“If man puts his honor first in relying upon himself, knowing himself and applying himself, this in self-reliance, self-assertion, and freedom, he then strives to rid himself of the ignorance which makes a strange impenetrable object a barrier and a hindrance to his self-knowledge.” -Max Stirner

.

In modern gaming parlance there’s a lot of talk about “auteur theory;” this is the concept that a single person holds a controlling role over all the creative aspects of a given work. In film, it typically comes up when we discuss filmmakers like David Lynch who are believed to have an indelible impact on productions they’re associated with. In games, it’s a go-to idea when we’re talking about the work of Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear), Fumito Ueda (Shadow of the Colossus), Hidetaka Suehiro (Deadly Premonition) and so on.

When we’re talking about auteur theory in games, it’s often less as a means of understanding a game from an artistic perspective – such that we consider games to be art – and more as a sort of devoted loyalty, something like what a sports fan might feel for their favorite team. It’s not hard to find scathing criticism of Konami’s new entry in the Metal Gear series, Metal Gear Survive, because it won’t have Kojima at the helm. This isn’t to say that there shouldn’t be skepticism or even outright criticism of the concept behind Survive, but outright dismissing a game because it lacks a particular individual on the development team is short-sighted and neglects the collaborative effort involved in the creation of a game. In other words, yes, not only do I believe it’s entirely possible that Metal Gear exist without Kojima, but it’s also possible that good Metal Gear can exist without Kojima.

The point of all this is that while we can’t really discuss Vagrant Story without at least touching on Yasumi Matsuno, whose work certainly played some role into making the game what it would eventually become, we also need to look at the game as a whole without assuming that it was entirely Matsuno’s presence that created it. Matsuno’s work before Vagrant Story included the vaunted Final Fantasy Tactics and its cousins Tactics Ogre and Ogre Battle; he was primarily involved with strategy-RPGs, in other words, games that were seemingly a far cry from the action/turn-based RPG hybrid Vagrant Story.

Hallmarks of these games appear in Vagrant Story regardless, namely a sharp focus on inter-character intrigue and on presenting several different perspectives of events as viewed from different interested parties. If we are to look at Matsuno’s past and future work, I believe that this is the telltale sign of his influence; we later see similar touches in Final Fantasy XII, the 3DS-exclusive Crimson Shroud and even the mobile RPG Terra Battle. These are games that allow for a less strict interpretation of right and wrong; heroes have flaws and at times are only “heroic” because they’re who we happen to be siding with, villains might be redeemed if only the circumstances would allow it, and the world is shrouded in shades of gray. As the framing device of Final Fantasy Tactics shows us, history truly is written by the victors; what we know as “evil” or “wrong” is only seen as such because those who came before us decided that was the case.

The cursed city of Leá Monde, much as the worlds of Ivalice and Valeria before it and Crimson Shroud’s Sun-Gilt Palace of the Rahab after it, is subject to a conflict between multiple factions that are each interested in its exploitation for differing reasons. Backs get stabbed, allegiances are shifted, and the player ends up questioning the motives of each and every character as the story progresses. Indeed, the main theme of Final Fantasy Tactics centers around whether or not an absolute view of morality is effective or desirable (put another way, whether the ends justify the means) as portrayed in the conflict between the idealist protagonist Ramza and his pragmatist friend-turned-rival Delita.

Even outside of Matsuno’s influence, Vagrant Story stands proudly as one of the most esoteric console RPGs to have ever been produced. In a period where party-focused adventures were common and popular, Vagrant Story presents a lone hero whose only companions are his swords, sorcery and wits, and it is these that will see him through rather than the power of friendship; in a genre where young, hot-blooded protagonists were considered vital to appealing to the key demographic of Japanese boys and young men, we control an older, more experienced man with a defined past and a gruff personality. Games of the era were all about bombastic graphical display and simple, easy-to-grasp plots that could easily lead to the next expensive cutscene or summon sequence. Vagrant Story, meanwhile, displays a certain degree of production “zazz” but on the whole aims for a lower-key experience. Your victories come through hard-fought, bloody combat rather than by summoning the biggest, most impressive god that destroys the world in the most complete manner…well, in theory anyway. We’ll get to that.

Click here for the full review... https://thewellredmage.com/2017/09/09/vagrant-story/

I'm impressed how good this game looks for a Playstation 1 title and it might be the best looking game to ever be released on the system. It's always fascinating comparing early titles to end of life titles for a gaming console. It's night and day how much they could push the hardware. In addition to the graphical fidelity, this game had several departures from Square Enix's typical formula and design. The game is rendered fully in 3-D whereas most Square Enix titles at the time would use per-rendered backgrounds to save on memory space. The limitation of a full 3-D environment resulted in a smaller scale and it works for the plot and game mechanics. The character models have changing expressions and even have their lips moving to dialogue despite no voice acting being present. It has a pretty unique, dark and experimental sound track that contrast sharply with the more bombastic Danny Elfman style of compositions more common to Square Enix games.

It's a cinematic game with cinematography that would translate well shot for shot into a movie. There's dramatic lighting, engaging camera angles and a great sense of pacing with how the plot unfolds.I honestly think it outclasses Metal Gear Solid despite not having voice acting. The writing is among the best that Square Enix has ever released, easily surpassing contemporary titles (note that this is graded on a curve). Alexander Smith, who did the English Localization, deserves grand praise for his contribution. He went above and beyond his duties as a translator. Apparently the original Japanese script used modern language and Smith made the brilliant decision to put an archaic Old English spin to the dialogue which helps elevate the atmosphere.

