IC Forum Archive

Ataru · Posts: 295

let us discuss this excellent but all too deep game.

I have just gotten over enough of the learning curve to be genuinely excited about the game.

I also wonder just how much Final Fantasy XII will be like this.

Any tips on which kinds of weapons are best against which kinds of enemies?

Guardian FINAL · Posts: 1137

Edge gave it a fantastic Time Extend either last month or month before. I love their Time Extend articles.

jiji · Posts: 780

Crossbows are nice against bats and phantoms, in general, but I think I have my crossbow's affinities established as Human/Phantom. Aside from simple range issues, though, your weapon's affinities and elements will have a much greater effect on its performance than the kind of weapon it is.

It took me one or two dry runs before I got the hang of the weapons system, too, and I'm glad I finally did. It's one of the most rewarding, beautiful, atmospheric, and literate games I've played, on any platform. My one complaint is that the unused R2 (or L2?) button could have been mapped to a quick weapon menu.

Panoptic · Posts: 291

In all honesty, I used the Angel Wing for most of my first playthrough, and designed a better sword for the final boss. I almost exclusively used great swords for the duration of the game. The Angel Wing also replaced the weapon you start with (which I believe is a falchion? Don't know what grip), since by the time it was replaced, it was mostly useful on human opponents. I had a polearm that worked pretty well on the undead.

Just as a note: the Analyze spell is your friend. Note that you have to go to your status menu and select the enemy for it to work though.

Question to the OP: How far are you into the game? We should discuss building ultimate weapon and armor sets, as I restarted the game a little while back myself.

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

WOW...there is so much I could've contributed to this thread a few years ago when my VS mojo was in full effect...nowadays I can't work up the effort to finish a quest already in progress. I just managed to get all Dread Armor and the best weaps of each category. Still have plenty of titles to earn.

PepsimanVsJoe · Posts: 105

Good game..excellent game..one of the best.

Let's see I had six standard weapons.

A Slash type Sword for beasts.
A Rapier for Humans
A Club for phantoms
A Spear for Dragons/Lizards
A huge freaking mace for Evil types
Oh and something for the Undead..I forgot what.
-------
I was able to make it through just fine with that set up. I had to retry the final boss fight as I found my huge freaking mace sucked and had to relegated to a one handed mace so I could carry a good shield. Of course I ended up doing all of my damage with that one attack that takes a bit of your health to do damage(And that crap can add up quickly with a good chain.)

The funny part was after a certain point while beating on the final boss this menu comes up allowing me to choose my next weapon skill to learn..I was like "WTF yay" and the boss was dead.

I haven't really got into my 2nd replay however as other games started whining for play. I'll probably beast through the game a few times before trying the newer quests.

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

If this thread becomes anything lke the Morrowind thread I may just pick it up again. Every topic discussed is a burst of inspiration.

gunshinji · Posts: 186

i never got to play this one. but i've been wondering what i missed.

wourme · Posts: 101

I was very excited about Vagrant Story and pre-ordered it. I was impressed with just about every aspect of it, but gradually discovered that I was doing something wrong somehow. I had tried to specialize my weapons but they seemed perpetually ineffective. Plus, I never mastered the combos. After beating a boss that used up all of my healing items, I found myself in an outdoor area where I was to fight some humans. I found them absolutely impossible to beat, and so I set the game aside.

And aside it remains. I guess I still plan to start over some day, but the way things didn't work out for me really left me cold and it's possible I never will. I might just fall into the same trap again unless I constantly reference some sort of cheating guide, which is not the way I like to play a video game. I'm not usually all that terrible at video games in general, and I'm not sure where I went wrong with this one.

I guess I've always wanted to complain about my Vagrant Story experience. Sorry about that.

burnsro · Posts: 50

I thought it was boring to push crates around so I sold my copy.

Now I like to push crates around with a forklift so I guess I'm a hypocrite.

cholak · Posts: 1

So inspiring, this conversation. Taken together with that uplifting Edge article, my Vagrant Story disc is about to start spinning.

