This mix of genres was surprising at the time, and would be something I would excitedly embrace years later in Fallout 3's VATS system. I never played Yasumi Matsuno's Final Fantasy Tactics or thought twice about tactical combat, so Vagrant Story's combination of real-time movement in combat with the pauses of the Battle Mode's combat sphere – allowing you to target available body parts at specific hit percentages – caught my eye. This is aided by Hitoshi Sakamoto's fitting, sometimes melodramatic, score using synth strings. Square is known for its gorgeous CG cutscenes, but Vagrant Story's use of in-engine assets for cutscenes was the right choice to preserve the game's particular mood. I can't remember how I heard about Vagrant Story or exactly what drew my initial interest, but I was taken with Hiroshi Minagawa's hand-drawn art style and the overall dark, gothic overtones. Thankfully, the game is available via the PlayStation Store for PS3/Vita/PSP (and dirt cheap, too!), so you can still experience this classic. Personally, it remains a title whose art style and merging of various gameplay elements still sparks my imagination. It's not a watershed moment in video game history, but Square's dungeon-crawling action/RPG deserves recognition. Today, May 15, marks the 15-year anniversary of Vagrant Story's release in America on the original PlayStation.
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