I am a big fan of RPGs and I like the occasional dogfight in my games, like when I steal a banshee in Halo and start fighting in the air with other banshees. That is how much I enjoy them and while I have played at least one Ace Combat, just air combat in a game isn’t quite for me. This is why I was mildly interested in Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire, because at its heart it is an RPG, with some flying and turn-based dogfighting. It all sounds great, but Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire, leaves the player wanting more.
Story
Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire follows Glenn Windwalker who comes from a long line of Windwalkers who from my understanding are some of the best pilots around. Both his father and mother were known as Windwalkers, but that all changed one day when only his mother came back from a mission, with many other pilots having died that day including his father, one of the best.
After that day his mother became distanced and focused on work. Not letting any of this sway him, Glenn still decides to be a pilot and even gets an opportunity to complete the exam with his three friends. He and his friends pass their exam, but all is not well, because later that day his island is attacked and it seems like his mother has more secrets than she has let on. With their island now occupied by the enemy, Glenn needs to find out what really happened all those years to his father and mother and why she has been so weird.
The story is slow to get into. It isn’t a bad story, just slow. There is no voice acting, which isn’t a problem, but what would have worked was maybe facial animations as Glenn and everyone else always look like they are smiling. It seems weird when they are talking about some serious things and he just smiles. Okay to be fair, their character portraits do change if you look at them, but all the character models stay the same which I did find somewhat distracting and odd. I get this is due to the budget, so I wasn’t too annoyed by it. 
Gameplay
Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire is two things, a turn-based RPG and a game about planes. I know what you are wondering, how does that work? It works surprisingly well if you ask me. Exploration is done on foot and in the air, but combat is strictly in the air. When on foot, you don’t have to worry about getting sucked into a battle and you are free to explore the small island how you see fit.
The world of Sky Oceans is filled with multiple small islands you and your team can travel to which opens up when Glenn gets an airship. Exploration also happens in the air. The player is free to fly their plane, with each character having a different ability when flying. For example, Glenn sends out a beacon to see if any enemies are around while Fio on the other hand does a little boost if you want. Each character has their own abilities when flying and besides Glenn, you are free to mix and match your team to what suits you.
Exploration is great, but the real star of the party is the combat, and you can’t have a fun game without great combat. Sky Oceans combat is a weird one because it is turn-based air-battles which on paper sounds weird. Mind you I have never played Skies of Arcadia so I didn’t know what to expect with turn-based battles when it comes to dogfighting to me this has always seemed like fast combat that needs to be real-time. Also, it is traditional turn-based, not real-time actions with turn-based rounds which personally would have made sense with the setting, but hey I was open to doing traditional turn-based combat in a flight combat game.
Interestingly it wasn’t too bad, but it did leave something to desire. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the concept, but I felt like traditional turn-based combat doesn’t work in a game like this. I would totally understand if it was real-time combat with turn-based rounds or if there was also ground combat with your characters, but there isn’t. They do try to speed up the animations when the combat is happening, but the battles can sometimes seem slow and long, and I understand that is normal in games like Ace Combat, but then again you are always on the move in those games. Maybe I will enjoy it more the more I play it because it does have some good parts to it. 
Combat
I know I have already spoken about it in some capacity but combat is the main gameplay element in Sky Oceans. As I have mentioned, battles are turn-based. To initiate combat, either the player’s pilot shoots at an enemy, the enemy attacks or they run into each other, oddly enough none of these matter as it didn’t seem to give the player an advantage or disadvantage, at least I didn’t notice one.
Once a battle has been initiated the player then proceeds to choose from a few commands. The commands you can choose from are Attack, Arts, Evade, Arsenal and Retreat. Attack is what you expect it to be and does a standard attack toward the enemy. Arts is a special attack, this attack works a lot like magic and whatnot in other RPGs where it uses AP (Action Points), AP is restored after a turn is completed, but not as much as was used if the character did a special attack, but a few points that they may be able to do another special attack for some reason it says +SP after a turn, but I assume it means +AP as that’s what it goes towards, unless there is something else going on. Evade means your pilot evades an attack, but I am not sure if it is useful as I tried avoiding attacks and still got hit with that character.
Then there is arsenal and retreat, which both sounds exactly as they should. One’s items and the other allows you to escape battles. Nothing more, nothing less. After a battle is completed, all health and AP are restored to the party which is convenient as most battles, even early ones, lose a lot of health. I like when that is an option as I always go all-out in a battle and use everything early and can save my health items for stronger battles. 
Conclusion
Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire isn’t a bad game; it just isn’t a great one. There are a lot of good things about the game, but most of it seems to be made worse due to design choices. For one the story is dark with death and the enemy destroying an island, but due to the character models always smiling you wouldn’t think it. It is something like that, that takes the player out of it. At some point, I feel like Sky Oceans Wings for Hire will get better or it will end up a cult classic that those that do enjoy it have a fond love for it. I haven’t finished it yet, but I aim to get back to it sooner than later.
Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire is available now on PC, PS4/5, Switch and Xbox consoles. A code for review was provided by the publisher.