Possible rectangles within which it will rotate:

I) My still sleek, still sexy PSone
II) My ugly, loud, monstrous PC
III) Its original (non-Greatest Hits) jewel case (by way of the strange mental powers that customized weapons always provoke).

This contest is best viewed as a rap battle, wherein three emcees demonstrate their skills, and top prize is a date with the aging (but tempting) goddess known as Vagranta Storia.

Top honors go to ePSXe (feat. Pete of Pete's Famous OpenGL2 Drivers, NVIDIA, and the Athlon twins). They smooth her rough edges and load her up the fastest.

jiji · Posts: 780

hurf burf let's keep this thread focused on actual gameplay discussion.

I definitely want to go for a third full run at the game. I think I'd be able to manage to construct the best sword, whatever it's called, during the third run sometime. The weapon affinity system would seem to be one of the systems Matsuno designed and had implemented after all the squawking about the game's (lack of length) about six months before release. And for a system designed entirely to create playtime padding, it sure as hell is fun.

And while I've talked to a person or two who swear up and down that all they needed to get through the game was skill at chaining, I've found that the idea that chaining helps you do better is misleading. You only get a chance at an affinity bonus for the first hit of any chain, so you're best off sticking to single hits on normal enemies. Chains are best for maximizing opportunities during boss fights, or against difficult enemies like those evil floating doll things. As there are quite a few bosses with weak points that are difficult to reach, you need to make the best of the hit windows you have. Usually the game will give you enough Vera Roots and Bulbs to make manageable the risk generated by about this much chaining.

Showtime · Posts: 49

cholak wrote:

Top honors go to ePSXe (feat. Pete of Pete's Famous OpenGL2 Drivers, NVIDIA, and the Athlon twins). They smooth her rough edges and load her up the fastest.

Unless they've improved on the sound emulation technologies behind the ePSXe, I can't recommend it for experiencing VS. The intended music and sound fx are as meticulous as the game itself.

veen · Posts: 131

I've been through VS, oh, 15 times. it sounds like a lot, but it begins to go by very quickly once you get powerful enough, and familar with the map. it can be completed in one speed session, no saving, if you know what you're doing, which is what Matsuno was talking about in that misleading quote about its brevity.

but! that's the NG+. the first (two) plays are the meat of the game, and where everyone gets frustrated.

the thing is, all those weapon affinities, elemental and enemy type, are of minimal importance. they help, and elemental affinity is certianly important for armor, but they are negligible compared to using the right blade type against the right body part. making one of each, edged blunt piercing, that is powerful, with the right grip, is the most important thing. pull each out and check for damage against each body part of a boss, and 99% of the time, there is a vulnerability. for the few enemies that are just bitches, like the gargoyles in the Limestone Quarry, you've got to be able to chain like a madman. same for the final boss, on a first play. stat buffs are also important, as well as debuffing enemies.

the one thing I don't like about the balance is that it's really not possible to use offensive magic on a first play. your intelligence is weak, and level 1 spells are useless.

my ashley, at this point, has every stat maxed out, except for MP. there are still quite a few titles missing, and I never went really crazy with getting the ultimate equipment. I usually just feel like playing through it every so often.... a lovely way to spend a sunday afternoon.

DeusFNL · Posts: 17

WarpZone · Posts: 396

ataru wrote:

Any tips on which kinds of weapons are best against which kinds of enemies?

The actual kinds of weapons (like axe, dagger, polearm) don't really favor any kind of enemy, beyond their inherent inability to have a certain kind of edge (like a crossbow can never be Edged). It's all personal preference, whatever kind you think is cool or whatever 'clicks' with you during battle. On my first playthrough, I stuck almost entirely with short swords and daggers, but this time I'm using a crossbow and wizard staff.

[edit: this next part I wrote while veen typed his post, so I'm being redundant, but posting it anyway]

As I said in the other topic, enemies are primarily weak (or strong) against a certain type of blade edge. While there are some general rules of thumb (ie: Piercing works well on the thick hide of Beasts), it ultimately comes down to a case by case basis. Blunt works great for breaking the brittle bones of Skeletons...but it isn't so good for fleshy zombies...even though both fall under the Undead category.

So it's purposely designed so that you won't always have the 'perfect' weapon inherently, and have to improvise a bit. This is where the affinities/elemental bonuses and gems come in. Using a piercing weapon against Skeletons will gradually make it stronger against them, even if it isn't the ideal combo. Similarly, even if you don't have a strong base Dragon weapon, you could slap on a few Dragonite gems to make up for the loss. There are just so many ways to tackle any problem.

I guess the "catch" is that the blade type is still the most important early on. I was misled by obsessing over insignificant affinity details early in the game. If a weapon's stats had 5 for beasts and 1 for phantoms, I assumed it was my "beast" weapon, and confused when it performed poorly. The thing is, on a scale where weapons can reach 100, a couple points isn't a big deal. This threw off my weapon planning for a while...and I was stuck right around the same place wourme described. As you get further in the game, those little bonuses start to get bigger and matter more.

Another thing I really like about this game is there isn't any "mindless" leveling-up. Sure, you could go back to old areas and build up a weapon, slash on some training dummies for a while, etc. But you never have to. By balancing your weapons and taking smart advantage of the tools at your disposal, you can fly. Apparently, the game is possible to complete in under 2-3 hours (without the new game + feature).

jiji wrote:

It's one of the most rewarding, beautiful, atmospheric, and literate games I've played, on any platform. My one complaint is that the unused R2 (or L2?) button could have been mapped to a quick weapon menu.

I definitely agree. I'm still trying to figure out just how the translation/script ended up so good, which is really one-of-a-kind. I can barely imagine it was initially in Japanese.

A quick weapon menu was my one complaint too. Well, other than the tasteless opening FMV sequence...

Panoptic · Posts: 291

You don't like Mullenkamp's dance?

PepsimanVsJoe · Posts: 105

I always watch the intro everytime I turn Vagrant Story on. For some reason the dancing woman(visible ass-crack hurray!), the weapons, and the dragon get me pumped for some serious action.

woman, weapon, dragon, action? Nevermind

Anyway the only time I spent with a training dummy was when I built a new club for the final boss. I transferred the old stats but figured an extra bunch of affinity couldn't hurt.

It's fun tinkering around with the blacksmith. I especially dig the great music that plays whenever you are in an armory. I could do without all of the memory card accessing though..but eh..

I also want to say that Vagrant Story has some of the best ingame cinemas on the Playstation 1 this side of Metal Gear Solid. Each of the scenes play out wonderfully and add to the rich atmosphere.

Also I forget where this was but I remember an FAQ pointing out a particular room in the game which seemed to take place in a cave but you could see the sky. I have to find this place again on this upcoming playthrough.

Intentionally Wrong · Posts: 673

wourme wrote:

I was very excited about Vagrant Story and pre-ordered it. I was impressed with just about every aspect of it, but gradually discovered that I was doing something wrong somehow. I had tried to specialize my weapons but they seemed perpetually ineffective. Plus, I never mastered the combos. After beating a boss that used up all of my healing items, I found myself in an outdoor area where I was to fight some humans. I found them absolutely impossible to beat, and so I set the game aside.

I'm pretty sure I know exactly where you're talking about. The thing is, there's so many variables that come into play for every single attack that on my first attempt at playing the game, I ran into the exact same problem. The humans were probably the ones who'd occasionally cast Herakles, I'm assuming? 'Cause that's where I stopped, my first time through.

Fortunately for you, I came back to the game, and took the time to learn the ins and outs.

The first thing to understand is that because there's so many variables, there are a variety of gameplay paradigms that can work--the one I'm presenting here is by no means the only effective approach; I doubt it's even the most effective. I just think it's effective enough for your purposes.

To begin with: there are six different kinds of monsters--humans, beasts, undead, phantoms, dragons, and evil. I find it simplest just to use a different weapon on each kind, although a clever player could pay attention to the way affinities shift and double-up with specific weapons like Jiji did. Don't bother with that, though. Just keep changing weapons (it's a pain, I know) each time the kind of monster you're fighting changes.

With six type-specific weapons, you'll find you've still got room for two extras. This allows you to pick up additional weapons and see if they're worthwhile before dissassembling them. The point is, keep your six best weapon, dissassemble the rest, and deposit the pieces in the storage chests you run into, until you get to a workshop.

Now. As soon as I started getting weapons that could hold gemstones, I went into a workshop and dissassembled everything, then combined as many weapon pieces as possible (always paying attention to the STR rating for the components and the result--don't combine if the resulting object has lower STR than the components), until I was left with the necessary ingredients for ONE AWESOME bludgeoning weapon, ONE AWESOME slashing weaopn, and ONE AWESOME piercing weapon, each of which had a grip that allowed the attaching of gemstones.

If you do that, you'll be able to (relatively) quickly configure the optimal weapon for any encounter, especially once you start using grips that can hold 2 and 3 gemstones simultaneously. Fighting a human boss, who's weak against fire attacks and piercing weapons? Grab your Needle of Unmaking (or whatever you're calling your poking weapon), attach a Djinn Ruby and Haeralis, and start stabbing.

The OTHER component of my strategy is efficient use of magic. If you're following my strategy, NEVER USE AN ATTACK SPELL. Since we're focusing exclusively on getting high-STR weapons, we probably won't have a weapon that really improves magical attacks enough for them to be worthwhile. Rather, you'll rarely use a spell outside of this list:

Heal
Prostasia
Herakles
Tarnish
Degenerate
Magic Ward
Silence
Clearance

and of course,

Unlock.

Prostasia, Herakles, Tarnish, and Degenerate are particularly important, as they stack: get Prostasia, Herakles, and Magic Ward on, then sock an Enemy with Tarnish, Degenerate, and Silence. Whack away!

WarpZone · Posts: 396

Panoptic wrote:

You don't like Mullenkamp's dance?

It's more the principle of the whole FMV, in relation to the game's tone, art direction, and coherency, that I don't like. It's not so much its content- although that's mostly pointless too. It feels tacked on for the sake of adding FMV to the game.

PepsimanVsJoe · Posts: 105

It is the only FMV in the entire game. It feels off putting but it certainly doesn't drag down the quality of the game. Wish I could remember some great games with absolutely atrocious FMVs...well besides 90% of the Saturn library.

veen · Posts: 131

WarpZone wrote:

Panoptic wrote:

You don't like Mullenkamp's dance?

It's more the principle of the whole FMV, in relation to the game's tone, art direction, and coherency, that I don't like. It's not so much its content- although that's mostly pointless too. It feels tacked on for the sake of adding FMV to the game.

I feel exactly the same way about this. it's just supremely annoying that the one thing in the game that the main team had nothing to do with, and would not exist had they been given 'final cut', is the first thing you see, and the only thing you see every time you boot up the game.

did Metal Gear Solid need a fucking FMV opening sequence showing snake brandishing his guns while Meryl writhed around in the background, like a bond girl? neither does Vagrant Story need such a thing.

BalbanesBeoulve · Posts: 2126

That would have been awesome. It's not like they didn't sexually exploit Meryl. Pantsless sit ups, anybody?

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

Or running after her into the ladies' room?

I'd definitely nominate VS as having the 2nd best cinemas on the PS1. Don't forget the "real" intro that you see by leaving the title screen alone for a bit.

"Reinforcements? I AM the reinforcements!"

jiji · Posts: 780

GcDiaz wrote:

I'd definitely nominate VS as having the 2nd best cinemas on the PS1. Don't forget the "real" intro that you see by leaving the title screen alone for a bit.

"Reinforcements? I AM the reinforcements!"

Second best? Hell, I'd nominate it as having the best. The word balloons might drag it down in the eyes of some, but the cinematics have more style and the 'actors' more personality and detail than in MGS (which I assume you'd nominate for first place?). Here's another big reason I'm waiting for FFXII.

