Being a story mainly about pirates, heroes, and the villains that try to stop them, combined with a world where everyone has airships, a fair amount of sky combat is to be expected. The largest difference in gameplay as compared to other RPGs is the heavy amount of ship-to-ship combat. There are a few small problems though: Attacks come frequently during some areas, and the story line pacing is a little slow during a couple of parts, but it doesn't diminish the fact that Arcadia is an epic RPG, one that shouldn't be missed.
You'll have to use high amounts of strategy in the battles (you have to balance your spirit bar to unleash special attacks) and it's cool how you have full control of which spell classes you'd like to excel in. But the reason I love this game so much is because Arcadia is a real, true-to-goodness traditional RPG filled with all the classic traits that make these games great, but still featuring enough new aspects to give it a very unique feel. The story in Arcadia is amazing, not to mention insanely long (there's a very good reason why this game comes on two CDs, and no, it's not because of CG movies), the characters are full of life, and the graphics, while plain in some areas, are simply breathtaking in others. I wasn't even really looking forward to Skies of Arcadia all that was on my mind was Grandia II and Phantasy Star Online, but now I'll be very surprised if either of these games comes even close to delivering an experience as grand as the one found here. The strange thing is, at least as of a few days ago.
I haven't had this much fun playing a role-playing game in years, and Arcadia has quickly become one of my favorite Dreamcast releases.