With an amazing range of vocabulary, conversations are conveyed via "speech bubbles", like in a comic book or Japanese manga. This helps to make the game a bit more realistic; Vagrant Story even goes so far as to include moving mouths during conversations. Of course, I did find myself wondering every once in a while how much better the game might have been with some top-notch voice acting. The musical score in Vagrant Story is definitely a mixed bag; people who loved Hitoshi Sakimoto's previous works, such as Final Fantasy Tactics, will no doubt be right at home with Vagrant Story's tunes; from spooky to dead serious to foreboding, Vagrant Story's music is definitely fitting to the task at hand. Of course, the graphics aren't anything to laugh at either, as Vagrant Story uses real-time polygonal environments to convey a dark, foreboding dungeon-esque feel to complement the intricate story. In a nutshell, the story is about Ashley Riot, an agent of Valendia Knights of Peace, also known as a "Riskbreaker". Ashley is sent on a mission to solve a felony that occurred at Duke Bardora's mansion. His mission: determine the whereabouts of one Sydney Losstarot, leader of a religious cult dedicated to the worship of an ancient priestess known as Müllenkamp. However, you aren't the only one sent to intercept Sydney; the Cardinal's "Crimson Blades", led by Romeo Guildenstern, are also after the cultist and, after stepping into this deep situation, Ashley Riot's mission begins.

  By the way, don't get too attached to the full motion video you see at the beginning of Vagrant Story, because you won't see any for the rest of the game. Vagrant Story takes a cue from many recent games and tosses full motion video out for game engine cinematics. The effect is astounding, as the game transitions from actual gameplay to panning, zooming, motion blurring and back again. The only side effect of these awe-inspiring cinematics is that they will occasionally cripple your gameplay. For instance, during boss battles, if you wish to reflect damage back using the Reflect Damage defense skill, it's more difficult, since the timing seems to lag a bit when it comes to doing things during some of the more intense animation. Fortunately, it isn't impossible to adapt to, but it does make you wonder just how much better the game might have played had it been on something a little bit faster than the current PlayStation. I love the PlayStation hardware, but it's definitely showing its age, even in a well-done game such as Square's Vagrant Story. And don't take this the wrong way, but even though Vagrant Story's visuals are some of the most unbelievable on the PlayStation to date, a few of the locales seem reused to save on disc space and programming costs; caverns and boss rooms, in particular. This actually kind of explains why Vagrant Story seems so long, yet is curiously contained on nothing more than a single CD. Of course, this doesn't make Vagrant Story any less breathtaking.

  On the contrary, a majority of Vagrant Story's beautiful environments have an unmistakable shine to them. Of course, now we get to the part that determines Vagrant Story's true worth: gameplay. I know it sounds cliché, but Vagrant Story is probably unlike anything you've ever played. Timing is crucial to your success, as Ashley Riot receives the ability to chain together weapon-based moves shortly after the game's first boss. After this happens, you'll have the chance to set moves to the Square, Triangle and Circle buttons, allowing you to initiate combo intensive battle tactics. If you press Circle during the battle, a sort of "range sphere" will appear around Ashley Riot, showing your current weapon/ability's immediately available range, when you select the enemy to hit, the limb to attack, et cetera, you're allowed to continue your combo in real-time by alternating attack buttons when you're prompted to do so by attack alerts, which come in the form of an exclamation point above Ashley's head during every attack impact. The cues only show up for a split second and the game lets you know if you press the assigned move button too slow or too fast, allowing you to effectively practice and improve your timing. This challenging method of chaining moves together produces combination attacks that add to your Risk.

  The higher the Risk, the less accuracy your attacks have and the more you get damaged. The lower the Risk, the more accuracy your attacks have and the less you get damaged. Interestingly enough, it's quite probable to chain your various moves together indefinitely, but when your chained moves total goes above eight, your Risk starts to go up like crazy. This factor presents an interesting dilemma to the player; go for broke and hope your enemy doesn't have a killer attack or play it safe with short chains, between one and eight movements in length, and beat your enemy gradually. Keep in mind that defense abilities aren't chainable at all; they must be used to avoid, absorb or defend against enemy onslaughts. Since I only had three buttons to set abilities to, Square, Triangle and Circle, I chose to set two attack abilities, one to Triangle and one to Circle, and one defense ability, to Circle. This helped me to alternate between Triangle and Square during chain attacks and defend during enemy attacks. This makes Vagrant Story a bit more strategic than it seems at first glance. Of course, the depth doesn't stop there; you also have Break Arts, Magic, Items, as well as customized Weaponry and Armor to factor into the equation. Break Arts are like critical moves, only they depend on both your Risk and Hit Points.

  The lower your Risk, the more damage and accuracy your Break Arts have. Your Break Arts also have longer range than the weapons they originate from. Break Arts can be the most reliable moves in the game, though they use up a bit of your hit points each time you use one. For example, the starting Break Art for the sword, Rending Gale, takes 25 HP to use. This means you could take yet another risk and use Break Arts until your HP is nearly gone. Magic works in similar fashion to other role-playing titles, though Ashley Riot learns more spells than most typical RPG characters. A majority of your attacks require you to position Ashley so that his enemies are in the range sphere when you press Circle. If your enemies are outside of the range sphere, you have absolutely no chance of hitting them with your chosen attack. What really impressed me was when some of my enemies started staying out of my range as much as possible.

  Of course, I haven't even covered a majority of the plot, the different forges and workshops that allow an impressive amount of weapon, armor and item customization and the many other intricacies that complete Vagrant Story, but I'll leave the rest for you to discover on your own. Vagrant Story does have its problems, such as camera positioning problems that really get annoying since they prevent you from getting that right angle or view that you need, which sometimes leads to missed jumps. It also seems to lack a sense of structure and/or difficulty on certain occasions, with the in-game map becoming extremely necessary because of the repetitive room design, while bosses and enemies present too little or too much challenge at any given time, leading you to slash away endlessly or resort to constant use of your recovery items. However, don't let these relatively minor problems stop you from giving it a go, as Vagrant Story's intricate battle system, astounding visuals and heart pounding soundtrack more than make up for many of its technical problems. If Square hadn't taken a risk with Vagrant Story, we probably wouldn't have one of the most well-crafted role-playing titles ever to grace our shores. In closing, Vagrant Story is certainly not for everyone, as its control scheme is fairly complex and it contains a fairly mature plot that deals with many issues, including medieval superstitions, dark rituals, corrupt organizations and religious persecution. However, if you're an older gamer looking for a well-translated, dungeon-crawling, boss-bashing, strategic role-playing title with lots of customization and enough actual gameplay to last for over thirty hours, then Squaresoft's Vagrant Story is for you.
RATING: