Finally beat the game!

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May 2012

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		HOLIDAYS
May 28 - Memorial Day

Guardian Angels
Kia Purity's Site
Surtur's Fuge of the Damned
Malachit Room
The Nisan Sanctuary

[Emperor Cain]

Finally beat the game last night for the first time, despite having had it since Christmas  :bored: Having to start the game all over again at one point certainly didn't help, although 6 months to beat a 20 hr game sure doesn't look good when you consider it only took me a little over 2 to beat the 60 hr Xenogears @_@

Found the final boss quite easy, although extremely frustrating.  Since I couldn't hit him until he came up to attack me, it took me well over an hour to beat him (and since my weapons were so mediocre I did it all with a measely axe that dealt on average 5 points of damage a hit ).

Story was quite a surprise.  Found it very good.  Certainly not to the level of Xenogears, but much better than I expected.  Quite an ambigous ending too, although I do think I have to replay it atleast once to get the full jist of the storyline (can certainly say that about XG).

Well, thats about it.  Glad to finally be able to contribute to VS discussions here, although I'm sure I'm quite late and most of the possible topics have been discussed to death by now. :p

[Bobbin Cranbud]

I don't know what it is, but for some reason it took me forever to get into Vagrant Story.  Long dungeons, probably.

As for the story, well, there wasn't enough of it, but it didn't have nearly as many plot holes as Xenogears, so it all evens out in the end     Certainly I had a lot more actual surprises in VS.

[TheContact]

VS and Xenogears are very different story-wise.  Xenogears tries to tell an epic story with lots of characters and overarching themes.

VS tells a story about a few characters, their interactions and circumstances.  I personally liked VS's story more than Xenogears just because Xenogears (imo) bit off way more than it could chew.  Being that ambitious killed the power of it in the end.

VS just was a lot tighter.  It answers what needs to be answered without trying to explain the whole universe away.

[Sophia]

The first time I played through VS I absolutely hated it for the first 30 hours.  I just didn't "get" it.  I didn't understand the affinities.  I didn't know how to forge decent weapons.  The game seemed dark and dreary since I was used to traditional RPGs with multiple chatacter parties and a world map.  Anyway, I've always finished every game I've ever started and I didn't want this game to beat me, so I slogged away at it for what seemed like weeks...30 hours to achieve 40% of the map!  

Well, suddenly something clicked and...it got good.  It got real good!  The story started showing what it was made of, Ashley was actually doing some damage, and it grabbed my interest.  Final boss was a bear, but I beat him.  Started the replay but got bored right around The Withered Spring...

Fast forward one year...I started up my replay game and found my chain abilities were shot, so I just started a new game.  What a difference!  I'm really enjoying it now.  I'm on my fourth replay with some major weapons.  Got Ashley so that he can kill most things with his bare hands...

Anyway, I'm going for the 10 hour game title with this replay.  Not going for all the chests or anything, just a straight run through.  For hating this game as much as I did at first...it's one of my most recommended games now. *thumbs up*

[TheContact]

This game is a bit like FFT... it takes a bit to really understand how things work, but if you figure it out, it's fantastic.

Huge learning curve, but that's because there's a LOT you can do, and no one set way of going through the game.  And that much isn't really explained to you too well.

But if you do get into understanding the gameplay, you understand why it, like FFT, is a lot about strategy and pre-planning.  Plus, it has actual action

It's not trying to be Xenogears, it's focused much more on characters than a some sort of epic story.

[Akirhol]

Heh heh Cain, you may have completed the first time through, but you haven't beaten it yet... still dungeons that you haven't scratched, places that can only be visited in the 2nd+ game... I won't say the reason why for sake of the few ppl still out there that are enjoying the game first time through...
I remember it took me 80+ hours to beat it first time through, tho I spent alot of time getting shtuff... I got up to my 8th or 9th game [can't remember exactly] before I shipped off to US Air Force Basic Training... I'm dieing to get my VS discs and card up here so I can start playing again  
It can get a bit mundane to most up there tho, at the point of killing every enemy and most bosses in one hit, 100% chance to hit... heck, the final boss, 2nd form took one hit if I used a the Hex breakart with my Hand of Light...

[Akirhol]

Geez, didn't realize this poast was so old....

[Surtur]

I remember it took me 80+ hours to beat it first time through

80 HOURS!?!  What in god's name were you doing?  Like, using the controller with your feet and playing with your eyes closed?  80 hours!  HOW!?

-Surtur beat the game, his first time through, in under 30.

[TheContact]

I don't know either.  I spent 40 hours my first time through, and I was really very buff and had a ton of stuff.

[A.C]

i've yet to beat it. maybe i should start from the beginning again... i liked the parts with actual story but the dungeon crawling wasn't my cup of tea... and why does the save take up 3 slots on the memory card?

[TheContact]

3 blocks on a PS1 savecard is not very much data.  A playstation memory card consists of 128 kilobytes divided into 16 blocks.  Since Vagrant Story takes up 3 blocks of data, you know it's only storing 32 kilobytes of information.  What's in this information?  All your stats and equipment, as well as your position in the game and game statistics (including the stuff you've stored away that you're not carrying).  Since the size of the save has to be able to account for the maximum amount of stuff you can have (that is, the maximum amount of information you need to store about a particular save), it's rather easy to see why it takes 32K of space.

If you have a DexDrive, I'm more than willing to share my save, which will allow you to go through the game in roughly 3-4 hours, with no challenge.  Let's you see the story without having to really "play" the game.

[A.C]

the game is challenging. starting from the point i last saved i die before i even know where the hell i am... and i've totally forgotten the story... and how to play... but i think i'll try again from the beginning.

i don't have a DexDrive, what is it?

[TheContact]

DexDrives allow you to backup and restore saves from your PC, which is very convenient if you don't want to buy a lot of memory cards to keep your saves

[A.C]

so it's something you plug in from the PSX memory card slot to your PC?

any good tips of what i should think about while playing through the game so i don't get too much problem during bosses and difficult enemies? i know about the chain commands. is that the most important thing to get through the game? how important are the workshops? so far i haven't done anything in them...

[TheContact]

The most important part of the game *is* the workshops.  That's where all the magic is.  Long chains aren't that useful, since the increase in your Risk level leaves you vulnerable.  Build weapons for different situations.  I usually had a good sword for an edged weapon, a cross-bow for a ranged/pointy weapon, and a mace for blunt attacks.

If you don't use the workshops, you'll get owned in no time.  They never really made this point clear, but seriously, that's where a lot of the game play is - building your own equipment to deal with things.  If you don't use the workshop (like most people who tried the game and dropped it), you'll have a really really really hard time with the game.

And no, the DexDrive basically is a device that hooks into your serial port, and you can plug your PSX cards into it to transfer saves to your PC.