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Great Story Line

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: July 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game on a whim. I knew nothing about it, but I was looking for an RPG that wasn't 4 discs long with a completely linear story (Final Fantasy VIII). I was blown away. This game has a great story, that is easy to follow, is involving, and makes the game worth playing. I am only halfway through and I am dying to find out what the deal with Sydney is! Is he good? Is he bad? Why is he so interested in Ashley. To me, the story makes the whole RPG (final Fantasy VII is a great example). The battle system is like a cross between Parasite Eve and Final Fantasy. While I am not that thrilled with the whole RISK factor, it does create a challenge to make it through a battle with multiple opponents or one of the bosses. I like the different weaponry you can use and how each one has different timings, making combos difficult using different weapons. I agree with one of the other reviewers that being in a dungeon so much is rather depressing, but after being outside in the Forest, I would rather be in one of the dungeons just so I can see everything without trees obstructing the view. All in all, a fantastic game to own. And if you don't want to own it, it's small enough to rent and spend the weekend playing.

The perfect game except for Legend Of Dragoon...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: June 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The perfect game except for Legend Of Dragoon and maybe Chrono Cross when it comes out. This game has INCREDIBLE graphics, real-time backgrounds(as oppossed to pre-rendered, like most RPGs to date) and the most unique, innovative battle system I have ever seen. The characters talk in word bubbles, so you don't get those annoying text boxes obscuring you vision of all the eye-candy this game has to offer. The battle system happens in real-time. You go up to an enemy, and then you hit a button. You hit O to just plain attack, and even then you can pick seperate body parts of the enemy and chain attacks to get cool combos, and if you're EXTREMELY good, and your weapon strength and your agility are high, you can even take out a boss in one hit! You can also use magic(duh) and break arts, which are special attacks that you learn by destoying enemies with different types of waepons. Then, you can use your break art at the cost of some of your HP. The replay is also good, because you can set high scores, complete secret missions,(you don't know what they are till you fullifll the conditions) and you can't get 100% of map and chests in the game until you alerady beat it once. Also, once you beat it, you can start from the beginning keeping all your stats and spells and everything else. If you own a PlayStation, you have NO reason not to own this game, too.

The best and funnest game ever made

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Every game that square makes is better than the last and now I'm really starting to wonder how square can make anything better than their newest masterpiece, Vagrant Story. The plot is exellent, and even whenever I'm playing the game, my mom comes and watches cuz its just such a great game! The graphics and also really beautiful and extremely detailed, especially in fist person view. You will lose countless hours playing this game. I just bought it two days ago and although I not close to beating yet, I've already declared it as my fav game. Although its exam time over here, I can't help playing it! I was planning to play it for only an hour last night, and i ended up playing till 4 in the morning! the only way i could get myself to tear away from it was from severe fatigue ^_^ This game is also very fun, and you can spend hours trying to perfect your timing during the combo. it also has a great customization system, so you call the calls on your equipment! you can rename it, attach different orbs to them, combine, and build them up to make them powerful against different classes of monsters. this game is an experience not to be missed and should be bought as soon as you get money in your pocket! ciao! Gotta get back to Vagrant Story ^_^

A challenging RPG worth your time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

But what squaresoft game isn't? Vagrant story is a shining gem in the world of role playing games. And quite unique at that. Unlike almost all other RPGs, in Vagrant Story you don't rely on leveling up on experience points to become stronger. Instead you have to depend on gaining new break arts, battle abilities and magics. Of course you can up your HP and MP with potions and a cute little slot machine at the end of boss fights, but you can only raise these stats by a few points at a time. One of the cooler things about Vagrant Story is the ability given to you to make your own customized weapons. You can pick up swords, clubs, spears, daggers and other fun things off of defeated enemies and out of treasure chests. From there, you can find workshops (scattered throughout the game) and combine them, take them apart, attatch gems to them, repair them, and pretty much do whatever you see fit. Another neat thing about the weapon system is that the more you use a specific weapon against a certain class of enemy (ie undead), the more powerful your weapon becomes against it! So the more you use your favorite falchion, the stronger it gets! ^.^ Last but not least, one of the more enjoyable (and sometimes more frustrating) things about this game is that it's HARD. Alot of RPGs these days are oh-so too easy, and you find it a rarity that you're killed. Vagrant Story, my friends, is a different story (heh heh, PTP). I've died more in this game than in Final Fantasy VI, VII AND VIII put together and then some. You have to constantly watch your back, because one lucky blow from a dragon's tail and you're down for good. To wrap everything up, I LOVE THIS GAME! If you're a real hard-core RPG fan, (or not!) you'll really appreciate squaresoft's genius. My god, what will they think of next? Oh, a Final Fantasy Movie perhaps? Nah, that won't be happening anytime soon ^.~

One of the PlayStation's Best!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Vagrant Story comes to us from the same group of people who brought us the strategy masterpiece Final Fantasy Tactics. And like Tactics and many of Square's other games, Vagrant Story shines with a great story and superb gameplay.

