History YMMV / VagrantStory

* CultClassic: While not an outright flop, sales for the game were not particularly impressive. It remains a favorite of many old-school RPG players, thanks to a mature, political storyline with great Shakespearean dialogue, a [[{{Franchise/MetalGear}} Solid Snake]]-esque main character rarely found in JRPG's, fantastic visuals, oppressive atmosphere, and complex genre-busting gameplay.

* EvilIsSexy: The CG intro depicts a BellyDancer from folklore, Mullenkamp, which the cult is named after.

%%** The ending theme.
%%** And the opening!

** Aw hell, the whole thing is a Crowning Soundtrack of Awesome. All the tracks are perfectly engineered to rouse the appropriate responses from your heartstrings. The panic and speed of the battle themes, the unease and haunting melancholy of each dungeon area and most importantly the way all the unique scene-specific pieces capture and enhance the feeling of that moment for you to live over again.

** [[https://twitter.com/Dreamboum/status/1226610123000467457 This thread]] details how the Devs made miracles happen, despite the limitations.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: This was one of the last games ever made for the Playstation, and is clearly one of the best-looking. It's aged remarkably well, too.

** And the Undercity West theme. It's seriously creepy.

* EvilIsSexy: The CG intro depicts a BellyDancer from folklore, Mullenkamp, which the cult is named after. And boy does she got some moves, mmmmm....
** Whether or not she's 'evil' depends on how much of the Iocan church information on her you take as truth. Which, given the nature of the game...

* HoYay: Pick a pairing. ''Pick a pairing''. The evidence is there for it.

*** You wouldn't think a big chicken with a face on its gut would be frightening, but ''IT WORKS.'' To make matters worse, daring to fight one could potentially end your game by turning you to stone, and your first Harpy fight is mandatory.
** The Iron Maiden dungeon room names. Hint - they are not named after Heavy Metal bands. You can try googling them but I hope you're not squeamish...
** The terrifying gleeful/insane expression on [[spoiler:Guildenstern's face in his first boss form. Oh lord, son, the man ain't right in the head.]]

* {{Woolseyism}}: ''Vagrant Story'' is good evidence that this trope should be named after Alexander O. Smith, in whose capable hands the fairly mundane original script was turned into some of the best quasi-Shakespearean of our time. Oddly appropriate both to the setting as well as the overall mood of the game, the localization is pretty much touted as one of the best ever. It's true!

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The ending theme.
** And the opening!

* BrokenBase: The visuals, storyline, atmosphere, and music of the game are widely praised, but opinions on its gameplay are mixed due to its incredible complexity. Some people find the gameplay systems to be difficult to learn but incredibly rewarding, others think they game is just overly complex and the combat too reliant on timing with the arts, leaving them unable to enjoy the game's other strengths.

* FridgeBrilliance / FridgeHorror: In the Snowfly forest, there's an area where you fight two zombie knights. If it strikes you as odd that you're encountering undead in an area mostly populated by beasts, consider the fate of Faendos and Lambkin, the two knights who entered the forest with Grissom and got lost in the woods...
** Much ado is made about what a badass Ashley is, but it's entirely possible to get through the game without unlocking even ''half'' of what he's capable of. And since all of his abilities are reclaimed from his lost memory, what a ''monster'' of a badass he must have been before he lost it all.

* NightmareFuel: The enemies called "Quicksilver". You meet them in the Undercity, which is dark, damp and claustrophobic. Then you suddenly hear giggling and [[CreepyDoll large dolls resembling children]] stumble towards you, holding knives. In fact, the in-game monster manual says that these dolls are possessed by [[CreepyChild the souls of dead children]]. If that is nothing to you, then the variety in the Iron Maiden sub dungeon will make you squirm.
** Another enemy from the same area is Harpy, a big flightless bird that would look quite normal, if it wasn't for a giant human face protruding from it's chest.

* [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Rescued From The]] ScrappyMechanic [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Heap]]: Much of the game's atmosphere and mechanics originated in the RPG segment of ''VideoGame/{{Ehrgeiz}}'', which was truly terrible. ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'' makes something ''gorgeous'' out of them.
* ScrappyLevel: Did ''anyone'' enjoy the Snowfly Forest?
** And then there's that bit where you're traversing a maze. Full of traps and GoddamnBats. In the dark. With a time limit before the exit closes. Which results in being warped back to the starting point with several tough enemies spawning around Ashley that all require different tactics. And several of the rooms in the maze are trapped. ''Heavily''. And the boss at the end of the maze is hard, and isn't even the ''very'' end of it. And you'll need to go through it twice or thrice for HundredPercentCompletion.

* ThatOneBoss: The final boss, for starters. All but a very few of your abilities will deal absolutely pitiful amounts of damage to him, and finding the ones that ''will'' work is very much a matter of GuideDangIt.
** It doesn't help that [[spoiler: Evil]] is one of the hardest affinities to raise on a weapon, and unless you were fortunate enough to have collected the right type of gems, you're unlikely to have a second chance to do so until after it's too late.

* ScrappyMechanic: The Risk meter. As you attack and perform combos, your Risk increases. The higher it goes, the lower your accuracy, and the more damage you take from enemy attacks. Fights against later game enemies tend to send the Risk meter skyrocketing, and at 100 Risk even the slightest attack can one-shot you. There are items to lower your Risk, but it's still the game punishing you for doing too well.
** On the plus side, you also recover more health with healing abilities/items when you have a higher Risk.
** On the plusser side, a risk of 100 can set off a chain in which each consecutive chain attack does damage according to the ''number'' of chains you're, er, chaining. If you hit 20 times in a row with 100 risk, you do 20 damage, then 21, then 22, then 23... in a game where doing even 5 damage to a boss is an achievement, this comes in ''really'' handy at times.
** The entire game is about managing risks. Take the RISK to lower your accuracy but heal faster and crit bigger? Take the risk to cast from HP and use Break Arts to exploit an enemy's elemental weakness better? If it's a ScrappyMechanic to some players, that's probably because they're taking bigger risks than they're comfortable with.
*** It lends a certain poetry to the name "Riskbreaker", doesn't it? Running around with high Risk, or regularly chaining enough to get to Risk 100, will get you titles like "Berserker" and "Daredevil", often to the exclusion of all others. In many cases, it's worth it to ''start'' an attack with 100 Risk, because you'll actually do more damage with the chain attacks (Raging Ache and Crimson Pain in particular) than you would have if the initial strike had hit in the first place... of course, that does leave Ashley extremely vulnerable, and it's not to everyone's taste.
** And...let's just say you'd better hope you enjoy block puzzles. Fortunately you can set it in options that you only have to complete each puzzle once, otherwise you will have to redo them to a timer each time you enter the room from the same door.
** The freaking item management system. Not so much how it works (even if it's based a bit too much on luck), but how it ''has its own save file''. Workshops are an utter pain in the ass to utilize due to how much saving and loading the game has to do.

* MagnificentBastard: Sydney [[spoiler:although he could not prevent Guildenstern from taking the power of Lea Monde at the end.]]