Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire makes plenty of promises, billing itself as an homage to classic JRPGs like Skies of Arcadia. It ticks plenty of the boxes to appeal to fans of those games, offering a colourful cast of characters, an ambitious narrative, and classic turn-based combat, but there is a lack of polish that keeps this story of sky pirates from soaring as high as its lofty aspirations.
The opening cutscene feels promising, with vibrant characters in exotic locales set to a fun, if generic, J-pop tune. We were absolutely rooting for this title from dev Octeto Studios and publisher PQube, who have delivered plenty of fun indie games over the years. Unfortunately, our experience was marred almost immediately by bugs and unwieldy controls that made Sky Oceans nearly unplayable. It was disappointing from the moment we got to control our skyships.
The first character we got to control was Glenn Windwalker, a young man on the cusp of becoming a pilot dedicated to protecting his hometown. In classic JRPG fashion, his father disappeared under mysterious circumstances years before, spurring Glenn’s desire for adventure. He is surrounded by a ragtag group of friends, all of whom are also becoming pilots together. The tutorial mission took us on a tour of Blossom, which brought us to our first frustration with the game – the camera.
While walking around the town, the camera is incredibly sensitive, flying around at the slightest provocation. We had to go into the settings and turn the sensitivity right down to keep from feeling ill. Oddly, the issue was even worse when we played in handheld mode; for some reason, it became jittery as we walked around. It was the first sign that playing Sky Oceans wasn’t going to be a pleasant experience.
The bugs continued to mount up as we played through the opening mission. Text either wouldn’t load or was covered up by graphics in the overlay, making it difficult to figure out what was happening during combat. However, the worst technical issue that we encountered came after our first combat encounter. For some reason, the ambient sound effect of one of the early enemies persisted after the fight ended, creating an unintentionally comical situation as we continued with the game.
The flapping and growling of the Allibatross followed us to our next objective. It followed us back to our hometown. It followed us to the grave of Glenn’s father, punctuating the solemn cutscenes with the ghosts of combat past. Not even the loading screens were safe from the issue. The sound effect continued for hours, following us to the second hub island we visited, until we saved and restarted the game.
The most frustrating thing, though, is that even if you removed the bugs and technical issues — and several of the problems we encountered related to ‘known issues’ with fixes promised prior to final launch (although at the time of writing on launch day, 1.0.0 remains the only version available on Switch) — Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire would still just be a basic, by-the-numbers JRPG.
The graphics are dated, with character models that are too static by modern standards. The combat is reminiscent of Bravely Default, allowing you to choose everyone’s actions at the start of the turn. It is easy to figure out, even if it isn’t immediately clear what the host of status effects actually do. It is all serviceable, but it doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before.
A huge selling point for the game should be the exploration mode, where you can take to the skies in airships, but these sections are bland and forgettable. The environments are largely empty save for a few combat encounters scattered around. There isn’t much incentive to actively explore, which is a huge missed opportunity.
At its best, these sections are dull. At their worst, they can be confusing, with unwieldy controls and a camera that makes it too easy to lose your way. An early section, where we were meant to follow beacons left by another character, should have taken a few minutes but instead became half an hour as we got turned around, flipped upside down, and lost. There are too many invisible walls in a world where only the sky should be the limit.
The one thing the game does well is establish its setting and characters. The writing and dialogue all feel believable enough that we wanted to know more. What is the dark secret the Windwalker family is hiding? Why has the Alliance taken such drastic measures to find them? We liked the characters and their interactions. It was enough to keep us coming back even after it was clear things weren’t going to get any better.
Sky Oceans: Heroes for Hire promises big things, but this homage to the JRPG genre fails to take off in the way that the marketing promises. Shallow combat, dated visuals, and buggy gameplay make it difficult to recommend. Even if the game’s technical issues are patched out, it would only leave a very average gaming experience behind. With so many great JRPGs on the Switch, it is tough to recommend this one.
Conclusion
We can forgive a game for being too ambitious for its own good, trying something bold, and possibly falling short. The trouble with Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire is that it tries to deliver something we’ve seen before and still manages to fail at it. Even if you stripped out every technical issue, improved the camera, and polished up the visuals, you would still be left with a painfully average gaming experience. Sky Oceans doesn’t even crash and burn – it fails to leave the runway.
