Vagrant Story just reeks of quality; everything from the incredibly serious art and character designs, to the unique battle and weapon building systems, to the beautiful realtime 3D environments and cutscenes, are just about perfect. The visuals are among the very best I've seen on the system so far, even outclassing Metal Gear Solid. Nice smooth framerate, impressive use of lighting, motion blur, particle effects, and surprisingly clean and detailed textures. I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that there are not many PC, Dreamcast or PS2 games that are put together as well as Vagrant Story.

VS's story, believe it or not, keeps up with the intense visuals quite well. The plot is as follows;
The gargantuan city of evil, Lea Monde. Said to have been built in ancient times by the legendary wizard Mullenkamp, it was once a splendor to behold, but has become a forgotten wasteland since the earthquake that struck 25 years ago. Now a battle was about to break out for supremacy over the legacy that lay there.

The main character, Ashley Riot, is a Riskbreaker, a top-notch agent of the Valendia Knights of the Peace. In search of Sydney Losstarot, the main instigator behind the occupation of Duke Bardorba's manor, he penetrated into the ancient city of Lea Monde.

What he saw, though, was monsters and zombies, which should only have existed in tales, and the power of magic.

Ashley started to realize that in pursuing Sydney he was getting intertwined in a power struggle. The Mullenkamp cult, the Council, and even the VKP all had their own designs for the evil city.

All of the story scenes are played out in detailed realtime cinemas (a la Metal Gear Solid), with some really impressive camera work, animation and effects. Gameplay segments segue into cinemas, natuarally, and absolutely seamlessly.

The gameplay revolves around the tried and true Action RPG principle of solving puzzles and fighting (pseudo) realtime battles. The puzzle elements, which consist of moving or pushing blocks, and jumping, will be familiar to anyone who has played any of the classic Action RPGs such as Solstice (NES), Equinox (SNES), and Land Stalker (Genesis). None of the puzzles really get out of hand, and they definitely seem to take a back seat to the innovative battle system and exploration elements.

Battles take place in realtime, at least technically. When confronting an enemy or enemies and after drawing a weapon, the Targeting Sphere can be opened at which point the game pauses while you make a decision. If any body part of an enemy is within the sphere, it can be physically attacked. Attacking different parts of an enemy will yield different results, so it is usually advisable to move in close to allow for as many targets as possible. Assuming Ashley, your character, is experienced enough (and you are coordinated enough), it is possible to link together various special attacks in a nearly infinite fashion. Linking together attacks require split second timing on your button presses, and depending on the weapon and said attack, the timing changes. If you mess up the timing, prepare to either attack again immediately, or defend, because the enemies (weaker ones included) don't cut you much slack. This is no button mashing affair, as battles definitely require much concentration. Spells, item usage and defensive moves are all handled in a similar fashion, though without the ability to link them together.

The one feature in Vagrant Story, which I feel is both a blessing and a curse, is the deep equipment inventory system. Basically, in order to equip and configure yourself properly, it is neccessary that a good chunk of your gameplay time is spent in the various inventory screens. Vagrant Story becomes really difficult, really quickly if Ashley is not set up with the proper weapons, armor, special attacks, and items. There are times where you equip what you think is an extremely powerful weapon, only to end up hacking away at some weak enemy for 2 minutes. So many variables come into play when selecting what to attack with and what to defend with, that it often becomes somewhat of a guessing game.

There are no shops (or actual towns) in Vagrant Story. New weapons, armor and items are either found in chests, or left behind by defeated enemies. Occasionally, you will come across a powerful weapon or piece of armor, but usually the only way to obtain the really powerful equipment is to create them by "combining" weapons and/or armor pieces, and assembling them in the workshops. Once that skill is learned, it definitely makes life a bit easier, assuming of course you figure out when to actually utilize what you create. The whole system gives you a lot of room for customization and experimentation, but there is no doubt that you will be left scratching your head more than once.

Besides the sometimes crazy amount of time spent in inventory management, and the distinct lack of non-player characters to interact with and real towns, Vagrant Story is a Top Notch, Grade A, Action RPG. Everything from the graphical presentation, to the gameplay, to the soundtrack is just about perfect, and needless to say, the game comes highly recommended.