Go back to Ivalice, they said. You'll enjoy Vagrant Story if you liked Final Fantasy XII immensely, they said...
Unfortunately, that's not true. Vagrant Story is available on PSN for $6 in the US. For a game that doesn't have the infamous "Square Tax" and is by Yasumi Matsuno, you'd think the game would be decent if flawed. Unfortunately, the "flawed" aspects take their toll on what would be a decent if shallow game otherwise.
Lets start off with the graphics. The graphics are top-notch for a 2000 PSX game by Squaresoft. The opening cutscenes for the game were mostly in engine, which is impressive when you find the animation and motion that the characters take on is pretty detailed. Skirts and hair on the female characters will animate when they turn their heads, for instance.
Music I can't comment on given I played on a PSP with no sound enabled.
How I longed for a continuation of Ivalice's world in a 3D non-SRPG sense. Then I heard talk about Vagrant Story. "It got a perfect 40/40 from Famitsu! Just like Final Fantasy XII! No one really played it! The game is good! Try it! Try it!"
So I did. The opening minutes lead you to believe you're onto something special. The first few hours is unbelievable. The cutscenes and atmosphere is incredible. But after you get out of the wine cellar, which is the "tutorial area" for the game, you run into the major issues with the game.
Let's get to the meat of what makes the game terrible: The gameplay. Oh, the gameplay. How it should be good in theory. On paper, it's supposed to be an Western role-playing theme fantasy action game with Japanese role-playing elements. The idea behind it sounds good: You play as Ashley Riot, a "Riskbreaker," basically a member of the elite guard for the government of some country that is loosely based in Ivalice at Square's request. Being a "Riskbreaker," you have to master the idea behind "risk," Square's mechanic of doing major attacks but at the same time you take more damage and have a harder time kicking ass and taking names when your risk is high. To offset this, Square included "Vera Root/Bulb"s, which reduce the "risk" state by 25 and 50% respectively. For a while, and during the intro dungeon as well, the risk won't be too much of an issue.
Then you run into the weapon workshops nearly at the of the wine cellar, and before the game really opens up. Okay, the workshop is where Vagrant Story takes a nosedive. You're basically told NOTHING about the workshop other than "this is where you can repair your weapons and take the blades of the weapon and put them in a new handle. Enjoy!" That's literally it. No tutorial, no mention of it in the in the "quick help" menu option for looking things up. The included manual of the PSN version doesn't even mention it either.
Okay, not a big deal. There's only two types you can use or "combine" into other weapons, so you can safely ignore it. You exit the dungeon and start into Lea Monde proper. The game starts to pick up from the slow intro. You're wailing away at enemies without care with maybe two-three weapons. Until you run into a boss that requires a type of weapon you may not have even thought of using since none of the enemies before that point required it. A blunt weapon. Okay, no big deal, you'll backtrack and get one from the workshop or any other chest in the area that is like the Biohazard series' magic storage boxes. But no, because the type/element/class are all in negative or 0 values because you didn't have to use the weapon before this point, you get 5-10 damage a hit.
And there lies Vagrant Stories biggest problem: It explains little to nothing about it's underlaying mechanics. You know you're in for a bad game when you're basically told to go read a "Combat Mechanics Guide," (
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/914326-vagrant-story/faqs/56772) Beamup's done a bang-up job on trying to explain the system. Unfortunately that system is inherently flawed.
The combat system is really simple: Chain or die. Chains are drilled into your head in the case of "do them because they do more damage than possible with single hits and give benefits." Okay, great. But then you run into "chain-resistant"/high evasion enemies where you basically have to sling spells, or slowly but surely wack the enemy at one. hit. a. turn. Terrible.
And that's not to mention the class/element/type system. Class is basically shown on the first screen of the stats page for weapons or armor. You would think that was the most important stat, and given most of the advice on the internet for this game is "use a separate weapon for the different classes to gain huge damage," you'd think it would be simple, right? No. Elements and Type are apparently the best and Beamup's guide says that. However, you run into issues where you're basically fighting the game the whole way through with having to change blades out or handles to gain huge stat bonuses or then you're slotting gems to gain element bonuses against enemies for huge damage. Otherwise, you get 5-10 damage a hit and are doing majorly less damage than the enemies are doing to you. Poor design.
And that's not mentioning the worst problem with Vagrant Story for people that want to go in blind and try to enjoy it without guides: The upgrade system. I mentioned it above, but you can "combine" blades for stat bonuses. You <i>would</i> think that "hey, combining weapons together will mean they'll eventually get stronger and better over time." This is the way games with crafting systems generally go. You pick your favorite weapon and simply level it up as you go and then you become bad-ass incarnate while decimating enemies in the game.
