Vagrant story how many hours

The game takes place in the New Valendian Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy divided heavily by a recent civil war. The game takes place in the world of Ivalice , but well after Final Fantasy Tactics. Magic and monsters have largely disappeared from the land. Now internal political rivalries between the Priesthood of St. The Duke himself was not at his home during the attack. In a meeting at A.

Ashley meets her at A. Upon seeing an assault by the Crimson Blades, one which was not cleared by the VKP, Ashley decides that the attack is a perfect distraction for him to infiltrate the manor. At A. However, he is revealed by a falling block of wood, and is forced to kill both of them to move on. Ashley infiltrates the manor; after overhearing a conversation between Sydney and his second-in-command, the doubtful John Hardin , Ashley moves to capture the enemy leader.

Pointing a bowgun at a lone Sydney, Riot threatens to fire if he does not cooperate. Instead of following commands, Sydney moves for his sword. Firing straight into Sydney's heart, Ashley believes to have killed his foe. Hardin distracts Ashley by running into the room with a young boy in his arms. Ashley witnesses the vaunted powers of Sydney first hand: [19] while he is looking away, a still-living Sydney knocks Ashley to the ground, pulls the crossbow bolt out of his chest, taunts Ashley, and summons a bloodied wyvern away from its battle with the Crimson Blades; [20] it comes crashing through the stained-glass ceiling, studded with the crossbow bolts of its enemies.

Sydney escapes with his accomplice Hardin and the Duke's son Joshua, leaving Ashley with a clue to his whereabouts. M, Duke Bardorba hears of the events in his secondary residence in the Graylands. Upon this, he orders his men to burn down his home while pretending to be Blades to hide evidence of Sydney's magical powers. In this act, he is killing his family, to the shock of the Duke's courtiers. After an earthquake, all overland routes to the town were blocked off, and the whirlpools make entering by sea also impossible.

The only way in is the old Wine Cellar. But as he walks in, Sydney appears behind a defenseless Callo Merlose. Ashley, not knowing his partner is in danger, continues forward on his mission while further earthquakes make the passage unstable.

While moving through the dark dungeon, Ashley follows two Crimson Blades who have fallen behind the rest of their group. They speak of the floating platforms known as Cloudstones and other forms of Magick held in the objects of power known as Grimoires and the city's power to spawn the undead and mythological creatures.

While waiting behind the Blades, Ashley jumps at a ghost-like vision of a young boy, revealing his position to the knights. He then kills both. Sydney then appears in the guise of the Blades' leader to fool some soldiers into attacking the VKP agent. Ashley kills these as well, which catches Sydney's eyes. Using more dark powers, Sydney shows Ashley a vision of his late wife and son, Tia and Marco , killed by bandits while they were on a picnic on an idyllic hill.

Fascinated by the Riskbreaker's cold efficiency in killing and complete lack of fear, Sydney appears to Riot, asking where his soul has gone. Sydney pries into Ashley's memories, then taunts that Ashley killed his own family.

Revealing that he holds Merlose, Sydney commands Ashley to travel deeper into the Dark City, and to awaken power within him. Ashley recalls his hidden battle skills and experiences "clairvoyance", seeing the progress of the Crimson Blades, leading him closer and closer to the Great Cathedral. Eavesdropping on the Blades' activities, it is clear that they have taken the entire top of the town, and are now simply wiping out what pockets of resistance remain, though all to heavy casualties.

Guildenstern and Samantha both are revealed to not be mere lap-dogs of the Cardinal, but seem to share an ambition to steal immortality from Sydney so that they can live together forever. Ashley overhears Guildenstern and his lover Samantha, learning of the condition known as incomplete death and the Cardinal's true intention for his pursuit of Sydney: immortality.

The Crimson Blades confront Ashley and reveal his presence to Guildenstern, but the river separates Guildenstern from the others, and he can only watch as Ashley kills Duane, and his guards. Guildenstern and Ashley glare at each other before turning on their separate ways.

