Vagrant Story

Has anyone played this game? It was arguably the deepest, most ambitious game on PS1.

I thought Square said they would do a sequel or prequel, what in the world happened?!

The game was awesome but too short for my liking. But very daring.

Yeah, its only 30 hours max, can be beaten in 15 hours at best by an amateur. I would’ve liked to seen it at least 5-10 hours longer.

Its got very huge and condensed gameplay for the time it takes to beat.

Trust Cecil to make a VS thread every couple of months (and trust me to step in and ramble on about something every time). ;3 It’s too bad they never really come alive, though. People don’t know what they’re missing.

Anyway..

Yeah, its only 30 hours max, can be beaten in 15 hours at best by an amateur. I would’ve liked to seen it at least 5-10 hours longer.

Its got very huge and condensed gameplay for the time it takes to beat.

I suppose 30 hours on one’s first try is possible, though I see 15 as being very, very unlikely. What is absolutely certain, however, is that in a mere 30 hours the player will no doubt bypass the vast majority of what makes this game legendary. Huge gameplay, yes, but you won’t really feel it in that short space of time.

Vagrant Story is not for everyone, being a dungeon crawler and all. Perfectionists, however, or at least patient gamers will find it to be one of those rare cases where the game’s main strength is its ability to draw you in and hold you for multiple replays. You cannot accomplish half of what this game has to offer in one or two tries.

In fact, eager players will discover that to get the most out of this game you will find yourself involved with Ashley Riot in Lea Monde for well over the usual 60+ hour point that regular, more linear RPGs such as Final Fantasy offer.

Weapon smithing, item farming, battling effectively, knowing the difference between equipment types, classes and affinities, studying battles, realizing your strengths and enemy weaknesses, completing puzzles, completing the list of built-in challenges, breaking records and making the gazette headlines, defeating time-attacks and optional enemies/bosses; all these put together make for a challenging, lasting experience.

You will run into many brick walls if you don’t take the extra hours to stop and re-invent yourself along the way.

For the record, I replayed this game 15 times and still I was unable to accomplish every available task within the 300+ hours the game kept me entertained for. For those who may not know, a replay file involves you returning to the beginning with all stats, spells, weapons and armour in tact, while your item list is cleared. Inevitably the more times you replay, the quicker you’ll become due to your ever-increasing strength, memory of quickest routes, most effective mode of attack for each enemy, less time spent in workshops etc. My quickest time I think is somewhere around 70-90 minutes.

Vagrant Story is gameplay and replayability at their absolute best.
It’s just too bad that only a handful of people will realize all this.

Not everyone wants a game as deep, detailed, or challenging as Vagrant Story, and to think that some of those that do never even get to see these qualities as they are immediately turned off by the game environments that are admittedly dull and dark, despite the fact that the in-game graphics and animations are some of the best and smoothest ever seen on the psx, much less can they fathom the complex dialogue and convoluted plot. Some simply call it "boring".

Oh well.

There was never any solid word of a sequel or prequel. Those were rumours. I do remember, however, a long time ago showing you, Cecil, a site containing an interview with the developers, where it was said that unfortunately the game that VS is now is only half of what it was originally planned to be. It currently stretches the psx to its limit, but additional features such as a larger, even more detailed world, an expanded cast of characters, NPCs, moments where NPCs join you in a skirmish against foes, and a few other tidbits, were ommitted due to hardware and time constraints. =/

It was also mentioned that while VS would be seen in its true form on PS2, that it would be very unlikely to see a remake/sequel/prequel because of how poorly the original was recieved. =/

Hopefully I/someone will be able to dig up this interview.

And to think I still hope and pray for a Vagrant Story 2… /cry.

I enjoyed Vagrant Story. I can’t say I played it as many times/as obsessively as you, DL, but it really is unerrated, and unfairly so. The plot was awesome… and it was a genuinely challenging game, unlike the bulk of FFs. A sequel would be great.

I knew you must’ve been ChibiDL…did I ever tell you some fool once compared this game to Legend of Dragoon?

"Vagrant Story is not for everyone, being a dungeon crawler and all."

A lot of people who are against this game, are against it souly for the fact its not a traditional RPG and it sickens me when people will claim a game is bad when the entire genre isn’t to their liking, rather than admitting the postives but acknowledging their distaste for the type of game it was.

I never heard of that interview…but to hear a game was so good, the PS1 couldn’t hold it all (while it doesn’t completely suprise me) it makes me all the sadder of what poor taste and shallowness seems to be more appealing to videogamers…

*Cries with Typo*

We need one of those protest forums….damn, this is the saddest news I heard in a while, it would still be one of the most ambitious RPGs had it been a PS2 game with the features it had now, but to have been even more…this is a sad day for videogames, specifically RPGs.

I didn’t like the game. Too short and just not the kinda game I like to sit down and play ova and ova again

Originally posted by Gandalf
It was arguably the deepest, most ambitious game on PS1.

Very arguably.

I couldn’t play it, myself. I thought it was insanely boring.

Vagrant Story is gameplay and replayability at their absolute best.

I played Gunbird 2 for at least over 100 hours(there’s no timer).

A single play through the game takes all of 10 minutes once you can beat it, and yet even after all of those hours playing I was still unable to accomplish every available task within the 100+ hours that the game kept me entertained for. And like, almost any shmup that’s decent has a similar amount of replay value. Where you can play hundreds of times and still come back for more.

I’m just saying. =|

I’ve never played through Vagrant Story. It’s in that list of games I started briefly and never finished, like Chrono Cross. I’d track it down, but don’t really have the time anymore =\ But cramming a convoluted plot into a 15 hour game where most of the time is presumably spent outside of the story and in the gameplay means that the points that give the plot it’s complexity would all have to be treated shallowly in order to fit into the time frame. CONFIRM OR DENY. In anycase,it doesn’t seem like much of a good thing in itself. " 🙁 "

hey typo, or Gandalf. Did either of you play Record of Lodoss War on the dreamcast? If so, thoughts?

It’s a great game, the risk thing can be annoying, but it’s a change from other games.

Originally posted by rezo

1. CONFIRM OR DENY.

2. hey typo, or Gandalf. Did either of you play Record of Lodoss War on the dreamcast? If so, thoughts?

1. DENY

2. Nu.

It had really boring gameplay, but the customization of your items was pretty deep and a lot of people loved it; apparently just for that. So I was just checking , since it was something I did play.

No rezo, haven’t heard of it.

I’m really behind in videogames. I have yet to play Lunar games, Star Ocean, Suikidoen (spelling?), Chrono Trigger, and Skies of Arcadia.

you were inclined to play again though because when you get the blood sin on your back you can access that awesome weapons shop….

I played it and for some reason, once i reached the forest i only did like 5 damage a hit on the monsters there.

i played it Pretty fun.
tell me who is that gurl dancing in the Opeaning???????????????//
and PLZ tell me spoilers?!

who is that gurl dancing in the Opeaning?

I’ve always assumed it was the priestess Mullenkamp that Sydney’s cult worships. Sad that I remember that. =/

the game was all right i guess but then after a while me and my brother swapped it for a different game but we had fun playing it while we had it

I enjoyed this game, and even though i didnt complete it or even understand the story, it was good. lol.