Vagrant Story

Vagrant Story is a 2000 role-playing game for the PlayStation developed by Square Enix.

You play as Ashley Riot, a young assassin and spy for the organization known as Riskbreakers. The manor of Duke Bardorba of Valendia Kingdom had been seized by a cult of religious zealots led by Sydney Losstarot. Ashley is sent out to break the cultists' hold on the manor. As the game progresses you learn more about Ashley's mysterious past and venture deeper into the the cult's true ambition.

The battle system enables the player to target specific body parts of the enemy, Targeting specific areas can render certain parts of the enemy's body useless. The game's battle system also makes use of things such as Risk Points, Battle Abilities, Character Class, and Character Affinities. Risk Points (RP) are a measure of Ashley's combat abilities. The Risk increases as he battles and makes him less effective. Certain attacks increase RP faster such as chain attacks and defense abilities. Well-timed chain attacks can restore magic or even life. Well timed defense abilities allow you to restore half of the damage you just took or reflect it back at the enemy. Another skill you can learn is Break arts. This allows Ashley to sacrifice some of his life meter to inflict damage upon an enemy. Magic is also a factor in this game and falls into four categories, such as attack, healing, and status magic. Some spells let you position a sphere of attack so you can attack attack multiple enemies or multiple body parts on the same enemy. A major factor in determining the effectiveness of your attacks against enemies are their class and affinity. Certain weapons that you have may not work against certain classes or affinity. You can combine different weapons together to make new ones with completely different characteristics that could be stronger or weaker than your previous weapons.

1. Publisher: Square
2. Developer: Square Enix
3. Platform: PlayStation
4. Genre: Role-playing
5. Modes: Single-player
6. Special Note: Director Yasumi Matsuno was also the director behind critically acclaimed RPG classics Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Battle
7. ESRB Rating: (T) Teen
8. Release Date: May 15, 2000

• 1up.com: Square Enix Interview