All right, I'm just annoyed when people try to argue against opinions.

Most games are these days *cough* GTA IV *cough*

Your opinion is wrong because of the hard facts; favts like my opinion, so yours is actually wrong 2 times with a +1 modifier.

It is terribly overrated, yes.
Man that game had some slooooooooooow battles. I think I actually fell asleep a few times while battling. :p

Skies of Arcadia is the first RPG I ever played and ended, The story was not mediocre, because I remember the story memorable stories are not mediocre, the story was good, the battle system was simple and fun, the ship battles were cool and was the first time I ever saw a ship battle in an RPG, there were enough characters in the game, the random battles did not suck, they were annoying but it gave you the opportunity to level up your characters, plus annoying random battles are in almost every RPG out there including Final Fantasy.

There are so many good things Sega did with this RPG from the different cities to the memorable characters, the moonstones, the backstory to each character, the boss battles, everything, this games is awesome, sure it doesn't have those epic cut-scenes like Final Fantasy and there is no reason to play the game again after you finished like most RPGs including Final Fantasy. After this game came out almost every RPG out there had some air pirate in it, it was hilarious sega once again did something innovative in a genre with those airship battles, I loved those battles and you had to pay attention if you wanted to win, they were not easy.

I do not know if the gamecube version was different enough to make the experience different but I played it on the dreamcast, I would give this game a 10 because they weren't any flaws the game was an excellent one time play through, deserves to be in the top 10 greatest RPGs of all time and will never be forgotten.

I don't see what people like about SoA, though I'm not a big jrpg guy
anyway as far as I'm concerned Panzer Dragoon Saga is the best jrpg,
and Shining Force 3 is the best srpg (and jrpg if you count it) as well as, in my opinion, the single best game ever
it is a shame so few people have played them by comparison

@ masschamber )

although I wouldn't call it the "best" jrpg, I agree that Panzer Dragon Saga is absolutely superb - it's a bit too short and a bit toooo linear to get that title, but it's atmosphere and battle system haven't been surpassed by any other game I played yet

Skies of Arcadia is a fine game, but not even close to the best SEGA rpg

There's alot of overrated games/RPG's out there, like KH for example.

And at the same time there's alot of games out there that is underrated.

While i agree with some of the points said at the OP, the game felt quite right for the RPG panorama back in those days, so while playing it now feels like a mediocre game, back in 2001 with people still waiting on FFX, a new Tales game and coming off FFIX, it really felt like a solid RPG.

Having said that, the best Sega rpg has me torn between Shining Force 2 and Phantasy Star.

OMG! Finally, someone admits that this game was mediocre at best! I really do not understand all of the praise for this game.

I received both Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II on the Dreamcast for Christmas. Skies of Arcadia does not compare on any level. Grandia II was the superior RPG on the Dreamcast and a truly great videogame!

The story was captivating, the game play was great, and the art style was very imaginative.