Vagrant Story Wiki
Register
Advertisement

In the field map, players may engage the enemy as soon as they enter Battle Mode. In Battle Mode, when the player taps the attack button, a wire frame sphere appears around Ashley. Individual body parts within this sphere can be targeted. An attack will automatically be launched by hitting the attack button again, but additional attacks known as Chain Abilities can be added, to achieve large combos and deal damage to the enemy. This is done by pressing buttons in timely succession, a similar game mechanic to Music Video games (rhythm games).[1] In addition to Chain Abilities, Defensive Abilities allow Ashley to reduce or reflect damage or avoid status ailments. Ashley also gains Break Arts, which exchange his Hit Points (HP) for increased damage.[2]

When Ashley attacks a Crimson Blade soldier, an exclamation mark is displayed, indicating the moment where the player can chain attacks; reflexes must be keen to inflict higher damage to the enemy.

While many guides, including ones such as Three Blades, are concerned with building up Class bonuses on weapons, player Beamup has performed some very convincing research[3] which leads to the conclusion that choosing the correct Type is more effective, and targeting the enemy weaknesses with debuffs is more effective than buffs.

Attack[]

Class Affinity and Type are one quarter of the value, in attack equations, of their value in defense equations. However, base enemy Defense will be equal to all attack strategies, so what matters is how effective the attack is. Beamup rightly concludes that,[3] since there are commonly up to 40 points Type difference between different target locations, and Affinity Class and Type are is only divided by 100 on defense instead of 400 on attack, these 40-point type differences would account for a 40% advantage or disadvantage, rather than up to 25% each for Affinity and Class. Quadrupled defense, he rightly states, also makes debuffs more effective than buffs, but again, this is the same for all attack strategies.

Gallery[]

Damage[]

The damage calculations are quite complicated, but to cut it brutally short, damage equals total Strength, minus Defense. Strength comes from Ashley, weapons and accessories. Affinity, Class and Type for weapon and accessories comprise six Damage Modifiers. Damage Points lost by wear and tear are subtracted from the Phantom Points gained, and the resulting sum is a final modifier. There is further, a Damage Multiplier, the relative values of which are unknown, other than it is lower for regular attacks, and higher numbers for Warlock spells and Break Arts.

Class and Affinity of the weapon and Accessories, their Type bonuses, and (Phantom Points acquired minus Damage Points lost), are added together and then divided by four to make the Damage Modifier.

To quote Beamup's "Combat Mechanics Guide" :

Attack = (STR + WeapSTR + AccSTR) * (100 + Modifier) / 100

The meaning of the final division by 100 is unfortunately somewhat unclear. It probably means that the entire preceding portion (as anecdotal evidence suggests) is divided by 100. But if that is so, why is there not brackets around the entire preceding portion? Or, if the divisor sign affects only whatever bracketed portion it is next to, it means only (100 + Modifier) is divided by 100. In the former case, and as seems to be borne out by anecdotal evidence, the Modifiers start quite small, but can become extremely powerful in comparison to the weapon's base attack and Ashley's Strength. The latter makes Ashley's Str and weapon damage always the primary consideration; even a full 100 in Class and Affinity would not change that much. Neither of these formulas confirm a significant number of players' insistence that Type bonuses matching the weaknesses of the enemy are more reliable at optimizing damage than other considerations. However, to provide an example for comparison: it does seem as though exploiting Types (with that version of the Three Blades system) can be anywhere from half as effective to slightly more effective than employing a Silver weapon's Class bonuses against its intended targets. Specifically, Type weaknesses are often around 10%, going up to 25%, compared with Silver's inherent bonus of 15 against Phantoms and 20 against Undead.

Damage calculation: Damage equals (Attack times Multiplier) minus Defense, plus a random number between one and five

Strength[]

Strength (STR) values are more easily intuited than Intelligence. STR climbs with material and of course Tier.

Magic[]

See Main Article: Magic in Vagrant Story

Magic in Vagrant Story utilizes the same wireframe targetting system. Magic is learned later in the game using Grimoires, items dropped by enemies. Once a Grimoire is used, the magic spell associated with the Grimoire will remain in the menu, and players only need to spend Magic Points (MP) to cast a learned spell. Magic spells can be used to attack, heal, create Status Effects, and manipulate Ashley's elemental and enemy affinities. Certain magic spells allow the player to affect multiple targets by using a small sphere positioned within the Battle Mode wire frame. Unlike physical attacks however, magic attacks cannot be chained.[1][4]

Spells ignore Class, so Nemesis gems with bonuses to Class on Shields are useless against enemy magic. Spells, like Break Arts, get a bonus (Multiplier), which makes them desirable against enemies with high Chain Evade.[3]

Intelligence[]

Intelligence (INT) values are less easily intuited than Strength. INT in general climbs with material and of course Tier, but LEATHER is higher INT than all other "higher" materials, and the highest three Tiers of armor have successively less INT. INT can be easily added by Gems for offense or defense, with a gemmed Shield of the appropriate Affinity being the best magic defense of all.

The magical protection of LEATHER from its Intelligence bonus is considerable but should not be overestimated. It is superior to anything at "higher" levels, including DAMASCUS, but there are many other Intelligence bonuses. Wearing one piece of Leather (+6), compared to wearing nothing, is the Intelligence equivalent to having one Major Gem on a Shield (not counting the shield). The difference between wearing one piece of Leather compared to wearing one piece of DAMASCUS (+4) is half the Intelligence bonus of wearing one Minor Gem (+4). Wearing a full set of Leather is roughly +30 Intelligence; that is five Major gems, and stretching the boundaries of what is possible with Gems, with the maximum being three on a Weapon and two on a Shield. The maximum for a Staff weapon is +30 also, but most are much lower, with +20 being unobtainable without crafting, until late in the first or in the second playthrough. Summoner Baton is easy enough to find, at +16 Intelligence. An entire set of Hoplite DAMASCUS armor adds 85 Intelligence plus the 24 for its material. A set of Tier Five armor, +28 + material. A Hoplite Shield adds 24. Ashley himself, of course, adds more. And more.

WOOD Shields are similar to LEATHER in their high intelligence, and Wood is definitely worth a look as it suffers fewer complications in its progression and is a much more easily achievable task than sets of Leather armor.

Defense[]

Class Affinity and Type are four times more effective on defense than attack.

Damage Points on Armor add extra defense, but only shields defend better because of Phantom Points. Shields also protect all hit locations.

Agility[]

Game manual: "...AGILITY - The greater the value, the better chance to hit or evade attacks..." "...AGILITY - Higher agility increases chance to hit or evade..."[5]

Without doubt, Faerie Wing, from Ichthious in Snowfly Forest, increases Agility and the length of jumps. Without good evidence, many players believe that Agility affects jumping, and some of them believe it affects run speed. It has been repeated many times (including on this wiki), that Agility affects run speed; from that it follows it would affect jump distance, assuming jump duration was not curtailed in some way. It may not be the only misconception about Faerie Wings, either. The Final Fantasy wikia says nothing about jump distance, but says they affect jump height; a height increase could work only with broad jumps or high jumps or both or neither. A form posting from a player whose Ashley has 999 Agility[5] casts some small doubt on Agility affecting run speed, but fails to take into account the possibility that an Ashley with 999 agility could easily be 900 Agility over a run speed limit.

Risk[]

See Main Article: Risk in Vagrant Story

Risk is an essential element in the battle system. A Risk bar is placed below the HP and MP bar, representing the Risk Points the player has accumulated. Risk Points affect Ashley's concentration; the longer Ashley attacks a target, the more his Risk Point accumulates — lowering his accuracy and defenses. Chain and Defensive Abilities increase Risk faster than regular attacks, while Break Arts do not increase Risk at all. Enemy attacks and spells deal more damage on Ashley, the more Risk he has; as do Ashley's, on enemies, and his healing spells increase in efficiency. A further advantage is the higher chances for the player to score critical hits.[4]


Chain Abilities, Defensive Abilities and Break Arts[]

The battle system of the game involves the player chaining different attacks known as Chain Abilities to achieve large combos and deal damage to the enemy. This is done by pressing buttons in timely succession. In this way, combat almost resembles a rhythm game as not all attacks have the same timing. The player can target different areas of the body, and damage is done according to the part of body attacked and the affinity of the weapon used by Ashley. The longer Ashley fights, the more his Risk rises, making it harder for him to concentrate - lowering his accuracy but increasing critical hits, though at a certain point it can become virtually impossible to hit anything. Defense Abilities allow Ashley to reduce or reflect damage, or avoid status ailments. A variety of spells can be used to attack, heal, buff, and debuff. Lastly there are the Break Arts, powerful attacks that drain Ashley's hit points.


See also[]

Links[]

Combat Mechanics Guide - Beamup

  1. 1.0 1.1 Bartholow,Peter PlayStation Vagrant Story Review GameSpot, publisher CBS Interactive
  2. Brown, Jeff 2000 Vagrant Story: Review allrpg.com 2
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Combat Mechanics Guide by Beamup
  4. 4.0 4.1 Vagrant Story, Square, 2000, Playstation One Vagrant Story In-Game Manual
  5. 5.0 5.1 Forum posting
Advertisement