Did you play Vagrant Story for the PS1?

[lindbergh]

Vagrant Story was a step in a new direction by Square. I bought the game before without reading any reviews of watching any actual gameplay. I was expecting it to be similar to their classic RPGs like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger.

When I plopped it into my PS1, I was shocked. It was a completely different game! At first I did not like it because I didn't know if it was an adventure game or a strategy game or an RPG game. But as I progressed through the world, I began to appreciate the combat system and its intricacies.

I think Vagrant Story was the basis for the combat system found in FFXII. It was a very bold move by square, but one that paid off quite well. Did any of you play Square's sleeper hit?

 

[JaiGuru]

That is one of the few classic Squaresoft games I haven't played. It's actually pretty weird, too, since I'm a huge fan of any game they set in Ivalice. I wish they'd add another chapter to that world, especially after the tour-de-force that was Final Fantasy XII. Does it play much like that? Are there any common narrative threads between FFXII and Vagrant Story, or are they stand alone titles?

 

[lindbergh]

They are stand alone titles. I can't think of any common narrative threads between the two. Also, Vagrant Story is a lot darker than FFXII. It tells the tale of Risk Breaker Ashley Riot and you follow his footsteps as he tries to stop Sydney (the bad guy).

Though they are similar, the combat system is a lot more polished in VS than in FFXII. You can target a specific body part of your enemy and render it useless with repeated blows. The weapon crafting system is also much more satisfying in VS. You can collect materials and combine them to form a weapon or you can disassemble some weapons you have collected and forge them into a stronger one. If you have an emulator, you should check this out.

 

[Gladdy]

Yeah, the ability to target specific parts of the body reminded me of the Fallout combat system... but I loved this game. I bought it completely random and at the time, I honestly had no idea what it even was. I expected it to be a full on RPG but it's so much more! I like that it's quite challenging with its puzzles. It took me a while to figure some out... Also, I loved the dialogue bubbles, haha. A great classic old game.

 

[lindbergh]

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding us about the puzzles. Haha! Puzzles were mainly just pushing, pulling, stacking and destroying different types of crates /boxes. However, they were very challenging. There were many times when I got stuck with a puzzle for hours! But I'm proud to say that I never turned to walk throughs. I finished the game without using any help.

Yep, the speech bubbles were a nice touch and the Shakespeare speak added a lot to the atmosphere of the game.

 

[Neiltarquin]

Yes I did... Wow... I completely forgotten about this game up until now. Not good in graphics but I had tons of good times playing the game.