Vagrant Story (Again, But I’m Good At It Now) — Phil Hornshaw, Editor
When I first played Vagrant Story some 20 years ago, I really enjoyed it–but it was also a slog. The game is full of dense combat systems that aren’t explained well, even by its in-game manual. Every enemy has a stack of stats and affinities, and for a long time, I never managed to figure the system out well enough to use it as the developers intended. Bring the wrong weapon to a fight, and you’ll find yourself dishing out tiny 1 HP hits against massive enemies.
Luckily, you can chain additional hits together in combat with timed button presses, so I’ve been able to brute-force my way through Vagrant Story in the past. It’s incredibly difficult to beat the game’s toughest bosses 1 HP at a time, chaining together 10 or 20 hits to knock off a sliver of health. But I’ve done it. On my new playthrough, I was determined to finally really understand how Vagrant Story’s combat works (thanks, online guides from 10 years ago and my friend Zack)–and damn, this game is way better when you know how to play it correctly.
It turns out, Vagrant Story’s weapon system is kind of excellent once you understand its idiosyncrasies. Finally figuring out which menu can show you enemy vulnerabilities turns you into a freakin’ killing machine. In a lot of ways, Vagrant Story feels like a proto-Dark Souls, requiring a bunch of tactical thinking and attention to your equipment for every fight you enter. But once you’ve got the right tool for the job, combat becomes a rhythm game-like dance, where you can wallop an enemy with slash after slash before they can even draw against you.
It’s been 20 years, and I’m finally feeling like a proper Riskbreaker. I’m looking forward to bringing down Guildenstern in a final boss fight that, for once, won’t take me three hours. | Twitter:@philhornshaw