History YMMV / VagrantStory

* CompleteMonster: [[DarkMessiah Romeo Guildenstern]] is a power-hungry man cloaking his ambitions under [[HidingBehindReligion false piety]]. Abusing the woman in love with him, Guildenstern slaps her hard enough to draw blood. Hiding his devotion to the forces of darkness by attacking one of their temples with his forces, Guildenstern, in his lust for power, throws aside his religious facade and sacrifices his abused lover in return for immense power. With his newfound strength, Guildenstern intends to take his rule worldwide and enact a cruel dictatorship in which his is worshipped above all else.

* CompleteMonster: [[DarkMessiah Romeo Guildenstern]] is a power-hungry man cloaking his ambitions under [[KnightTemplar false piety]]. Abusing the woman in love with him, Guildenstern slaps her hard enough to draw blood. Hiding his devotion to the forces of darkness by attacking one of their temples with his forces, Guildenstern, in his lust for power, throws aside his religious facade and sacrifices his abused lover in return for immense power. With his newfound strength, Guildenstern intends to take his rule worldwide and enact a cruel dictatorship in which his is worshipped above all else.

* CompleteMonster: Romeo Guildenstern of ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'' at first seems to be a deeply pious and righteous man, but as the game goes on, he is revealed as a ruthless, power hungry would-be tyrant who is a servant of darkness. The {{Foreshadowing}} begins when he slaps his lover hard enough to draw blood from her after a psychic link is in her head, and proceeds to display no concern for her after. He later murders her, a woman who genuinely loved him, as his sacrifice to the Dark. Once this is done, Guildenstern takes the power of the forbidden city, Lea Monde, intending to establish a bloody dictatorship as the world's eternal tyrant. Charismatic, calculating and utterly ruthless, Guildenstern is one of the greatest villains in Ivalice's history.

** And...let's just say you'd better hope you enjoy block puzzles. Fortunately you can turn them off after one playthrough.

** 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.

** The Iron Maiden dungeon room names. Hint - they are not named after Heavy Metal bands. [[http://ladyofspiders.wordpress.com/2008/02/07/punishment-torture-and-ordeal/ This page]]covers more than a few of them, try not to think too hard about the others.

* 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.
* CompleteMonster: Romeo Guildenstern of ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'' at first seems to be a deeply pious and righteous man, but as the game goes on, he is revealed as a ruthless, power hungry would-be tyrant who is a servant of darkness. The {{Foreshadowing}} begins when he slaps his lover hard enough to draw blood from her after a psychic link is in her head, and proceeds to display no concern for her after. He later murders her, a woman who genuinely loved him, as his sacrifice to the Dark. Once this is done, Guildenstern takes the power of the forbidden city, Lea Monde, intending to establish a bloody dictatorship as the world's eternal tyrant. Charismatic, calculating and utterly ruthless, Guildenstern is one of the greatest villains in Ivalice's history.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The ending theme.

* 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.

** 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.

* HilariousInHindsight: The staff roll seems to imply that the game's subtitle is "The Phantom Pain". [[MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain Fast-forward 15 years...]]

* 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 squeem.

* [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Rescued From The]] ScrappyMechanic [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Heap]]: Much of the game's atmosphere and mechanics originated in the RPG segment of ''{{Ehrgeiz}}'', which was truly terrible. ''VagrantStory'' makes something ''gorgeous'' out of them.

** 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 OneHundredPerCentCompletion.

* 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.

* 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 the game is just overly complex and too reliant on timing with the Arts to be enjoyable.

** Really? The Soul Kiss dagger (piercing weapon, high Light affinity if you whack enough zombies with it) seems to do the trick just fine. Also, Vulcan Lance.

* CompleteMonster: Guildenstern at first seems to be a deeply pious and righteous man, but as the game goes on, he is revealed as a ruthless, power hungry would-be tyrant who is a servant of darkness. The {{Foreshadowing}} begins when he slaps his lover hard enough to draw blood from her after a psychic link is in her head, and proceeds to display no concern for her after. He later murders her, a woman who genuinely loved him, as his sacrifice to the Dark. Once this is done, Guildenstern takes the power of the forbidden city, Lea Monde, intending to establish a bloody dictatorship as the world's eternal tyrant. Charismatic, calculating and utterly ruthless, Guildenstern is one of the greatest villains in Ivalice's history.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Grissom's CameBackWrong storyline is tragic and full of narrative potential. And lasts all of two scenes.

** Asura in Iron Maiden B3. All three of its faces look at you and has a very [[HellIsThatNoise creepy]] laugh.

* {{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!

* CompleteMonster: Guildenstern.

* LoveItOrHateIt: Player reviews tend to assign the game either a 1 or a 10. This essentially comes down to whether the [[NintendoHard difficulty]] and [[AllThereInTheManual lack of explanation]] of some of the essential mechanics (such as the workshop system and weapon affinities) cause you to throw your controller at the screen within an hour, or you decide to stick with it for a little longer and start over once or twice when you start figuring out how everything works.

* 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 squeem.

* 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.