![]() Let's say you're fighting a lizard man, which is a Dragon class, earth-based enemy. There's the basic type of weapon (piercing, blunt, edged), the weapon's affinity (fire, earth, evil, etc.) and the weapon's class (human, dragon, phantom, etc.).Īll of these statistics dictate how much damage a weapon does to a particular enemy. Not three important statistics, three sets of important statistics. You see, each weapon or piece of armor in Vagrant Story has three sets of important, ever-changing statistics. This is where Vagrant Story may start to lose some people, as the deeper you go into the game's systems the more obsessive management they require. However, Ashley's healing spells actually become more effective as Risk increases, as does his chance to land critical hits. Ashley also suffers more damage when Risk is high, and is less likely to evade enemy attacks. The higher Ashley's Risk, the less accurate his attacks. ![]() The most significant is the Risk meter, which increases with every chain attack. ![]() In theory, you could continue chaining attacks forever, so long as you maintain your timing, but Vagrant Story does a few things to discourage this. (Ashley also has defensive abilities that allow him to do things like reflect damage or evade harmful effects.) Some of them even have more complex effects, like dealing extra damage based on how much damage Ashley has already taken. The effects of these attacks range from things like poison to extra damage and health regeneration. Press a different button the moment the second attack lands, and you can execute a third and so on. By pressing Square, Triangle or Circle at the exact moment an attack lands, Ashley can unleash a second attack with special properties. As Ashley gains experience, he gains various chain abilities. What really stands out, though, is the chain system. There's also a small cool-down period between attacks and spells, so you can't just jam on the attack or menu button and avoid getting attacked yourself. Magic spells, special techniques and items are all activated through other menus. The basic attack menu allows you to select any enemy body part within range – arms, legs, midsection, head, tail, etc. Ashley can attack via a few different menus. Monsters wander corridors and forests, engaging Ashley in pseudo-real-time combat. Mechanically, Vagrant Story is a dungeon crawler infused with traditional Japanese role-playing. Then there's Sydney, Ashley's sadistic partner in fashion and Vagrant Story's waifish, shirtless main villain. There's a duke involved, as well as a cardinal, so you know it's serious. The story, too, is convoluted, involving a seemingly endless cast of characters, all speaking in pseudo-Elizabethan dialects about the battle between spiritual faith and godless dark magic. There is only Ashley Riot, an elite agent known as a Riskbreaker, who wears a convoluted outfit that exposes his buttocks. Still, I think I'm safe in saying that Vagrant Story is a fairly drastic departure from most of Square's RPG offerings. VAGRANT STORY BEST WEAPONS MOVIEI also almost beat Super Mario RPG but, alas, I had to take it back to Movie Time Video or risk a dreaded late fee. I played all of Final Fantasy 6, some of Final Fantasy 4, quite a few hours of Final Fantasy 7 and a few more on the DS remake of Final Fantasy 3. %Gallery-176887% I'm not very well-versed in Square Enix's litany of RPGs. It's taken me several hours to come to this conclusion, but I think I still like it. Fast-forward 13 years or so, and I've finally picked it back up via PSOne Classics to finish what I started. I wound up spending the bulk of my time with Silent Hill (mostly alone, eek), but I also tried out Vagrant Story, and I remember enjoying it. (He really liked Dragon Force, which is easily worth a column of its own.) I borrowed his entirely alien PlayStation and a few games, notably Silent Hill, which had just come out and that I was dying to play. We didn't go overseas or anything – we just loaned our respective game consoles to each other. My friend Stephen and I engaged in a sort of foreign exchange program. ![]() I'm not sure when it happened, but it must have been sometime in 1999. ![]()
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