While moving through the Abandoned Mines , Ashley suddenly sees Callo Merlose and the interplay between her captors. Hardin, using a power of clairvoyance [25] , is able to spot the actions of the Crimson Blades, and sees that they are growing weaker.

Sydney, unhappy with his subordinate's panic, uses his power of "compulsion" to control Hardin. Though Hardin remains loyal and follows Sydney's orders to look over the prisoners, he demands that Sydney never use his powers on him again.

Ashley follows Sydney while the cult leader goes to confront Guildenstern and his faithful companion, Samantha who are hunting for the Gran Grimoire , a magical object of great power. Avoiding a direct battle, Sydney instead questions Samantha into how far she can trust her commander. Using Dark powers of his own, Guildenstern projects an illusion into Sydney's mind, that Guildenstern has suddenly appeared beside Sydney.

Guildenstern warns Sydney that he is not alone in holding some sway over The Dark. Without a word, Sydney retreats. Emerging at the entrance to the Snowfly Forest , Ashley suddenly sees through Samantha's eyes during another Crimson Blades meeting. Samantha talks with Lady Neesa over the heavy losses the Blades have taken during the attack. Samantha shows some worry over the deaths.

Guildenstern marches in, and senses the Riskbreaker watching. He slaps Samantha, knocking away Ashley's connection. Though Rosencrantz claims to be a member of the Riskbreakers sent by Steward LeSait; Rosencrantz who intends to join him, though Ashley does not believe a word of it and declines. Ashley responds only by threatening to kill Rosencrantz if he remains in the city after sundown.

While Ashley ventures into the forest, Rosencrantz is met by a group of Blades following Riot. Father Grissom leads the force to get revenge for his fallen brother, Duane. Grissom is not happy to see Rosencrantz, thinking him to be a double-dealing traitor. So he ignores Rosencrantz's warning of danger in the forest.

Grissom quickly loses his soldiers in the woods, but still continues onward and runs into his foe, Sydney. Ashley wanders into this confrontation just as Grissom begins to attempt to summon a monster. Sydney warns Grissom that he does not have the power, and summoning will kill him. At first it seems Sydney was right, for blood flows from Grissom's nose and he falls to the ground.

Grissom exerts further effort, and pulls himself to his feet and continues the incantation; the object of his summoning slowly descends from a circular plane of light in midair. Grissom falls in defeat, defeated in his own quest for vengeance.

Moving on his temporary ally, Sydney then shows another vision to Ashley of Tia and Marco. This time, however, it is not bandits who kill them, but Ashley himself. Though Ashley believes this to be a deception, Sydney claims that it is Ashley's own memories that are the deception. Guildenstern then discovers that the entire city is a circle of Magick. Furious at Rosencrantz for withholding information, Guildenstern draws his blade at Rosencrantz.

Before blood is spilled, Samantha falls over, once again possessed by Ashley. Samantha, linked to Ashley, reveals his position. Guildenstern then sends Rosencrantz to deal with the meddlesome Riskbreaker. After a short battle, Ashley seems to have won. Rosencrantz, unfazed by defeat, then moves on to reveal Riot's past. Together they both worked for the VKP, killing people on Parliament's orders.

Where Sydney had shown Ashley visions of his wife Tia and his son Marco killed first by rogues and then himself, Rosencrantz tells Ashley that they were not his family, but unfortunate witnesses targetted by the VKP hit squad they both served.

Both Sydney and Rosencrantz agree, though, that guilt over the deaths was manipulated by the VKP to turn Ashley into a loyal Riskbreaker. Rosencrantz is mildly disgusted with his partner's moral quibbles, and so helps the VKP implant false memories to allow Ashley to remain a perfect killing machine.

Now he manipulates all the powers for his own gain. After the speech, Rosencrantz leaves, promising to not yield in the next battle between the former partners. While Guildenstern is distracted, Rosencrantz sneaks away to fulfill his own plans. The jewel case rear cover image seen on the US edition of the game, and possibly others. Callo learns that Hardin was skeptical of Sydney's plans.