Before I get started in bringing out this game's high points, let me bring to light its aspects that some players might view as shortcomings. First, know that this game is complete dungeon-crawling with no towns to purchase equipment from and no people to converse freely with. But unlike some games of this type, where the only real fun thing to do is to find a rare item or encounter a boss, I found Vagrant Story's 3-D landscapes fun to explore, and the battle system makes any enemy encounter fun and worthwhile. Also, to help break the monotony, there is the occasional challenging block puzzle to solve, in which a player moves various blocks in order to reach a certain door or treasure chest, and the cinematic cutscenes that advance the story provide entertaining intermissions. Another thing to know is that it will take a few hours to get into this game, the reason being that until you learn "Chain Abilities," the battles seem awkward and tedious.

Speaking of battles, Vagrant Story features a fun, yet in-depth battle system. To start, each enemy has an enemy class. They can be beast, human, dragon, undead, phantom, or evil. Each time you attack an enemy with one of your several weapons, that weapon will grow better against that enemy's class, while growing weaker against a different enemy class. For example: if you often attack wolves with your crossbow, sooner or later your crossbow will go up a point against beasts, while decreasing a point against undead. Also, there are six element affinities in which a weapon can accumulate strength, and each element is strong against another. Water extinguishes fire, air disturbs water, earth blocks air, fire melts earth, and light and dark cancel each other. So, since bats are air-based, a weapon regularly employed against these flying mammals will gradually accumulate strength in earth, making it a better weapon to use against air enemies.

Then there are the "Chain Abilities" that I mentioned before. At a point in the game, your character will learn a few "Chain Abilities." Afterwards, each battle you encounter will slowly bring him closer to learning another. Each "Chain Ability" has a certain effect, such as adding 10% additional damage to an attack or healing your character by 10% of the damage your attack inflicted. You assign each "Chain Ability" to a different button on your PlayStation controller, and you execute them after your initial attack by pressing the appropriate buttons in the proper rhythm. So, while attacking an enemy, a player can use his "Chain Abilities" to attack again, heal himself, and end off by poisoning the enemy. By pressing the appropriate buttons at the right time, the player can have a chain of more than 20 attacks in just one encounter with an enemy. This makes battles much quicker.

Throughout the game, players will amass quite a collection of blades, grips, gems, armor, and shields, which can be combined to create different and better weapons, armor, and shields. Combine a blade with another blade to create a more powerful blade; snap on a grip that may make it even more powerful; place in a gem or two to improve its attack against certain enemy classes and elements; and behold! You have a unique, customized weapon, and you can even name it.

With great gameplay, outstanding grpahics and animation, a fitting soundtrack, and a good, though complex story, Vagrant Story turns out to be one of Square's best titles and among my top ten favorites on the Playstation.

An amazing game that is certainly not for everyone

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Vagrant Story is the kind of game that is either love it or hate it. There really isn't too much in between. It features great characters and one of the greatest stories in any game released to date, but the amount of attention that must be paid to weapons and stats (along with some redundancy in battles) can really turn a lot of people off.

Let me start with a bit of the story. In the game you play the role of Ashley Riot. A man who is entrusted with the duty of being a Riskbreaker (essentially a one man army) who is entrusted to enter the lost city of Lea Monde to try and figure out an assassination plot that he has been framed for. At the start of the game this is all you know. You know that Ashley went to Lea Monde and was never seen again. Three days after he left, they declared him the murderer. Now you have to find out what happened in the city of Lea Monde and uncover the truth. With a supporting cast of characters lead by the wonderfully evil Sidney Lostarrot, Vagrant Story weaves an amazing tale of lost pasts and hidden truths (with some black magic and whatnot thrown in). Be aware though, the story isn't all happy like you will be apt to find in the Final Fantasy series, it goes much deeper into human emotion and psyche.

As for the gameplay, well, this is where it is either won or lost. Essentially the game is a dungeon crawler that has you wandering the dungeons of Lea Monde until you find a neccesary item to continue traversing through. There is a lot of backtracking but luckily half way through you learn a teleport ability that cuts down on that. You can think of it as similar to the backtracking in Resident Evil games for those familiar (find a locked door, need such and such key/item, find item/key elsewhere, go back and proceed).

