Magic is divided into six types, represented by six colors. Gamers who have played Chrono Cross will recognize the concept here - each color of magic has its own elemental affiliation and is weak to certain other colors. Magic is learned by equipping different colored moon stones on weapons; at the end of battle, each character earns a small amount of magic experience for every color equipped by the party. Equipping a moon stone also gives a character attack and defense properties of that particular color, which determines the amount of damage you inflict on enemies (all of which possess their own color affiliation as well). Attacking silver-nature monsters with a silver-equipped weapon will be far less effective than attacking with a yellow-equipped weapon. Keep in mind that certain color pairings are weak in both directions, meaning, for instance, that you'll deal more damage to a purple monster with a red weapon, but the monster will in turn deal extra damage to you.

Color:	Affiliation:	Weak to:	Strong vs.:
Green	Nature	Purple, yellow	Red
Red	Fire	Purple, blue	Purple
Yellow	Lightning	Silver, blue	Green, silver
Blue	Wind	Red	Purple, yellow
Purple	Ice	Red, blue	Red, green
Silver	Life	Yellow	Yellow

Each color of magic has six spells (36 total) that can be learned by every character. Some magic (such as the sacri healing skills) can be used outside combat, and with the right equipment, practically every spell can be used during aerial combat as well.

 

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