I recently spent around an hour playing Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire on the PlayStation 5 Pro, thanks to a review copy provided by PQube.
You can watch my gameplay video below:
You can also read about my first impressions below:
Pros:
- Charming Dreamcast-era visuals.
- Compelling story.
- Unique sky ship combat.
Cons:
- The combat can be slow, even when doubling the speed.
Overall:
While most JRPG-inspired indies are based on the 8-bit or 16-bit era, Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire takes inspiration from the sixth generation of console JRPGs. In fact, it looks straight out of something you see from the Sega Dreamcast.
Sky Oceans is often compared to the beloved Skies of Arcadia. Aside from looking similar, both also feature air ship combat and explorable sky islands. However, this comparison is unfair to this indie as it created unfairly high expectations.
In terms of combat, this game uses a pretty standard turn-based system where you have normal attacks as well as special attacks that require AP.
What makes the combat unique is that the fights take place in the sky, where you engage in dog fights against the enemy. So, all of your attacks are based on the firing abilities of your ship. There is also an evade option to dodge incoming enemy attacks.
While often fun and dramatic, the main issue with this battle system is that sometimes the fights can drag on, even if you double the speed of the attack animations. While I don’t mind long boss fights, regular encounters quickly feel repetitive.
Even with some drawbacks, Sky Oceans is still a rather ambitious indie game that takes a lot of inspiration from the Dreamcast-era of JRPGs, which is very rare sight to see in today’s market.
As long as you treat this game as its own thing and don’t compare it directly to Skies of Arcadia, then you should have a pretty good time with Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire.