Grimbeard - Vagrant Story (PS) - Review

ah I think I just hate I just I just  hate video games I just hate video games   man what the heck para pug a waiting command  what's going on around here do I have another   ghost or maybe a succubus have my summoning  rituals work scanning it's getting complete   okay and would you like to view the scan  results yeah please verify this account   how do I do that click on the man in the red  and white striped shirt what okay this is gonna   take forever I'm not doing this worth a shot  anyway I think you've got a demon what a demon   that that's bad right oh yeah I recorded this EVP  for you to review oh great well let's hear it hi your questions then I don't know bye didn't  expect him to be so cordial should I initiate   my spectral cleansing routines yeah not let him  cook maybe he'll uh liven things up around here it's fine it's whatever I don't care vagrant  story is an isometric action RPG hybrid and   Pokemon but the Pokemon are medieval instruments  of war simulator and it was both developed and   published by square for the Sony PlayStation in  the year 2000. it was subsequently released for   the PS3 and PSP in 2009 and then the PS Vita in  2012 though that hardly matters now that Sony no   longer provides support for any of those consoles  the good news at the moment it is morally free   production for vagrant story began in January  of 1998 when its director yasumi matsuno had   grown tired of producing sequels or games locked  into preconceived worlds and wanted to create a   new IP so a team of 30 swelled to a team of 50  over the course of what he described to be a   very collaborative writing process according  to an interview in vagrant story ultimania a   companion book released only in Japan after a  year spent making tactical RPGs at the behest   of upper management such as ogre tactics and  Final Fantasy Tactics this was the first time   he was given the green light to work on anything  he wanted knowing the safe bet would have been   Final Fantasy Tactics 2 he consulted his staff who  made him realize that this project would likely   be the last time any of them worked on a game  for the Sony PlayStation as its successor was   looming Over the Horizon along with Nintendo's  dolphin they're canceled c-punk themed console   that was then reworked as the GameCube and  alongside Gaming's special little guy we're   putting him in the gifted and talented education  program he's Gonna Go Far in life do not bully my   son uh the dream this uh sega's dream thinking  that their team who had only ever worked on 2D   games better start getting with the times now the  decision was made to push the sundowning console   to its limit with 3D technology spurring them on  was the release of Metal Gear Solid a game that   became their yardstick to measure up to visually  and for its immersive qualities so much so that   matsuno claimed he experienced a phenomenon  called Metal Gear shock shortly after reeling   from Metal Gear shock matsuno would meet hideo  Kojima in just about the most quintessentially   Kojima circumstance that is standing in line  for eight hours to see a screening of John   Carpenter's vampires while they waited in line  they became Fast Friends due to their shared   love of film and would recount this meeting a  year later in a recorded conversation wherein   Kojima admits he had always been impressed  by matsuno's output and experienced a similar   shock upon seeing vagrant story for the first  time at the end of this conversation these two   atturs ask what each other have been working on  and both wax poetic about pushing the envelope   with their new projects breaking new ground in  this unknowable precipice the gaming industry   finds itself precariously perched upon  with numerous technological innovations   and online capabilities waiting in the wings so  naturally they both directed Game Boy sequels development of vagrant story required the  team to learn a dozen new skill sets which   perhaps contributed to it falling short  of their Ambitions in interviews since a   few developers have implied that nearly half  the game's planned content was cut deep dives   into character backstories whole mechanics  like a party system and further graphical   detail were shaved off as the team sort of  Hit the ceiling with what the console was   capable of and what they could afford after  two years of production a few months before   launch the game would be delayed further  with a marketing Blitz occurring in the   interim squaresoft gave vagrant story The  White Glove treatment we're talking TV spots we're talking an official comic book we're talking  magazine ads every month and in appearance at   E3 2000 featuring a booth decorated by Massive  statues of the game's lead characters that the   folks in this video look at for a few seconds  before being distracted by a booth babe and   creepily zooming in on them from a distance  such as the case with literally every bit of   e3 footage I've ever looked at in my goddamn life  this is a phenomenon that when I was younger more   naive about the game industry I read as faith I  read this as belief in a product why would they   put this on TV and all over my game Pros if they  didn't think this was the coolest thing they had   made missing the Grim truth that this was also  a poison administered to vagrant story's future   propping it up so extravagantly meant racking  up a tab that it was meant to make back and   then some and as much as I can feign exasperation  at this timeline we live in where vagrant story   did not become a long-running series and I can  watch ah [ __ ] dude this [ __ ] sucks dude I'm   quite certain it's longer than average at the  time development cycle and absurd marketing   budget were the culprits on release vagrant story  was near universally praised and even though it   had to contend with two other largely successful  Square releases it still sold considerably well   and raked in glowing views gamepro would give it  fives across the board complementing nearly every   aspect of the game and rounds out their coverage  by pining for a sequel writing from the opening   Cinema to the dramatic and twisty conclusion  vagrant story hits all the right notes RPG fans   are in for the adventure of a lifetime with this  medieval romp hopefully this is only the first   installment of a fine Saga you'd be hard-pressed  to find a published review that's strayed from   the others even if there were genuine points  of criticism leveled at the game's learning   curve and mixed bag of game mechanics while  still effervescent and already referring to   vagrant story as a classic psm's review comes with  more caveats than others maligning its repetitive   gameplay and Bland environments that become  more and more apparent as the story thins in   the game's middle Riley concluding definitely buy  this one if you're big into micromanaging massive   inventories charting mazes and figuring out the  exact best spot to hit a lizard man despite being   very very popular overseas vagrant story would  never receive a sequel something that matsuno   makes clear that he would absolutely have done  if he was allowed to but he also implies that he   knew from the beginning that it was unlikely the  real Triumph was that square at large saw the game   as proof that they could have renewed success  in the world of 3D in his closing thoughts for   his interview in vagrant story ultimania he says  that it's okay that the game won't get a sequel   because elements from it will live on if they get  to make an online game which is strange because   it is true that this happened and just an oddly  specific shot to call because it it wouldn't come   to fruition for almost 20 years but hey if you set  realistic goals I suppose reference to elements of   vagrant story would appear in the next game he  would write Final Fantasy 12 and plot elements   that were set aside for the possibility of a  sequel were used in Square's second stab at a   final fantasy MMO officially incorporating vagrant  stories plot into the universe of Final Fantasy   immortalizing it forever until that game gets  shut down as all live Services shall one day be in 1971 Japanese engineer fujio masuoka   having just received his Doctorate from tohoku  University was hired by Toshiba a company that   would become known for inventing a number  of consumer goods most notably Electronics during masuoka's time there Novelties such as the  technology to make two-way color video phone calls   would be developed he would amass well over 200  registered patents for all manner of gadgets and   gizmos Toshiba as a company would weather years  of controversy following his exit including   accusations of overstating their pre-tax profit  by hundreds of billions of yen also the creation   of HD DVD a video format meant to fill untended  baskets in the middle of CVS Pharmacies were you   to dig beneath the pile of go backs obscuring its  contents you may be rewarded with an HD DVD copy   of Million Dollar Baby or some comparable media  which development was more of an embarrassment   well that's not for me to say the  reputation of Toshiba has been blasted of the most substantial contributions masuoko  would make to the tech industry was the invention   of stacked gate Avalanche injection metal  oxide semiconductor memory in layman's terms   like a rock that remembers numbers real good this  invention built on work that can be traced all the   way back to the late 1950s would culminate years  later in A Primitive form of dynamic random access   memory or dram the basis for what we now call  flash memory a non-volatile method of computer   memory storage referred to as such because it  doesn't require an electric charge to maintain   its memory rather information is kept stored  using a floating gate transistor that stores an   isolated charge for an impressively long period  of time it wouldn't be until around 2002 that   the flash drive or thumb drive if that's how  you've chosen to live your life was created   early flash drives had comparatively small storage  space often less than a single gigabyte in those   days it wasn't until 2011 that we'd start seeing  larger sleeker and sexier USB flash drive models   such as the tasteful SanDisk Cruiser look at  this reliable and secure little eight gigabyte   but by 2013 those rookie numbers would  be bumped up considerably as the need for   flash drives at all would Wane in the Advent  of storage technology such as cloud storage   despite this Toshiba would continue to  develop drives up to a terabyte in size a   leap in capability that would seem like magic in  1971. just a year later a flash drive model such   as this would be discovered by the employee  of a medieval themed dinner theater chain   the contents of which containing information  sensitive to an American video game development   company and its owner who was already  embroiled in two unrelated lawsuits perhaps enjoying a maiden's kiss  or some other specialty drink   contained in a commemorative glass the USB stick  tumbled to the restaurant's faux wooden flooring   and the corporate documents concerning unreleased  versions of Borderlands and MP4 of a cam girl   performing a bodily function banned in some  countries along with it for a moment it sat there   amidst the shuffling feet of tourists teetering Between Two Worlds just as  the fate of the pseudo-spanish Kingdom   hinges on which different colored Knights you  cheer on in the Royal Court of medieval times   a meeting of fantasy and history not dissimilar to  vagrant story in a pseudo-medieval country called   valendia where the line between government and  religion has blurred and a shadowy cabal seems   to be pulling the strings of both in lockstep a  new faction has thrown down the gauntlet upsetting   the established order also everyone just goes  straight ass out in this world in a game that   already requires a lot of your attention Square  pull is one of the most bizarre Feats of uptu   Storytelling before you even press new game in  that the four minute expository cutscene that   plainly lays out the cast of characters including  our protagonist and the inciting incident that   kicks off his main mission could simply be missed  because it doesn't play unless you stop in the   main menu and sit there for 20 seconds or so  if you Button Mash past this to blast through   all the UI garbage and get straight to hardcore  gaming you'll be tossed in media res to our guy   appearing at the place doing the thing the details  go [ __ ] yourself if however you I don't know got   a push notification for an app you don't use  and momentarily felt a Pang of excitement as   you thought someone remembered to text you on  your birthday for example and you looked away   from the screen while lingering on the main menu  you'd learn that our protagonist is Ashley Riot   I don't know his real name but he's chosen to  have people refer to him by his scene name and   I'll respect that decision Ashley is a member  of the vkp or valentia Knights of the piece   a military man in the employ of parliament more  than that however he belongs to a sort of Special   Forces division called risk Breakers Lone Wolf  infiltrators equalizers serious [ __ ] several   hours before this moment former Parliament member  Duke bardorba's Manor was attacked and his family   held hostage by a group deemed a terrorist cult  called mulenkamp led by a metal armed magic user   named Sydney lasterot this is strange because  it is known that the Duke has been funding Milan   Camp's effort in between pulling the strings of  parliament the cult has made demands that their   captured comrades be freed and that the current  Cardinal of the priesthood of Saint iocas abdicate   his throne doubly strange the order of the Crimson  Blade the church's military arm has shown up to   intervene without clearing this Mission with  anyone seemingly gone Rogue to hunt down Sydney   and thwart whatever plan he's got up his sleeve  that he would have if he ever wore a shirt it's   a strange introduction to our hero because he's  so clearly a lap dog for this fascist coded vkp   Council that really just wants this encroaching  Faith defeated before it instills doubt in the   church not even willing to entertain the idea of  freeing those they've rounded up for following   Sydney one of them slams his fist on the table  condemning the religious freedom they've allowed   for too long the grand Steward asks that that  Outburst be stricken from the record and his chair   responds yes my Lord Ashley along with a rookie  vkp Inquisitor named column lows I'm realizing   I've never said any of these names out loud and  some of them do seem to be sort of Multicultural   but I'm an American so I'm gonna do what we do  best and mispronounce things in a funny way ah   I sure do love drinking out of this here aluminum  can anyway they're sent by the vkp to investigate   what the heck this is all about merlots informs  Ashley that even though Mulan Camp has taken   the manor the Duke himself wasn't even home when  this happened he was often some other part of the   gray lands recovering from an illness the Crimson  blades show up in record time led by a dangerous   swordsman named Romeo gildenstern don't laugh  it's not funny Ashley sneaks in and eavesdrops   on a conversation between Sydney and his second  in command one of two characters with a human   name John Hardin they are looking for some thing  some thing that's meant to be here something the   Duke was supposed to have but hardened doubts that  this thing is even a thing with the odds no longer   in their favor they agreed to cut their losses  and just leave with the Duke's son Joshua this is   when Ashley swaggers in looking to shut this whole  operation down and stop Sydney from finding thing   we get a good look at this elaborate tattoo on  Sydney's back as well when he refuses to cooperate   Ashley shoots Sydney with a crossbow which proves  to barely phase him he orders hardened to leave   for liamond before summoning a dragon and making  a break for it elsewhere and sometime later the   Duke is briefed by a former risk breaker named  Jan Rosencrantz on the situation at his manner   proving his allegiance to Sydney and Mullen  camp and implicating himself in some kind of   conspiracy to some unknown end he orders that his  manner be burned To The Ground by one of his own   men in the armor of the Cardinals blades pinning  the attack solely on the church and any Witnesses   of Sydney or the dragon he summoned be killed Jan  is sent to Lamont and ordered to deal with Sydney   the blades and whichever risk Breakers are sent by  parliament in this case Ashley and Kalo once again sorry just making sure nobody was looking setting  the stage for our cast to all meet up again on   the ruined Island where lemon sits not really  fancying himself as a writer but nonetheless   thrust into the role of one yasubi matsuno  penned in outline for vagrant story that he   describes using the same language one describes  an understated indie film opting for the tone   of a smaller scale and personal film rather than  the louder Blockbuster writing of Final Fantasy   its plot would be presented in fragments and the  player left to draw their own conclusion but the   themes recurring in both vagrant story and Final  Fantasy Tactics are clear class division Faith   as a cudgel and power corrupting absolutely all  things he apparently began thinking about when   he was first hired at Square which is a funny  interesting thing that square proceeded to then   publish in their own book he describes the writing  style in vagrant story using this hand-waving   dismissive wording like yeah yeah we'll just try  this kind of thing I don't know might spice up   the dry fantasy jargon the idea of an RPG story  told mostly in essentially disparate movie scenes   that hop around between an interesting cast of  characters is either accidentally brilliant or   matsuno was just overly humble in describing  his process in that conversation between him   and Kojima Kojima explains the creative impulse  in the both of them as essentially film head   brain rot and I think you can see that reverence  for the language of film all over vagrant story   hours later Ashley and Kalo arrive outside Le  Monde and determine the safest passage to the   island is through a tunnel the once bustling City  used as a wine cellar downstairs Ashley makes it   clear that he plans to go alone as he's the only  one of them who has any combat experience and   there are already signs of battle so Kalo gives  him the rundown of what the vkp thinks is going   on there is reason enough to believe that Mulan  cap is some kind of front for bardorba to further   strengthen his Stranglehold over Parliament but  either way Sydney has proven to be a charismatic   and convincing Prophet wielding the magic ability  to recall the past of others and compel them to do   his bidding in valendia Magic is something that  was once commonplace but over time the idea of   it has eroded to rumors and legends feeling like  Hollow is way more into Sydney than him Ashley   storms off indignantly to start his mission  leaving her right as Sydney appears foreign so you see that's where the trouble began I  really like the design of merlots and she is   Central to many of my favorite scenes in the  game but marketing did play up her role in the   story I mean she's on the cover and there were  full spread magazine ads featuring the two of   them although the tagline does seem to demote her  to a beautiful assistant as much as I would have   liked her to be a playable character or take a  more active role in the plot and not immediately   become bait I do think it's clever how they wind  up continuously keeping her relevant there is   more there narratively than her just being a  lady to rescue even though she is still that   look I'm saying the game is ahead of its time but  there was a lot of time before writers realized   hey we keep doing this huh even Ashley when he  first hears about her he's like she oh that's   right there's no voice acting in the game but  every once in a while I want to cut to a scene   so you you can see a line from it and I'll just  add in a voice but I won't tell you whose voice   I stole I'll make it into distinguishable like  trust me you'll never notice all because of this   religious freedom too much Freedom too many gods  Marge up ahead Romeo senses a vkp dog approaching   and sends his goons after you making clear that  Parliament is their enemy Sydney also just sort   of teleports into the scene up to something  proceeding as normal Ashley walks through   a doorway only to appear elsewhere in a green  field on a sunny day a boy appears and calls him   Papa before he's returned to the Dank Cellar  he's led into a trap and attacked by a massive   Minotaur but is quickly able to dispatch it as  for some reason boss fights are markedly more   easy than common enemy spawns I mean Ashley  is very skilled in the martial arts with the   beastfeld Sydney makes his presence known with a  golf clap clearly knowing more about Ashley than   he lets on he backhandedly compliments him  for his cool and detached disposition he's   so calm it's as if he has no soul intrigued he  displays his ability to explore the past secrets   of others and forces Ashley back to the field he  saw earlier this time there's more to it the boy   reappears as well as his mother and judging by  his hair Ashley himself is his father they share   a muted but clearly Pleasant moment together as  a family before Two Soldiers appear and make a   nightmare of this dream when he comes back to  reality Sydney blames the death of his family   on Ashley who denies it claiming it was Fallen  nights that were responsible but Sydney cruelly   explains that his failure to protect his family  makes their killing his fault he's intentionally   goading him for some reason trying to piss him  off he then motions to harden who reveals that   they have taken merlots as prisoner and to some  mysterious end he wants Ashley to give Chase to   Bumble through the treacherous path full of  traps he's left for him more in the dark than   ever it's clear that Ashley plays a larger role  in the motivations of the other players than we   previously thought what's immediately quite novel  when compared to other square games is the moral   ambiguity of its cast characters can see each  other in a certain light but they are all mostly   given enough time to display nuance and depth  nobody feels like a stock bad guy even if they're   drawn that way so to speak everyone even Ashley is  shown to be capable of Cruelty in pursuit of what   they think is right or just but is realistically  plagued with doubt and paradoxical thinking people   get confused they forget or they get used and  in that way there is no perfect archetypical   character in vagrant story soldiering forward to  lemonde Ashley finds what appears to be a dying   soldier who begs to be put out of his misery  but Ashley doesn't even have time to fulfill   his request before he slumps over and his soul  flies out of his chest I buy good luck on your   journey to folks ain't dying like they ought  to on top of that rising from the cursed Earth   are a whole host of unnamed ghosts and Ghoulies  to get grabbed by if you take the block puzzles   into account it's almost like Ashley's every step  is through a gauntlet of challenges organized by   Sydney himself Hardin has been spying on Ashley's  progress and he's freaked out that they're in   over their heads he asks if all risk Breakers are  this formidable but Sydney says Ashley is special   calling him a vessel it's in this scene where we  get a lot of Rapid Fire important but obtuse and   information we get a good look at the relationship  between these two Sydney is much more methodical   than he makes clear on the surface his actions  seem like chaos but being a seer of some fashion   means he can plan accordingly to his glimpses  into the Future something that Hardin has a lot   of trouble understanding he believes in Sydney  but is left in the dark on his thinking which   frustrates him a great deal and makes him prone  to outbursts as Sydney summons more demons to   test Ashley merlots sees the ghostly image of a  boy that kinda looks like the Duke's son Joshua   but there's a lot of things going on right now  and that doesn't seem all that important Ashley   through some newly unlocked psychic link between  both he and merlots sees all this playing out as   though he were there the game bounces back and  forth between these undeniably gamey segments   of gameplay a Boss Rush Dungeon Crawler punctuated  with puzzle rooms timers and inventory management   and then these thoughtful eloquently written  cutscenes because the dev team's fascination with   video game and fantasy writing outside of Japan  pushed them to distinguish the world of vagrant   story as distinctly un-japanese and markedly  French something that resonated with American   and European players aided further by what many  feel to be one of if not the best examples of   English localization at the time an interview with  the two translators who worked on it Alexander O   Smith and Rich amp Tower illuminates a lot about  how that came to be matsuno's script was unique as   it stood compared to other usually verbose square  games this economy of language and focus on small   character moments rather than epic Exposition  dumps allowed the translators to both accurately   reflect the writing that was there and bring some  creative license to it which did include at least   one dick joke we meet again Ashley you have no  idea how long I've waited to measure swords with   you you want to do what citing the writing of  George R.R Martin as inspiration for the archaic   and Flowery dialogue style they went with which  was really validating to learn because I raised an   eyebrow when at one point Sydney used the phrase  milk of the poppy and I have never heard that   phrase outside of A Song of Ice and Fire because  in that Universe opium is used like in place of   aspirin essentially I then felt a hot wave of  Shame for noticing that at all worth noting   that these same guys translated Final Fantasy  12 and are mostly to blame for vagrant story and   final fantasy's Universe being conflated at all as  they chose to include more nods to this game when   matsuno never intended those streams to cross so  closely but originally it was only meant to be a   little bit of fan service just a little bit that's  all and that's all you need because vagrant story   had a lot of fan service if you know I'll take a  spoiler break here in case you wish to experience   this Game's plot on your own which if you have  any interest in I would absolutely recommend   because as far as PS1 games go vagrant stories  narrative may very well be one of if not the most   interesting on the console it wields this  strangely captivating twisty tourney plot   while still leaving an impressive amount in your  hands to make sense of as well as a fair number   of things that are borderline non-sequiturs that I  don't think will ever truly have a concrete answer   to it functions like a 30 plus hour pilot episode  for a sprawling fantasy TV series that was given   a [ __ ] time slot and would have been far too  expensive to continue producing after defeating   Sydney's next wave of creatures Ashley finally  emerges from the tunnels and steps out into the   city of lemonde closer to its Center a crimson  blade named father Dwayne is kicking down doors   looking for any sign of the mulen camp and is  shown to be considerably more cruel than their   enemies Ashley watches as Dwayne's brother Grissom  interrogates and beats a dying muleen Camp soldier   who remains loyal to Sydney until the end and  don't worry they only introduce one more character   in this scene as Romeo emerges alongside his  partner Samantha he explains that even though   people in Le Monde seem to turn to dust and float  away here people cannot truly die their soul is   left to wander in pain as their flesh shambles  around autonomously he orders Grissom to rally   the troops and wrap up this Siege and assure  Samantha that he won't let her meet the same   fate that once they find Sydney then they find  his secret to immortality Dwayne spots Ashley   spying on Romeo and a fight ensues where he is  slain there's a good deal of plotless dungeon   crawling before Ashley is suddenly thrust into  the perception of merlots he sees what she sees   and she sees what he and she sees and what she  sees is Hardin using a power similar to Sydney's   to scry and see events happening elsewhere  in Lemont he's able to determine that the   Crimson blade forces are dwindling in number and  beginning to scatter despite this Mulan cab is   losing Hardin begins to panic and frustrated by  his assurances falling on deaf ears Sydney uses   his compelling ability to get him to pull himself  together assuring him that they are friends and   everything is going to be okay as Sydney leaves  to confront Romeo Hardin aware of what just   happened tells Sydney that if they are friends  he should never use that power over him again what was that what the hell is that in some other  part of the city Romeo and Samantha ruminate on   the history of lamond and the Mulan Camp after  finding some ancient text in the war in stone   walls it's a brief and odd exchange that seems  like it Bears little meaning on the rest of the   story but it does imply that mulen camp has been  rebranded by the church and Parliament as a cult   a new enemy that threatens the natural order yet  they clearly existed long before even the birth   of the church's patron saint in a time when magic  was commonplace before the forces of Saint iocas   stamped it out and planted their cross in its  place y'all are out here casting magic missiles   when you should be falling asleep in a church  because your mother got really spiritual after   the divorce they speak about something called the  grand grimoire a supposed book holding the magic   secrets of life and reality a new MacGuffin that  Romeo wants Sydney shows up to razz them a bit   attempting to turn Samantha against her lover but  Romeo proves to have many of the same abilities as   Sydney at some kind of stalemate Sydney condemns  his faith sounding a lot like me in my Reddit   atheist face oh please warping the minds of men  and shepherding the masses has always been your   Church's domain edit why am I getting downvoted  Ashley sees like all of the events of this game   from cover I'm curious if that was actually the  result of metal gear shock I feel like I remember   solid snakes similarly watching all the cutscenes  from behind a wall and then repeating the main   point of it to himself inquisitively he's so  stealthy in cutscenes but the principal gameplay   is just chain-bonking [ __ ] in the face one  detail that I kind of loved is just a small bit   of fantasy Wonder in in a pretty uniformly Grim  dark setting it's when Ashley emerges from another   dungeon into a maze-like forest he momentarily  thinks it's snowing somehow but it's really   snow flies just a swarm of white bugs that give  the appearance of falling snow there are very   few ideas and vagrant stories that are just fun  and not oppressive or sad Ashley's marveling at   the Flies is interrupted when he is once again  tossed into the eyes of another character this   time Samantha she's outside presumably the room  merlotes and Harden are holed up in because it's   sealed magically as Sydney instructed this is one  of few scenes with another Crimson blade character   named Nisa I can only assume that this scene was  included to display that even though Samantha is   at the side of their Superior she doesn't have the  same blind devotion as the other Crimson blades do   the death of their comrades hurts her and she  is frightened by the power of magic not eager   to wield it herself Romeo shows up to quell her  worries but in the middle of her speaking Ashley   unknowingly speaks through Samantha causing  Romeo to instinctively hit her in the face to   break their connection the hit wounds both  Samantha and Ashley even though he's miles   away the way she sort of stares off bleeding  while Romeo is more concerned with planning his   enemies demise than helping her up and explaining  what just happened is also pretty telling back at   the snowflies Jan finally stops skulking around  in the shadows and introduces himself as a risk   breaker to Ashley claiming that their Superior  has assigned him to be his partner forgetting   the rule about risk Breakers acting alone and  never-changing plan Mid Mission frustrated that   his ruse didn't go over well Jan improvises and  tries to gain his trust by flexing his knowledge   of the situation he shares that the vkp and  Parliament have long known about lamon's power   and about its undying he claims that Merlot's  inexperience LED them to rushing into danger so   he was sent to put him back on the right path he  refers to Leia Bond as a Wellspring offering power   to some who have been affected by it a well spring  that was created intentionally when an earthquake   claimed the lives of everyone in lemond a whole  city used as a singular sacrifice to appease some   dark power Parliament and the church have Stamped  Out magic elsewhere but here the birthplace of the   kildean Priestess Mulan Camp the connection to  dark magic can only be walled off interestingly   Ashley mostly believes him but still doesn't trust  his motives and Promises to kill him if they cross   paths again before disappearing into the forest  shortly after Grissom shows up looking to avenge   his brother's death and is clearly in some kind  of agreement with Rosencrantz to get the key from   Sydney it's almost like he's playing both sides  so he always comes out on top or something this   segment is like the litmus test as to whether or  not you are truly down to play this game it's a   rewardless slog of a maze that is difficult to  navigate full of annoying enemies and surprise   boss fights and every area looks identical to the  last there's also no save points once you enter   it so you have to complete it in one go which  is a needless cruelty layered on top it does   however culminate in one of the most pivotal plot  developments Ashley eventually finds his way to   a clearing and a confrontation between Sydney and  an already beaten Grissom in an act of desperation   Grissom attempts to summon a creature from the  dark to fight in his stead and both Ashley and   Sydney unexpectedly team up to defeat him after  Grissom and his Champion are defeated our two new   Buddies talk about what Rosencrantz told him and  Sydney is pleased that he's finally accepting the   truth about the dark and beginning to question  the motives of his superiors but tells him that   he is still hiding from his memories once again  he's brought to the field the day his family was   murdered and is made to watch the events again  only this time they play out a bit differently   in this version Ashley is the sell sword that  killed this family he tells him the version   he he knew was a lie instilled in him by the vkp  an illusion just like the Summer Snow they stand   in Sydney's version of the truth sees Ashley as a  trained assassin that bungled his mission killing   an innocent family mistaken for his Target the  vkp turned his guilt into patriotism scrambled   his memories to turn him into an obedient and  faithful lap dog to Parliament a screen memory   that he himself asked for in contrast to what  Rosencrantz told him Sydney thinks Ashley's   Newfound powers and abilities are not the result  of leahmon's influence but of the returning   memories of his past life as a hired killer the  beauty of this moment is that I feel like any   other Square game would treat this as a revelation  a Twist reveal that we've to some degree been the   Baddie this whole time but it doesn't really  read like that it's presented more as an option   a possibility or sales pitch from Sydney it could  very well be that this did happen after all Ashley   seems really upset about it and doesn't have  any evidence to the contrary but nothing in   the game confirms it there is just as much  evidence suggesting that Sydney showed him   this alternate cut of his own past in order to  manipulate him and rope him into whatever his   big plan is he's already contradicted himself a  few times after this speech first calling Ashley   a murderer through inaction accepting that the  family in the field was his family and he failed   to prevent a horrible fate he's also called him  a vessel specially suited to contain lamon's   darkness two things he then went back on while  breaking Ashley's spirit with this new version   of the truth it's legitimately fun storytelling  I love that I will never really know it doesn't   even look like this guy knows he's all [ __ ] up  in this moment unsure of his own past and unsure   who he's allied with anymore later Romeo and  Samantha put together that the ancient kildean   writing all over the walls in lamond are spells  the entire city is steeped in sorcery and all the   dark energy seems to converge at the Cathedral  in its Center Jan shows up to congratulate them   on finally catching up to him telling them that  the grand grimoire they've been seeking has been   all around them this whole time in this moment he  drops the mask and makes it clear that he doesn't   really have any loyalty he's just kind of doing  things serving whichever side pleases him at that   moment and serving behavior that saw him expelled  from the risk Breakers frustrated Romeo threatens   to kill Jan if he doesn't give him the key but the  tension is interrupted when Samantha and Ashley   become mentally synced up for a moment and she can  see through his eyes where am I what is this I see   wait can they oh god damn it this sounds like  a case of spiritual or demonic possession I'd   recommend these characters procure a parapug  unit that or antipsychotic medication I don't   know if that's quite what's going on here explain  uh it's more like astral projection you put a lot   of emphasis on that first syllable whatever do you  mean what do you know about possession anyway well   you might say I'm possessed right now oh yeah by  who Chad oh Chad's in there what's up big dog hey   Ashley defeats Jan in combat but refrains from  killing him and in another I guess you could see   it as a subversion Jan turns out to have far more  admirable I guess you could read that as admirable   intentions than Ashley wounded he tells Ashley  that the vkp must have really done a number on his   memory he reminisces about their history together  he claims they were in the same unit back when   he too was a risk breaker and the risk Breakers  played it a lot more loosey-goosey with the rules   we see a third iteration of that day in the field  this time Jan is there congratulating Ashley for   carrying out his duty and silencing witnesses to  their secret operation sensing that he's feeling   guilty Jan cheerfully assures him that they were  just peasants but Ashley is so rattled by this   that he throws down his weapon and seems to pass  out this is allegedly why Jan was removed from   the risk Breakers as well he realized that they  were were upholding a Justice that served only   the state assassinating political Rivals fueling  Civil Wars the parliament's hatchetmen while they   sat around in high Towers wearing silk pajamas  and eating Oreo brand Oreos other risk Breakers   tried to reckon with what they'd been made to  do to forget like he claims Ashley has some were   driven mad some took their own lives but Jan seeks  to use the vkp the way they used him by making   alliances with any faction rivaling them it's a  convincing yarn but it also plays right into what   he just said he was going to do manipulate and  use the vkp to damage it what better way to do   that than turn their Champion against them either  way he ends this exchange with an obvious truth   the vkp and Blades want leimonde and its power and  Sydney is the only one with the key to unlock said   power and it's anyone's guess why he plans to use  Ashley as a vessel for this power video games are   no strange Ranger to making their protagonists a  stranger especially if you're a Nocturne Nocturne   does that a lot Nocturne 1999 not the not the  RPG shin Megami you know what that's that's   too complicated I'm bailing on RPG protagonists  often suffer from memory loss and Ashley is no   exception but it is exceptional that the cause of  his memory loss is never given a straight answer   it may not even be memory loss in the traditional  sense it could be grief or brainwashing or refusal   to self-reflect thus leading to Sydney and Jan  trying to Gaslight him into accepting their   version of reality yeah it's me from the Academy  I yeah I remember you you're always wearing that   Von Dutch trucker hat and listening to mudvayne's  debut album and other [ __ ] from the year 2000 no   no that can't be true anyway since we're old  buddies I was wondering if you could uh give   give me like 500. let's see we got your Y2K  beef tenderloin and maybe my favorite scene   in the game Ashley is busy dungeon crawling  when he suddenly begins to hear the voice of   merlots in his head and is then synced with her  perspective she still magically locked in a room   with Harden but finally puts face to ghost face  and meets Joshua the Duke's son that they are   still holding hostage he's afraid and hasn't  spoken since being taken from his home but he   seems attached to harden for whatever reason too  young to understand that this is his kidnapper   Merlot's demands to know why muleen Camp raided  The Manor and when Hardin refuses to answer we get   a glimpse at her growing magic ability the ability  to not so much read minds as read Hearts she hears   the true feelings of those she questions so a  ghostly image of Harden appears that he can't see   and plainly answers all of her questions Mulan  Camp wanted control of leahmond but