"Skies of Arcadia" received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the game has an average score of 93 out of 100, which indicates "universal acclaim" based on 21 reviews. GameRankings, pulling from a higher percentage of reviews, tracked it slightly lower, at 90% out of 40 reviews. In a 2017 retrospective from Metacritic on the highest rated exclusive games (at time of release) per platform, "Skies of Arcadia" placed third for the Dreamcast, behind "Soul Caliber" and "Jet Grind Radio". The game was a runner-up for GameSpot's annual "Best Dreamcast Game" and, among console games, "Best Role-Playing Game" awards. Game Informer later listed "Skies of Arcadia" as one of the top 10 Dreamcast games. In the May 2017 issue of "Game Informer", the editors listed "Skies of Arcadia" as the 55th best RPG of all time.