I haven't played the game in a
loooooonnnngggg time, so I don't know if my opinions on this will make a whole lot of sense... but, whatever.

I always thought Vagrant Story was
meant to be the first part of a series. My main (well, only) reason for thinking is this is that, as I recall, there were a few mentions of a Cardinal, in the game; the man behind Guildenstern who sent him to Lea Monde to procure either the Dark itself, or the Gran Grimoire or... something, I don't remember, lol. Anyway, my point is, I thought the Cardinal was meant to be the main villain of the sequel(s). Sort of making Guildenstern a Darth Vader-like figure, with the Cardinal being his Emperor (because... the Emperor didn't show up until Empire...).

Or I could just be entirely wrong, I dunno.
-Surtur doesn't remember Vagrant Story that well anymore, he needs to play through it again.