My First Playstation Game Without Any Prior Knowledge To It And The Best One. Vagrant Story Is A Timeless Classic Game.
vagrant story is a great complex game and its definetly not easy to get around by even the hardcore/rpg/action gamers. its was tough for me to understand even the basics of this game as it was my first title on psone.
its goona take quite some time for most gamers to get adjusted with the game mechanics.
Graphics = genuine and beautiful art. every foe, whether humans or others are designed well. most of the environment in the game is set to be of a dark theme. thats why its hard to find any faults at most times however with that said there are rather no faults in graphics at all and there are little but quite big open areas in the game. the city of lea monde is all designed with brilliance and every background in the game and especially open ended areas are designed so well that it would feel like a lively place. the graphics are rather sharp in every thing from backgrounds of dungeons & towns and for each and every character/model in the game which is quite nice to see. most people will enjoy the game's graphics, but most will also criticise its darkness all over the dungeons as they are the major parts in the game. but generally everyone will be pleased by the view of the detailed dragons and especially the weapons and armour. the menu is also designed well and its was rather the most important necessity as in the game one will often use the menu around.
Sound = everything perfect and everyone should be please with the nice background music here. there are nice sound effects for the actions which contain hitting, jumping, grunts of foe as well as the grunts of the hero while is hitting and jumping around the whole lea monde. the starting music in the game is great as well as generally all the background music which generally happens while fighting a boss or on important occassions. but other then that the game has no background music and due to that one will hear plenty of sound effects which is why ofcourse makes it more important. it does get repetitive after a while but one should not have trouble getting used to it as they are generally quite well and there are also nice sound effects on spell usage both from the enemy and the hero. basically the player will use the menu and the spells and the chain system a lot and all of this include the sound effects which is nicely done but the better of them all are the superb sound effects for each break art of the hero which is rather quite a nice addition to the sound effects. the music is almost as good as unforgettable, its nearing the quality of final fantasy tactics. overall i do not think anyone will be annoyed or un-impressed by the sound work.
Story = ashely the hero is a risk breaker, those who would fight in order to bring peace, they are rather superior to all the knights and the word risk breaker is nicely suited to what the hero does in my opinion. there is a tremendous political as well as medi-evil fantasy theme based story which is not going to be understood by most and its rather natural for the story as its been done by the team who did final fantasy tactics, and this is rather the first one to be released before that game. the story will get one in suspense and it will only be revelaed in the end. heck even after the end there is a little confusion. overall i am not going to discuss the main plot as i am not into much on the story for this game yet eventhough the fact is i am going to finish the game for the third time now. but its the way its been progressed is what's more impressive. its all fast and thats only natural for a short game. its a great story and will suit most people's taste then again not everyone will be able to feel ease with easily.
Gameplay = its the important factor of any game and sure is no surprise here as well. chain art system as well as the break art system including the way weapon and armour is used plays a rather major role in this game. even its a sort of hack and slash game its just not that easy and simple, as everytime when one would try and hit his foe there will be a large grid and will provide multiple options for the player so as to hit any particular part of the foe's body for e.g. right of left hand or legs and other parts include head and all this can vary while fighting different types of foe for e.g. while fighting a dragon one can hit its tale or neck and for certain foes its the abdomen and so does the innovation continues while hitting a boss. its rather quite a refreshing system, infact the whole gameplay is refreshing and has got intense and the depth in it which is why it becomes an experience like no other game would ever have given to anyone.
as soon as the hero finishes the first boss, he will be able to learn chain system in which one can hit repeated attacks albeit with different effects then just hitting for hurting there is hit to decrease a foe's mp as well as certain status effects such as poison or sleep. and there are two main factors to this chain system one is the defence factor which comes in use while being hit by a foe, other is offense which includes counter attacking a foe while getting hit. all this is done so well thats its too much hard to explain in in-depth, but since i am interested in writing a review i will.
there is however a in-game manual which would generally be easy to understand the game more better then by yourself. and i am sure anyone would have used its atleast once.
there are different types of enemies here such as undead, evil, beast etc.. (note these are just to name some of them and not all of them) the weapons have the affinity system as well a system which is the most significant factor in terms of gameplay which is the more you hit a foe with the weapon the more that weapon gets powerful for that type of foes. for e.g. if you hit a foe which comes under the beast category, the weapon you have used to hit it becomes more effective to that category. the plus of this is that the weapon will get efficient to that category and the negative side is that it will be in-efficient in respect to other category of foes such as evil and undead. so one will have to be careful while choosing weapons to attack the foe. with that said its is also possible to have only weapon for all types of foes but that will only make things more hard. the weapons do get damaged and will need the repairs to be done or else it will become useless and thus there are some blacksmith places in the game to repair as well as to upgrade a weapon and also most interestingly to create a new kind of weapon by mixing two different weapons, however its now where near easy as not every blacksmith place will be able to mix all kinds of materials for e.g. silver and iron cannot be mixed unless they are mixed only in the respective blacksmith area where its possible to do so which to makes things hard. but the repairs can be done in any of this places so its rather vital in that perspective to get the weapons healed as its the most necessary thing to be done. and do note that there quite some more under the weapon and armour section which i will not explain as it would make the review a guide!
there are certain foes and especially bosses which will make things hard for you even if you have the best weapon to be used against them as there are other elemental factors which comes into play. for e.g. to fight a fire phantom one would need to attach a water gem and also add fire gem to his weapon as well as the armour to make the fight easy, otherwise you will be guessing what is wrong with your set-up. you will need to be active minded everytime fighting a foe and that will get more necessary as there will be areas where there are two opposite kind of foes making them of different categories and thus making you change your weapons again and again which rather adds to the minus points of this game. generally there will be quite a use for the menu and its only easy but will get on the nerve of some as one will have to consistently go through it all through the game.
you can fight with bare-hands but its not advisable as its useful only against foes such as bats and wolfs. the chain system is accessible as soon as one would finish the first boss battle. its a nice mixes of offence and defence and is self-explanatory and then comes the break arts for weapons and since there are plently of weapons, there is also plently of break arts, each time one chains with his weapon is attact he gets points which would eventually give him the break art for that weapon. its also possible to have break arts for bare hands but as stated above its rather not advisable to do so. each break art will take its time to learn as its not easy to keep on chaining and is also risky for the risk system. yes there is a risk system which would add each time the hero attacks a foe and it would increase faster if the hero uses the chain system. this too is annoying factor but otherwise its easy to take down the risk point by simply standing for some time without the weapons equipped, risk factor makes the game more real and intense in my opinion.
there are quite some puzzles as well in the game, but most are easy and there are only some rare amount of puzzles which are hard. with that said it does have a little importance in the game as there will be quite some areas with puzzles which would mostly include carrying the boxes around.
Overall some of the bosses are too hard and will get one quite frustated which is normal rather for hard games and this game is ofcourse quite hard. but with this said, i like the game very much and i am playing it for the third time and my only regret in this game is that its too short for anyone's liking. vagrant story is a game which should not be missed and has rather decent amount of replay value which is surprissing as its quite impressive to drag anyone back in the game which is this hard and intense.