For the Love of... Vagrant Story

Anyone who played Final Fantasy XII will instantly recognise that Vagrant Story had the same director, Yasumi Matsuno. Sights, sounds and everything else in between. He’s the reason you can pick up Vagrant Story today and still see a beautiful game, despite how pixellated textures can appear. Remarkable for little touches like how the mouths actually moved when people spoke during in-game cut-scenes. Even if they were speaking with comic book speech bubbles, it’s hard to think of another PS1 game that animated the mouth movements, generally opting for head bobbing instead.

That’s another thing that’s odd and wonderful about the game; its only pre-rendered cinematic is before you hit New Game. Made of cuts between a belly dancer, our hero and a dragon. All delightfully enigmatic, but not nearly as impressive as some of the things they got the PS1 to do in real time. Some of the best cinematics were those that introduced a new enemy by showing you through their eyes, employing full-screen visual filters. There simply isn’t a better looking PlayStation game. Of course, it helps that the cut-scenes and gameplay are using the same graphics; i.e. the cut-scenes don’t make the game look bad because they are the game.

The story revolves around the Valendia Knights of the Peace, referred to as the VKP, sending an individual in pursuit of the leader of a cult. You, Ashley Riot of the VKP, are that individual. Within the lore of the game there is a derogatory term for VKP agents; Riskbreaker. It feels like it’s spat at you in the same way Rutger Hauer asks for more life in Bladerunner. It’s weird to talk about a game that’s 10 years old without wishing to spoil anything, but it’s for that very reason we must now speak of other things...

The combat seems like the natural evolution of Final Fantasy Tactics (another Matsuno game) at first. But as you progress the game opens up into puzzling, platforming and rhythm-based gameplay. When enemies are nearby, you watch an ellipsis grow over their head until it becomes an exclamation mark, meaning it’s their turn to hit you. At any time you can hit Circle to arm yourself, entering Battle Mode. Another jab at Circle brings up a wire-frame sphere showing your reach and a list of the enemies body parts you can hit. Highlighting them shows how much you’ll damage them and what chance you have of hitting them.

An hour or two in, however, Risk becomes a factor. Successive attacks/being attacked raises your “Risk”, and the higher your Risk, the more your chance to hit is adversely affected. What makes Risk worth enduring are the abilities that earn you the title of Riskbreaker. You get defensive and offensive Risk breaking abilities. These are benefits manually mapped to Square, Triangle and Circle. They’re used by hitting the relevant button at precisely the right moment in an attack, whether it’s done by you or your enemies. These can be things like reducing damage taken, or adding paralysis to your attack. What makes them compulsive is that they can be chained. If you’re good, your first attack can be all you need as you chain from causing paralysis to repairing weapons to stealing mana, rinse/repeat.

So if you were paying attention there you’ll have noticed there’s also magic in the game. Occasionally you’ll find a grimoire that can be used as an item to cast the spell for the first time, thus learning it.

Durability and materials are also important in the game. The materials affect their durability and affinities; silver is good when fighting undead, for example. By the end of the game you’ll probably have a full set of damascus weapons, the all-round best material of the game.

Since there are eight affinities and you can only carry eight weapons, the best strategy seems clear. Make each weapon specialise in a different enemy type and rename it for that type. Fighting enemies with a weapon improves the ability of that weapon to hurt the kinds of enemies you fight. So if you keep fighting beasts with a crossbow, chances are that’ll become your beast fighting weapon. While some materials are pre-disposed towards hurting a certain kind of enemy, there are jewels you can insert into weapon slots to change them. Add to that the training dummies that can be used for a little optional grinding, and you’re destined to have a powerful set indeed.

This complexity that is only as deep as you care to take it goes even further with a pretty decent crafting system. All weapons can be broken down into their component parts, allowing you to reassemble hilts and blades as you see fit. Items can also be combined into an average. Happily, the workshops in the game always have a storage chest for you to store stuff you don’t want to take with you.

The game was also an early proponent of fast travel, though it was at a cost. At a certain point in the game you gain a teleport spell. This costs mana, however. So if you weren’t being a completist up to that point, getting to anywhere farther away meant a two or three bus trip, so to speak.

Vagrant Story is probably the oldest game with a meta-gaming system. In the form of 32 Titles, these were awarded for much the same sorts of tasks as achievements and trophies are today; complete the game once, kill 500 phantoms. Like the best trophy sets, it’s impossible to get them all in one playthrough, adding the already strong impulse to play the game multiple times.

Adding to that impulse is that you get to keep all your gear when you start again. That gear includes the means to open some doors that were locked to you on the first playthrough.

So this game, released in 2000, pre-empted the meta-gaming of achievements or trophies and persistent playthroughs we enjoy today under the New Game Plus moniker!

The tipping point for this article being written was down to Sony adding Vagrant Story to the European PlayStation Store. Apart from making it cheaper to own at a few pennies shy of a fiver, it also means you can play the game on your PSP. Especially more realistic because the game is only 90 MB in size (about an eighth of a CD), making all that was accomplished in the game an astounding technical achievement.

Not to mention the fact that saves can be copied between PS3 and PSP. Go on! Treat yourself; it’s only a fiver.

Love it!