Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved airships. And seeing their prevalence in RPGs and fantasy novels, it appears many share that love. The ones that stand out the most to me are the many different airships that have been in the Final Fantasy series, all the way back to the original. So, as much as I’d like to include them in this list, I’ll exclude them to include some more obscure (but no less awesome) airships.
As with my ghostship post from a couple weeks ago, these are listed without any real numbering. I can’t choose which one I like the best.
The Silvana – Last Exile
The world of Last Exile is filled with steampunk airships, from tiny vanships (Analog to our single engine propeller planes) to mighty battleships and everything in-between. They’re the primary mode of transportation for the various nations, and the only way to navigate the dangerous Grand Stream, a windblown hyperspace equivalent that separates the different continents of a world far removed form Earth. The greatest of them is allied with no nation, an independent battleship known as the Silvana. Equipped with the biggest guns, the best technology, and the toughest crew, it is considered to be the most dangerous ship in all the world, and the safest place for someone seeking protection.
Last Exile is available on Crunchyroll, and is well worth your time if you’re at all interested in airships, political thrillers, and war stories. Our two heroes get caught up in the midst of a war that isn’t their own, a war that may not even belong to the two warring nations. There’s a greater power at work above it all, attempting to keep the people from uniting against a common enemy.
The Dorgenark – Rogue Galaxy
While this takes place in space, the term airship might still apply to the Dorgenark. I mean, it looks like an old tallship that would sail the ocean blue if it could, and it does have the ability to land on planets and soar through the skies. It’s just also capable of interplanetary and hyperspace travel, too. Minor details, I assure you!
The Dorgenark is where our hero Jaster ends up when he sets out to follow in the footsteps of his bounty hunter father. He joins a pirate crew and ends up leading them on adventures that take them across the known galaxy in search of bounties, treasure, and to put a stop to an evil plot along the way. He’s joined by a great cast of characters on his adventure, from Amazon warriors to robots to dog and lizard aliens, too. It’s a great game, and one I really recommend to real-time action RPG fans and lovers of airships.
Rogue Galaxy originally released on the PS2, but it’s still available via the Playstation Store.
The Albatross– Skies of Arcadia
Way back in the SEGA Dreamcast era, a great game that deserves a whole legion of sequels came out: Skies of Arcadia. On the face of it, it’s a traditional turn-based JRPG in a world of floating islands, populated by various nations and nation states that sail the skies in airships of wood and metal. In addition to the merchants and soldiers who ride the clouds, there are various pirate groups who act as a thorn in the side of the nations. Heroes Vyse and Aika are among those pirates, as it’s always been their dream to soar through the sky as pirates like their parents.
The Albatross is small compared to what the empire has, but it has enough firepower to go against most threats in the sky. And that’s not just a storytelling mechanic there. The game features airship combat in addition to traditional JRPG battles with characters on foot. The airship combat acts like set-piece boss battles, and they’re the main draw of the game, at least for me. I wish we’d get a sequel, or at least someone attempting to do the same thing. Airships are so cool, it’s a shame we don’t get to see them in action more often!
The Grandcypher – Granblue Fantasy
Granblue Fantasy is an IP with a number of different media outlets. It started out as a mobile/web game, then was turned into an anime, then turned into a traditional action RPG. I don’t play mobile games, so my first exposure to it was in the anime on Crunchyroll. In the universe, hero Gran rescues Lyria, a girl who fell from the sky and landed in the woods near his home. Lyria possesses a strange power that the Empire sought to harness. She escaped the Empire with the help of Katalina, the knight commander in charge of guarding her. One day, Katalina had enough of watching Lyria suffer at the hands of imperial scientists and broke her free. Now on the run, the two of them and Gran travel aboard the airship Grandcypher, a relic from another age that its pilot Rackam rebuilt by hand.
It’s a beautiful ship, and despite how flimsy it looks, it can take quite a beating and still stay in the sky. The reasons for this get addressed in the anime, but even without that it’s still fun to watch the ship continue to beat the odds. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, you can’t keep the Grandcypher down for long! Not so long as her crew has a fighting spirit.
