![]() In reality though, weapon management in this game is much more complicated than one could ever imagine. After all, that’s how most JRPGs work and the game introduces a forging workshop into the game fairly early on. For example, one may think going into the game that the best way to deal damage is to get weapons with higher stats. As such, without a guide to simplify it all, the process of playing the game is one that often feels aimless and confusing. Most of the game’s combat mechanics are explained by an ungodly amount of tutorial text that is hidden away in a Main Menu tutorial subsection. In a lot of ways, Vagrant Story is borderline hostile to modern players. I played the game earlier this year and my experience with it was a consistently frustrating, yet engaging one. From its real-time, yet tactics based combat system to its groundbreaking graphical work on a console not known for aesthetic excellence, Vagrant Story remains a strange artifact of its era. It’s DNA can be found somewhat in Final Fantasy XII’s gambit system, but aside from that the game is one of a kind. Vagrant Story, like many late PS1 JRPGs from Squaresoft, is incredibly unique and experimental. Final Fantasy XII still went on to be a massive commercial and critical success–one whose aesthetics, world, gameplay, and plot were clearly a product of Matsuno’s initial vision for the game–but in the years since he has failed to work on any major projects aside from some writing roles for Final Fantasy XIV online raids and subquests.Īnd that’s a shame, because Matsuno’s last full creative game project is quite possibly one of the most fascinating games ever made. ![]() The game went through development hell due to management changes caused by the recent Square Enix merger–changes which resulted in Matsuno ultimately leaving the project and the company that made him famous. Although Matsuno seemed destined for greater things, Final Fantasy XII is, at the time of writing, the last major mainstream game he had any role in as a creative director and even then only for part of its development. Yet, that same sentiment can be applied to Matsuno’s entire post-PS1 career. Most of this fandom was amassed with the release of Final Fantasy Tactics, a strategy RPG so popular and influential it’s kind of amazing how little attention it’s received as a franchise in the many years since. Over the course of a decade from the release of Tactics Ogre to the publication of Vagrant Story in 2000 as a one of Squaresoft’s final swan songs for the Playstation 1, Matsuno developed a cult following due to his particular brand of grand medieval fantasy storytelling that dabbled in grey morality and complex political machinations. It includes loads of tidbits on its development, and how Matsuno and his team were able to get so much out of the PSone.Among the many exceptional developers working at Squaresoft in the late 90’s and early aughts, none were quite as critically beloved and niche as Yasumi Matsuno. There's a superb Twitter thread on Vagrant Story by that's well worth checking out, too. And more than this, proof of what a talented team can uncover when allowed off the leash, given a chance to create away from the shackles of iteration and influence to create rather than, Losstarot-style, re-conjure". ![]() Writing in a Vagrant Story retrospective for Eurogamer, Simon Parkin called the game "a daring, ambitious trek then, one that woos the susceptive mind with its riddle and consequence while confounding the impatient. The setting is Leá Monde, a beautifully-realised French city-inspired 3D world. You play Ashley Riot, a member of a peacekeeping force hot on the heels of a cult leader named Sydney Losstarot. Vagrant Story was praised for its stunning visuals, atmosphere, rewarding combat system and engrossing story. More specifically it was developed by Yasumi Matsuno and the team behind Final Fantasy Tactics, and while it never achieved the same level of success as some of the company's other PSone JRPGs, such as Final Fantasy 7, it is considered by some to be the best of the bunch. Vagrant Story was developed by Squaresoft (what would later become Square Enix). It first launched in Japan on PSone on 10th February 2000, right at the tailend of the console's lifecycle and just a month before Sony released the PS2. Vagrant Story, one of the greatest Japanese role-playing games of all time, turns 20 today.
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