FortNinety · Posts: 4591

The only reason why I'm even paying attention to Final Fantasy 12 is because of its ties, even though I suck at RPGs.

Case in point, I can't get past the first puzzle or something in Vagrant Story. It's sad...

Ataru · Posts: 295

veen wrote:

I've been through VS, oh, 15 times. it sounds like a lot, but it begins to go by very quickly once you get powerful enough, and familar with the map. it can be completed in one speed session, no saving, if you know what you're doing, which is what Matsuno was talking about in that misleading quote about its brevity.

see now, that's my favorite kind of game. I beat Silent Hill 2 four times within a few weeks of owning it, including a roughly 2 hour speed run.

This is my third or fourth attempt at playing VS, and I'm only an hour and a half into the game; I feel like I've only just gotten into the "real" game, having beaten the first boss that you can chain against, etc.

I love new game+ style games like chrono trigger...

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

FortNinety wrote:

The only reason why I'm even paying attention to Final Fantasy 12 is because of its ties, even though I suck at RPGs.

Case in point, I can't get past the first puzzle or something in Vagrant Story. It's sad...

What...ties...?

I'm still waiting for Vagrant Story 2: Electric Riskbreaker.

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

jiji wrote:

GcDiaz wrote:

I'd definitely nominate VS as having the 2nd best cinemas on the PS1. Don't forget the "real" intro that you see by leaving the title screen alone for a bit.

"Reinforcements? I AM the reinforcements!"

Second best? Hell, I'd nominate it as having the best. The word balloons might drag it down in the eyes of some, but the cinematics have more style and the 'actors' more personality and detail than in MGS (which I assume you'd nominate for first place?). Here's another big reason I'm waiting for FFXII.

I see what you mean, but nothing in VS compares to Sniper Wolf's death. Spoken voice makes a BIG difference.

Ataru · Posts: 295

GcDiaz wrote:

FortNinety wrote:

The only reason why I'm even paying attention to Final Fantasy 12 is because of its ties, even though I suck at RPGs.

Case in point, I can't get past the first puzzle or something in Vagrant Story. It's sad...

What...ties...?

I'm still waiting for Vagrant Story 2: Electric Riskbreaker.

FFXII's dev team includes major players from Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics development teams, and the soundtrack is by Hitoshi Sakimoto with only one track from the standard FF soundtrack guy. (Thank god!)

Last I checked, what little was known about the combat systems in FFXII seem to suggest that the team is boldly going where no FF has gone before, including seeing all enemies on the playing field before encountering them (ala chrono trigger), and the possibility of some kind of important real-time and/or tactics game elements.

again, thank god!

Anyone have a good link for a summary of what is most currently known about FF XII? Most of my information has to be about a year old now.

Is it still being described as unbelievably large? 2 full dvd's in size, with hundreds of hours of sidequests available?

I've never really bothered with sidequests in a FF game before, but if this game delivers on it's potential (which is to say, a massive hardcore RPG from the VS/FFT team and a mainstream FF sized budget), I could be playing this for years. I hope there is a New Game+ option, as I like to plow through FF games main plots as fast as possible on my first play through.

Ataru · Posts: 295

GcDiaz wrote:

jiji wrote:

Second best? Hell, I'd nominate it as having the best. The word balloons might drag it down in the eyes of some, but the cinematics have more style and the 'actors' more personality and detail than in MGS (which I assume you'd nominate for first place?). Here's another big reason I'm waiting for FFXII.

I see what you mean, but nothing in VS compares to Sniper Wolf's death. Spoken voice makes a BIG difference.

Sniper Wolf's death scene is possibly the best dramatic cutscene in any video game ever. At least of any in any game I've played.

IMHO, Vagrant Story's otherwise beautiful presentation/design suffers a lot from the exceptionally poor choice of font for the word balloons. It's tacky and comic sans-esque. If they had to use a tacky font, an Olde Englishy font would have been a much more understandable choice.

