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Parallels > Skies of Arcadia
Written by Geoffrey Duke, August 2004
 
No other Sega-made game has come closer to mimicking the pervasive themes found in the Panzer Dragoon series than the critically acclaimed Skies of Arcadia. As such, Skies of Arcadia is, dare I say, the closest thing to a true RPG sequel to Panzer Dragoon Saga we may ever have the pleasure of playing. In the world of Arcadia where whole nations float in the air, skyships powered by magical moonstones sail across the sea of skies. Who other than Sega could dream up such a wonderful fantasy world? Long ago, six separate nations located under six separate moons of varying colour created extremely powerful living weapons called the Gigas. The creators used their respective Gigas creations to wage war on one another, but as if a divine force disapproved of the trail of destruction left in the path of these gigantic monstrosities, the sky rained fire, cleansing the world of all life. Human beings who had become so destructive simply didn't deserve to live. However, a few survivors emerged from the devastation produced by this onslaught that had rained down from the heavens as if someone had given them a second chance at life -- a chance to redeem themselves. Naturally, the remaining fragments of humankind were forced to rebuild their once advanced civilisation from scratch. The descendants slowly but surely forgot their ancestors as time passed, and new civilisations were born to replace the ones of old.
Centuries later in the nation of Valua located under the yellow moon, an empire rose to power by amassing a huge armada of flying warships for the sole aim of conquering the world. The Valuan empire was all too familiar with the ancient legend of the Gigas and the current ruler, Empress Teodora, wasted no time in searching for them, and any living descendants of the civilisations that constructed them. Each Gigas was controlled by a specific moon crystal of a corresponding colour and would obey the commands of anyone holding it. Having such power at one's fingertips was far too tempting for anyone to resist, so naturally, a wide-scale search began, which left no stone unturned. No one dared to stand between the Valuans and their dreams of conquest simply because no one in the world had the power to stop them. To the outward observer it seemed as if history was repeating itself. Any fan of Panzer Dragoon will find themselves wandering into very familiar territory by now. In the Panzer Dragoon series, human beings were pushed to the verge of extinction by vicious bio-monsters created by their ancestors in one version of the history of these events, or by a faceless ancient civilisation in a more accurate up-to-date translation of the backstory of the series, for no other reason than because humanity was too destructive for its own good. Both the Valuan empire and the Empire found in the Panzer Dragoon world also shared very similar goals in that they both sought to control powerful ancient weaponry created by long since extinct civilisations responsible for the downfall of those civilisations. Am I seeing parallels where there aren't any, or did Sega recycle some of Panzer Dragoon's themes for Skies of Arcadia?
 
In typical RPG fashion, a young air pirate by the name of Vyse and his friends, including a descendant of the Silver civilisation called Fina (whom Vyse rescued from the clutches of the Valuans), endeavoured to find these crystals first in order to stop them from falling into the wrong hands. Although it's in humanity's nature to destroy itself, our three young heroes strove to break the cycle of war and death that has a nasty habit of forever plaguing us all. Of course, things didn't go quite according to plan as they attempted to thwart the Valuan empire, and the group soon found themselves being the target of the Gigas' wrath more often than not.
Vyse and his crew have their first taste of the Gigas' power when Admiral Belleza uses the red moon crystal to awaken the red Gigas, Recumen, from its centuries-long slumber beneath the temple of Pyrim. The process sent a red beam of light towering into the sky above that could be seen miles away. Oddly enough, the red Gigas had been laying dormant for so long that the temple had been built around it. The sleeping giant was actually hidden from sight... in plain sight by being made to seem like it was a part of the masonry.
 
When the red Gigas is stirred from its long slumber, it violently shakes itself free from beneath the temple grounds where it has been buried for so long. As it rises, Vyse can hardly believe what he is seeing. His disbelief quickly becomes a distant memory, however, when the Gigas starts firing laser beams of the purest red in his direction - the same moment when his survival instincts start taking control.
 
The Valuan empire does everything in its power to resurrect the ancient living weapons known only as the Gigas, but in the end, these weapons eventually prove to be more than the Valuans can handle (though they did manage to focus the wrath of the red Gigas on Vyse et al as seen in the image here). Only the one possessing the correct moon crystal could bend a Gigas to their will, which was an unfortunate fact of life that quickly translated into a problem for the Valuans.
 