the Duke at   death's door wanted the city buried in an attempt  to absolve himself of some perceived sins before   his death they wanted to kidnap the Duke because  he is the key Bearer the only one that can unlock   the power of the grand grammar and if he dies  without an heir the power will be lost forever   it's clear that this subconscious version of  Hardin is about to reveal that Sydney is the   Duke's Legacy before he stabs himself in the leg  to eject merlotes out of his thoughts ordering her   to follow him to the cathedral instead they have a  meaningful conversation about why they have these   Powers why does she have the abilities of a Seer  and Harden the abilities of a scryer and is it an   evil thing is it right to call it a talent or a  curse she asks about Sydney's power and clearly   ever loyal to him he tells her that he is the  most powerful user of man magic he's known he   has the power to see the past and to bend people's  will have them believe anything something merlotes   unaffected by Sydney's influence can see the sad  irony in how one man having the power to see the   past is erroneous when he also has the power to  make you believe in lies hardened feebly tries to   outlogic her by saying yeah well anyone can lie  and anyone can believe a lie why did I Target   the guy that has a supernatural ability to make  people believe in lies in a tragically funny shot   his subconscious form appears one more time to  naively yell he would not lie to me in his heart   he is truly faithful to Sydney and the idea that  he'd lie to him is absurd even though he's already   shown he's willing to mind control him to do what  he wants instead of prodding further Merlot simply   tells Harden that Sydney is hiding something from  him and it ends there back in the dungeon Ashley   wonders if the truth Sydney showed him was a lie  Brandon it on him there is another long stretch   of boss fights and puzzles where it's been so  long since you've received a drop of plot that   you start forgetting details just hemorrhaging  character names and after this eternity their   narrative silence is broken by maybe the only  scene that seems to exist solely to facilitate a   boss fight and then not much else Ashley stumbles  on Nisa and in until now only mentioned character   tiger they're crouched over the corpse of Grissom  who we last left dead as [ __ ] in a field back   in the haunted forest for sure dead though like  more dead than normal shoes fallen off swarma   flies around him exes for eyes oh my God how dead  he was so there's this Awkward Moment where they   see Ashley and put together that he killed them  which is true but also we just entered the room   I mean the timeline for this to happen is  is all wonky oh right well I'm just gonna really he backs out of the room so he can bring  these two into the Boss Arena but it looks   like he was just met with a nightmarish social  interaction and admirably ejected himself from   it Ashley is able to single-handedly best both of  them in combat but he leaves them alive and they   cordially withdraw teleporting out of the vicinity  as they warp to some unknown end of lamond Ashley   wonders why grissom's corpse was there continuing  the borderline comedic timing of this whole bit   Ashley walks right back through that same door  again and they're just there again because they   used black magic to retreat five yards away from  Ashley I guess all of this catapulted them through   space and time to behind this door oh that's right  he knows how to open doors we underestimate you   again risk breaker anyway Grissom is up and he's  not dealing with being dead all that well unlike   the other dead in lamond Grissom is still in his  own meat suit but a voice from the dark tells   him to kill his friend before they kill him and  steal his body but he runs off instead with Nisa   and tiger following close behind all the other  cast of characters seem to be making their way   to the cathedral with merlotes Harden and Joshua  getting there first inside merlots tries to talk   with Joshua but he still refuses to speak she  mentions that Harden cares for Joshua well causing   his subconscious form to appear and tell a story  explaining his desire to protect Joshua when he   was a part of a group called The Peace guard he  was part of a team dispatched to deliver blades   to a group of rebels not all the blades made it  there and it was clear he and several of his team   were skimming off the top and selling the weapons  for their own profit Hardin was offered a deal to   finger all those responsible and avoid punishment  and wanting his freedom in order to look after his   dying brother who was dying I don't think that was  a joke I think I just [ __ ] up he sold out his   buddies but they locked him up anyway and by the  time he was released his brother had died merlots   is in the middle of chastising him for blaming  this perceived Injustice on others and roping   this innocent child into it when Romeo's men show  up and shoot Harden with a bolt while Ashley is   busy in an endless Boss Rush to get there Romeo  interrogates Hardin for the location of the key   as merlotes and a clearly distressed Joshua  watch on interestingly we learned that Romeo's   powers do indeed rival even Sydney's thanks to the  Cardinal we see a more advanced form of Sydney's   manipulative magic as Romeo forces Harden into  a convincing illusion where he appears as Sydney   and gets him to tell this fake Sydney the answers  he seeks in order to control the city you need a   blood sin Romeo dispelling the illusion knows what  the blood sin is in fact we've sort of seen it   all along the way so far back in the days of the  Inquisition when the church was purifying Heretics   by the thousands they would brand people with  a symbol called the rude inverse literally an   upside down version of the priesthood's symbol  Those Who Bore this Mark came to call it the   blood sin and Sydney has had this symbol tattooed  on his back this whole time meaning he indeed was   keeping Harden in the dark about most of his plans  he could have taken the power for himself but he's   been testing and readying Ashley to take it from  him as Hardin is struggling to understand why he   was misled Romeo runs his sword through his chest  in a confusing aside we see what appears to be   Joshua or a child with the same haircut wandering  around a castle Hall before running into the arms   of Duke bardorba somewhere else in the cathedral  Sydney senses Harden's pain and seems like he's   lost faith in his own plan a bit this upsets Jan  who wanted the power himself he attempts to fight   Sydney cutting off his arm which is shown to be  merely an animated piece of metal armor akin to   Fullmetal Alchemist he demands to be named the  successor but a creature Sydney brings to life   kills him rather anticlimactically he may be the  only character that winds up meeting in awkward   demise this silver tongued manipulator all sides  player whose quick wit has kept them alive for the   whole game just randomly gets cut in half I'm  sure I can think of a Game of Thrones parallel   there Ashley shows up and Sydney says the city  is his if he follows him and when he doesn't   take the bait he cruelly renegs on the truth he  showed him earlier by saying that he may have a   chance of saving his wife and child alright look  I didn't want to ruin the surprise they're all   waiting in the back we got a cake for you just  really just act like you didn't know please they   put all this work into his side we're finding out  the Y2K bug is on holiday and that's what we like   to hear Sydney shows up to confront Romeo and sees  that Hardin is still clinging to life Romeo begins   to monologue about the ideals of the church that  it plans to act not as a religion but a revolution   it plans to break a whole lot of eggs in order to  instill fear and through fear order playing into   the Savior role he's propped himself up as Sydney  condemns a rule that does not value human life   further humbling himself by apologizing to harden  for lying then a lot happens really quickly likely   scrying his thoughts and not wanting further  Bloodshed merlotes reveals that the Phantom   Soul required for the blood sin needs to be one of  moral Purity it has to be a good person because if   it isn't the dark will overpower any Humanity  in its host Samantha appears and makes a run   for Sydney who tosses her aside and attempts to  teleport himself and Harden to safety but Hardin   is still confused about his loyalties and puts  together that that he had the key and the right   for all the years they've been friends out of time  he chooses to magically send hardened merlots and   Joshua to safety allowing time for Romeo to stab  him in the back by the time Ashley catches up to   Sydney he's dying in a pool of blood and Romeo  has sadistically cut the rude inverse tattoo from   his back as a trophy at this moment Ashley sees  the figure of a child we were meant to believe   was Joshua but it's now clear that it's a young  Sydney who merely repeats that he wanted to help   Father as his father helped him all along Sydney  really wanted to devise a way to destroy lemond   at Birth the Duke used some magic means of saving  Sydney's life which linked their souls together he   was always short on time because with his father  dying he too was dying in his last moments he asks   Ashley to stop Romeo as those who crave the dark  cannot control it I can't stress enough the wonder   that is the script a Marvel that is equal parts  the result of matsuno and his translators Sydney   is a really tough character to pull off even now  and beyond that just an unpopular Choice when I   look back on the journey here it's clear that  even though Ashley is important to this story   and is an interesting character in his own right  he is our Avatar our confusion mirrors him we get   manipulated just as he does he's upon being shoved  around by the other players in the game obviously   the bigger subversion is that Sydney was initially  coded as the villain he and he was loving it as   well maniacal laughter floating up into the sky  arms outstretched the whole shebang and that was   part of him right he was that guy he chose to do  that he didn't need to do it but it was also a   part of the plan the culmination of which was  possibly good heroic even entrusting the power   of lamond to Ashley instead of Rosencrantz  he showed what his values are even though he   spends the length of the game psychologically  [ __ ] with him he sees Ashley as a paragon of   good making Sydney something of an anti-villain  which you could then make the leap to Hero I   suppose but he's not a perfect hero he's a liar  a manipulator and a fuckboy like his father he's   a big ends justify the means kind of guy and his  plan has hurt many people who believed in him and   trusted him his closest friend even but it was all  in service of what he deemed to be a net good for   planet Earth and uh since there's no sequel we can  only assume that it was I guess on the roof of the   cathedral having Gone full Joker Goblin psycho  mode Romeo stands with Samantha having a fixed   Sydney's tattoo to his own back at first it  appears as though they are embracing but we see   that he's stabbed her she staggers away from him  while he assures her that it was necessary there   be a martyr and he loves her and all she can do  is sadly proffer that she thought he did love her   before falling to her death my read of this scene  is that I feel like this had to intentionally be   one notch more brutal than regular it's not just  a dramatic moment it's a little bit realistic as   well like she [ __ ] hits the roofing below  and then tumbles off into the darkness which   just drives home to me that she was a regular  person with a regular name like Samantha foreign probably read this all over her and tried  more than once to get her to see that she   was blinded by love he saw that all she wanted  was Romeo and all he wanted was power I think   the implication was that she didn't fit in even in  her conversation with Nisa it's clear that she has   noticeably more empathy concerning the amount of  death that's being doled out she never monologues   about the righteousness of their cause like the  others I'd wager this inherent goodness in her   is why Ashley was able to sync with her similar  Rhythm frustrating Romeo he was energetically   aligned with her and this message their thoughts  create their reality but you already knew that   yet you still live a life that you dread the  ritual of the blood sin begins and Romeo becomes   supercharged with dark energy Ashley attempts  to face off against him and as we are seemingly   approaching a very cool but very clear conclusion  to the story there is one more Scene thrust in   the middle here that once again throws several  things into the unknown muddying the clarity   we momentarily held as Romeo is being pumped with  dark energy Ashley is propelled into a void where   the two speak he tells him that it doesn't matter  what his past is it's the past and he cannot bring   anyone back from the dead he's able to deduce  that this is all an illusion a trick the dark   is playing to manipulate him as everyone else has  and he seems to overpower it winding up one last   time at the field and the picnic that haunts him  only this time they exist as his family he can   speak with his wife who tells him that he did  all he could for them and that in their brief   time together he gave them a lifetime's worth of  love for a moment he tries to reason with what   he's experiencing but she stops him and tells him  not to be misled by others words and believe your   heart which is profoundly heartbreaking because  this is still not an answer or resolution to   Ashley's past that this could easily be his  subconscious and therefore this moment could very   well just be what he wishes he could hear them  say this is what would fix him essentially The   Lies We Make ourselves believe or it's real and  the power