You're going to want to kill me.

Vagrant Story was one of my first PSone games. Now, normally, it doesn't matter if I like a game or not, I have it forever. Vagrant Story is one of the few games that I am happy to say I no longer own. I have no idea why people like that game and I was absolutely shocked when I heard that Famitsu gave it a perfect score.

I will admit that I didn't get incredibly far in the game. However, as far as I'm concerned, if the game doesn't hook me in the beginning then I have no interest in getting to the end. As a result, I really can't comment on how well the story was developed. All I remember is that the guy's name is Ashley and I think he had a wife and kid that died.

The game does deserve credit for a neat idea. The concept of attacking different parts of the enemies body (the game has you pick where to hit: arm, leg, torso, head, etc.) for different effects is rather nifty. However, I think the entire battle system was terribly executed.

The game is in real time, but the battle system isn't real time. It's not even turn based. I'm not really sure what you call it. They give you a little sphere that you turn on and off. You can only attack enemies that are in your sphere (which is more your less your attack range). Now, lots of games have attack ranges (good and bad; Quest 64 comes to mind - another game I hate). I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is how the entire game freezes whenever I open the sphere. Then I have to select a body part to take a stab at. Then Ashley hits them and the sphere closes. Now I have to quickly open the sphere again to pick another body part to hit. When you are fighting more than one pathetic enemy (pathetic implying that it dies in one hit) you are essentially playing the game in stop-n-go motion. I did not find that appealing, and my brother didn't either for that matter (the game was actually his, so he ultimately made the decision to get rid of it).

One positive thing did come out of us buying Vagrant Story. It came with a demo disk. On that disk was a demo for a nifty RPG called Threads of Fate. I absolutely loved that game. I couldn't tell you how many times I beat the demo. I have yet to actually buy a copy of it, but I intend to someday.