Do the PS2's options for how to play PS1 games affect this game much? Loading times or visually? I forget what the options are exactly, but does one do some kind of texture smoothing?

jiji · Posts: 780

Ataru wrote:

IMHO, Vagrant Story's otherwise beautiful presentation/design suffers a lot from the exceptionally poor choice of font for the word balloons. It's tacky and comic sans-esque.

I didn't think it was too bad - it contributed to a sort of animated-graphic-novel feel for the cutscenes.

LW Joestar · Posts: 1358

Ataru wrote:

with only one track from the standard FF soundtrack guy. (Thank god!)

HERETIC

Ataru · Posts: 295

LW Joestar wrote:

Ataru wrote:

with only one track from the standard FF soundtrack guy. (Thank god!)

HERETIC

his music hasn't been consistently good since FF VI.

VIII's music is largely painful.

I'm sure he can whip up a great track for FFXII, but Hitoshi Sakimoto's track record is way better (FFT, Radiant Silvergun, Vagrant Story, all amazing...even the much maligned Gradius V's has it's moments.)

PepsimanVsJoe · Posts: 105

Gradius V soundtrack...has it's moments? What?

Much maligned? ehi

Good thing I'm on smilie boycott or else I'd post a rolleyes. Gradius V has an excellent soundtrack..probably one of Sakimoto's best. Course I also dig his soundtrack for Soukygurentai. It gets old listening to classical all the time in a 2D shooter I think.

Talbain · Posts: 628

I didn't enjoy Vagrant Story. All I was thinking was "wow, a game that is so mind-bogglingly simple that a 3 year-old could beat it." That was also the time I realized I hated the PSX, and chucked it out the window like a frizbee, walked downstairs with my shotgun and blew a few more holes in it to make sure it was dead. Not only that, but did anyone else notice how all the characters look as though they had something crammed up their ass?

Ataru · Posts: 295

PepsimanVsJoe wrote:

Gradius V soundtrack...has it's moments? What?

Much maligned? ehi

Good thing I'm on smilie boycott or else I'd post a rolleyes. Gradius V has an excellent soundtrack..probably one of Sakimoto's best. Course I also dig his soundtrack for Soukygurentai. It gets old listening to classical all the time in a 2D shooter I think.

personally, I like the Gradius V soundtrack just fine; it's not as amazing as some of his other soundtracks. It is "much maligned" however, I encounter people bitching about it constantly.

the quiet, peaceful music in the organic fourth stage is my favorite, as it reflects how I play most of that stage perfectly. Very little movement.

inmatarian · Posts: 338

The first time I played VS through, I was totally lost on how to work it. It was a cool game and all, but it just went over my head. I lent it to a friend, and he sort of kept it for like 3 years. When I got it back, I noticed something that wasn't as apparent the first time through.

See, weapons have three screens worth of parameters for each weapon. Elements gains are pathetic, Damage Type is locked, and Enemy Type is the only thing that grows. I made the connection that if I just keep a good set of Enemy Type weapons, and try as hard as I can to keep the elements near zero, I wouldn't have a problem. As I picked up Gems, I learned how to quickly equip them when I got into a fight (after a pair of failed scans of the enemies) and suddenly I was a force to be reckoned with.

My realization is that you don't managed these screens of variables, you just mix and match them.

When I finally beat it, I realized what an awesome game it was, what with the story being so great and the combat system being so fine tuned. I haven't played it since though. I'd stat to realize how much it sucked if I try to play it again.

Intentionally Wrong · Posts: 673

GcDiaz wrote:

FortNinety wrote:

The only reason why I'm even paying attention to Final Fantasy 12 is because of its ties, even though I suck at RPGs.

Case in point, I can't get past the first puzzle or something in Vagrant Story. It's sad...

What...ties...?

I'm still waiting for Vagrant Story 2: Electric Riskbreaker.

Well. The ties are more spiritual than direct.