of the dark is allowing him communion   with his family either way it's what he needs  to hear in order to face Romeo who soon drags   him out of his vision and back to their Showdown  where he has become some bizarre insect-like deity   of course this new final form is no match for The  Power of Love even if it is illusory and whatever   Romeo has become is defeated however we don't  immediately see what happens to Ashley as lamond   begins to crumble and fall apart merlots pardon  and Joshua make their way through the tunnel at   the game's opening and it begins collapsing  behind them smushing all the funny guys we've   fought along the way including tiger who willingly  stays behind to fight grissom's reanimated corpse   it's one of those classically toxically masculine  moments where a self-sacrifice didn't seem to   be necessary at all I mean the whole city and  all its dark power are being destroyed at this   very moment I'm assuming that would include  Grissom and the problem would kind of resolve   itself but God damn does it set the stage for  a badass one-liner just design tomb we shall and tiger get the least amount of screen time so  I don't entirely know what purpose they serve in   this story I think there is a case to be made  that they're both stereotypical lackeys just   firm Believers in gildenstern's cause but they  are then forced to reckon with the fact that two   of their superiors went insane with the power  they were working to acquire and you'd think   having to then fight one of them would shake  their beliefs to some degree but since that   is literally head Canon and I have such little  data to go off of my rewrite of this would be   tiger valiantly stays behind as Nissa runs to  safety the sole survivor of the Crimson blades   to tell the story of their brave adventures and  as tiger circles his opponent ready to give him   the honorable warriors death he so deserved  Grissom just poofs into a plume of smoke and   tiger looks back at the now blocked exit as the  room continues to crumble around him until he   gets one of those PG-13 villain deaths you know  some big piece of debris Falls towards him in a   POV shot and he says Ah [ __ ] these characters  are however wrapped up in grissom's Arc which   is a bit more substantial as he is kind of the  embodiment of the hypocrisy of his order I mean   you could say that about Guildenstern but he  was already a fringe case I feel like he was   in this for the power whereas Dwayne and Grissom  genuinely believed the church's griffed a knight   of the Cross he starts the game sadistically  extending the suffering of one of Sydney's   followers he talks to this person whom he sees as  a heretic as though they were Vermin he's actively   disgusted by them and they're meddling with the  powers of the dark seeing his faith as a purity   that should cleanse the dark yet not only do  most of the Crimson blades secretly practice   the same dark magic his brother's death makes him  so desperate for Revenge that he invites the dark   inside him Grissom said sign me up juice me I  just want to see this [ __ ] slain for what he   done to my brother and in the end doesn't even  get to meet the God he spent his life simping   for instead he becomes this hobbling evil ghoul a  creepy little Goblin zombie man the gooey Darkness   inside his Pious candied shell made manifest like  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hey wait a minute   did I never noticed that what the heck the adage  Rings true that the ones who crave and seek out   power are the ones not fit to wield It Anyways  Ashley no longer wearing his tuxedo Dickie carries   Sydney out of the cathedral but the Situation's  looking a bit dire that is until we see his back   is newly scarred by the bloodsin so the transfer  of power must have been a success meaning lamond   will disappear and Ashley is pretty much a tall  glass of swirling Cosmic horror from the shore   merlos looks at the ruins of lehemond and wishes  Ashley well Joshua drags her back over to Hardin   who is clearly running out of steam with no way  to save him Joshua finally Speaks For the First   Time In the game asking that he stay here Hardin  apologizes for putting him through such Terror   before dying presumably a true death now that  Lamont is destroyed and they're so far away from   it we cut to a week later at the second home of  bardorba Ashley walks into the Duke's bedroom only   it was a disguise of some sort and revealed to  be Sydney they seem relieved that it is done and   speak vaguely about leaving things in the hands of  Ashley and what they must do now see Sydney leaves   a dagger on the bed which the Duke stabs into  him dying shortly after due to their magical link   together outside a guard sees Ashley now clad in  a leather outfit but when he demands to know his   business there the figure changes to merlotes she  shows her vkp papers and the guard apologizes and   as soon as she turns around to leave it is shown  to once again be Ashley who looks back at the home   of the Duke one last time before disappearing  into the darkness there's plenty to question   and plenty of peripheral stuff I just kind of  said like I knew what I was talking about but   even with the help of vagrant story ultimania  I simply don't have a great answer for it wow so this whole game's been one long cold open excited to see it work oh never mind some of  this I'd imagine was by Design and some of it   could certainly have been the result of it losing  half of its planned content I don't entirely know   why the game starts with muleen Camp attacking  the Duke's Manor and kidnapping Joshua I can   only make weak stabs at why the inciting incident  even happened it could be that Sydney being a Seer   saw what needed to be done in order for things  to play out a certain way could be that if the   blood sin was a genetic property and needed to  be transferred to one uninterested in power that   Joshua was meant to take the mantle but it's also  clear that Joshua is the Duke's weakness the only   thing he cares about anymore because of this he  could have been grooming Rosencrantz to receive   the blood sin after all he seems capable enough  right seems like he's he's up for it and I guess   anyone is better than my dear sweet Joshua my  child my son my boy this decision could have   created The Divide between the Duke and Sydney  because he knows Jan and wants it too bad and   the result would be catastrophic the Duke would  put off performing the right in order to ensure   Joshua's safe return and Sydney would use this to  buy time finding someone more suitable and either   he sees that quality in Ashley immediately or  he always knew neither would surprise me he   then gamifies the plot by forcing Ashley to run a  gauntlet of boss fights each one strengthening his   connection to the dark making him more and  more of a perfect vessel for it with Romeo   backing him further and further into a corner  Sydney had to make the call and put all his   chips on Ashley and this could have somewhat  repaired the relationship between Father and   Son Joshua is spared further horror and they can  finally just die in peace as one hell of a buck   is passed to some guy a guy that now has to live  as a vagrant wandering the world in secret hiding   the fact that inside him is the power of a God the  legend of lamond is now a moving Target and he's   presumably going to be looking over his shoulder  for the rest of his life judging by his choice   of endgame wardrobe I can only say whatever  he's up to after this it's something badass   you only ever see ultimate badasses dripped  out like this any fans of Murder in the house appropriately I couldn't tell you with complete  certainty that Ashley will be preferable to   Rosencrantz I mean Rosencrantz was an [ __ ] and  his motivation for wanting to incite a Revolution   was iffy but he did want to use the power of  the dark to upend the established order even   though it was through his own warped lens fueled  by Vengeance would the result have been that much   better than the world according to Ashley a guy  who saw everything in Black and White until a few   hours ago Rosencrantz was right in his criticism  that Ashley does have this childlike understanding   of Good and Evil thus making him so goddamn easy  to Gaslight dude was like you totally killed your   family what I did I don't remember that I mean  I guess it does sound like something I do but   by facing his past imagine or not he learns to  don't laugh trust his heart he stops allowing   others to make up who he is and find some sense  of wholeness accepting his past whatever it is   be it a murderer an absentee father or Breaking  Benjamin fan or altogether wouldn't surprise me he   sees now that the Dogma he's followed is one built  on lies and manipulation unlike Romeo who followed   that rabbit hole Straight to Hell where did all  that praying get him bisected and floating into   a crackling void of concentrated Darkness a bit  of an aside when this game was released it came   in a double disc case it's a one-disc game but  further exemplifying how much money Square pumped   into it they packaged copies of vagrant story  with a compilation demo disc of other upcoming   Square titles I do not own this original version  I own the greatest hits version that was released   at a lower price in 2000 3 and in the interim  squaresoft became Square Enix so versions may   vary but in the booklet that comes in here they  do this odd thing where they spoil part of the   story and completely reframe what kind of story  vagrant story is there was a brief moment where I   thought to myself wait did I just like completely  misunderstand the premise of this game before   answering well probably yes I'm not very smart  but on the first page there is an introduction   and it's describing the opening of the game and  everything sounds normal until this part Duke   bardorba was away during the seizure of the manor  and escaped the atrocities yet one week later an   unknown assailant took the Duke's life like you  don't know that until the final cut scene so it's   I don't know I guess it's not a big deal but it  most assuredly is a spoiler because you're not   told he's dead at any point Sydney is operating  under the time constraint that his father is dying   not a fascinated it then says that Ashley was  named as a suspect at a meeting of parliament   he disappeared shortly after the accusation so  we didn't even see that I can't confirm that that   happened or not and the rest of the recap frames  the game as a flashback to this week that Ashley   was missing on a mysterious assignment in leimonde  and hopefully this will let the player know the   truth if you combine that with the blurb on the  back of the case that says clear your name by   uncovering a Sinister plot it sounds like whoever  wrote all of this assumed that the game would open   with the final cut scene and then Tarantino back  a week to explain why that happened but instead   it plays out chronologically and is thus not a  rogue agent clearing his name story but rather a   confused agent moves on from his tragic past type  story it's I just thought that was kind of kind   of interesting and weird it's okay if you don't  think that though I I I know I know it's hard   dealing with me sometimes but I'm out here I'm out  here doing my best and if that's not good enough   it is fun to hold the microscope up to these  characters and see the fine grid of pixels that   makes up their being but you could also just as  easily enjoy it on a surface level you're under no   obligation to just like talk about the political  and economic state of the world are in you could   just accept like Ashley is us he's clearly  atoning for some kind of sin or failing what   that sin or failing is doesn't entirely matter he  feels he's [ __ ] up and he wants to move past it   and better himself and on some level most of the  characters are trying to do something like this   I mean the icon at the center of the power that  is the MacGuffin of vagrant story is the blood   sin in ornate reflection of sin the breaking of a  moral principle everyone's trying to gain control   over it and wield the powers of a dark lord to  reshape reality into the world they desire instead   of going to therapy but in any case on literary  easy mode we can say Ashley is good Rosencrantz   is clearly a scoundrel a puckish rogue he is bad  because he lies and does crimes however I can't   make this judgment so easily as I am in active  crimes enjoyer if you can see this Channel and see   me you need to know that you are breaking the law  vagrant stories plot is so uncharacteristically   mature and thoughtful that it's it's puzzling  downright strange that it's not held in higher   regard that it never got a proper Sequel and  that yasubimatsuno isn't nearly as much of a   gamer household name as hideo Kojima as rightfully  revered as Metal Gear Solid was it wasn't exactly   a game that excelled at mature storytelling  it was more concerned with a then unseen cool   Factor its plot was this drunken slurry of film  head wankery and political discourse run through   translation software resulting in a beautifully  uncanny and surreal military Thriller all of   that was a compliment get it twisted but vagrant  story seems to better understand that the visual   language of film is in itself used to tell stories  and properly indulging in that means some things   you don't have to say in life nobody's gonna  brief you on every scenario at the beginning   of the game your Intel operative is kidnapped so  uh uh oh I guess I'm just gonna wing it from here   and whatever I don't know I don't know and I  don't know so many things perhaps some level   of cope some level of Defense running but I do see  strength in the Silence of vagrant story there are   moments that are legitimately powerful and moving  I don't know if it would still be as effective   with an English RPG voice cast from the year 2000.  