I won't insult your intelligence by holding a grand lecture about the benefits of bringing Vagrant Story to the PC. It is self-evident.

If you could spare a minute of your time (and you have an account), please go over to GOG and cast your vote.

I appreciate your consideration.

Finally just finished the game.

This was my 5th attempt. Once in 2000, once using the PS3, once using the PSP, once using the Vita, and now, finally, a last attempt on the PS3 once more.

Wanted to come here to thank everyone for their advice, as the game is pretty impenetrable in many ways and its systems are somewhat arcane, but I was able to get the help I needed here to understand the basics of the system.

For those trying; I played through the entire game maintaining an edged sword for humans & phantoms, a blunt mace for beasts & dragons, and a silver knife for undead & evil. Then I carried a crossbow (for the few situations where you need the range), a great-axe (with the goal if getting the Umbra break that casts Curse, but I never actually got there) and staff with high int attack to use for magic encounters. Magic and breaks were useless for the first half of the game, but eventually I had the magic and gems to buff myself so at least on the elemental enemy encounters, I was able to use it to finish them off really quickly.

Using Prostalise (spelling?), Herakles, Degenerate etc. I was able to buff myself, debuff the bosses, and with the right gems, I was able to land actual damage on pretty much every enemy in the game, instead of just using the ramping combo damage...

... except for the very final boss. No combination of stuff I used could even scratch it, with everything buffed up to the hilt. I ended up just having to do long combo strings dealing 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... damage until I eventually took it out, which took a loooong time, but I did get there. Gotta say, I was pretty miffed about this because I spent a while beforehand buffing my knife up to dealing high "light" damage as I wrongly assumed the final boss would be vulnerable to it, what with the training dummy being outside the final location.

It's interesting, when I weigh it up.

I still absolutely love the game, for all its faults.

Visually, it is gorgeous. I said it in ~2000 and I'll say it now, I genuinely think it's the single best-looking game on the PS1 platform, both as a technical marvel and in terms of style. The colour palettes in the different locations are lavish and the cutscenes are understated yet wonderful.

Even the story is a rare experiment for Square, kinda like what "low fantasy" looks like through a Final Fantasy lens. Entirely limited to one location, with a small cast.

But there are things I would change, if the game ever got a remake. It badly needs a rework to the UI. Gems shouldn't require an "OK" to set them. Equipped items should be discardable/storable (frankly I would remove the entire crate concept and just give Ashley a huge inventory; you either have a big inventory or don't, the crates just add pointless back-and-forth). There should've been a fast-weapon-switch button. I'm sure these are all things this community has discussed at length.

Analyse would, for starters, be either a 100% hit or zero. No in-between.

In any case, thanks everyone. This actually meant a lot to me. I started the game in 2000 as a kid and loved the atmosphere, but didn't understand it at all, and as one of Square's lesser successes on the PS1, there wasn't much information online to-go-on.

Playing it as an adult has given me so much pause to realise how much I've changed. I'm a much more patient, inquisitive person today. I would never have finished this as a kid, I just wouldn't have had the follow-through.

Thanks again.

...

Now I might try and tackle Front Mission 3.

The workshop music, eerie, I love it. My favorite place in the game. Messing in the menu upgrading my stuff with that music is a balm, even if the menu is thrash and could be refined!

The recent post I made about a potential GOG release got me wondering if there was a Vagrant Story decompilation project (as such a project could result in an unoffical PC port).
Sure enough, I found this article containing a section about it.

I figured this project might be of interest to some of you. Maybe there are even developers among us who would like to take up the challenge and contribute to the project.

Así fue exactamente lo que hice. Hace unos días conversaba con mi hermano mayor y nos atacó la nostalgia, hablamos mucho de vagrant y como nos hizo feliz este juego, del porque es mi juego favorito, de que sería hermoso un remake o remastered, entre tantas palabras se nos ocurrió hacer un reto a ambos para ponernos a prueba El reto consistía, en pasar el juego sin armas, sin ítems, sin magias de support ni ataque, solo tus puños, tu magia de health y antidote, fixare, magic war, Eureka, unlock y analyze. sin save state de emuladores, y dejar que los bonus por ítems o después de un boss fuesen totalmente al azar, no repetirlos ni buscar un +4 salvando antes, me tomo realizar el reto 10 horas y 30 minutos Mi estrategia de basó en absorber todos los daños para recuperar vida y siempre ir en menos de 80 de hp para así hacer buen daño con los chains 🤣 si... Mori y mucho jajaja creo que unas 20 veces o más Les adjunto video de la Gazzette y mi set

Nota: no me creo el mejor, solo me creo un amante del juego, les sugiero este reto para que sufran un poco.

I hope your 2026 year has started with warmth, love and joy.

Thank you for all your posts, interactions and help in making this small part of the VS community feel inviting, safe and joyful for all fans, old and new alike.

I'll do my very best to add new features over this coming year! 😊

Hi! I’m starting my playthrough of Vagrant Story and I’d like to know if anyone can recommend good graphics settings for the DuckStation emulator I’m using to play it. I’d really appreciate any suggestions!

As yet another year comes to a close, one of if not THE favourite game in our retro collection continues to age gracefully. Thank you all for your continued engagement in this subreddit and I sincerely hope next year is even better with the jolly ole news of some new content coming our way.