However that is <b>wrong</b>. The game goes "no, we're not going to go with common sense. We're going to force you to look up guides (
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/914326-vagrant-story/faqs/8485) for arbitrary lines to cross in the sense of upgrading your weapons. Your weapons you've been combining together in hope of gaining better stats and gains? TOO BAD! They're <b>wasted!</b>
!"
So, you basically have to bang your head against the wall if playing the game blind with no guide. You slowly, so very slowly learn "chain abilities" and "just-defense abilities," along with "break arts."
Break arts, I've found it via Beamup, is USELESS. There is only maybe one-two of them that are useful. And learning them is slower than molasses. You have to kill enemies with the weapon type you want to learn a break art in. Hey, that's simple... until you start going from 100 EXP to 250 EXP to 450 EXP and beyond. EXP is gained at 1 EXP per defeated enemy. Starting to see the problem here?
Chain Abilities are the "offensive chain" systems special abilities. They come in heavy damage 70% extra damage or gaining durability points for your weapon so it degrades and weakens slower. The majority of the abilities have their place and time, so they're useful... but that's the thing, at the same time they <i>aren't<i> useful.
"Just Defense"/Defensive Abilities are what they sound like. Defensive properties that are not are useful... in fact, from the ones I've gained, they pale in comparison to the offensive abilities. You can reflect damage and gain HP and some other stuff. Which is nice, but not too useful in comparison to the offensive options.
But then you start to run into bosses that need higher and better weapons. Okay, no prob--Oh, wait, you can't do as much damage as them as you aren't prepared for combat with them. You stumble into their room with no indication there is going to be a boss battle there other than the room being empty, the door locking behind you. Thereby screwing you over if you didn't save before hand in an area that is most likely further than the boss area is close to. The boss areas have no save points near by in general. There is points, sure, but they're about 5-10 rooms away. A bit of a hassle when you're exploring the area and killing enemies and then run into a boss.
Which leads to the Magic system. The magic system has offensive, defensive, healing, and information properties. But if you're playing the game on a clean/new save file for the first time and haven't read a guide you're going to have little to no useful magic other than healing for a good while. Sure, the buffs are nice. But if you're doing 5-10 damage a pop because the stats won't increase because you don't know what combines with what to cross a line to get the stats to increase, they aren't going to do too much to help you. Sure, you could spam Healing at 5MP a pop, until you realize that Ashley starts at 50MP and gains bonuses with potions or the roulette wheel bonus gain system after defeating a boss. But wait, you don't gain the buffs for quite a while so Ashley is actually going to be weak for the first 5-10 hours. You'll get a general buff for weapons after maybe two harder bosses that really test your knowledge of the weapon system. Which, if you haven't been reading a guide because you're going in blind, is a complete mystery and probably prone to screwing you over.
But hey, you have a good defense ability on your side if you picked it up: Reflect damage. Basically, if you "just defense" at the right time, you'll do roughly 30% of damage to a boss. This is helpful if you're good at hitting the ability button at the right time to do more damage than you will with your weak weapons. And hopefully, if you have enough MP or MP gaining items, you'll reflect damage the boss to death. But eventually, the reflect damage defense ability <b>doesn't</b> work on bosses and enemies if they're spamming magic at you. So you're back to square one.
Then again, you may not be prepared for combat with a boss in general if you aren't reading a guide. Beamup's guide suggests to <b>not</b> use two-handed weapons. Why? Because apparently in the games stats, you aren't going to have a higher magic stat to get better magic gains and have a weaker defense (reasonable, really), but the trade off is that you are "at a distance" and shouldn't be getting hit, right? <b>Wrong</b>. Vagrant Story's bosses seem to just <i>love to spam magic</i> at you from a distance so you have to close in to startle the AI into physical attacks. Which makes two-handed weapons, crossbows, and the like a major major gameplay "no-no."