I'm positive that choice was made to save disk   space but it also avoided the possibility  of a bad dub you see words like violence   break the silence I've seen a few reviews from  the time refer to this game as a short experience   that feels longer than it is it doesn't sound  like it but I think this is often framed as a   strength and I agree in part to this not so  much with it being a short game rather it's   story content is comparatively short you could  smash every cut scene in the game together and   that might amount to two hours if you include all  the incidental cut scenes for Boss entrances and   whatnot that are irrelevant most of the time  but those may be two hours would be a dense   and engaging experience a lot would happen and not  all of it necessarily shoving the plot forward if   you were to push together all the story content in  another RPG from the time there would likely be a   lot of expository conversation about the greater  lore of its world people launching into stories   and Parables mirroring the main character's plight  they were often a bit dry or awkward and that was   usually because they didn't receive the same  consideration and Care in their localization   that vagrant story received even Classics like  Final Fantasy VII are littered with typos and   grammatical errors because translating games was  rarely a writer's job vagrant stories story is   impeded only by long stretches of dungeon crawling  and not by there being a lot of dry information to   Wade through that was thoughtfully compiled into  a book that is in a language I cannot read it   also helps that the game's translators went above  and beyond and made the dialogue more expressive   unique and in some cases downright badass it's  far too dangerous we must wait for reinforcements reinforcements I am the reinforcements holy [ __ ]  intentional or not this game winds up presenting   a story that never talks down to you it assumes  you're a big boy or girl or Envy you're a large   child you've grown fat with knowledge hamburgers  of course this can alienate a lot of people that   more casually and passively play RPGs if you have  trouble keeping track of names and factions and   kingdoms it doesn't do a lot to accommodate you  in fact in the beginning there it seems like it's   actively keeping information from you when I first  played this game I was considerably younger I was   less open to something that seemed complicated I  just wanted to be an insufferable mope with a gun   sword that somehow still [ __ ] pulled but now as  an aged gamer as a gamer on the precipice of an   ashen tomb I get it I see what makes it special  more than ever and it's doubly strange how long   ago this happened and how we're not still talking  about it I mean look I know some of us are in this   Niche retro gamer bubble that we confuse for the  rest of the Gaming Community but out there in the   muck where it stinks where people play games on  phones and pay for premium Cosmetics they don't   know they don't know the grand grimoire  that is always there just Out Of Reach vagrant story is often roped into the realm  of turn-based RPGs and Dungeon Crawlers as it   does hold that veneer along with the pedigree of  square in reality it pretty transparently plays   like an action RPG cut with the blade honed on  tactics games coming out much closer to Parasite   Eve than Final Fantasy it's far from one to  one but you can see a lot of shared DNA and a   similar philosophy it's also far less interested  in explaining how It's oddly complex systems work   even with both physical and in-game manuals you  can access at any time there were a handful of   times where I just read the same sentence over and  over desperately trying to ring some understanding   out of its instruction the language of it not  nearly as infantile as I wish it was demoralizing   to say the least there were what appeared to be  rather substantial and vital game mechanics that   I didn't truly understand until the game's third  act and a few that I'm still not quite sure I   understood so as I describe this to you you I  might also be learning about it for the first   time despite completing the game twice in combat  which is the main activity you'll be engaged in   you enter a room populated by enemies and in real  time they rush you there is no transition to a   battle void replete with Combat music and changes  to the UI there is no Billy monsters are there   and they just run at you where you have to ready  your weapon triggering battle mode which means a   lot more than just having your weapon readied  but we'll get to that later or I'll forget   who's to say with weapon in hand and provided  you are within range of an enemy you can then   freeze the game to pull up a command menu and a  spherical grid representing your shall we call it   your uh your zone of Terror like fallout's Vats  system enemies are segmented into different body   parts you can Target each having a different  vulnerability or chance of being hit by you   there is a persistent level of trial and error  and memorization you're going to have to deal   with to consistently make short work of enemies  while the likelihood of hitting a lizard man in   the left arm may be 100 your weapon may not share  the Affinity that will deal a useful amount of   damage to it so you could deal a devastating sure  hit and it amounts to a single digit number of   measly chip damage but if you have say sword that  has the affinity for Phantoms it will deal a lot   of damage to ghostly enemies it however will do  next to nothing to say humans now if you wanted   to then turn your weapons Affinity to be better  at killing humans than Phantoms you'd have to   grind fights with humans using said weapon and  over in an amount of time I shan't not guess an   amount of time that seems downright heartless  the swords Affinity will drift towards human   from Phantom later in the game if you simply want  to grind in the purest definition of the term at   random points on the map you'll find dummies just  limp lifeless creatures of each Affinity to whack   with a weapon so it's like you're not so much  training Ashley so much as training the weapon   they are kind of little guys they have stats  preferences you name them you uh you kiss them   sometimes sometimes you whisper to them hey  you know what buddy you're my special little   the solution to this you'd think is well you  have eight weapon slots so shouldn't you just   sling eight weapons with each Affinity on your  back and then when faced with a new enemy you as   though searching through a ring of identical Keys  you look down at your inventory like okay uh what   do I need for this you're you're like a fire  guy so you wouldn't like what that is totally   something you could do but then you wouldn't have  any available slots to pick up new weapons and   I'm almost positive that unlike say Resident Evil  where if your inventory is full you can just set   the item back down in vagrant story if you can't  pick something up most of the time it's just gone   forever as though Ashley frustrated at his lack  of Mallet space just vaporizes the item instead   if I can't have it nobody can the fix for that  is not entirely comforting you could of course   craft whatever weapon you lost thus making  the item not entirely permanently missable   but I don't [ __ ] know how to do that sometimes  you can circumvent this by disassembling the   weapon as you pick it up so instead of it filling  a weapon slot it's filling one blade and one   handle spot but most of the time I just forget  to reassemble it and it would get lost in my   inventory like a quarter amongst a pocket already  jingle jangling full of change the weapon system   in vagrant story is needlessly complicated it  assumes you have some phone book sized guidebook   at your site that probably nobody actually had and  if you wanted now you'd have to keep pulling up   your phone and navigating wikis instead because  the hard copy guides are now pricey collector's   items as damaging as that may be to one's  enjoyment a vagrant story it is one of several   Big Ideas that admirably sets it apart from other  games on PS1 it's both an annoyance and a novelty   worth examining I'd say ideally everything checks  out and you hit an enemy enough times for it to   fall down and stop fighting you on account of it  dead emerging Victorious where you are greeted   with well most of the time nothing see a lot of  RPGs of this era have this reputation of requiring   you to grind essentially grinding your character  increasing their stats and making fights easier   so the game is progressively easier the more time  you're willing to sink into killing the same group   of enemies over and over in place of therapy in  vagrant Story the progress of your character is   in part randomized I think and in part items  based so you're never going to finish a fight   and see all the XP you've raked in what might  happen over a long enough time is Ashley might   recover an ability from his suppressed memories  these skills arrive in one of two categories break   arts and chain abilities both things you can  use in combat break Arts could be interpreted   as limit breaks a big special hit that has its  own modified properties attached to it and the   sacrifice in using it is that it absorbs some of  your health so you should be reasonably sure the   attack will even land before venturing to use them  chain abilities are hugely important to what makes   vagrant stories combat interesting you can assign  six different chain abilities three offensive and   three defensive when you're attacking an enemy  you'll notice an exclamation point appear above   Ashley's head for a fraction of a second in that  fraction of a second you can hit one of your chain   attacks and Ashley's attack will be followed up  by another and really you can just chain these   infinitely provided you keep getting the timing  correct which even when I felt confident that   I had nailed down I'd still trip up often and  miss the trigger the same sort of thing can be   triggered when you're being attacked hitting one  of your commands will trigger a defensive chain   that could do anything from Simply cutting the  power of the hit in half to transferring the hit   into health or canceling out a magic spell you  may be thinking wait a minute I'm a master of   Rhythm I'm a DDR fiend i.e-i-e-i I'm your little  butterfly I can keep up these chain attacks with   one hand because that's actually all it requires  well there is something put in place to dissuade   you from doing that and it's this [ __ ] right  here your risk meter anytime you do I think   anything in combat your risk meter will raise  by different amounts as your risk goes up you   become less likely to hit enemies but the chance  for critical hits increases for both you and your   enemy only they can still hit you pretty easily  I I think this is supposed to mimic you becoming   like winded or in over your head in a fight but  uh that limitation doesn't seem to affect your   enemies so whatever if you've maxed out your risk  in a fight you are doing combat wrong I know this   because I always allowed this to happen and even  when I realized why I kept getting stuck endlessly   missing attacks I continued to do so because it's  the principle of the thing you know risk naturally   lowers over time and health and Mana rise over  time but in combat I.E standing with your weapon   equipped dramatically slows this process so in  moments like this you should be chugging all   manner of potions to heal you and lower your risk  in tough fights you really have to take a moment   and Ponder how much of a hit you want to take to  risk with each move the other ways Ashley levels   so to speak is through item drops larger enemies  will drop elixirs which will raise different stats   permanently but the amount you get out of them  is randomized a similar thing happens when you   defeat a boss instead of a set number of stats  being increased a slot machine of stats begins   spinning giving you a random buff also weapon  and armor drops affect your stats in a myriad of   ways and it is encouraged to consistently swap out  upgrade rebuild add modifying Gems or just combine   find them the amount of different ways weapons  can be assembled and modified would honestly be   hugely impressive if it wasn't so obtuse and also  not wholly necessary to just running through the   game like a normal human being weapons which  are found in chests or dropped by enemies all   have base parts that they can be broken down  to swords separated by blade and handle and   so forth these parts can be individually combined  with each other to create stronger weaker or just   different new variants depending on the material  they're made of you can then reassemble them   as a weapon and name them anything you want  wait why are you asking me this no nice ass just saying because of the complexity of how weapons work I  couldn't naturally segue to explain how repair   and Phantom points works also I don't think I can  it's like okay so if you hit a guy with a sword   it affects the weapon's durability which makes  it progressively less effective but hitting it   also increases something called Phantom points  which increases its efficacy your weapon is in   its strongest form when it's repaired which  again you can do inside one of the workshops   which by the way are material specific I don't  know if I mentioned that as in you can only work   with certain types of metals in certain workshops  which is easy when you get the late game ability   to teleport further making me think that the  entire mechanic exists as an extra treat for   a new game plus playthroughs but any goddamn way  your weapon is at its peak when it's repaired and   your PP is up please behave yourself okay I'm  I'm only gonna say this once just behave like   an adult for once in your life the pro problem  is your PP becomes flaccid the longer you keep   your weapon out and don't use it quite literally  if you don't use it you lose it that meter will   start dropping bit by bit the longer you're just  walking around with your because of the way that   affinities and whatnot work all these barriers  to you simply hitting a thing and it going squish   the enemies you fight in Random Encounters that  respawn at random are maybe more complicated and   difficult to defeat than the bosses the bosses  are conceptually easy to understand and adjust   for if you walk into a room and a giant crab  emerges you can assume it's uh it's a water   Beast right so just attach all the weapon gems  you have that boost the Affinity to counter that   maybe cast a spell on yourself that does the same  and then chain attack it until it's a massive pulp   I get that the learning and upgrading of magic is  another important mechanic and it's also relegated   to found items enemies will draw drop grimoires  that are single-use spells but once you use them   you learn them and they appear in your spell  menu there are a lot of spells so much so that   I didn't find myself using most of them mostly  because it was infuriating to sit through the   dramatic animation for them only to receive a  solemn despondent miss the various healing and   buffing spells were a must in most fights though  but none of these bosses are going to immediately   cast a debilitating spell that will [ __ ] up the  course of the whole fight and none of them will   simply One-Shot you the moment you enter which  is something that does happen more than you think   more than you'd think a basic non-boss entity can  snap its fingers and hit you with a meteor foreign but boss fights are all designed around like a  longer affair with a strategy they want you to   play into they want you to set up your defensive  chain ability to block the corresponding Affinity   or add silence to your weapon to prevent it  from casting something but there's only one   of them and it's so easy to worry about one guy I  use a term in gaming called one guy as in to get   one guide as in you're busying yourself fighting  off an immediate threat and one low-level [ __ ]   staggers up behind you and hits you on the head  leading to a shameful demise I got one guide   a lot in this game I'd run into a fight heading  straight for the biggest problem not knowing that   the mere presence of the other guys would lead  to me being substantially one guide the appeal of   this well in as Stockholm syndrome-like response  I came to find rooms like this as puzzles there's   a particular set of things I can do to come out  on top here and if I'm crafty I can come out on   top or just relent that the treasure chest I'm  after is not worth my mounting depression so   even though I found the combat to occasionally  feel a bit puzzle-like there are actual puzzle   rooms in vagrant story which I have to admit I  did not care for I appreciate the attempts to   spice up and add some variety to the proceedings  but these decidedly gamey elements felt more like   a method of stalling me slide around some boxes  and [ __ ] and then reset the room if you soft   lock yourself none of them were prohibitively  difficult more like the act of doing them felt   like I was being talked down to it felt like  someone was dangling their keys in front of   me and I and I didn't appreciate that even  though I do love keys and the way they jangle   the way the light plays off them it's magical  but this game did have me yearning for being   babied in other ways I found myself wishing for  all the things I'd normally despise in a modern   game like a pop-up tutorial a crate painted  yellow that says push this you little weasel   you odorous wretch and I say yes Lord thank you  Lord what's that your boots but they're covered   in oh all right I deserve this yeah it's one  of those games where around halfway through   I considered just restarting it having now  come to understand several of the mechanics I   didn't before I did reach a place of enjoying the  gameplay of indulging in the freedom of crafting   and seeking out the optional exploits and New Game  Plus content to conquer but it's certainly a rough   entry that would appeal to a particular class  of gamer leaving the other curiously peering   through a window at it surmising looks like a lot  I kind of just want to hit people with a keyblade I've been frozen for a while trying to phrase  this as accurately as I can initially I wanted   to say something like this is the most PS1  looking game ever made but that requires a   bunch of caveats in context but in some ways  it is the truth because it so definitely took   advantage of what that console was capable of  it used a history of 2D design to Breathe new   life into 3D design for a brief Shining Moment  visually it was lightning caught in a bottle   right before some kind of new way cooler and more  popular kind of lightning hit the market you know   at the lightning store I'm a [ __ ] Mora I think  if you're a connoisseur of retro console Graphics   it doesn't get much better than this even now I  Marvel at how stunning and Atmospheric this game   is you can see this outside of cutscenes but  inside them there are a million sweet little   details and visual tricks as well as more  than competent cinematography the characters   within them expressive and emotive with facial  expressions and life like mannerisms mouths move   hair moves clothing moves eyes blink and dart  in different directions I had never played a   game where I could see a character shifting their  gaze without Michael Keaton Batman turning their   whole body towards a new subject they are often  lit by Lamplight or a setting sun which casts   a soft glowing outline around them a technique  accomplished by doubling and slightly offsetting   each figure in the opening scene there is a flash  of lightning that suddenly illuminates a Cadre of   guards lurking in the shadows silhouetted By the  Light against an enormous window it's legitimately   gorgeous the reverence for filmmaking appearing  in the framing of every shot we got pan shots   Arc shots crane shots is that what that is that's  like a tilt pan this is a crane shot I don't know   I dropped out tracking POV a Hitchcock pull  some snap zooms there's a part with a fisheye   lens effect and then there's like a bunch a  crazy [ __ ] that's too advanced for me to to   understand I I got no idea what's happening here  this is like the the bathroom mirror in contact   like I don't know what's happening and even if you  described it to me I'm gonna forget later and they   set up for shots that I think in film would rack  Focus from one subject to another but they might   not have uh had the technology for that but you  get the basic idea there's even the shot where a   ray of heavenly morning light hits Ashley creating  a strong lens flare another interesting addition   that has very little application outside of one or  two circumstances is the ability to go into first   person while in first person enemies will stand  still and you can just take in your surroundings   in all their dithered Glory sometimes because  of the camera being affixed in the ceiling there   are doorways or objects that you'd have trouble  spotting without switching to this perspective   but not often enough for me to think that this  was included for any reason besides gazing upon   the Splendor of their creation look at this guy  this is a function that funnily enough Metal   Gear Solid also had and one that Kojima brings  up in his interview with matsuno as an example   of gratuitous mechanics that are a nightmare to  implement but worth fighting to the nail for the   thing is it Metal Gear Solid you can use this to  look at mice and rats which grants it infinitely   more utility in my eyes speaking of rats there  are no rats in vagrant story but fret not when   you look to Terra Firma and find no Critters  in which to celebrate crane your neck Skyward   and ye shall see a winged being seen by some as  fiends that's right it's time for the Bat Roundup given that most of this game is set in caves and  tunnels and other Subterranean biomes typically   the domain of the rodent it's odd not seeing them  represented in any way but Square does make up   for it with heavy bat representation I mean lots  of them of varying size and abilities now these   are unfortunately enemy bats and look I don't  like it any more than you do but this game is   from a different era where it was commonplace to  paint the bat as the villain it was a different   political climate Okay these things happen it's  unfortunate and while we should be looking forward   we shouldn't avert our gaze from the past lest  we repeat its mistakes anyway if you want you   can switch to first person and check out these  bats and thankfully they just freeze in place and   loop their animations so you can stare at them as  long as you like and after crunching the numbers   on these bats Gathering all the appropriate data  I'd give them an official Bat Roundup rating of   good if you look at games from the beginning of  the ps1's life there are a few things that big   story side steps that helps it look a bit more  Timeless and unique for one thing there was a   good while that it was just a standard procedure  that cut scenes be full motion video this meant   leaving it up to smaller Studios to figure out  3D animation and a lot of the time these looked   really smooth and simplistic there are plenty of  good examples of 3D cutscenes and some that are   Charming despite their lack of quality and plenty  more that are just kind of awkward vagrant story   has only one brief FMV sequence and it's mostly  a series of extreme close-ups that move so fast   and overlap each other that you don't really  have time to scrutinize any of it and that's   kind of the best case scenario I don't think  it's spoken anywhere inside the game but this   opening FMV depicts a belly dancer and there's no  context given for why that is but the guidebook   explains this to be the Priestess Mulan Camp the  figure Central to the eponymous cult featured in   the game and the very reason the cursed setting  of leomond exists I couldn't exactly consider   that a spoiler seeing as though it's peripheral  and doesn't really change anything I don't know   if they ever intended to explain this uh the only  other thing I could find was according to squares   archived Dev diary they did plan to include a  fraction of a second long lewd shot but it was   pointed out by one of them and rejected which like  wow crisis averted guys there was almost a lot of   ass in this game because the event scenes in this  game look identical to gameplay it creates this   seamless experience that is a bit more immersive  than having the Game Stop and Play a film your   mileage may vary but around these parts the first  RPG for this console was beyond the Beyond from   Camelot software and it is pretty emblematic of  what RPGs were like for a good while it fits the   mold quite snugly its overhead it's 2D while  exploring and then 3D with 2D Sprites during   combat and there's you know a trial cave a boy  with daddy issues and uh who knows what else   because that's as far as I played to get this  footage but held side by side vagrant story   looks like it's from another [ __ ] planet there  are certainly stretches of the game in dungeons   mostly where it is visually quite samey and there  is an odd grid-like verticality to it that makes   it feel as though it exists on a plane that was  once used for a tactics game and you're now just   walking around it in real time but I could  hardly count that amongst its blemishes it's   just an oddity the sort of thing that wriggles  its way into my memory resting snugly between   that Final Fantasy 9 coke commercial and seeing  the spirits within in theaters and not being able   to think about anything other than the wondrous  reality that Steve Buscemi was part of the Final   Fantasy Universe these machines are suspected  of causing sterility and I want to have a little   Neil Jr calling me Daddy someday according to  the interviews in ultimania the graphic style   changed pretty drastically as more of the story  was fleshed out in the beginning vagrant Stories   character design and background supervisor akihiko  Yoshida described the characters as initially   being very cutesy and the background environments  compared to something out of Moomin Valley   however after a trip to France to gather reference  material the look of these environments changed to   ruins of a once elegant City the tone became much  more grim and lighting more dim no that was fun   not just a feast for the eyes vagrant story sound  design was meticulously considered in an effort   to both save space on the disk and reduce the  amount of repeated sound effects all the game's   sounds are synthetic merely waveforms manipulated  such that they resemble familiar sounds learning   this after playing through the game came as  quite a surprise because there were a few   instances where I was sure they had just sampled  something or pulled from a sound library of sorts   but knowing that it was all made on a computer  is pretty impressive for the time thank you the sound team was so pleased with the result  that there are a number of scenes that they didn't   even bother scoring to include music because the  sound alone sort of carried the scene even without   voice acting the idea to include comic book speech  bubbles instead of the usual scroll at the bottom   and Frozen character profiles was in an effort to  mimic an American comic book and further divorce   the game from feeling Japanese they wanted it to  feel like it came from a foreign unplaceable land   this is in their own words I'm honestly not sure  how quote unquote American these speech bubbles   are I mean don't tell anyone I told you this  but I have read one of them uh them Japanese   comic books and I reckon the speech bubbles looked  the goddamn same to me brother anyway the sounds   of vagrant story are a great source of innovation  more than one person on this game staff seemed to   credit the game's creativity to its limitations  