Some of us love to see what motivates the bad guys to commit vile acts of villainy. Seeing where they are coming from in a clearer light naturally helps us understand their motivations better. For instance, Admiral Belleza reveals a nobler side to herself when she tells us that she wanted the world to be ruled by one nation, for no other reason than because if all nations were united under a single banner, then the borders separating them from one another would become redundant, and consequently, the wars fought over them would become a thing of the past, ushering in a new era of peace. Personally, I have a fondness for misunderstood or corrupted heroes who are the products of their environment, and/or noble villains (i.e. villains who are honourable in their own way). What the empire of the Panzer Dragoon world needs is a few admirals with personalities that threaten to take on a life of their own like the admirals we see in Skies of Arcadia. The empire in the Panzer Dragoon series (known only as "the Empire") needs a dark hero to lead it to victory, hunt down Abadd, and mount his head on a pike as a warning to all other drones who would dare to follow in his footsteps.
I want the Empire to have the power to forge its own destiny instead of being reduced to a mere punching bag for characters who hold real power. For the sake of balancing the scales, the Empire needs to play a greater role in steering the course of humanity's future... possibly even away from disaster. If only some of those devious admirals from Skies of Arcadia would find their way into the Empire's ranks; the Empire lacks anything even resembling strong leadership. Nevertheless, not all the villains we encounter in the Panzer Dragoon series lacked the kind of deep (as opposed to shallow) personalities necessary to really bring the roles they played to life. Lord Craymen (the erstwhile commander of the Empire's elite Black Fleet), like Admiral Belleza, is also a misunderstood hero in that he wanted to do the wrong thing (activate the Tower of Uru in order to keep human beings under control) for all the right reasons (to save humanity from itself). Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), Craymen didn't side with the Empire, but decided to side against it in the end. He could no longer stand idly by and watch as humanity continued to walk down a destructive path even if bringing his own goal to fruition would mean becoming a victim of the ancients' technology himself. Imagine if a character as devious as Craymen had remained loyal to the Empire. Villains with depth. Who would've thought it possible?
 
Ultimately, the Gigas turning on the Valuans was as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning. A squadron of Valuan warships led by the cowardly Admiral Alfonso find themselves coming face to face with the green Gigas, Grenda, when the King of Horteka awakens the towering behemoth to remove the invading imperials from his lands after they started burning whole forests to the ground to make their search for the green moon crystal less time consuming.
 
An insatiable hunger for power drove the Valuans to capture and control the Gigas whilst having little to no regard for the potential consequences of their actions. Once on the receiving end of the Gigas' power, however, it opened their eyes to the sheer overwhelming destructiveness of that which they wished to control. The Valuan empire's armada quickly buckled under the pressure of being bombarded by the Gigas' power on more than one occassion, forcing the Valuans to abandon their dreams... for now. On this occassion admiral Alfonso fled the scene of his empire's crime as soon as his life was threatened. Of course, even after suffering at the hands of the Gigas, the Valuans were still more than willing to seek them out in the hopes of one day controlling them.
The Valuan empire knew the risks involved, yet were more than prepared to take those risks if it meant controlling the Gigas. Sound familiar? If anything is synonymous with Panzer Dragoon it's dragons, flying warships and power hungry human beings who will stop at nothing, even suicide, to claim ancient weapons as their own. The Valuans attempted to harness and wield weapons more powerful than they could even begin to imagine... in vain, which naturally led to disastrous consequences. If that isn't something the Valuans have in common with the Empire we all know and love from Panzer Dragoon, then I don't know what is. There's no denying that the Valuan empire had very similar goals to the empire from the Panzer Dragoon series, only it was much, much more powerful with hundreds of capital class warships. Many of these ships, especially the Valuan empire's flagships, are so beautiful that it is almost a tragedy to destroy them. More importantly, however, the Valuan empire was guided to victory by several clever admirals. If the empire in the Panzer world followed in the Valuan empire's footsteps, then dare I say, nothing would stop it from ruling the skies. Not even Orta the dragon witch herself...
Images courtesy of Skies of Arcadia World.
Back to the Parallels Section
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Destroy the mutant stealing habits; it is the village's code. The Will of the Ancients is an unofficial fansite that is in no way supported or associated with SEGA or Smilebit. Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Panzer Dragoon Orta and all other official Panzer Dragoon content is © SEGA, 1995-2003. Everything else on this website was made or written by Solo Wing Dragon unless otherwise noted. Please ask me first before using any content on this website for fan or commercial purposes.
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