I've done a few of these "What Can I Expect" threads and appreciate all the great feedback I've gotten so I'm back for one more!

Vagrant Story is supposed to be releasing on PSN tomorrow and I'm going to pick it up. I've never played the game and don't know much at all about it but I did check out the IGN and Gamepsot reviews today from back in 2000. Both gave it a 9.6 which obviously is very good so what can I expect?

It's a very short game. I remember playing it back on the PS1 but ends abruptly when you think you're around 1/3 to 1/2 the way through the game. I remember the story had a lot of religious tones to it, so be warned on that note. Beyond that the game world revolves around the same world of FF tactics in the country of Ivalice. So as you might expect (if you ever played Tactics) it has quite a dark mood, setting, and theme.

As for the battle system, it's an action RPG. I found it quite lacking in my honest opinion.

The reviews said that first time through should take around 30 hours. Is that accurate?

Edit: FFXII takes places in Ivalice as well right?

lol took me like 3 hours (if even that). I remember because I was all, "wtf"? when the game just suddenly ended and I was back at the main menu.




Never played XII. I stopped playing the FF series at X-2 (hell didn't even finish that). So I couldn't tell you, sorry.

Hmmm odd I just went through the net on Vagrant Story and it would appear that you are correct. Yeah my version of Vagrant Story didn't work out like that at all lol. So I don't know what's up with that.

Your version is a lot shorter than thirty hours? How are the sidequests and mini games?

Vagrant Story's play style is fairly unique, so I can't think of anything to effectively compare it to. Plus, it's been years so my memory is bad. I've heard people compare it to Parasite Eve, if you're familiar with that, but I'm not.

It's a fairly linear and "enclosed" dungeon-based game. Areas are a sequence of smallish rooms with enemies, traps, and chests, and typically you clear one and move on without a lot of backtracking. There's no world map, or NPC's to interact with (story advancement with other people is done via cutscene), or towns or any of that usual RPG stuff. The battle system is interesting, being based a lot on timing and combos and weapon types, but it's been too long for me to explain in detail. That it's set in Ivalice is meaningless, VS and FFT and FF12 all have nothing to do with each other and may as well be set on different worlds.

Whether you like depends a lot on whether you like the battle and weapon systems, which make up a lot of the gameplay, and unfortunately since I don't have anything to compare them do I can't say anything useful in that regard. I liked the game enough to New Game + it about 10 times with one save. Then it got saved over and I never played it again.

Now I'm sad.

I don't know what happened. I would play up to the point this cut scene would ensue with two men talking (I think one of them was sydney, can't remember who the other one was), after all was said they would both depart, the cut scene would end, the credits would roll, and I'd find myself back at the game menu. :shrug:

Yes it does. Never played this game, but i've seen it on PSN, maybe i'll get it sometime :shrug:

So there's no towns or npc's to interact with? Are there sidequests or mingames at all?

@tojka are you in japan because I think its only been released on the japanese PSN. It releases on the North American PSN tomorrow.

I don't believe so. I remember there's one of those difficult bonus dungeons some RPG's have that's accessible after you've beaten the game, if that counts as a sidequest, but other than that it's not that kind of game.

Nope, as my location states i'm right here in Finland (northern europe). IIRC it's been visible in PSN ever since i bought my PS3, which was quite a while ago.

Yea I just checked and its been available on the Japanese and European PSN. Tomorrow is the American release.

I don't suppose anyone wants the PS1 version? I've got it, complete, and I'm trying to get rid of it on Switchgames. *sigh*

It was the turn-based combat that turned me off to it. I don't think I played more than a few seconds before giving up on it. :rolleyes:

How high is the encounter rate.

Also, not to be rude or smarmy, but if you don't like turn based combat then why did you get a ps1 jrpg? They are pretty much known for that exact thing...turn based combat.

If you play this game the only way to keep your weapons effective is by opening up the menu to switch them for fighting different creatures, b/c of how the weapon system is. Using a weapon against certain elements makes it stronger against it, but weaker against others. You have to keep switching your weapons for the different enemies you fight so they specialize and get strong, or else you'll end up doing 1 or 2 points of damage against enemies later in the game. That's the problem I had playing it. Other than that, it seems like it would be a good game. I'll have to start from the beginning again and specialize my weapons if I play it again.

As I recall, there is no encounter rate; enemies are visible running around, so it's just as fast as you attack them, or they attack you. There are often enemies when you enter a new room, and I can't remember if they respawn or how quickly when you backtrack, but they probably do.

I didn't do enough research about the game mechanics. I just saw that a lot of people liked it and I was like "okay, I'll trade my GHIII game and guitar for Castlevania SotN and Vagrant Story." Still trying to trade away both games....

You're having difficulty trading away Symphony of the Night? I would've guessed people would be all over that one.

Matsuno is a genius. Simple as that. I wish Square-Enix would give him more working opportunities, even if he tends to create games that stray off the beaten path.
*insert usual monologue about how bad it was he got sick during development of FFXII* ^_^

Only the mint ones nowadays. Used copies are kind of redundant now, what with all the remaking and re-releasing on PSN and XBLA...

True. I don't have any new consoles and only have experience with the old offline ones, so I'm not used to remembering that buying and downloading old games is a thing now, and obviously have no reason to check up on what's released.