Sydney left them to stop the others from advancing; taunting Guildenstern and Samantha, and provoking Ashley to follow him as he intends to bestow his powers upon Ashley. Inside the Cathedral, Hardin and his two captives wait for Sydney.

Merlose then uses her Heart-Seer powers once again to pry into Hardin's secrets; she learns of Sydney's intentions. While Hardin himself is quiet, Callo sees a "ghost" version of Hardin who tells her much. To avoid this, Mullenkamp must create a successor to its powers. The reason why they kidnapped Joshua may be to avoid the Duke taking rash actions. Before Merlose can learn more, Hardin stabs himself in the leg, shutting off his mind to her new Heart-Seer powers.

Hardin is furious to see his mind pried into, but is stopped short by the arrival of Guildenstern. His injuries leave him defenseless in the face of his enemy. Hardin tells nothing, resisting Guildenstern's attacks. Using another trick, Guildenstern hides himself as Sydney and fools Hardin into telling of the Blood-Sin , which Guildenstern remembers as the tattoo on Sydney's back.

A sharp realization make that is in fact the key the Blades seek. With no further need for him, Guildenstern stabs Hardin in the chest. Seeing this, Joshua screams in protest as the scene ends. While Ashley descends into the depths of the Undercity, he runs into two Crimson Blade captains, Neesa and Sir Tieger both furious over the sight of Father Grissom's corpse, which is curiously down in the dungeon.

Together they try to defeat the Riskbreaker in a double-attack, but both are forced back into retreat. Ashley follows the two to find that Grissom has been given an "unfinished death" and has returned as a zombie. Grissom struggles with controlling his body while the two Blades look on stunned at the sight. Then voices fill Grissom's head, telling him that his living allies wish him dead. So, if there were more save points and a better balanced set of characters, this legendary game would probably be just about perfect.

In an era of cookie cutter games in which the license means more than gameplay in the eyes of many execs, it's inspiring to see a battle system that's so innovative and a game that seems so well conceived. Kudos should be given out to the creators of this stunning masterpiece. Graphics While most of the game's colors seem to be just variants of brown, don't let it fool you -- Vagrant Story is one of the most visually stunning games on PlayStation.

The overall texture quality of the characters and backgrounds are just amazing and it's all topped off with brilliant character designs, created by the talented Akihiko Yoshida. In fact, this is one of the few cases where the in-game polygonal models of the characters and monsters are on par with the artist's conceptual work.

To top it all off, the excellent character models and designs are matched by the outstanding animation. Ashley moves around the detailed environments in a very realistic manner and he's loaded with tons of different animation for his various attacks.

The creators of Vagrant Story also deserve another pat on the back for their work on the boss characters. When players encounter the different bosses that include Dragons, Golems, Minotaurs, Demons, and the like, they'll undoubtedly be impressed by the raw size and magnificence of these colossal beasts.

The visual tour de force continues with the excellent background and ambient special effects. The game's lighting must be seen to be believed and certain effects like the rain are some of the best you can get on PlayStation. Sound Let's face it. While it doesn't typically get the credit that it deserves, audio is one of the most important aspects of any videogame.

Just as in the case with movies, the musical soundtrack and sound effects can do wonders in pulling those emotional strings in each and every one of us. If you think about it, movies like Titanic, Star Wars, Braveheart, and Shawshank Redemption wouldn't have been as inspiring as they were if not for their brilliant musical scores.

When done right, audio can pull the player into the game's storyline so tightly that players will feel the true emotions that the designers wanted to inspire. This is definitely the case with Vagrant Story. Squaresoft has done a masterful job with both the game's musical score and sound effects. The soundtrack sets the mood of each scene perfectly and helps bring out emotions like fear, intrigue, happiness, love and hate.