What makes this game wholly unique is its combination of tactical combat, box puzzles and light platforming. Combat is complicated and not well communicated to the player. You're forced to sift through pages of texts in the manual included in the pause menu and experimenting gratuitously. Even reviewing the intimidating manual, I still didn't feel prepared for the game. Combat at face value is simple. You press Circle to pull up a targeting sphere. If an enemy is in said sphere, you can attack them. You can select different body parts, which will have varying defenses, and then you can combo attacks. In theory, once you start an attack, you can endlessly attack until the enemy is dead. This is balanced by making you use precise timing, that gets more unforgiving at set combo thresholds. I believe at combo 8 and 13 the number of frames you have to hit the combo button is reduced. To further balance combo-ing, you accumulate risk which increases the damage you take and the chances an enemy will land a critical attack on you. While combo-ing, you have three key bindings that you can map different skills to. Skills will have different attack animations, some are harder to combo off of than others, and effects. When you are attack, you have a window where you can employ a combo breaker to reduce damage or remove status effects an enemy would otherwise impose on you. In addition, there are spells but I found only buffs and debuffs to be useful. The main reason being the heavy RNG around character progression and the lack of agency when customizing your character.

If that sounds complicated, that's just the tip of the iceberg. You need to consider class, affinity and type all of which have counters or are heavily resilient to attack types. Different limbs can have their own weaknesses and resistances to combo-ing (some enemies are near impossible to combo). This forces you to experiment, analyze the enemy, then switch to an appropriate class, affinity and/or type to counter their defenses. If you take the time and play tactically many fights can be trivialized. Against some enemies this is necessary because a handful of them can one shot you with a single spell, including the final boss. While in principle this is well and good, it's hampered significantly by hardware limitation and perhaps overlooking the design of the menus. You will be pausing and maneuvering through cumbersome menus constantly. You will wait outside a door for your MP to recharge (which takes over a minute depending on you pool) so you can buff up and then enter the next room in case a fight is waiting for you. You will want to save constantly. This later habit is confounded by outrageously slow saving and loading. This may dissuade you from saving more often, but it only takes one dungeon crawl resulting in a punishing death and losing 30 minutes to cope with the loading/saving times as often as possible to avoid wasting time in the long haul.

You also have a limited inventory space and for whatever reason, whenever you want to store items you need to save the game... which made me dread every time I needed to store items. I could go on, but the gist is the combat is easy to learn by dense to master. I found the game satisfying towards the end of my playthrough as the mechanics clicked and I felt mastery over it's systems. The over-complication does drastically hurt the pacing of the game, but the writing and cinematic quality of cut scenes was enough to keep me pushing forward.

While I didn't like the platforming, I did enjoy the box puzzles. Sure they make no sense, but they are well designed, serve as a break from combat and get challenging in the late game. I felt clever solving a few of the toughest ones which is always a good sign from a puzzle game. Making the player feel clever by solving it.

I won't even touch on the crafting system. I looked at a chart and my eyes immediately glossed over. It's too damn complicated. I found a big mace in a chest and Hulk Smashed my way through the rest of the game.

My biggest issue with the game, excluding the needless complexity in almost every system in the game, would be how character progression is tied heavily to RNG. Every time you kill a major boss, a slot machine appears. You will then be rewarded a stat upgrade based on where it lands. This effectively removes your control of the strengths and weaknesses of your character... I really dislike this decision. Not only do you not choose which stat you want to increase, but the amount it increases is also randomized. You are given elixir's to buff specific stats, but it's random if you will be given 1-4 points to it... this makes going a mage build ill-advised since you cannot reliably increase your intelligence to buff your damage.

TL; DR: This is a unique JRPG that has it's baggage but is rewarding to master and worth experiencing. It won't be for everyone, but Yasumi Matsuno expected as much since he designed it for the hardcore gamer. It needed refinement and simplification to make it a masterpiece but I still consider it a work of art. A shame we never got a spiritual successor. Another iteration of it's mechanics could have been great.

This is a dark, richly atmospheric action RPG developed by Square, set in the cursed city of Leá Monde, the game follows Ashley Riot, a Riskbreaker caught in a tangled web of political intrigue and occult forces. Its standout features include a deep weapon customization system, real-time tactical combat with a unique "Risk" mechanic, and a cinematic presentation rarely seen on the PS1, that is still an impressive feat even for today's standards, even more so because of the limitations of the platform at the time.

The game's mature narrative, moody art direction, and Yasumi Matsuno's signature storytelling make it a cult classic, however, its steep learning curve and complex systems can be intimidating to newcomers. Still, for fans of tactical depth and narrative-driven RPGs, Vagrant Story is a rewarding and unforgettable experience, and definitely a must play for JRPG/RPG fans, Square fans, and one of the best games of the PlayStation platform.

Though be prepared for a very step learning curve, since almost all mechanics of this game are very unique and hard to translate to other similar titles, it may be somewhat close to what Parasite Even was trying to do. I also recommend playing Final Fantasy Tactics if you enjoyed the world building of this title, since it is set in the same universe, not that this means much when it comes to the isolated things you do in the games, but it is indeed an interesting take when it comes to the creative decision making.