Vagrant Story

"A Game Ahead of it's Time"

Vagrant Story is a RPG developed by Squaresoft and released stateside in 2000, around the same time as Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy XI. So it wasn't as well known to the public, but don't let that give you a negative judgement of this title. This game differs from many of the RPGs released around the time being more of an action-oriented dungeon crawler. There are no shops or conventional level-ups, but instead the game puts more emphasis on weapon modification and "chaining", a skill that involves timely button presses in order to string together a combo. Vagrant Story has many innovations and interesting concepts that make it a very worthwhile look even by today's standards.

Story - 9 - The story's main character is Ashley Riot, an agent of the Valendia Knights of the Peace (VKP) who is in pursuit of a leader of a cult by the name of Sydney Losstarot. Without spoiling much of the story, Ashley pursues Sydney to the ruined city of Lea Monde, where the rest of the tale unfolds. There are many characters that are introduced throughout the story who are all fleshed out as the game goes on. I found the story in this game to be quite strong, it is somewhat wordy at times, but raises many questions though out the game and leads to much debate even after the end of the game. It should also be noted that this game's story is in the same universe as a few other Square titles, namely Final Fantasy Tactics anf Final Fantasy XII.

Sound - 9- The music in this game is beautiful. Each area of Lea Monde has it's own individual work of music and it fits with it quite nicely. I found that much of the music created a very believable world for the player. Some of the areas in the game rely more on ambiance than music, but it barely detracts from the experience in any way. The sound effects are good as well. You have you sword slashing, spear piercing, and club wailing sounds, nothing spectacular, but nothing dull either.

Graphics - 8 - The visuals are pretty good. The environments are somewhat varied in Vagrant Story, so the scenery doesn't remain dull. There are quite a few areas, ranging from a wine cellar to a church. You also visit some outside areas which look very lively. The cut scenes are well done too, each boss has its own individual entrances and deaths and they're done in real-time too, which in my opinion, is far more impressive than the use of CGI. The graphics are somewhat grainy in some areas, and could have perhaps used more variety as a whole (I thought there was too much underground exploration). It would have been kind of nice to see more places we could explore in the city.

Controls - 9 - I didn't have much of a problem with the controls scheme for this game. Everything does what it should. One of the things I didn't like about the interface was, however is if you're in a room with more than one type of monster, you may find yourself constantly switching weapons. This can become an annoying task at times, especially in the heat of battle. A quicker interface of changing weapons would have been nice. Other than the quirk with the weapons, I find everything else just fine.

Entertainment Value - 8 - A very fun game, but may not be for everyone. As previously mentioned, Vagrant Story is a solo RPG dungeon crawler. There are a lot of different mechanics however, for one you don't level up, instead, you gain different attributes for the kinds of weapons you use against specific types of monsters. You can use many kinds of weapons ranging from a sword, spear, staff, or even your fists. These weapons differ in power depending on what you fight against, it is very realistic. For example, if you were to use a club-type weapon against a dragon it wouldn't be as effective as using it on something such as a skeleton. Another factor in the game is Risk, this is the one of the main factors of your fighting ability. Risk goes up every time you attack an enemy, if you do a large chain it goes up more and more, the higher it goes, the more more vulnerable you become. This game also has magic which I didn't find too useful aside from the buffing and healing spells, but it can introduce another form of strategy, I suppose. There's more to do after you finish the game too, it's worth checking out especially if you liked this game. I only had a few problems with the game play, namely the puzzles. I found these box puzzles to be really hard sometimes and takes away from the experience, but that just may be me nitpicking. The camera may have a few problems sometimes, such as lining up a jump but shouldn't present too many problems for the player.

Final Verdict - 9

Vagrant Story is definitely worth checking out if you're into RPGs. This game introduces a lot of interesting concepts that were new to the time and still remain fresh today. If you have the time, I highly advise checking it out. You probably won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/18/07