You come at the king, you best at least be interesting.
BEAT was on vacation for a couple weeks, so, amid our Skies of Arcadia marathon, I decided to give Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire a go. As Even Worse Streams faithful are aware, the Dreamcast produced a number of singular gaming experiences, and recent years have seen some of these franchises revisited with modern sensibilities. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was an excellent way to return to the skating ‘n spraying action of Jet Set Radio. Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire attempted to do the same thing for Skies of Arcadia: a sprawling, adventurous RPG exploring a floating world filled with swords and sky pirates. It could have been a thing of beauty! But… this attempt falls far below the clouds…
I’ll be frank: I did not play the entirety of Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire. I only played two and a half hours, and you can see that entire “playthrough” here. However, what I did play did not encourage me to play any further. It wasn’t bad! In the words of our own fanboymaster, “it was… just kind of there.” You are a plucky young adventurer with a missing dad, you fight through a “licensing test” (tutorial), see your hometown get invaded, watch your (mysteriously traumatized) mom go down in a blaze of glory, meetup with a small band of survivors, and then repel a group of Trash Pirates. And… that’s about it. Maybe everything gets appealing from there! But what is there in the stream… Well, go ahead and watch for yourself. It isn’t exactly compelling gaming.
And if you really want to make yourself weep for the Sky Oceans of Tomorrow, go ahead and rewatch our first stream of Skies of Arcadia. There are kidnappings! Aborted executions! Mysterious sky women! The promise of hulking gigantes and chaos emeralds! The scariest train ride ever! The best Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire can offer is a lackadaisical jaunt through the clouds like you are cruising on a toddler’s theme park attraction. Going up against the Trash Pirates simply does not compare to escaping from the nefarious Valuan Empire.
So please enjoy our run-through of the introductory areas of Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire. It is unlikely we’ll ever revisit this game again…
Let’s Play Skies of Arcadia
Intermission
Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire
October 7, 2025
Random Notes:
- While the BEAT is away, the Goggle Bob will play… games he doesn’t like. And for this lovely experience, we also have Morning Song, Chromes, Jeanie, Caithness, and fanboymaster.
- These windows are weird! I cannot deal with them!
- Do you remember Ayds? The candy? Not, ya know, the other thing?
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 invented riffing… before Chromes was born.
Ample Vigour joins as we are taking our flight exam/tutorial. Yes, we’re still working on the tutorial about a half hour in.- “It’s better than, like, the flesh of a squirrel.” “I’m not sure it is.”
- Highlander: impossibly a good movie.
- Let’s talk about Koei Dads. Yes, that includes stans for Gitaroo-Man, dammit!
- Cassandralyn joins for Even Worse Tito Warriors discussion.
- Agnes is fated to die. Dekar of Lufia 2 will live forever.
- We actually talk about the featured game during mom’s boss fight: the battles are surprisingly straightforward for ship combat. That’s good! They are also boring, because there is really nothing separating “ship combat” from any other RPG random battles. That’s bad.
- “Chromes, I need you to tell me about your gemsona.” “Whatever!”
- “Planes can go straight up or down… for a minute.”
- Caliscrub joins as our playable losers are setting up camp. Prepare for Trash Pirates!
- “I remember Music Type B!”
Here’s a scoop: Caliscrub has conflicted feelings about Hades 2.- “If one of these parts revives, I am turning the game off.”
- There is apparently a character named Fabio. So we close out our evening with stories of our favorite model/bird menace. Goodbye forever, Sky Oceans!
Next flight on Skies of Arcadia: Old friends return.
Look sadder, dammit!