Vagrant Story
Squaresoft
1 Player
3 Memory Card Blocks
$39.95
It as been lauded in recent months as no less than
the RPG Jesus himself designed in his spare time and
decided to market on Earth to make a little extra
cash. The promotional press material was littered
with quotes from prestigious game sources like RPGamer
and PSX Magazine calling it "the greatest game for
Playstation ever" and "better even than Final Fantasy
VII". Swayed by both this overwhelming praise and by
the some impressive demos and screenshots I had
downloaded on the 'Net, I bought Vagrant Story a few
weeks ago. After a more or less regular playing
schedule I feel I've gotten most of the game elements
down pat, so here's the real story on Vagrant Story.
Right off the bat I should assert that I have not
completed this game. Even so, I can say with relative
confidence that this is not the greatest game for the
Playstation, nor is it the greatest RPG ever made. It
is however, a challenging, engaging distraction with
more than enough action and intrigue to satisfy most
RPG fans. It's a slim game for an RPG just one
disc, compared to FFVII's 3 and FFVIII's 4, but a
solid package if ever I've seen one, and boasting some
downright groundbreaking innovations in the degree of
control the player is given. But I'll get to that in
a minute.
So why play Vagrant Story? What's so damn cool about
it that it would be touted as the Babylon Five to
FFVII's Star Trek? Let's start with the plot: you are
Ashley Riot, a member of the revered Valendia Knights
of the Peace, a cadre of warriors dedicated to
preserving order in and around the kingdom.
Specifically, Ashley is a Riskbreaker an elite
division of the VKP a covert operative who works
alone, in secret, to defend the realm from foreign
threats. Your task is to guide Ashley as he hunts
down Sydney Losstarot, an enigmatic psychopath who
leads a fanatical cult called Mullenkamp, and stop his
nefarious quest to unearth an evil power in the
long-dead city of Lea Monde. Lea Monde was once a
prize jewel in the kingdom, but a savage earthquake
destroyed most of the city and everyone in it
twenty-five years ago. Now Lea Monde is a ghost town,
inhabited only by Sydney's disciples and other forces
of darkness. Standing in Ashley's way are armies of
zombies, possessed beasts, dragons, demons, and the
Crimson Blades a small but immensely powerful order
of knights loyal only to the Cardinal who want
Sydney's head on a platter and will brook no
interference from a meddling Riskbreaker like Ashley.
Sydney seems to have a lot of enemies out to destroy
him, but you learn very early on that he is not
entirely as he appears to be, as you watch Ashley nail
him in the heart at point-blank range with a crossbow
bolt-and the cult leader pulls the arrow out of his
chest and laughs, unhurt. Indeed, Sydney comes off as
such a bastard right from the start that you really
want to hunt the prick down and do whatever it takes
to destroy him. But he's not about to let Ashley get
too close, preferring instead to use his conjuring
abilities to summon massive beasts to stop the
Riskbreaker instead.
These and all other elements of the plot are
presented to the player through the use of rendered
cut scenes, where rough-around-the-edges 3-D
characters interact in beautifully detailed settings.
The designers barrowed an idea from the comic book
medium and have all their characters say their lines
with speech bubbles, complete with convenient little
arrows to indicate who did the talking. This is not
as distracting as one might initially assume, and in
fact is actually perfectly appropriate, complementing
the look and feel of the game rather than hindering
it. It would have been wonderful if these cut scenes
were done in Full Motion Video, but then I suspect
Vagrant Story would have been a minimum of four discs
long, so many cut scenes are there in this game.
Nevertheless, the plot is intriguing and clever and
the pace of the story development is quite lively,
with cut-scenes galore. Story and plot are definitely
a plus in this game.
The other (and only) major element of Vagrant Story
really worth examining in detail is the much
ballyhooed battle system, considered a groundbreaking
improvement over the battle systems in previous RPGs
by many in the gaming industry. Where the Final
Fantasy games have separate screens, controls and
interfaces for normal "explore/interact" mode, and a
totally different one for "battle" mode, Vagrant Story
integrates the two flawlessly, eliminating the need
for time-consuming screen swaps. In this game you
walk, run, look, jump, open, close, and fight all with
a single screen, fully rotating with the L1 and R1
buttons. You can draw your weapon anytime with a
single push of a button, and sheathe it again with the
same command. When an opponent challenges you, you
draw your weapon and erect your "targeting sphere", a
circular grid that shows you the range of your weapon
and all the targets within that sphere that you are
capable of attacking. You then have the ability to
attack any opponent in range of your blade. What's
more, you can attack different body parts of your
enemy, such as the head, arms, or legs. A handy
little statistical readout at the bottom of the screen
will illustrate for you how much damage you stand to
do by attacking each part, and what the odds are of
successfully striking the target. Your opponent, like
yourself, only has one set of hit points, but striking
a particular body part, such as an unarmored left arm,
might do more damage than clanging your sword on a
knight's solid steel helmet. This battle system also
does away with time bars. Rather you have about three
to five seconds between each opponent's attack, and
you are allowed to do whatever you can in that time
before it's your enemy's turn to land a blow. I find
this a refreshing change from the popular time bar
system, such as in FFVII and FFVIII, where you become
a slave to that damn yellow line in the corner of your
screen slowly building up, waiting for it to give you
the privilege to act. With the Vagrant Story system,
you can attack, cast a spell, change your position,
and swallow a potion in a single "turn." What this
does is give you a greater sense of freedom and
realism in the battle, allowing you to use strategy
and varied tactics in a fight rather than simply going
for "the big hit". Indeed, there really are no "big
hits" in this game, just as there are no "levels" for
Ashley to increase in. You do not gain a load of
experience points for vanquishing an enemy like you do
in other RPGs, nor do your Hit Point and Magic Point
meters increase. Rather you pick up new weapons,
armor, and items, and acquire a few points towards new
battle abilities. And what are battle abilities, you
ask? Weeellllll..
Battle abilities are yet another new element added to
the Vagrant Story battle system. They are special
actions you can achieve in a fight by pressing the
right button at the right time. As you progress in
the game, you are given the choice of battle abilities
for Ashley to acquire. These abilities are both
defensive and offensive in nature, and serve to
enhance you attacks and counterattacks. By assigning
a button command to a particular battle ability, and
then pressing that button just as you strike your
opponent, you produce a "chain" attack, consisting of
multiple strikes. For instance, the "Heavy Shot"
battle ability inflicts and additional 40% damage on
your opponent free of charge. Pressing the
appropriate button when Ashley is struck can activate
defensive chain abilities. For instance, "Reflect
Damage", a favorite of mine, shoots half of the damage
Ashley takes back to his attacker. You can understand
how effective and beneficial these abilities become
once you master them. The downside to chain abilities
are the absolute perfect timing they demand to perform
them, a source of intense frustration for a beginner.
Once you try out the abilities, however, it is only a
matter of a little practice to become an expert at
delivering devastating combination attacks and
flawless defense.
As if that all wasn't complicated enough, Squaresoft
decided to introduce yet another new and testing
element to that battle system: the Risk Meter. This
is, I find, one of the less stellar of the innovations
in the battle system, but another challenging addition
regardless. Basically, as you fight this little green
risk meter slowly increases, counting up from zero.
The higher then number reaches during the fight, the
harder it becomes to hit a target literally, your
accuracy decreases. This can become and unbelievable
pain in the ass, particularly when battling a
boss-type enemy that takes forever to die. After your
twenty-third miss in a row you want to rip the damn
Risk Meter off the status bar and cram it up
Squaresoft's collective ass. Fortunately, there is an
adequate supply of items available that lower your
risk during a fight, allowing you some accuracy once
more.
Adding to the immense variety in this game is a
myriad selection of weapons, shields, armor, and
accessories with which you can equip Ashley, each of
them possessing particular traits, making some of them
better to use against humans rather than the undead,
or more effective against dragons than against beasts.
One feature about this game that iswell, different
about Vagrant Story is the complete lack of shops
stores where weapons and items can be purchased.
Instead, Ashley lifts everything he needs off of his
vanquished enemies. I don't really like this, as you
have no control whatsoever over when you receive items
and in what quantity. Nevertheless, there is an item
for just about everything, including health potions,
Risk reducers, and counteragents for abnormal effects
like Paralysis and Poisoning. Squaresoft threw in one
more challenge just to give this game full of weapons,
accessories, and items an extra edge: an item limit.
Where in the FF games there is no limit to what you
can carry, in Vagrant story you are allowed a maximum
of eight weapons, six shields, sixteen armors for your
various body parts, and sixty-four miscellaneous items
such as potions. So chooseand choose wisely.
As you might expect, Ashley isn't just a warrior-he's
a wizard as well, and Vagrant Story boasts more than
enough magic spells to satisfy any devotee of the FF
games or other RPGs where magic plays a significant
role. You learn magic spells by acquiring
"Grimoires", little scrolls that teach you the spell.
Once you use the Grimoire, Ashley learns the spell
permanently. Again, spells can't be bought, but
rather are acquired, most often after you defeat a
boss. Spells are broken into four groups: Warlock
offensive spells that do damage to opponents, Shaman
spells that benefit you, such as Healing, Sorcery
spells that cause abnormalities in you or you
opponents, and Enchantments long-lasting spells that
you cast on yourself for aid during battle. The
spells are varied and effective, but the major
drawback is their high cost. Ashley only has a total
of 52 MP in the game, and that level can only be
raised marginally in the end. As a result, you must
ration your magic for what it can be put to best use.
While annoying, this represents (surprise!) yet
another new challenge in the game. In case you're
starting to think that Vagrant Story is too hard
because of the low HP and MP meters, get a load of
this juicy tidbit: Ashley's HP and MP regenerate
automatically, and quickly. His bodily damage heals
so fast he would make Wolverine jealous, and his magic
recharges in about one minute. This is a pretty
terrific feature, especially since you don't have to
fear spontaneous, unannounced attacks in this game.
If you're hurtin', you just rest for a minute or two
and you're ready to go again. In a big fight,
however, or against a boss, regeneration means
nothing, so be careful.
When you're not busy spilling blood or fending off
zombies, you're usually solving puzzles, another
trademark staple of the RPG. In this case, the
puzzles are pretty unremarkable and easy, consisting
almost entirely of moving blocks around so you can
reach the door on the other side of the room. I've
perhaps solved a half-dozen of these puzzles so far
and the longest it's taken me to decipher is fifty
seconds. To be fair, the block moving can be
difficult, especially since there are multiple block
types ones that lift, ones that slide, ones that
don't move at all, etc. It's a minor point, but
credit should be given for adding a cerebral element
to a very brawn-heavy game.
If you're a valiant warrior and a clever puzzle
solver, you'll progress rapidly through the game, and
you'll soon find the pace of the story quickening, as
well as an ongoing exploration of Ashley, his tragic
past, and the incredible power he holds within him. A
huge plus of this game is the equal time we get to
spend with the good guys and the bad guys. Not only
do we see things from Ashley's objective point of
view, but we also watch Sydney and his minions as they
move forward with their nefarious plans, and we see
the frustrated Crimson Blades falling behind in their
pursuit of the dark messiah, and their growing
annoyance with the meddling Riskbreaker and their
inability to kill him. This element of the game is
made all the more pleasant by a terrific supporting
cast, including the viciously evil Sydney, and Romeo
Guildenstern, the leader of the Crimson Blades, whose
name is just one homage of many to Shakespeare
throughout the game.
Altogether, Vagrant Story is an RPG worthy of most of
the apparently over-bearing praise it has received
recently. It is smart and exciting, gripping and
creepy, powerful and profound. Is it Final Fantasy
VII? No. Certainly not, anymore than Ashley Riot is
Cloud Strife or Sydney Losstarot is Sephiroth. But it
is a solid effort from the consistently awesome
Squaresoft; one that I am pleased for purchasing and
eager to finish.
---
John Paige
6.12.2000
Dairy Farmers For Quebec's Independence