Matsuno's team is the one that did Final Fantasy Tactics. When they started working on a sequel, they went in a radically different direction, and Vagrant Story was the result. Final Fantasy XII is another "Connected, but we don't know how" game; it reinterprets the setting of Ivalice, the graphical methods used in Vagrant Story (i.e., low polycounts with high emphasis on quality textures) and evolves the mechanics of both games into a quasi-real-time affair like Baldur's Gate used. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was then whipped up as a refinement of FFT's system, set in Final Fantasy XII's world (with a real-world frame story thrown on for good measure).

That's as much attention as I've paid.

wourme · Posts: 101

Intentionally Wrong wrote:

Fortunately for you, I came back to the game, and took the time to learn the ins and outs.

Thanks for the tips. I printed your post and put it in my PS games folder for the day that I try Vagrant Story again. Which, I suppose, just became more likely to occur.

WarpZone · Posts: 396

Phoenix Rie · Posts: 111

WarpZone wrote:

I'm still trying to figure out just how the translation/script ended up so good, which is really one-of-a-kind. I can barely imagine it was initially in Japanese.

I'd say Alexander Smith's localization on that is the high water mark for that era, besting the Blaustein/Hards MGS script (since people are comparing the two).

Along with FFT, the only game I really don't tire of playing repeatedly.

Deets · Posts: 605

Ataru wrote:

the much maligned Gradius V's has it's moments

What the fuck Gradius V is maligned? By who?

Victor · Posts: 125

Gameplay discussion. Feh. Everything that's going to be said about this game as a game has already been said.

Vagrant Story is the highest visual acomplishment on this hardware (could go ahead and say the highest acomplishment, period, and I'm sure plenty would agree, won't do that, but, okay) Not so much from a technological standpoint, though, I mean, if that point was where I happened to be standing- the same general conclusion would be made. Cinemetography, character design, what have you. This game, as a work, as the effort of people who obviously give more than a single-shit is nothing other than completely worthwhile. To have made, to have played.

You know, I've selected New Game on that there option menu 5 times. So, Vagrant Story and I, like most people that decide to give this game a worthwhile portion of their concentration for a time, we have a little relationship.

Every thing I saw of/read about this game before release led me to believe it would be The Best Game Fucking Ever. I pirated the living shit out of the wackynese release of this game over the internets, like crazy, booted it up, watched the intro sequence. Scenes of Butts McCrazyhair sneaking in, with the Star Wars wipes into the credit screens. Was all rather spellbinding, I can't get enough of this kind of shit. I tinkered around with the gameplay, determined only to stay a little while - as to not spoil myself for the American release. But what I did play, I surely liked. US release came around, and nothing had changed. An RPG I actually get to play - where I have some direct input over what is happening, not just relegated to "strategic" conejecture and menu musing - but that's not really it. A game so very mature, not in the way we tend to think about that word, but as an example of what a videogame could be. This was as far as you could go as a group of Japanese rpg developers working on a 32bit console in the year 2000.

You know I read that, what I just typed, and I read everything written about the game since it's release. Listen to everyone who's ever spoken of the game in my presence, and I'm still convinced it should be The Best Game Ever. I'm sitting here thinking about it, "Fuck, Vagrant Story rules so Goddamn hard."

Thinking about all of those things. Thinking about why I've never, perhaps never will, finished Vagrant Story.

Also you clods are doucheclods. That is a fine font design.

dessgeega · Posts: 3317

Deets wrote:

Ataru wrote:

the much maligned Gradius V's has it's moments

What the fuck Gradius V is maligned? By who?

i'll malign it right now, if you want.

gradius gaiden > gradius v

that wasn't really true maligning. it's true, though.

Ataru · Posts: 295

we were talking specifically about Gradius V's soundtrack...

but Gradius Gaiden is quite nice, yes.

Ataru · Posts: 295

so, an update on my progress:

My save file says Map: 09%

I kicked a pair of polearm wielding lizards' assses.

I have taken to going into first person view and looking around almost every room at least once. Thanks to this I found the room that inexplicably has the roof open to the sky. It looks somewhat intentional.

