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By Contributing Writer Rob Pecknold Rating: Awesome Vagrant Story has been called Medieval Gear Solid due to its cinematic qualities, but whoever gives this game such a nickname is decidedly off- base. Metal Gear Solid comes nowhere close to the cinematic beauty and intensity found in Vagrant Story. In fact, the introduction sequence alone is the most exciting and cinematic moment I've ever seen in a video game. But Vagrant Story isn't just about impressive cinematic sequences. It also bleeds quality in just about every other possible area, including graphics, music, character designs, combat, and most importantly of all, story. The game has a great main character named Ashley Riot who is an elite member of the Valendia Knights of the Peace, and a USDA-certified bad-ass. Sure, he's got a girly name, but he's easily on par with Solid Snake on the bad-assedness scale. Square would have been wasting a great main character if they didn't have a solid story and universe to plunk him down into. Thankfully, they have succeeded admirably in this respect. The game is full of plot twists and intrigue, and just writing about it is making me want to play the game. While some of the characters seem like pasted-together remnants of Shakespeare classics, they are all very deep nonetheless. For instance, Ashley has convinced himself that the murder of his wife and son years ago was his fault, despite the fact that the Knights of the Cross were actually responsible. Ashley is just one of Vagrant Story's many deep characters. Some of this depth is a direct result of the game's comic-book-style text boxes. They are a fresh way to present text in a video game, and good text at that. The game is translated impeccably well, and is probably the best translation that Square EA has done yet. Vagrant Story was designed by the same development team as Final Fantasy Tactics, and it really shows. Not necessarily in terms of graphical style, but both games are similar to each other when it comes to story pacing, depth, and sheer quality. Akihiko Yoshida's character designs are amazing and breathe life into the game. It's beyond me how the man is able to switch styles so effortlessly and effectively. The music is also impressive, and it was composed by another FF Tactics veteran (Hitoshi Sakimoto). Unfortunately, the music is mainly there just for the sake of atmosphere during the dungeon areas of the game. The music does pick up every once in a while, and there are good themes to be heard, but Square needs to partner Sakimoto with his FF Tactics partner Masaharu Iwata in order to get the most out of his talents. A lot of Vagrant Story reviews go something like this, "Wah wah wah, not enough towns, wah wah wah, too many dungeons, wah wah wah, not enough RPG." Despite this crying and whining, Vagrant Story was never (Chris Jericho quote coming on), EEEEEEEVER, meant to be a traditional RPG. It's an adventure game. Bashing Vagrant Story for being an adventure game is like bashing Soul Calibur for having too much fighting or Ace Combat 3 for having too many levels based in the sky. Anyone who buys Vagrant Story expecting a traditional RPG will be sorely disappointed. It's a damn good thing that the combat is as good as it is, because a large percentage of the game is spent in combat. Vagrant Story takes a concept that debuted in Parasite Eve and expands upon it. As was the case with Parasite Eve, you press a button, a sphere pops up around your character, and you can attack any enemies that are within your range. The difference is that in Vagrant Story, you can actually attack individual body parts, namely the head, torso, left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg. This is where the innovation and strategy come into play. Injuring an enemy's legs will cause it to move slower or not at all, hurting its arms will decrease the amount of damage it can dish out, and so on. Vagrant Story is a truly amazing game, and one of my favorites of all time. Everything in the game comes together in a perfect mix of style, design, and pure entertainment. Buy the game, have fun, and pray to God that the next game from this development team is based on the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Even if you didn't have the slightest clue what Evangelion was before the previous sentence, pray, dammit, pray! Send your thoughts on this review to rob@mastergamer.com
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