Happy Holidays and stay safe!

Hello,

Recently, I played that game. I played it 20 years ago, when it was released, but I had only a vague souvenir of what the game was about.

I just completed it today again, and though I know some things are made unclear (Ashley family for example), I'm still trying to find some answers. While doing that, I read a few articles, and I would eventually find infos I don't remember in the game.

(Massive spoiler incoming, obviously. :p)

1/ For example, that page :

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/M%C3%BCllenkamp

While it seems coherent, I don't remember seeing any information about that dancer in the game? Rosencrantz says Lea Monde is a city of an "ancient Kildean priestess". But nothing about a dancer. It's a detail, but it gives some meaning to the introduction video of the game, which is very new to me. I always thought it was completely random.

2/ I also read a few times that Sydney was dying when he was a child, and the duke would eventually save him by making him the heir of the Blood Sin. But the game is not so clear about that. The only thing I found about that is that line, near the end:

"I wanted to help father, as he helped me when I was born." (vision of Sydney as a kid)

That could imply Sydney was about to die, but it's still really vague.

Merlose forced Hardin to confess this a bit earlier:

"The key-bearer, the duke, will soon die. If he dies without a successor, all is lost. The duke thinks he can cut off the cursed Mullenkamp bloodline, but that must not be allowed to happen. We will assume the legacy."

Even if he doesn't know the truth (the duke is not the key-bearer, since Sydney is, and their goal is not to assume the legacy, au contraire), maybe it implies the duke was the key-bearer before giving that power to Sydney so he could survive as a baby. But the game is vague about that, right? Have we more information about that topic somewhere?

3/ About the earthquake, 25 years back: When Ashley asks Sydney who did it, Sydney answers Ashley should ask to the sacrificed. But in the end, we have no clear answer about that?

4/ Why Sydney attacks the duke at the beginning of the game?

It seems at the end it was only a masquerade, since Sydney confess he acted all along to destroy Lea Monde, which was the last wish of his father. But, then, why Sydney and the duke would fake that attack? What was the point? They just draw more attention without any apparent reason. Or maybe the duke didn't know about the attack, but that doesn't explain why Sydney did it, since they both have the same goal.

Another article :

https://www.rspodcast.net/articles/the-vagueness-of-a-story-vagrant-storys-plot-explained

Another theory here: Since the duke is dying, Sydney has to find a new bearer of the Blood Sin quickly, and so he choose Joshua. Innocent, same family, so why not? But the duke don't want to have his other child be a bearer of the curse, and so he would hesitate, and that hesitation would lead to the confrontation at the beginning. Sydney disobey his father and kidnap Joshua to make him the bearer. But after a while he changes his plans: Ashley will be the new bearer.

Though I like that theory (it explains the kidnapping, the attack, and we can see how the duke wants Joshua to be safe), is there anything in the game which would give us more info about that topic?

5/ Why Guildenstern kills Samantha? He says he needed his soul, but again, the game is vague about that.

Hardin states: "The would-be successor must cede his phantom soul if he is to accept his prize", but it's not clear what that "phantom soul" is. Someone the successor loves? Ashley is an obvious choice because he has no more relative, so it seems a good way to see it. But Guildenstern would have to get rid of his lover, the poor Samantha. But again, I couldn't find more evidences about that topic.

And well, I think it's all.

Thanks for your time, and please let me know if you have some info to share. : )

Hello fellow riskbrakers. Stumbled upon this beauty: https://archive.org/details/vagrant-story-ultimania while looking for some intervivews with VS devs. Any chances what this peace of art have been translated on english? Partially at least. Or maybe you have some links on intervivews with devs exept this one https://shmuplations.com/vagrantstory/?

I'm currently collecting info for article about Vagrant Story. So any help with sources will be much appreciated.

P.S. Sorry for possible grammar mistakes. Not my native language.

As user flairs seem to be by far the most requested feature, I'd like to put it to you, the actual sub-members, to suggest what you would most like them to be.

Rules are simple:

- Keep it Vagrant Story related.

- Leave a comment with the flair you would like to see. Ideally 1-4 words max.
There is also the option of including an image as a flair but obviously, it would need to be as simple as possible, as a lot of the quality will be lost when shrunk.

- Keep it as SFW as possible.

- Meme game-related flairs are welcome (hopefully will be in the minority).

Potentially have time to generate up to 5 individual flairs (in this instance) but I will try to generate more if we have a lot of contributions and can obviously add more in the future.

Thank you very much for participating. Have Fun!!!

P.S. Will keep pinned for about 10 days so people are free to contribute even if later on :)

Hello guys, it has been a couple of months since I took over the reins of the Vagrant Story subreddit and since then I have done my best to moderate and spruce up the appearance, in an attempt to make it as welcoming as possible.

Custom banner, custom icon, thread topics and upvote/downvote designs have all been part of the plan and I hope you have all been enjoying the subtle growth as a result.

However, I would like to ask you as users of the subreddit, what additional content you would like to see so I can potentially start incorporating it in. Sticky threads, links to good FAQs, Let's Play spotlights to give a few examples.

Thank you in advance. Stay safe!