It is a shame that not many people have actually heard of this title since it was first released due to many people buying the game during its launch outside of Japan for May 2000 for the US and UK/Europe didn't get the game a month later which was June 2000. Vagrant Story first released in Japan back in February 10th 2000, unfortunately for me, I've even heard of this game at first when I first got my PS1 back towards the end of Christmas 2000. It was a year or so later I've started getting into more RPG games like Final Fantasy IX remember seeing the name of Vagrant Story on the back of the manual; around November 2008 after trading a few games in CEX spotted Vagrant Story for 50p for a price like that I couldn't say no.

When I first started loading this game up on my PS1 the first thing that came up was the stunning CGI opening and having to have at least 3 blocks free on my memory card. For anyone who hasn't heard of this game or the story it follows a special agent called Ashley Riot and his missions is to infiltrate the city of evil, Leá Monde and investigate the link between a cult leader and a senior Valendian Parliament member, Duke Bardorba. In the prologue, Ashley is blamed for murdering the duke, and the game discloses the events that happen one week before the murder. The story gets more and deeper on what is really going on as you progress; what makes Vagrant Story a really stand out was its gameplay, which featured no shops and no player interaction with other characters; instead focuses on weapon creation and modification, as well as elements of puzzle-solving and strategy.

Some of the puzzles can be a little challenging, especially if it was your first time playing and yet you had to play it a few times to understand how the gameplay mechanic works especially when it comes to the exclamation mark indicates the point where you can chain attacks; reflexes must be keen to inflict higher damage to enemies. The visuals, graphics and art style looked amazing too for an RPG game on the PS1 Square wanted to have the game in a setting with ruins, shadowy labyrinths and maiden dungeons, the game's scenery are inspired by real-life landscapes of the southwest of France including the city of Saint-Émilion.

Vagrant Story received critical acclaim from gaming magazines and websites with scores of 9 and 10/10; including the Japanese magazine Famitsu rated it 40/40 making it the third game and first PS1 game in Japan to receive a perfect score; yet the designer Yasumi Matsuno had received another perfect score of 40/40 again in 2006 for Final Fantasy XII. He is one of the few designers to have two games receive a perfect score from Famitsu magazines. Many fans and gamers who have played Final Fantasy XII may have spotted several references to Vagrant Story if you've played this before playing XII either before or after the game was released in 2006. Even some Final Fantasy fans have said they consider Vagrant Story to be the original Final Fantasy XII for its unique gameplay design and setting, even I would say that this felt more like a proper Final Fantasy game if the PS1 was still around during that time, but more and more developers were slowly moving away from the current gen consoles like the PlayStation 2, Cube and Xbox than slowly making more games on the next-gen consoles which were systems like the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Steam.

Vagrant Story is still a rare game to find on sites like eBay or Amazon or even Retro Game shops from as little as £10/$10 up to £50/$50 used, but finding it brand new would cost even more; However you can pick up Vagrant Story through the PSN Store at a cheaper price and downloading it on our PS3, fans are still hoping it would be re-released on the PSN Store for both PS4 and PS5. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who haven't even heard of it, offering a rich and unique story, it also offers New Game+ which enables you to replay the story using their end game weapons, items, and statistics instead of the defaults. This option allows you to access a hidden level, which features more intimidating enemies and more powerful equipment.

Would you say Vagrant Story would be your favourite PS1 game in your collection?

Does it still hold up twenty five years later?

Let us know in the comments-