The game is one hell of a dungeon crawl at this point. My chaining skill is ok, I like that each combat skill has a different timing (some easier than others) and as such I lean on certain ones more than others. The healing one is my favorite, I generally alternate it with heavy shot, and thus never need to use healing items except during difficult fights.

I now have a bunch of weapons, but I use the raipier almost exclusively. It kills zombies, bats and wolves with relative ease, and I just practice chains against skelotons. I hope I haven't reached the point in the game where I can build weapons and just haven't noticed.

Tried the game with texture smoothing and fast loading turned on. Fast loading was nice I guess, but I hadn't bitched about load times before, so it's almost impercievable. Texture smoothing is nice too, but it's a trade off in detail/crispness. I'm on the fence about it.

I wish I owned the strategy guide for this game.

I've gotten to a point in the game where there are a series of long-ish wide rooms with columns, each room having four doors or so; at one end there is a cave with a big river.

I stumbled into a room that destroyed me. Sadly I think I hadn't saved in 20 minutes or so, which isn't so bad but I had just made a lot of discoveries and mapped out a lot of space in a short period of time just before dying.

There was a ghost, a golden ooze and at least one zombie swordsman. I tried fighting the zombie swordsman... nothing worked. Most of my weapons had a 20% hit chance for 0 points of damage. My best weapon did 20 points of damage and had a 40% hit chance against his head. After fighting against him for a long time (and having to heal a few times) I decided to attempt to leave, but the ooze attacked me, and it also had very good defense against all of my weapons. I died.

Is this room something I'm not supposed to be messing with just yet, or have I already totally effed up my weapons?

Or am I supposed to be using defense arts in here, using the damage reflect power? Seems very dicey. My timing on the defense side is very bad right now.

are there any power ups that make the reaction window larger? some of the timings are extremely tight.

jiji · Posts: 780

Ataru wrote:

There was a ghost, a golden ooze and at least one zombie swordsman. I tried fighting the zombie swordsman... nothing worked. Most of my weapons had a 20% hit chance for 0 points of damage. My best weapon did 20 points of damage and had a 40% hit chance against his head. After fighting against him for a long time (and having to heal a few times) I decided to attempt to leave, but the ooze attacked me, and it also had very good defense against all of my weapons. I died.

Is this room something I'm not supposed to be messing with just yet, or have I already totally effed up my weapons?

Every so often, the game will put you through a small test to evaluate how well you've been managing your weapons so far. This sounds like one of those times.

You should check the damage type/affinity indicators (found at the bottom of the screen when you're selecting a body part to hit, and also in the status screen) for each body part of the zombie and ooze, to see what damage type, affinity, and element each body part has Then then check your weapons to see what matches up the best. It sounds like your best weapon's Undead affinity is at a somewhat decent level, and its damage type probably matches the type for the zombie's head. So take that weapon and hit zombies exclusively in the head, with one hit at a time. If you can't kill the zombie right away, keep whacking at him until you get a few affinity bonuses. You should notice a sharp difference in your hit% rate as the weapon's Undead affinity passes a certain point.

Don't chain at all - you need all the hit% you can get, and more initial hits will get you more affinity bonuses. Try to restrict your use of that weapon to Undead enemies and Evil enemies (though you won't see many of those for a while). Using it to attack enemy types that are not those two will lower its stats in those areas over time, as it becomes stronger with other affinities.

Ataru · Posts: 295

oh man, in that case, this game needs a quick weapon change button. sheesh.

I also need more time to play it, I can't play until saturday night, if even then.

WarpZone · Posts: 396

Ataru wrote:

I hope I haven't reached the point in the game where I can build weapons and just haven't noticed.

The first workshop is accessed off the last room in the Catacombs- the one that opens to the sky above. When inside a workshop, you can then use the 'setup' option on the equip screen. I believe you can only combine wood/leather things at that one, but it might help you out in the Sanctum. There's a better workshop coming up a bit later.

Also I think a side room in the Catacombs has the Soul Kiss dagger in a chest. It comes with a fair few affinity points against the undead, so that might be a decent one to keep building up.