This is a bitter sour 4 star rating. But a true 4 star rating anyway.
First thing : the game might be the most beautiful game of the PS1. You can move your camera on your own to see hidden places, and believe me it's worth it considering how everything have a little detail on it that make it lovely to look at.
Second thing : This might be one of the best combat system of any RPG. There are a lot of detail to watch for, as for the player is implicated in each fights with a lot of human input required. Below is a list of details that make this system brilliant in my eyes.
- You have to aim your shots to touch specific parts of your enemy. OFC, a dragon doesn't have the same parts as a ghost or a human. If you wound this part enough, your enemy gains a malus depending on which part is hurt : silence for the head, slow movements for the legs...
- Each enemy IS actually something. This something is weak to a specific type of damage (skeltons dont like blunt damages) and a specific type of weapon specialty (skeltons are weak to anti-undead weapons).
- Each action has a range depending on which weapon you use. Do not hope to hit the tail of a dragon facing you with a dagger. But you can do so with an arbalest.
- Enemy chara design is wonderful. If it's blue and use water magic, then it's weak to fire. If it's white, then it's certainly made either of stone either of bones, which means it's weak to blunt damages.
- A ton of gauges to fill or unfill. Each weapon have a gauge of efficiency you want to fill and a gauge of durability you don't want to unfill. If a fight is long, you'll certainly fill your risk gauge, which increases your crits chances, but lessen your precision.
- A craft system which allow to fusion two weapons to obtain a new one of a new nature.
- A rythm system. You have to hit buttons exactly when you hit your enemy to deal another blow. This blow has an effect depending on which button you pressed : it deals more damages, it fills the weapon efficiency gauge, it deals poison to your target...
- A very good pace. I never had to farm to progress but advancing on the adventure wasn't easy in any way : a lot of bosses made my day a tough one.
That's why this game is a 5 stars. That's why I recommend you play it if you like RPGs (which I don't). But as every game, Vagrant has flaws, and that's what made me abandon it.
I am french and played it on my PS1. This might be a detail but believe me it isn't. French electricity network is PAL, and not NTSC as USA or Japan one. PAL is 50Hz, which means every PS1 game is 1/6 slower in France than it is in the USA or in Japan. Vagrant Story is japanese. In my opinion this explains why everything is that slow. It might be bearable to spend that hell of time in spell casting animation and/or menuing in normal speed, but it is absolutely unbearable in 50Hz.
That really is the only complain I have about this game. Everything is slow, plus the menus are... Simply horrible. Equiping items isn't in the same place as observing items, each part of your body (2 hands, 1 head, 1 body, 1 leg, 1 necklace...) has to be changed individually through dedicated sub-menus. If you change your equipment in fight (which you have to do considering the weaknesses system) while a spell is cast on you, it is sometimes uncast and you have to cast it again, spending mana points... In short : it is awful. Oh, and there are "boxes you must push" puzzles which are great, but way too complicated for this type of game.
But here again, I don't like RPG. Maybe if it's your type of game you'll enjoy that kind of details I found horrible. That being said, I must point out as a reminder this game gave me unforgettable memories. Like this time I put my mace in a chest and encountered a Stone Golem with only a dagger to fight him which led to... A stupid fight in which I dealt him 2 damages in case of critical hits. Or this time the chara design of a boss was so good I instantly knew what to equip, which buff to cast and which part of him to attack to... Actually one shot him. Thoses kind of moments, to be honest, I only ever lived them playing Vagrant. This deserves to be noted.
To be quick on the narration: It's good. Not wondeful, because it lacks voices and musics. But good, because some dialogs are well written and lead to interesting thoughts on death, religion, power and madness. For instance, I liked how they justified why an undead always want to attack the livings. Because he simply is terrified of being alone, and wants his living firends to join him to enjoy their moment together, which imply killing them because they currently see him as a monster. This is actually smart.
In conclusion, I think you better play it on a PSP. Because it is portable, which allows smaller and fragmented gaming sessions, which is always good when it comes to RPG. Plus, certain details might have been corrected and the console is certainly a bit quicker in France thanks to some technical tweaks.
