Vagrant Story discussion thread

[EmperorIng]

The mods should probably just split the thread. This is for discussing the effeminately-clad warriors of [psuedo] Ivalice.

All the discussion about RISK and chaining and I still don't get it, lol. I guess it's time to try, try again.

[Bananamatic]

Too bad, I was really looking forward to a vagrant story thread.

We can discuss having instadeath spells in a game with only 1 controlled character

[Ed Oscuro]

How do you mean? If you're trying to cast a spell to protect against some attack, and then getting hit by the opposite element (while you are at a disadvantage), don't do that no mo'. Not sure what could be considered an "instadeath" attack in this game otherwise.

[Bananamatic]

Banish kills you instantly if you don't have Magic Ward up

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh, that. Then use Magic Ward. Not a big problem.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Accidentally, I made one my attempts to get into VS having just played Devil May Cry (the first one), both on the same 14'' RGB CRT, unfiltered textures in VS. Looked amusingly alike.

[Ruldra]

Started playing this yesterday night and just reached my first roadblock: a stone giant boss. Logic states that blunt weapons should be effective against him, but turns out none of my weapons do any damage. I'm carrying one of each kind of damage type (edged, blunt, piercing) but they're all useless for this boss. Maybe affinities are more important than I thought.

I reached him by accident and still had some areas to explore on the map, so perhaps I'll come across something that will help me beat him. We'll see.

[Ed Oscuro]

The golem in the monk's quarters, right? Man, I wish I could tell you what I did there. I don't recall having any trouble with him.

[xorthen]

One of Square's best games imo. I actually have the original physical copy sitting on my shelf, I think it's about time I went back and played it again.

For those that haven't played it, don't discount this game's reputation as just being Square fanboy hype. This was a legitimately excellent and very original title that was mostly ignored by the FF fanboys when it came out. If anything it was underappreciated.

From my experience there were two types of people who liked and disliked it. Final Fantasy casuals found the system too complex to get into and never played beyond the first dungeon. The more cultured RPG and game fans found it to be a masterpiece of its time.

[xorthen]

^Me too man, me too

I blame the fans for the direction square went though. Look at how the fanbase reacted to FF12 when it came out. That was one of the best games Square ever produced and yet everyone hated it because it was too different and complex and didn't have enough zipper-pants. It's no wonder they just decided to just keep spoon feeding their fans Nomura's bullshit to make fat cash instead of investing in new quality titles.

I can see Nomura sitting in his office replying to fan concerns over character designs,"BELTS AND ZIPPERS ALL DAY MOTHERFUCKERS"

Yeah, Nomuras art is shit. Looks like some trendy hot topic garbage.

[xorthen]

The mods should probably just split the thread. This is for discussing the effeminately-clad warriors of [psuedo] Ivalice.

All the discussion about RISK and chaining and I still don't get it, lol. I guess it's time to try, try again.

If my memory serves me right, higher RISK increases damage you receive and your damage output but lowers your accuracy % ? It also decreases your weapon stats. I think.

High RISK is a double edged sword. I am pretty sure there were chain defense skills that would prevent damage and lower risk , but I don't recall. It has been ages since I played it.

My how the mighty Squaresoft have fallen.

[Ed Oscuro]

Kind of off-topic, but I enjoy seeing new kinds of art direction getting their day. The blindingly bright and cheerful palettes and costumes of many recent Square games are okay as something new. However, I'd like to see that move to the side so something else can come in. But it is hard to deny the instantly readable designs and bright colors have some appeal.

Actually Vagrant Story's own art is in many places quite far from drab, and certainly isn't traditional in many places (Samantha's stripper tat, lol - and let's not forget Rosencrantz's highly exploitable metal face ring). You can start to see it moving in that direction - of course its thematic content is much more mature so it's easier to take its blend of classical and modern seriously.

[Ruldra]

Update: Found a couple weapons I missed before, but still, I brought 8 different weapons for the golem boss and NONE worked! I did find a way to beat him though: raise RISK to absurd levels, take damage and reflect it back to him. Just kept healing myself and reflecting damage until he died.

A while later I leave the dungeons and come across a group of humans. None of my weapons have human affinity so again I'm not doing any damage. I start to think I screwed myself over for using one weapon all the time and might need to restart...but then I check my stash and find that the starting sword has some human affinity. I bring it to the fight and suddenly I'm doing normal damage again.

I may be wrong, but from what I'm seeing so far, affinity is CRUCIAL to this game. If your weapon doesn't have affinity to the enemy you're facing you just won't deal damage.

I still didn't find the difference between edged/piercing/blunt damage. I'm starting to think spears and swords are equally effective against a monster class if they have the same affinity.

