It's the summer of gaming. Check out this episode of Chichuki Views with Star Oceans: Wings for Hire!
It's that time again for a new episode of Chichuki Views, the show where I go hands-on with upcoming games and show them off. Usually it's about an hour or so but I don't want to spoil too much of the game for you. Today, we're checking out Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire on Steam. This is the Steam Next Fest Demo for the game so you get to experience most of what the full version of the game will bring.
Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire tells the tale of Glenn and his pilot squad. Glenn's parents were famous pilots but disaster struck and Glenn's father was killed on an expedition. Fast forward to Glenn and his friends taking their pilot exams so they can become a pilot team. After Glenn passes his test, he heads back home to celebrate with his mother but something happens in the village. It is under attack from the Alliance, an evil organization, and in turn force Glenn and his mother to run for their lives. Agnes helps you make your escape but she drops on you that your father might be alive after all and to not go searching for him.
The game feels like a classic JRPG where you can explore different locations and find different quests along the way. The art style is charming and I've started to really like the characters. That is a sign of good writing when I haven't even played that much of the game and am already bonding with the characters.
During your journey, you will have to fly a plane; you are a pilot after all. That being said, the flying controls are very easy to get used to. I was playing with an Xbox 360 controller on Steam so the left stick handles the speed of the ship and the right controls movement. You'll be able to target enemies in the sky and doing so will allow you to jump them and get the first move. This is the interesting part of the game where you fight in the sky a la turn based battles. Pilots have different attacks and special attacks to fight with. During the demo I found myself using special attacks more often because most of those attacks have status aliments to go along with their damage. For example, my ice move caused frostbite and my poison attack poisoned the enemy.
To recap, Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire is an interesting idea for a JRPG. I really like the idea of flying a plane to set up battles. It will be cool to see how you have to fly into enemy formations in the later parts of the game to set up fights. The character designs are all really solid and the writing is really well done. I would have liked the option of a run button but you move pretty quickly to begin with so that isn't a deal breaker. Check out the video below for my hands-on/thoughts about the game!