As mentioned in the title, this is a game I acquired in 2000 when it first came out (near 14 years ago now) in the golden age of the PlayStation 1 when quality titles for it were abound and quite easy to come by. A large number of the PS1 games I acquired in those days I never finished and eventually retired but this one one I always wanted to keep because it always intruiged me. And I have finally finished it now, but sadly, it didn't appeal to me as much as I would have hoped.
Personally, I would think that the main problem I had could be summed up in two words:
Endless customisation.
Practically every weapons, piece of armour and piece of gear in this game can be dissasembled, reassembled, modified and retrofitted to make it into almost any item you want to. And while this sounds good on paper, in reality it means you spend more time looking for bits and pieces to do this and constantly tinkering with your weapons and gear if you want to actually make any progress. You can get by with standard gear for a while, but you pretty soon hit difficulty walls where you have to improve your equipment or die. So you are forced to scour for parts and experiment with your equipment until you find something that works on the monsters you are facing at the minute. Chaining is another very important part of the combat where you must time hits to make them successively land. I never quite got the hang of this and could never get a very high chain which seemed to further increase the difficulty level.
Gameplay takes the form of an action RPG where you move through small rooms set on a map. Along the way, enemies will attack you and at any point you can stop time and bring up an attack sphere to target enemies within your reach and then carry out the attack. From here, you can carry on to execute chains or special attacks with specific button combinations. You progress through the maps often doubling back after finding key items required to proceed or defeating bosses in your way. As well as a normal health meter, you also have a body health meter. So specific parts of your body can be damaged with adverse affects such as legs to reduce movement speed or arms to reduce combat effectiveness. You also have a risk rating which increases as your combo does and can lower accuracy but increase chance of critical hit. Balancing risk against combo size and leaving yourself open to counter attack is important to increase combat effectiveness.
The story takes places in the dead city of Leá Monde in the kingdom of Ivalice. This is the same kingdom that other Square games such as Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 take place in. You play Ashley, an elite riskbreaker warrior who is sent in to investigate a cult leader called Sydney who is in possession of mysterious powers and his possible connection to a politician. Along the way you meet other characters some of which are friendly and some of which are not in your mission to unravel the mysteries of this ghostly town that seems to have the power to bring the dead back to life as well as Ashley's own past which he has seemingly lost.
The game has quite a lonely feeling to it because apart from these few aforementioned characters, you do not meet many other living people. There are also no shops and no NPCs to interact with so there is a distinct feeling of isolation and loneliness as you make your way through these dark tunnels and underground passageways. The only respites that you will find are the save points and work benches where you will spend a lot of time tinkering with your equipment.
There are a huge variety of enemies to hinder your progress as well as as imposing bosses all over the place. You can barely go 6 or 7 room sometimes without running into one. Especially in the end game where almost every other room contains a boss.
Sadly, for me, Vagrant story did not live up to what I hoped it to be and I found it a bit too obtuse and difficult to make progress without large amounts of experimentation. Endless customisation is a nice thing to have as an optional side endeavour for those who want to wring every last ounce out of a game, but it doesn't feel right to make it mandatory just to complete the main story. I think I would have preferred this more were it less of a trial to make it through with normal equipment and have the option to tinker should you feel the need.
I much prefer a sense of momentum when I am playing a game. I want to be able to feel events unfolding and a sense of making progress. All too often in Vagrant Story it felt that progress was forcibly being grinded to a halt in the aim of more tinkering. But if you are into endless tinkering, then this will be right up your alley.
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