Valkyrie Profile > Xenogears > Vagrant Story
1. Valkyrie Profile - It took me some time to come to love this game. Back in the day, I borrowed my roommate's PS1 copy, played through it once on Normal, and got the normal ending. I liked it quite a bit, but it didn't leave a huge lingering impression on me beyond being a quirky stylish JRPG. Years later, I had a sudden craving to revisit the game, so I tracked down a copy for myself and got way into it. After finishing it four more times and mastering everything about the game, it's now in my extended list of favorite games of all time.
Valkyrie Profile is kind of a collection of parts more than a cohesive whole, which is highlighted by its multiple difficulty settings, which determine what dungeons, items, party members, and endings are available. Some of its systems are obtuse, especially with regard to story revelations, which are easier to appreciate once you're on the other side of understanding them. The developers intended for players to play the game multiple times. Each time through you experience partially different content (per difficulty), you can use your previous knowledge to further optimize your exploitation of the game's progression systems, you have a chance to puzzle out the key to the best ending, and it's a pretty short game by RPG standards (10-30 hours). That said, it's perfectly reasonable to reference a FAQ, especially to figure out how to get the best ending.
Overall, it's not a hard game to beat or to have fun with, despite being a bit of an acquired taste. The beautiful spite art and catchy eclectic soundtrack have obvious appeal. The gameplay is unusually active for a JRPG, with fighting game-like combos to execute in battle and puzzle-platforming to perform in dungeons. The game has some great story moments, especially in the tragic backstories of party members, and it's got lots of charm (even the bad 90s voice acting, which could honestly be much worse, given the era, has some cheesy appeal). Lastly, it's got some of my favorite atmosphere in any game I've played--the melancholy is sublime--and I love the juxtaposition of a world decaying into all-encompassing hopelessness with Valkyrie rolling through blindly and dutifully kicking the ass of anyone standing in the way of her divine mission.
2. Xenogears - This game is a quintessential product of the second half of the 90s when new technology like CDs rewrote the boundaries of what was possible in digital entertainment and anime like Evangelion showed there was a big market for ambitious pseudo-sophisticated pop sci-fi. With the creative limits seemingly lifted, many creators optimistically pushed as far as they could. Xenogears was one of these projects, where its ambition massively outstripped its means, and it ran headlong into time and money constraints. It's probably a minor miracle it was even released at all.
I kind of love the game as a vision, but only mildly like it in reality. Very little in the gameplay, story, or presentation resonated with me emotionally, to my disappointment. No doubt there's good stuff here, but I feel the best of it was left in the realm of theoretical potential. I think you have to be very forgiving to get a lot out of Xenogears today.
3. Vagrant Story - I haven't played much of this because I didn't particularly enjoy any of what I did play. If you like other games by Matsuno like Final Fantasy Tactics or Ogre Battle and are open to highly unconventional/obtuse battle systems, then this game might click for you.
Log in to comment