[Bananamatic]

Update: Found a couple weapons I missed before, but still, I brought 8 different weapons for the golem boss and NONE worked! I did find a way to beat him though: raise RISK to absurd levels, take damage and reflect it back to him. Just kept healing myself and reflecting damage until he died.

A while later I leave the dungeons and come across a group of humans. None of my weapons have human affinity so again I'm not doing any damage. I start to think I screwed myself over for using one weapon all the time and might need to restart...but then I check my stash and find that the starting sword has some human affinity. I bring it to the fight and suddenly I'm doing normal damage again.

I may be wrong, but from what I'm seeing so far, affinity is CRUCIAL to this game. If your weapon doesn't have affinity to the enemy you're facing you just won't deal damage.

I still didn't find the difference between edged/piercing/blunt damage. I'm starting to think spears and swords are equally effective against a monster class if they have the same affinity.

The golem is actually REALLY weak to blunt attacks(makes perfect sense), there is a spell to scan enemies and check their specific stats.

Use the great mace you found a few rooms ago, make sure its PP is at max(this is more important in damage dealing than you might think), cast Degenerate on the golem(strength is the overall physical stat and it affects both defense and attack) and it should go down in like 2 combos.
IIRC Duane and his men are somewhat weak to Slash damage and that weapon's PP was probably maxed already.

[Ruldra]

I did use the great mace on the golem, but because it had 0 PP and no affinity, it was doing like 5 damage. I noticed how PP affects a weapon but that stat takes a while to build up.

In any case, it's pretty obvious that using a single weapon to deal with every enemy in typical JRPG fashion is not the way to play this game. I'll try having one weapon for each type of enemy and see how it goes. I only wish you could switch weapons on the fly like in Metal Gear Solid.

PS: I'll edit the thread title since the sale is over now.

[soprano1]

I only wish you could switch weapons on the fly like in Metal Gear Solid.

This, this x100000 times...

[Bananamatic]

In any case, it's pretty obvious that using a single weapon to deal with every enemy in typical JRPG fashion is not the way to play this game. I'll try having one weapon for each type of enemy and see how it goes.

You really just need a blunt/edged/piercing weapon, later on you get hilts with multiple gem slots to easily get 60+ affinity in any weapon
Also use buffs/debuffs, especially later on when you can cast herakles AND degenerate at once

[Axelay]

The sound in this game is phenomenal
Every time your weapon connects with enemies and you get chains going ! It's the stuff of legends
I like the casting spell hum it's awesome .
And the crossbow sounds are great

Gah the music is great aswell . I need to get myself a nice optical cable and play this on my ps2 with some nice Dolby sound

[soprano1]

The sound in this game is phenomenal
Every time your weapon connects with enemies and you get chains going ! It's the stuff of legends
I like the casting spell hum it's awesome .
And the crossbow sounds are great

Gah the music is great aswell . I need to get myself a nice optical cable and play this on my ps2 with some nice Dolby sound

Don't forget to turn texture smoothing on.

[BIL]

Urge to clobber a zombie in the face with a machete named "BRAIN_EATR" rising... I remember beating VS back on my PS1 in 2000 (holy shit), at times relying way too much on meagre damage absurdly extended by chaining. Still enjoyed it a lot, mind! Such cool atmosphere and gamelength solo dungeoneering with monstrous bosses galore, plus a healthy side of shrubbery and ruined cityscape. TOWNZ GTFO.

Looking forward to replaying it again sometime with a better idea of WTF I'm doin. I started a new game some time ago and was loving it but the emulator kept freezing so I bailed out after the first Dragon. I was determined to see that awesome staircase up into daylight that's just after.

Even with he ass cheekz hangin out Ashley is one bad dude. "zomg wait for reinforcementz plz" "I am the reinforcements n00b" *machetes gate shut*

[MX7]

I will always fondly remember Vagrant Story as the game that got me in to dungeon crawlers. The soundtrack is sublime, the graphics probably the best example of real time 3d on the PSX. Replaying it recently, I really loved the fetishistic costume design. I have no problem with sexualisation as long as it's evenly applied to both genders, and Ashley's arseless chaps are a pretty bold design choice no matter how you look at it. Sydney's costume is just borderline pornographic. Also Samantha's rose tattoo/purple bob and Merlose's skintight armor were awesome. Some Jean Paul Gaultier levels of costume excellence there.

I loved the level of detail, with every enemy having a write-up, and every room having a pithy moniker to aid differentiation. It's hard to think of a more variegated and exciting dungeon outside of the Souls games.

Once you get some some good weapons forged, the game suddenly becomes far too easy until the final boss onslaught. Just like Dark Souls I recommend playing without a strategy guide, though even with, it was a good challenge for a 14 year old MX7. I made sure to give all weapons suitably dramatic names. Shame that save has been lost to the ravages of time. It's very much like a Megaten game, but with weapons instead of devils, and the post apocalyptic Japan setting swapped for Provençal wine celars and tombs.

Only real problem was the block puzzles, which were (for me) not only far too hard, but also incongruous to the rest of the game.

It would have been so awesome if Vaan had been excised from Final Fantasy XII and they'd called it Vagrant Saga or somesuch instead. I honestly think that in spite of its many differences, it's a very worthy successor to VS.

No coherent thoughts here, but it sounds like I'm ranting to the converted

[Ruldra]

So apparently if you open a chest and don't immediately pick up everything, you can never access it again and any item you left inside is lost forever. Wtf is this bullshit?

And how exactly does the analyse spell works? I use it but nothing happens. I can't find the enemy stats anywhere in the menus

EDIT: Turns out you need to press R1 in the Status menu to see the enemy stats. There's not a single indication in the game to tell you that

[Xan]

Don't forget to turn texture smoothing on.

Is it actually true that the game was "designed" with PS2 texture smoothing in mind? I seem to recall reading that a few times. It would make sense given that it was released shortly before the PS2...

As far as the graphics go, it's certainly a good looking game, but it's still a dungeon crawler which isn't exactly the best genre for impressive graphics. I would rather name Crash Bandicoot 3 and Wipeout 3 as best looking 3D PSX games.

[soprano1]

Don't forget to turn texture smoothing on.

Is it actually true that the game was "designed" with PS2 texture smoothing in mind? I seem to recall reading that a few times. It would make sense given that it was released shortly before the PS2...

As far as the graphics go, it's certainly a good looking game, but it's still a dungeon crawler which isn't exactly the best genre for impressive graphics. I would rather name Crash Bandicoot 3 and Wipeout 3 as best looking 3D PSX games.

Add Chrono Cross to the list. Can't speak for story and gameplay, but it's got gorgeous backgrounds and very nice and crisp character models.
Don't really know about the texture smoothing thing, to be honest.
edit:Final Fantasy IX also happens to look amazing with texture smoothing.

[Despatche]

i would like for this thread to be about nintendo stuff again, or for that part to be split, as skykid is factually wrong (again) and needs to be (pointlessly) called out (again)

i would also like to go on about the wonderful world of ivalice, because there's really nothing better to do in a vs topic

I can see Nomura sitting in his office replying to fan concerns over character designs,"BELTS AND ZIPPERS ALL DAY MOTHERFUCKERS"

Yeah, Nomuras art is shit. Looks like some trendy hot topic garbage.

nomura is not the problem; please go look at his older art

square enix is not the problem; enix in particular is anything but the problem

btw, aonuma is not that problem either; there isn't really a problem there

[Skykid]

i would like for this thread to be about nintendo stuff again, or for that part to be split, as skykid is factually wrong (again) and needs to be (pointlessly) called out (again)

Feel free to (pointlessly) attempt to state your case.

[EmperorIng]

In a different thread, preferably. I'm actually enjoying the on-topic conversation.

Up above: the goofy costumes remind me of Lynch's Dune for some reason.

[Turrican]

I did manage to complete the game in 2 hours, 14 minutes on my fourth playthrough. This was back then, in 2000-2001. Still keeping the savefile into memory card. Awesome game.

[BryanM]

nomura is not the problem; please go look at his older art

I know this image is giantfuckingnormous and I should just link it, but if that one guy could break our mousewheels than I deserve a pass since this is important, so inline it goes:



Those old days when the final boss was always a beautiful mess of pixels..

[Hagane]

You only need one weapon for the entire game. You can do good damage to anything by using affinity boosting (or debuffing) spells. Also, that skill that deals damage equal to the difference between your maximum life total and your current HP (Crimson Pain IIRC? I haven't played the game in a decade) is very very useful. You can use it as an opener to deal that damage to anything regardless of affinity, and then keep chaining with your other two skills to keep adding damage. Nice to use when you face a resilient boss or someone with no affinity weaknesses.

VS is a nice game, one of the few worthy Square games. It's very easy though, all that system complexity is mostly clutter when it comes to actually clear the game once you get good with chaining and find good skill combinations. If you are good with counters, that skill that recovers life makes you nearly invulnerable since it doesn't matter how much damage an enemy deals to you; just recover life with the counter and you'll remain alive even if you got to zero HP.