Vagrant Story

Vagrant Story is a unique action/RPG game released for the PlayStation console in 2000. The game, designed and distributed by Squaresoft (now Square Enix), features a focus on weapon modification and creation. It has a carefully crafted story about a Riskbreaker named Ashley Riot who was sent to break a fanatical religious cult's hold on the manor of Duke Bardorba. Shortly after this incident, the leader of the cult, Sydney Losstarot, disappeared and the Duke was murdered. Ashley Riot was named as a suspect in the murder case. The player takes the part of Ashley as he follows Sydney into the deserted city of Leá Monde.

The game's graphical style is very dark and emphasizes brown tones, adding to the sense of mystery in the game. Some of its scenarios are inspired to some extent by landscapes of the South West of France, notably the city of Saint-Emilion. Various unusual outfits, including Ashley's, were the subject of good-natured fan humour.

Its style of cinematics is reminiscent of the one used in Metal Gear Solid, in both games the in-game story sequences were rendered with the game engine and directed with a strong cinematographic feeling.

The battle system of the game involves the player chaining different attacks to achieve large combos and deal damage to the enemy. The player can target different areas of the body, and damage is done according to the part of body attacked and the affinity of the weapon used by Ashley. As Ashley fights, his Risk raises, making it harder for him to concentrate, and lowering his accuracy. This innovative battle system is very different from that of most Squaresoft games.

Players can customize and create weapons and armor which have different ranges, strengths, and statistics. Weapons also become stronger in different areas depending on the enemy types they are used to attack, and armor became stronger in different areas depending on what enemy types attacked it.

The game was not very popular in any of the main game markets (Japan, US, and Europe), partially due to small advertising campaign and lack of localization to European languages, but it is held in high regard in the action/RPG community.

The programming team was largely the same who did Final Fantasy Tactics, and currently they are working on Final Fantasy XII. Specially worth mentioning are Yasumi Matsuno (production, direction and battle design), Akihiko Yoshida (character design and background art direction), Hiroshi Minagawa (art direction) and Hitoshi Sakimoto (music).

The English localization, which is accredited to Alexander O. Smith is considered one of the finest Japanese to English videogame translations existing today.

Notable people

• Yasumi "YAZZ" Matsuno: Production, direction, battle Design
• Jun Akiyama: Event direction
• Akihiko Yoshida: Character design and background art direction
• Hiroshi "Nigoro" Minagawa: Art direction
• Jiro Mifune: Effect design
• Eiichiro Nakatsu: Character modelling
• Tsunataro Yoshida: Motion design
• Taku Murata: Main programming
• Hitoshi "YmoH.S" Sakimoto: Composition