All the while you will be encountering various monsters of different classes. While it may not seem like much, monster class is critical to how effective you are at the game. You have the ability to craft your own weapons and armor, each one can have special affinities to different classes. Essentially this means you will want a weapon that is effective against each different enemy class. This is where all the in depth stat management comes in (as well as a lot of use of the EQUIP function....). Attacking enemies is done in real time and allows you to pretty much attack indefinately as long as your timing is good for chaining attacks together. On top of that you can target individual body parts on every monster to weaken different stats (legs = movement, head = intelligence, and so on and so forth). By doing this and inflicting enough damage to one body part you can effectively nullify your enemies strength. Although it can be apt to take quite a while.

Graphically, the game is fairly bland even for PS1 standards. It is made almost with a sketch visual, where there are multiple lines to every section of the characters (similar to what you would see in preproduction sketch books). Although it does work extremely well and seems perfectly natural in the twisted reality that is Lea Monde. All scenes are done in the same graphics engine (no CG) and there is no voice acting so all words are said in speech bubbles. Again, odd, but it works.

The game is definately quirky and is definately a bit of a niche game. It is pretty long and requires the player to really get in depth into what they are doing to truly appreciate all the work and the amazing world that has been imbedded into Vagrant Story. If you can do that, it is one of the most rewarding gaming experiences you can have. If not, then consider your self one of the masses, because that seems to be the general view of the game.

True RPG Fans, prepare to be disappointed

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: August 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The Characters in Vagrant Story are amazingly developed - Sydney(the villan) is probably one of the coolest bad guys since Sephiroth. But be Warned - You will spend the entire game following him around through the same dark and danky dungeon fighting extremly annoying little monsters. There is only one town, Lea Monde, and you only see it (and the light of day) a handful of times throughout the game. I was very thankful for Electronic Boutique's 10 day return policy - because after about 6 days I was ready to throw the CD's out the window. I respect it for it's interesting spiritual/political storyline ... but Vagrant Story hardly stands up to it's SQUARE predecessors, in summary - A waste of time and money.

An excellent action/RPG game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Vagrant story is a great action/RPG gam made by none other than Squaresoft. This games come with great story line, graphics, time challenges, and combat system. The compelling storyline brings this epic of pure evil, and the one man who can stop it to life. Amidst a horrible, cloudy past, Ashley Riot must overcome several dungeons. After seeing his family brutally murdered, he often is reminded of his past in painful flashbacks that feed his anger, and make him remember his skill in the killing arts. You will guide Ashley through all of his battles, and with the awesome equipment system, you can make you're weapons more powerful then the entire army of darkness. As Ashley Riot, you will see flash backs of his son and wife murdered, you will struggle to keep up with the menace Sydney, and the devious Romeo, who is supposedly a servant of God. The ending of this game will only make beg for a sequal. You must resque Callo Merlose, you're assistanty, who was abducted, but is secretly helping you all the while. The awesome battle system is more then words can say. Each weapon has a specific range, and you can attack one enimy at a time with in that range, or, hit them with magic. The power of you're weapons depends on how good you are at combining weapons. If you think you only attack one and that's it, you're wrong. you can do unlimmited attacks in one try with chain attacks, and they enimy won't be able to counter them. My highest, personally, was 23 chains. Can you beat me? And don't worry, there are defensive chains also! And I can't forget Break Arts, which have a lot of power, and can kill most enimies in a single blow. This game should not be overlooked, It is a classic full to the bone. If you like games tht professionals rates BETTER then the Final Fantasy series, you'll like this. DON'T MISS IT!

Love / Hate relationship

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

While I would have agreed with most negative / melancholy reviews about this game when I originally recieved it, I must say that many years later with nothing to do I picked this game back up and inserted it. Having beat the game the first time and now on my second playthrough (tragically my save file from the first game is long gone) I'm going to have to say that this is trully a great game. Though I could agree that a quick menu to changing weapons would have been a nice addition, I spend sooooo much time in the menu just to customize my hero to my specs I never noticed. This is not the standared RPG that FF7 presents nor is it anything like that of Diablo. Born from the mistakes of Chocobo's Dungeon, Parasite eve (1&2) and ofcoarse the infamously terrible Eheirgiez Dungeon (I spelled it wrong and I don't care) This game has managed to take what was good from all those games and build off it. While Customization abounds in this game, if you lack either the intelligence or the patience to play this game then I suggest you go back to a conventional RPG and forget you ever heard about this. While what may seem like nothing but tedious gameplay, try putting this on par of a beginers experience of D&D your first play through. (because I can gaurantee that after your first run, you'll know exactly what to expect on any upcomming situation.)

Ashley Riot needs to be reprisal role on next gen systems!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

To avoid writing a 15 page in-depth review, I'll keep it super simple. If you like RPGs with and excellent story line, tons of weapon combinations, a fun & ground-breaking combat system, dark humor and programming that actually rewards you for playing through several times..... get this game. Don't have a PS1? PS2? Doggone it, Square! Let's have a Vagrant Story for PS3.

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