The brilliance extends with the game's sound effects. Everything from the sounds of the player's footsteps, to the ambient background noises, and to the grunts and groans of monsters in the area, just pulls the player deeply into Vagrant Story's magnificent world.

It honestly doesn't get much better than this. The problem with wanting a game, or anything in life for that matter, so much is that it can lead to disappointment if it doesn't truly live up to your lofty expectations. Vagrant Story does not fall into this predicament, as it has met or surpassed all of my expectations.

Now I've obtained it again, and I want to give it another shot. User Info: x-Luc-x x-Luc-x 13 years ago 2 Are you asking how long it is total or how long it is just to progress through the story?

User Info: Abbumaru Abbumaru 13 years ago 3 I'd say about 20 hours for a first timer. User Info: blowseph blowseph 13 years ago 4 lol User Info: legopowa legopowa 13 years ago 5 Depends on how neurotic you are. Side Quest. Where is Lea Monde in Ivalice? Where can i find the gold key? Gameshark code to force Enemy drops? Gameshark woes? Playing RPGs would be much more exciting and enjoyable if less effort was put into making the world unnecessarily large and more effort was put into the locales to make each area of the world unique, beautiful and adventurous, instead of just feeling like a repetitious backdrop for constant random encounters.

For examples of how to create breathtaking locales that encourage one to go explore one can turn to ICO and Shadow of Colossus. For more RPG-like examples the recently released western RPG, Fallout 3, can be mentioned, which contains one big seamlessly connected world full of interesting places that beckons explorers to discover their many secrets.

Too many RPGs stoop to creating generic looking locales to artificially prolong the distance between each stop, usually in the form of a town, and the DQ series has long been guilty of doing this. Unfortunately where Fallout 3 succeeds in creating a beautiful, exciting looking world it fails in providing rewards for all the exploring it invites. There is rarely a "pot of gold" at the end of the many symbolic rainbows in Fallout 3, so exploring ends up feeling unrewarding. Rewarding exploration with good useful treasures is equally important to the joys of RPG gameplay.

Up quality by reducing quantity: Another two things I feel needs to be addressed in all future RPG's is emphasis on quality of enemy encounters in favor of their quantity, which directly relates to the length of the average RPG. As is to be expected the RPG genre has always thrown thousands upon thousands of enemy encounters into the face of their players before completion.

As a result, the majority of these encounters offer nothing in terms of quality, enjoyment or challenge and do nothing but extend the playtime to unacceptable lengths. Most RPG's, I've noticed, contain in them somewhere between hours of raw gameplay for the average player.

The vast majority of this time is spent pressing the same button to repeatedly attack and grind through yet another effortless, pointless encounter, a mad practice of pure genre loyal padding.

Vagrant Story did not do things this way, almost each one of the encounters in Vagrant Story was both engaging, challenging as well as meaningful. This was in large part because Vagrant Story did not have intentionally weak generic enemies to serve as artificial stumbling blocks for its player.

As a result each encounter was a quality encounter because it needed the player to pay attention or risk dying, even when fighting a normal enemy.

Exactly because of this the gameplay time in Vagrant Story was shorter than the RPG standard by many tens of hours. The average gamer can complete Vagrant Story in 40 hours or less but that does not mean that its players felt they were short-changed because the quality of gameplay within was much higher than any hour RPG. Because there was no grind or weak pointless encounters the game felt devoid of the crippling repetition that brings down the quality of most RPGs.

People are busy and too many interesting games come out for one to spend hours on just one, especially if one does not get more quality gameplay in exchange of the extra tens of hours put in. A length of hours is much more appropriate for RPGs these days, because any game that is longer cannot possibly hope to keep things from becoming horribly repetitious. Interruptions are archaic: I'll mention a few last things before wrapping things up. But in the DQ series and all other old school RPGs encounters result in a scene change into an encounter scenario.

This transition, and the subsequent return after the encounter ends take up many precious seconds which are nothing but a waste of time. They might not seem like much, but even something that takes seconds adds up when repeated hundreds of time during the life of a game.