almost pleased that working on this game meant   finding fun ways around its memory budget speaking  of music I don't know I guess it's been a while   but uh that's okay you're all sleepy by now all  tuckered out in Betty buys the music was composed   by hitoshi Sakamoto a frequent collaborator  with yasumi matsuna even without formal music   training he immediately displayed a knack for  scoring video games as far back as 1988 and   a little-known erotic action game called  Starship Rendezvous for the MSX that had   a soundtrack as stimulating as the pixelated  anime characters within the game I'd wager   had I played it which I didn't I stole this  footage I'm not involved in this I'm a thief the soundtrack for vagrant story was split into  two tones one meant to cultivate atmosphere and   the other meant to instill urgency respectively  music for walking around and looking at stuff foreign film score [ __ ] for exciting action  and it pulls off both rather impressively it's one of those things that you don't really  notice until it's pointed out to you but certainly   during cut scenes the score follows what's  happening even though you are on and off given   control over its Flow by skipping through the  dialogue making it somewhat pseudo dynamic in   that sense it's seamlessly course corrects based  on your input it's a very fitting accompaniment   to the game and if I were to compare it to  his work on Final Fantasy Tactics which is a   similar sort of world and pool of themes to draw  from and they do share a sort of grandness but   it is noticeably different the music and vagrant  story feels fantasy adjacent but those notes are   interwoven with a modern spy Thriller sensibility  modern for the year 2000 every once in a while   dropping a break beat it's like music in which  to infiltrate in enemy base armed with a crossbow thank you whereas the soundtrack for tactics was  more Regal militaristic and triumphant the game's translator seemed to pick up on this  dower yet mystical tone and made reference to   music that it reminded them of in one of many  Oddball decisions the game's map displays a   name for each area in the game and not in a basic  descriptive manner like you know you're standing   in the observatory or ruins of the third floor  room you know the room where you store all your   well not anymore not since the war all the  areas in the game were given strange poetic   names like those who drink the dark or the  timely Dew of sleep the English translators   saw fit to alter some of these Whimsical room  names to reference goth bands like Bauhaus and   Dead Can Dance there's some literary reference  to stuff like Paradise Lost and whatnot I mean   you gotta pull from somewhere to fill out such a  needless artistic flourish on a game some of them   are quite evocative and not indirect reference  to much of anything and in a cursory Googling   of a few of them many bands and music producers  have since claimed these lovely turns of phrase dude die Wars parachad yeah uh you go right can can  one of you check for EVP oh yeah you   got a message earlier a message  the demons leaving voicemails   for me now I don't know I'm always  recording uh not after 10 pm right let me play the message okay hi me again   um look you're real hungry and  if it's not too much trouble can I have your soul uh think about it okay Best Buy for now all right so he might become a   problem but everybody's got  a problematic friend right oh boy vagrant story is beautiful and impenetrable  like the Bass Pro Shop pyramid after 9 pm or 7pm   on Sundays pushing the PlayStation to its  limit finding undiscovered potential the   same year that its successor was released years  of two-dimensional Artistry bent and reshaped to   accommodate the changing of the wind and the  mounting in a game that is visually stuck out   of time proving the possible longevity of the  console as the windows were being boarded up   its story is either deceptively simple or  esoteric handing you multiple versions of   the same events and deciding that it doesn't  entirely matter which is true so much as how   our concussed protagonist chooses to move forward  either read you have of the story it's impressive   that a game from this era and from this publisher  chose to embrace abstraction and leave a handful   of plot elements in your hands and show most of  the other stuff without having it monologued to   you and in many ways work to distance themselves  from the type of game they became known for this   led to to a gameplay style that is in many ways  Innovative cultivating little bits of other games   they liked and crafting them into one super game  that you could see as a work of art and also see   as the car Homer Simpson designed unique in  one sense or the other in the space between   vagrant Stories release and now there is a much  clearer path to the audience this game needed and   I think many more Gamers around now that would  hear things like complex inventory management   and Arcane crafting system and form a villainous  finger tent with their hands it may have arrived   too early and to an audience expecting something  like what squaresoft had published before and   don't get me wrong there's plenty to be frustrated  about the experience of playing this game plenty   that feels cruel and outright unfair it made me  reflect on how long I've been coddled by game   design and worse it activates the most toxic  centers of my gamer gland the amount of times   I found myself locked in a dance of enemy casting  buff and me casting debuff on until one of us ran   out of Mana I I'd rather not dwell on it's not  okay I see what you're going for but what about um interesting play I'm following but have you  considered but nothing in it distracted from The   Game's novelty it's still such a neat little guy  a Charming lad I have enjoyed many Final Fantasy   games and I'm not closed off to what jrpgs  used to be but I'm not going to be upset by   a gaming experiment a risk following a sequence  of safe Bets with all the successes and failures   that come with such Adventure however vagrant  stories successes in my opinion far outweigh   its failures and frustrations and it's honestly  sort of bizarre that it never got another entry   or an update of any kind for a while there was  the consolation that well at least they haven't   forgotten it as they keep re-releasing it for  subsequent PlayStation consoles but now that the   PS3 and PS Vita are no longer supported by Sony  we're kind of back at square one and the game is   once again free I'm going to uncharacteristically  optimistically say at the time of my writing who   knows something could change I can go on Amazon  and Order order highly articulated detailed   figures of Ashley and Sydney straight from Square  enix's official store I wouldn't because they are   almost 200 but I could and I couldn't just  buy the game they are from free is nice but   I think I'd prefer a return to this well because  it's very clearly posed as An Origin a beginning   to something greater the first tome in a planned  sexology and it's not even so much because there   was a bunch of loose threads so much as infinite  possibilities the game's title is in reference   to a part of the story we will never get to see  really it's not really on any of the packaging   but the game does have a subtitle which is the  phantom pain and I only learned this because it   showed up at the end credits as though that were  the title and if you were to take vagrant story as   solely these events and nothing more that would  be a much more fitting title because as is it's   like if you called a movie Spider-man but the  whole thing was the lead up to him getting bit   by The Spider and he's like man I feel funny  after getting bit by that spider and then   it slowly Hitchcock pulls on his face before  unceremoniously the end that's the end of the   video thank you for watching it I appreciate you  watching it all the way through and not skipping   through all the parts I was talking to a robot  dog and the part about flash drives because I   know you know how important that was to the video  that's the end of the video we laughed we cried damn it listen to this Crow so I'm sorry if you hear a crow call me Michael  Massey because I'm about to shoot some cross   um thanks you thank thanks thanks again for  watching the video thanks for all your support   if you'd like to support further there are links  in the description for all the ways in which you   can do that there's also the functionality of this  website you can partake in which you already know   I assume it's becoming increasingly difficult  to talk over these crows it's it's a bit like   speaking with a delay in your headphones anyway  I appreciate you and an extra special thanks to   ailing Uncle to password for kids again Dean  Alexander Smith anarco himbo Andre Perkins   aparts89 Bayard brown beef lightning Ben Oliver  Benjamin Sid Perez big abuela energy black Pluto   Brett Weaver Close Quarter wombat D Sky Daphne  pittantry dark Raptor 86 Dark Side Blues the   Illuminati despite my own misgivings I should  feel proud of the work I've made and give myself   a gentle but firm pat on the back demo Markov Dr  beer Dost days Douglas black Dr grimbeard's Dino   Nookie suppository surprise edgy Edward Avila fart  mother gay Master gamma gunmancer High food court   I cook bacon Jack the Dave Jake Steele J al-ameen  Joseph zanoni carrot kimbowski labor delendaist   Luke Allen Marcus Chaney Michael Schmidt morgue  detrius my fear of going outside and interacting   with actual human beings neck out the brave octo  Ona Hill Philip Wooley proto-pesnipe Rahul kirti   Roland Salvatore tosti Samuel Van Der Platz  snapplefish soulko Stephen kick Tech 923 Tessie   this deal is getting better all the time to Stan  Vera Fuchs where am I help your problems make my   dick soft Zack Bishop Daniel strip El jasguire  etto Ava nerve giraffa Karen rosenow Catherine   Graven lore Saint Vitus Shuffle swood operator  T-Dog 8083 410 757 864 530 gay cops a hanging chad   Albert Hundley aaroni Sears Brady the sanity tax  collector broseph Jones cantankerous chimichanga   owns Cthulhu sauce David offford drunken Badger  dubs Eric yauden Grand Roman pontifex Maximus   chalobardus for the humble grounded Valkyrie  ishanji Jeremy J Man DX mad Monty 98 Make It   Rain or affiliate fish wife p-dizzle Persian  Heir please stop treating player agency as a   negative leaning left right manuallys into [ __ ]  cover system its basic movement Robert Brandon   Rowdy Roddy peeper Royal witches Samuel Ward  sorry I'm no hero teralati Technica T Grim now   random Supernatural quote random character  seven cute darkest streets music Stone Age   I lost my shoe 10 beat the angry Pebble the  condroid for Kane Aleister Stewart Alexander   ulbrich Alfred Correa Ali G all the nope  Andrew light Andrew lubrano Andy Krieger   Astro Shepherd Atari Steed auspicious whiskers  beef Ben and Cara Dowling Ben Sanders Benjamin   Payne Benji blakeway bindle Bishi 93 biddles  99999 bib dub Brams Brandon Frost Brody Gibson   burps Wimbledon Carl Hannah Cerberus arms Colby  Contra Fair Cult of Lida Daniel chernovsky Daphne   David fromke David harpstrike dazed Clockwork  Divana uparak do vampire cummies taste like I spilled all my pants dongs.exe  Doug Bostic electric crowbar   udipties every day once a day give yourself a  putty fix my brain fried potato game is good   gaming with glarp tarp General klizara ghoul baby  Bond goth Hunter cast dark and streams number one   fan promotion good for you taking the initiative  Haley bobela Haywood jablomi hitoshi-san intj   loves her INTP Irish wristwatch Irish wristwatch  Irish wristwatch Jake Desi Jake Raynor Jeff Ladd   Jesse James June Choi Jordan balzano Joshua Joshua  David Khalil Corey Captain ketchup caragera kirak   the famished one Lori kubri Leland miliocus M  mcdeath magic meows Mandalore gaming marauding   fraud Marcus class and Max Cohen Max the based  plant protein MCR Micah J best Michael perks miles   Phillips mitochondria kaitomandria more sharks  mother destruction Mr ducky quack mystical lint   name requires DLC Nick Hill Nick Hooper Nick  Timmins Noel M no ROM Oliver Marshall opichi   costra origami zerglund Paul Blart malgot Paul  Fierce Remy pan replicant Richard binges Rising   existential bread Ruiz Scarlett Scofflaw the  sassiest bacadi Serge Ram shadanan shade selatikso   snuggly trap Sofia abiglaba volteha sabakkadaka  star tight Team Art the supervisor thick for mom   two tint mean age needle it's fine just a name  various vilmar valthorson Vincent Cronin Werewolf   Bar Mitzvah spooky scary boys becoming men men  becoming wolves wolf chalice logician zanga PF   zanek benez and ziwawei for being a patron at the  tier that I read your name and a subsequent extra   special thanks to the rest I really gotta  nailed down a better way of transitioning thank you anyway thanks for watching my  video this one was a fighter oh there's   so much noise in this world oh there's  so much noise these [ __ ] crows dude oh oh God damn it's like the [ __ ] puzzle room  in Resident Evil one with with the old little   young person paintings I don't know anyway  I appreciate you all uh couldn't do any of   this without you this would be a nightmare  this would spell death for me if it weren't   for you I am so grateful to every one of you  who support me I can't think with all these   crows I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna go thank  you for watching One More Time One More Time and as always bye any other room someone's become an idol like the 10 hours  that my son stand stays in front of the computer   so it's maybe only just that  this Idol comes Crashing Down

Channel: Grim Beard

Views: 127,977

Keywords: grimbeard vagrant story, vagrant story, vagrant story review, vagrant story retrospective, vagrant story gameplay, underrated rpgs, lost rpgs, best jrpgs, underrated jrpgs, grimbeard jrpg, forgotten jrpgs

Id: NMNFj02IB24

Length: 119min 10sec (7150 seconds)

Published: Tue May 16 2023