But you're probably not going to know that if you aren't reading a guide, right? So you're wailing away at 5-10HP damage a pop and hoping to kill the enemy with items and weapons and lowering risk by the bucket load in items at your disposal and probably will die over and over and over. Not a huge deal, but backtracking to workshops or containers for weapons to use against a boss is annoying and gets frustrating fast. But the major <b>major</b> kick in the balls is when you learn that you get an "Analyze" spell that is basically the Vagrant Story equivalent to "Scan" from Final Fantasy. You'd think you'd get this early in the game and it would be super useful, right? <b>Wrong</b>. You gain it about 10-12 hours into the game if you've been banging your head against the bosses and trying to move past without dying over and over. Which, ironically, would've been made simpler if you knew what the weaknesses were without having to check a guide. This is Vagrant Story's version of comedy: You gain on a fresh/clean save file a new magic spell <i>just after the time it would be most useful!</i> Just fought a Fire Element weak boss? With no fire element weapon buff spell? Good for you, here is the spell for defeating him with a major hassle!
!
Oh, but Analyze: Super useful... if you can get it to land. Yes, that's right: Analyze does not work like "Scan" in Final Fantasy. It isn't a sure thing. This means you run into the risk of <i>wasting MP in an attempt to find the bosses weakness to help you!</i> And with MP at 52 points a pop, MP is <b>super important</b> to you not to waste. This hinders a player that isn't using a guide in the attempt to get past bosses with least hassle.
But fret not, fellow blind-no-guide-using player! You gain stat bonuses with a "roulette wheel" system after defeating each boss. Some of the stats get +5 while most are +1 or in between the two. Unfortunately, if you don't know what you're supposed to be doing, you're going to think "hey, HP+5 is a good stat gain! It's the hugest! I'm sure I'll get a STR+5 bonus eventually if I land it!" <b>Wrong!</b> I have come to find out with arguing with Vagrant Story players that <i>that actually screws you over</i> in the long run as HP/MP gain potions are plentiful from bosses while actual stat gains aren't. This means, if you're gaining the greatest stat gains from the roulette, you're not helping yourself in the long run. <b>Terrible.</b> Of course, I shouldn't have to mention that the roulette system in general is a terrible idea as you're basically gambling to win the best stats available in the game. If potions were more plentiful for non-HP/MP stats, this wouldn't be a huge deal. Unfortunately, it is.
But, you can upgrade weapons! Your supposed to be upgrading weapons! The whole cutscene/attract mode FMV shows weapons! The weapon system is the star!
Sure, but like I stated a "free flow" WRPG customization option this is not. If you aren't reading a guide to find this out, you'll be in for a rude shock at wasting weapons in the hope of gaining stats and buffs through "this has good stats and that has good stats. Combining both should give me a net benefit!" <b>No</b>. Vagrant Story takes averages and if you <i>haven't been using the weapons</i> you'll generally come out with a <i>worse</i> weapon than what you gave to get.
BUT WAIT! If you aren't reading a guide you won't know what Vagrant Story wants you to do: It wants you to cross a non-hinted line in a type of material and weapon system to get general stat bonuses and increases.
This means, if you are combining Wooden Swords together you <b>will not get any stat increases</b> if they are the same weapon and one is one you've been using for a while. Okay, great. That's reasonable, I mean I wouldn't expect to be able to kick ass as a god with just a merger wooden sword, but it should carry me for a while, right? <b>No</b>. You have to combing a wooden and iron sword to gain a Hagen sword, for instance. And that Hagen sword <b>will</b> give you stat increases. But if it's a short-sword, you're probably on the lowest "rung" of the weapon-ladder system. You don't have a godly sword, so you won't get the best stat increase. It's a terribly designed system coming from WRPG's that allowed crafting good weapons with time and excess material. It's also a terrible crafting system in the case of Square: Parasite Eve, a JRPG from Squaresofts defunct US branch had a crafting system for guns and a new game+/"EX Game" mode. You basically upgraded weapons with tools and gained the stats to your chose gun or any of the benefits you wanted from that previous gun before it's lost forever and the benefits are on the gun you chose. It's an intuitive system when you aren't reading a guide. Why? Because the system follows normal crafting conventions and <i>has a tutorial in game</i> to explain it!
TL;DR: Vagrant Story has a good art-style and theme going, and the translation by Alexander O. Smith is amazing for the time the game came out. Unfortunately, unless you read Beamup's guide that many people suggest, you're going to have a very frustrating experience that ruins the game. Sadly, this means possibly spoiling yourself on the games bosses and other things that would take you by surprise if you were going in blind.
I feel this is terrible, as Vagrant Story could be better if the mechanics weren't actively obtuse for the sake of being obtuse and actually worthwhile to use. Sadly, this will never be the case and I can't recommend this game to anyone that enjoyed Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics (both Matsuno games!). There is far too much working against a player unless they want to spend time and spoil themselves to learn the game to best complete it without cheating.
2/10 or 1/5