First thing : the game might be the most beautiful game of the PS1. You can move your camera on your own to see hidden places, and believe me it's worth it considering how everything have a little detail on it that make it lovely to look at.
Second thing : This might be one of the best combat system of any RPG. There are a lot of detail to watch for, as for the player is implicated in each fights with a lot of human input required. Below is a list of details that make this system brilliant in my eyes.
- You have to aim your shots to touch specific parts of your enemy. OFC, a dragon doesn't have the same parts as a ghost or a human. If you wound this part enough, your enemy gains a malus depending on which part is hurt : silence for the head, slow movements for the legs...
- Each enemy IS actually something. This something is weak to a specific type of damage (skeltons dont like blunt damages) and a specific type of weapon specialty (skeltons are weak to anti-undead weapons).
- Each action has a range depending on which weapon you use. Do not hope to hit the tail of a dragon facing you with a dagger. But you can do so with an arbalest.
- Enemy chara design is wonderful. If it's blue and use water magic, then it's weak to fire. If it's white, then it's certainly made either of stone either of bones, which means it's weak to blunt damages.
- A ton of gauges to fill or unfill. Each weapon have a gauge of efficiency you want to fill and a gauge of durability you don't want to unfill. If a fight is long, you'll certainly fill your risk gauge, which increases your crits chances, but lessen your precision.
- A craft system which allow to fusion two weapons to obtain a new one of a new nature.
- A rythm system. You have to hit buttons exactly when you hit your enemy to deal another blow. This blow has an effect depending on which button you pressed : it deals more damages, it fills the weapon efficiency gauge, it deals poison to your target...
- A very good pace. I never had to farm to progress but advancing on the adventure wasn't easy in any way : a lot of bosses made my day a tough one.
That's why this game is a 5 stars. That's why I recommend you play it if you like RPGs (which I don't). But as every game, Vagrant has flaws, and that's what made me abandon it.
I am french and played it on my PS1. This might be a detail but believe me it isn't. French electricity network is PAL, and not NTSC as USA or Japan one. PAL is 50Hz, which means every PS1 game is 1/6 slower in France than it is in the USA or in Japan. Vagrant Story is japanese. In my opinion this explains why everything is that slow. It might be bearable to spend that hell of time in spell casting animation and/or menuing in normal speed, but it is absolutely unbearable in 50Hz.
That really is the only complain I have about this game. Everything is slow, plus the menus are... Simply horrible. Equiping items isn't in the same place as observing items, each part of your body (2 hands, 1 head, 1 body, 1 leg, 1 necklace...) has to be changed individually through dedicated sub-menus. If you change your equipment in fight (which you have to do considering the weaknesses system) while a spell is cast on you, it is sometimes uncast and you have to cast it again, spending mana points... In short : it is awful. Oh, and there are "boxes you must push" puzzles which are great, but way too complicated for this type of game.
But here again, I don't like RPG. Maybe if it's your type of game you'll enjoy that kind of details I found horrible. That being said, I must point out as a reminder this game gave me unforgettable memories. Like this time I put my mace in a chest and encountered a Stone Golem with only a dagger to fight him which led to... A stupid fight in which I dealt him 2 damages in case of critical hits. Or this time the chara design of a boss was so good I instantly knew what to equip, which buff to cast and which part of him to attack to... Actually one shot him. Thoses kind of moments, to be honest, I only ever lived them playing Vagrant. This deserves to be noted.
To be quick on the narration: It's good. Not wondeful, because it lacks voices and musics. But good, because some dialogs are well written and lead to interesting thoughts on death, religion, power and madness. For instance, I liked how they justified why an undead always want to attack the livings. Because he simply is terrified of being alone, and wants his living firends to join him to enjoy their moment together, which imply killing them because they currently see him as a monster. This is actually smart.
In conclusion, I think you better play it on a PSP. Because it is portable, which allows smaller and fragmented gaming sessions, which is always good when it comes to RPG. Plus, certain details might have been corrected and the console is certainly a bit quicker in France thanks to some technical tweaks.