Ah, the good old Highwind. One of my personal favorites.

Video games have given us many different forms of transportation over the years. We’ve been given a chance to drive sports cars, pilot spaceships, and ride around on the backs of giant chickens. Some of these methods of transit have more meaning to different gamers than others. Some people like smashing though obstacles with a tank, others prefer to stomp around the terrain in a mech. For me though I’ve always preferred to take to the skies in my favorite fictional mode of transportation ever, the Airship.

I just love the aesthetics of them, the mash up of old and new technology. I enjoy in when genre are mixed together and airships represent the perfect balance between sci-fi and fantasy. I know that we technically have them in the real world but I’m not really talking about your standard zeppelins and blimps. No what I’m referring to are those fantastic machines that resemble a strange crossbreed of a battleship and a helicopter. Those are the vehicles that have captured my imagination since I was a kid.



In the Navy...

The first game that I can remember playing that utilized airships was Final Fantasy 4. The concept was so intriguing to that I was actually a little upset when I was actually given control of the characters and discovered that I couldn’t just hop in one and explore at my leisure. After I finally got my hands on one again I immediately set about flying around the world landing on any strip of land that I could and searching for hidden locations. I even took a liking to Cid, the engineer that built and maintained the Red Wing fleet.

My interest didn’t stop a videogames though. I wrote stories where my characters flew around the world in airships exploring new lands and fighting monsters. My Trapper Keeper was full of little doodles of airships of various sizes and styles. Whenever my friends and I played pretend I always played an inventor while my friends ran around as knights and wizards.


Man the sky-torpedoes.

My fascination continued into my teen years as well. My stories turned from little distractions to keep myself occupied on rainy days and road trips into English assignments. Sessions of make-believe were also altered, augmented by twenty-sided die and manuals but little else was different. I remember spending an entire Saturday with my DM ironing out the specifics of a custom inventor class for use in his campaign.

Despite my real-life love, it seemed that airships had stagnated a bit in the digital realm. I was bored of using them only as a means of transportation and occasional battle ground. Luckily Skies of Arcadia came to my rescue. Now I could fly around discovering ancient ruins and engaging in epic midair battles. The extended use of airships and the general sense of wonder have cemented this game as one of my favorite RPGs of all time.


Even Bowser knows how to fly in style.

Things are different now that I’m an adult. I no longer spend my time writing short stories about air-pirates, just overly verbose, self-indulgent blogs. Also gone are the weekend afternoons of pretend sword fights and rolling dice, replaced with errands and household chores. On the other hand I now have greater financial resources and can make my dreams a reality. I have been putting off the test flight of my prototype, which I built out of a canoe and a Russian military surplus helicopter rotor. I’m hesitant because I’m almost certain this won’t work out as well as it looks on paper. I think I'll put it off a few more months, at least until my new health insurance kicks in.