Calling all sky pirates! Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire is preparing to leave its mark on the RPG genre by offering strategic turn based dogfights as you soar through the skies with a diverse set of characters. Fans have labelled Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire as being reminiscent of Skies of Arcadia, a classic title that originally released on GameCube and PlayStation 2 back in the year 2000.
The main protagonist goes by the name of Glenn Windwalker and the day has come for him and his friends to take their pilot exam. From here, an unforgettable journey of exploration, adrenaline, and friendship begins. Did we mention that a dangerous enemy going by the name of the ‘Alliance’ will be hot on your heels, too?
Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire interview
We had the opportunity to speak with Octeto Studios, the team behind Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire. From our interview, you can learn more about the game’s mechanics and why the open skies should be on your mind. If you want hands-on experience with Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire, you can play the demo now to see you through until the full release.
GameScout: The JRPG market is extremely crowded. How do you think Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire stands out?
Octeto Studios: The JRPG market has indeed become crowded, but that’s because the genre is living a renaissance, which is a good thing, as new audiences are discovering this type of games, both classic and new.
In that context, Sky Oceans can be a truly refreshing and heart-warming experience if you are looking for something out of the usual types of fantasy world in RPG (medieval, cyberpunk, steampunk.)
Instead of the usual ‘flying ship’ approach, we took early-day aviation elements as a core element to represent a world where flying is part of everyone’s life was also another way to make diving into this universe something fresh and interesting.
Of course, there are also gameplay elements that are part of our unique take on the genre, but the world design and art style are probably the main aspects of Sky Oceans that are helping us stand out.
GameScout: Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire is being dubbed by the community as a Skies of Arcadia spiritual successor. Do you feel any pressure to live up to these expectations? And will players notice any similarities between Skies of Arcadia and Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire?
Octeto Studios: Of course! It’s a huge load on our shoulders. Some of us absolutely loved Skies of Arcadia, and we cannot even dream of matching its greatness. However, it wasn’t our intention to directly replicate any elements of SOA. Sometimes, you design something, and without knowing you notice that your influences somehow make their way into your creation. For example, our art director wasn’t familiar with Skies of Arcadia, and after designing Glenn, our main character, we realised he shared the same colours as Vyse, which was crazy! Eventually, we liked our overall design and decided to stick with it, while recognizing that Sky Oceans had become an accidental but true spiritual successor to Skies of Arcadia.
GameScout: How many islands will players be able to visit and how do they differ from one another?
Octeto Studios: There are different kinds of islands to explore, from towns to walk around, to mission areas where you can deploy your airjet squads. Each town has its own unique flavour and function within the world of ‘Sky Oceans,’ from commercial hubs to shipyards, food suppliers, and more.
As for flying areas, or exploration areas as we call them, they vary from wild natural locations where Aerius is unstable and chunks of land move around every time you enter, to mines and ancient installations built with technology from the Age of Splendor.
As for the number of islands, we would prefer to let players discover the world on their own, but the overworld offers plenty of locations and altitudes to visit.
GameScout: How are abilities unlocked and can they be upgraded?
Octeto Studios: In ‘Sky Oceans,’ aircrafts are powered by Aerius reactors, which provide energy to keep them in the air, and also to use ‘Aerius Arts,’ which are equivalent to Spells in a character-based RPG. Each aircraft is unique in the sense that each pilot brings their own Aerius affinity and their own way to channel Aerius through different elements (Heat, Cold, Thunder, Wind, Light, Dark.)
After a certain number of levels, each pilot will unlock new Aerius Arts to be purchased, and every 5 levels, they will receive a Skill Point (SP,) which can be used to buy Aerius Arts that are already unlocked.
Each pilot has access to two element-based Art branches. After unlocking these element-based branches, they will eventually unlock their Unique Arts (their ultimate moves.)
GameScout: In what ways can your ship be customised? Is it mainly through abilities, or can you change the appearance, too?
Octeto Studios: You can customise your airjets (one-seaters) by purchasing new Arts (offense, support and healing Arts) and Parts (equipment) to modify their stats.
As for the Nimbus, your mothership, you can upgrade individual stats (durability, physical damage, aerius damage, accuracy, etc.)
Cosmetic customisation was part of the initial plans, but we had to prioritise the functional modifications, so changing the appearance was left out of scope for this release.
GameScout: In the settings menu of the demo, there’s an option to adjust dialogue volume, but there’s no character dialogue in the game. Will there be dialogue at full release? If so, will all characters be voice acted?
Octeto Studios: Yes, there will be voice over, but only during combats. We would like to add voice overs in certain story beats in a future update, but that will depend on how the game performs and the availability of resources.
GameScout: The demo ends on a cliffhanger. Does the full game pick up from there?
Octeto Studios: The Demo is just the first 1-2 hours of the main game. After releasing the demo we made upgrades and fixed several issues that made it difficult to carry over your saves to the main game, so you will have to start from scratch, but hopefully you will notice some improvements.
GameScout: We know the Nintendo Switch is a pretty outdated piece of hardware. Will there be any limitations for Nintendo Switch users?
Octeto Studios: Other than certain graphic optimisations that were necessary due to the limitations of the Nintendo Switch hardware, no, the source code is the same for all platforms, so you will have the exact same features whether you play ‘Sky Oceans’ on PC, Switch, PS5 or Xbox Series.
GameScout: Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire seems like the perfect handheld game. Will it be Steam Deck compatible?
Octeto Studios: Yes. We can play it on the Steam Deck already, but we are working on some Steam Deck-specific fixes to provide a smooth experience.
GameScout: A little fun question to end things off. Which member of your development team would you want to be the captain of your airship and why?
Octeto Studios: Oh, that’s a hard question to answer! But to be honest, the whole idea of building a crew out of a really diverse cast of characters, sailing out to the unknown while trying to get them together under a shared objective is nothing but a metaphor for how it feels to run an indie game development studio, so you can make your own theories!
Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire will swoop onto storefronts on October 10, 2024. Wishlist the game on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch, or PC via Steam. Console owners can pre-order a physical edition now.
Can’t get enough of Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire? Check out our preview:
