Vagrant Story...
 

Okay, when I went to go grab Kingdom Hearts II the other day (am in the middle of it and loving it, but I like setting things up ahead of time.) I traded in some old games and found out that I had an extra $15 in credit. As the games weren't important, I decided to see if there were any decent old PS1 games.

And I think I hit the jackpot. Vagrant Story. Or so I'm led to believe. It has (mostly) good reviews, but I wanted some more opinions and wanted to get away from the hype of game specific message boards. It also brought me to the level-headed people here at the NPF. I need some descriptions of how the games plays please.

Also, I hear the plot is good, but from all I can tell, there isn't really that many people. It's just basically one guy chasing someone else through a deserted city. Don't go into any more depth than that please though. At least, not without some spoiler tags or something.

Thanks in advance.

The Wandering God

You will either love it or hate it. That seems to be the only two reactions to this game. As I am on the 'hate it' side of the coin, I can't really offer anything else to you.

Good luck though.

It was pretty fantastic, although the randomness of the leveling system started to piss me off after a while. Pretty much how it works is all your stat increases are awareded at random by a slot-machine type deal. So you might get something useful like strength points, or you might get like +2 to your health or some useless shit five times in a row. Aside from that it was pretty great, I mean I even liked the weapon-crafting system, and I freaking hate weapon-crafting systems.

Generally speaking, it's the best designed RPG ever. The story is incredible, the graphics for their time are wonderful, the gameplay is quite possibly the best you'll ever see on an RPG. Aside from that, it's actually challenging, the puzzles don't detract from the gameplay, the music is ambient and haunting, and the atmosphere has a very wonderfully gothic feel to it.

And there really is a lot of freedom in terms of making your character into what you want. If you've got excellent hand-eye coordination, you can usually get something you want out of the levelling system and the weapons crafting system has nearly limitless possibilities. You can even name your weapons.

I think most of the people who don't like it just can't seem to get a hang of just how much you need to put into it. It isn't something that you can just play while doing your homework, or flipping channels. Unlike the Final Fantasy series, for example, you more or less have to actually focus in completely on the game while you play it, even though it's not a fast-paced game.

Most of the people who hate it hated the random stat placement and the combat system. Constant work-in-a-chain button timing without 'risking' your weapon just doesn't appeal to some.

It reminded me alot of Parasite Eve, though, especially with the combat grid.

See, that's what I had heard. And I may be villified for this, but I loved Parasite Eve. (Even the sequel.)

Is placement on the battlefield important? Or can you just run around as long as you have the right weapons and whatnot?

The Wandering God

Placement doesn't really have to do with much. Be distant and hard to reach if you're doing long range. Be up close and personal if you're going for melee. Oh, I should give you a few tips from my own experience.

I close up with bosses immediately. Some of them have these multiple body part targeting spells that kill you in a single casting on your first playthrough. Sometimes I don't make it even if I charge them. When I get close, I begin my combos. My attacks suck initially so I try for combos that do damage and steal MP. This usually ends up with 0 Damage, 0 MP, 1 Damage, 2 MP, 3 Damage, 4 MP, and so on and so forth. I can string combos as high as 30 or 35 hits, and considering most bosses seem to have from 200-700 HPs, it's not impossible, but I'm at 100 Risk before the first 30 seconds pass.

I have six different weapons, one for each class of enemy. Human, Beast, Evil, Phantom, Dragon, and Undead. It makes the regular enemies much easier to slay, at least.

My offensive spellcasting absolutely sucks. It's a total waste of MP. Healing, boosting, and debilitating are where it's at.

Most puzzles involve the stacking of crates. You will stack crates like nobody's business. If there's anything in the game that requires serious thought, it probably involves stacking crates.

(Shame on the stacking crates bit, I hadn't heard about that before...truly a failure of creative thought)

I still haven't played despite having the ISO for so long, because I'm a stupid bastard who starts games and doesn't finish them (damn me).

But I have at least one friend who claims it is the best console RPG ever, and just constantly surprised him with its quality in every aspect of the game.

Yep, stacking crates to reach high ledges or jump broad gaps is pretty much the norm of things in Vagrant Story. The only way it becomes more challenging is when they induce time limits. There's also a forest labyrinth, but that's not so much a puzzle as it is "Okay, I finally made my way through! Now how many basilisks did I have to kill to get out of here?"

Vagrant Story
 

This game is one of my favorites, but it will require a very good deal of patience. The first time through is very challanging, because the bosses are much stronger than you are. Like was mentioned before, you need to quickly get in its face so that it cannot obliterate you with its spells or breath weapon, and then you have to nickle and dime it to death. As you get farther along, your weapons will get stronger and it will get a little easier. This final boss though, is quite a doozy. But if you can make it through the first time you will be rewarded with an uber character and powerful weapons on the second time through (there are areas only accessable after beating the game once). So if you are patient person, than this game is highly recomended from me to you. Enjoy!:cool: