Taking A Stab At Sword Of The Vagrant - An Indepth Review
Hey there, thanks for tapping over to take a look at my review of OTK Games 'The vagrant' a 2D Hack & Slash.
Vamillion. Vivian Vamillion
This title -really- doesn't really waste time throwing players into the thick of the plot- as our namesake Vagrant's quest to find her family basically goes off the rails within the span of an afternoon.
Seriously, she goes from shipwrecked, to 'survivor of a slaughtered city', to 'pressganged into service by the belt-clad witch holborn.
Admittedly, it's this latter problem which proves to be the most pressing- given Holborn is that nasty combination of 'Bad Boss indifferent to the welfare of their minions' and incredibly overbearing and result oriented. It makes the whole family search thing a bit tricky.
Summary aside- my actual feelings on the overall narrative is pretty mixed. On one hand, I didn't mind the overarching story, and there were definitely some cute and interesting characters to encounter, as well as some legitimately neat bits of backstory if you delve deeply into the game and go out of your way to do everything.
On the other hand, the actual quality of the writing itself isn't one of the games strengths, and I found myself wanting to throttle a fair portion of the Vagrants cast.
Plus, there's a number of segments where the overall pacing of the plot felt off, or where the unfurling of a moment left me feeling like the narrative payoff was a lot weaker than the build up.
Still- there was plenty of fun easter eggs to uncover. Like a good handful of extra endings squirreled away, provided you got beaten by certain bosses. I mean, there's also an extra 'True' ending- but, that one is a bit trickier to obtain, involving a number of steps that often feel a bit obtuse.
Enough Talk. Have At You!
Anyways- given that this is a hack and slash, we might as well address what you'll -actually- be doing most of the time - namely, the combat.
Yes, there's moments of downtime where you'll be advancing the story, or hanging out at a hub gearing up- but, there isn't that much to do insofar as side content in these places- And given the prices of shops in town, I'm fine with that. Friggin highway robbers.
Which leaves the crux of your journey- roaming the country side, and honing your skills against the oodles of enemies along the way. Notably, as you wander the world, you'll encounter enemies that make these places home . . .
and then an ample number which simply lurk around, waiting for you to walk over a specific spot in order to trigger a locked screen deathmatch against a small horde of baddies.
Yup- you can get expected to get ambushed a bunch. That said, what's a bit awkward about this system, is that there's nothing actually preventing the same fight from triggering all over again, even when you're still in the process of running around and picking up mob drops.
Not...that this is necessarily a bad thing, if you're farming. And frankly, you'll probably want to, since your initial repertoire of skills is pretty basic- requiring you to farm up mana, so that you can start investing into your skill tree and acquiring new combo abilities. Though- not all are created equal, given that the aerial launching move -does- not feel good to execute, and pales in comparison to its peers, and even blander options like raw stat boosts.
That said- it's not like you can just farm -all- day. The game does actually impose some restrictions on your progression, with small barriers in your skill tree that require you to hunt down optional items scattered about the world. While there's some that are fairly hard to miss, since they rest -right- along the main story path- there's a fair amount scattered through the far reaches of the map, serving to incentivize deeper exploration, and engaging with bits of platforming.
Though- uh, given that the map is a bit of a headache to read, and doesn't necessarily showcase hidden rooms- well, it might not just be your imagination that you're feeling underpowered at times.
That said, I think one of the key motivators for me, was simply acquiring the rage moves. These are essentially flashy moves you can use to clear out trash mobs, or deal decisive damage in a boss fight, provided you build up the mter for it by combo'ing. That said, these abilities are some of the most well hidden items in the game.
And with good reason- since, while they're strong to start with- you can push them even further, and not just due to some of them having modifiers in the skill tree.
Oh no, the key element here is the fact that, certain weapons you acquire will have elemental modifiers. Normally, these proc effects on heavy attacks, which is an interesting bit of nuance. That said, these elemental effects actively -change- how rage attack works, providing you the opportunity to experiment around with very different loadouts and associated movesets.
And, it's something you'll wind up -needing- to do, because while the game starts out relatively straightforward, it's difficulty ramps a fair bit. Some of it is just genuine difficulty in the form of nasty enemy and boss attack patterns, maybe accentuated from gross amounts of damage output.
That said, later areas start to pile environmental hazards in veritable gauntlets- while strategically positioning ranged enemies so they can belt you with projectiles while you're trying to navigate that mess.
With a potential sprinkling of lethal status ailments mixed in for good measure- like the painfully effective 'slow' ailment, which causes you to move at a snails pace - and can frequently be inflicted by ranged enemies. Plus, it clings to you even after you load into a different room- which even makes the potential lethality of being frozen or petrified -preferable-. And those both suck too.
Suffice to say, you should definitely have a boat load of antidotes on you at all times, if you value your time. And sanity.
Though, speaking of sanity- If you'd like to set it off to the side and take on horrific arrangements of heavy hitting enemies, while being potentially plagued with every status under the sun- you can always tackle the challenge rifts. Whilst these are essentially optional side content- they're some of the best avenues you'll have for mana, gold, and precious items- some of which are even unique.
That's not to say they're all going to be traumatic encounters- since a number provide some genuinely neat arrangements of enemy encounters, or some different takes on existing boss fights. That said- there are definitely some that will -invariably- degenerate into cluster fucks. ..And yet, are still more forgiving then the games near-end game bonus dungeon.
Runatic Odds
That said, you might be wondering why I've spent this last little bit emphasizing some optional content that seems a bit centric around farming. And- well, I can answer that line of questioning with a question of my own.
Insofar as progression, how do you like the sound of some RNG, in your RNG- nestled snuggly within a bit more RNG? Yeeeah- Let's crack open the can of worms that is rune working.
See, Beyond the skill tree- there's a few avenues for Vivian to get stronger- specifically, through the gear system. Some of these elements are straightforward enough, like finding, buying, or crafting gear in order to optimize your stats. And if you're capped out in your skill tree- you can even pump mana into those weapons in order to further boost their stats.
That. Said. Leveling up a weapon with Mana also opens up rune slots in the weapon, which allow you to then inset runes in order to boost your strength.
Unfortunately, interacting with this system is an utter nuisance, due to . . . well . . . the entire process. For instance, even the process of -acquiring- runes is incredibly random. You can't buy them- so your reliant upon their abysmal drop rate (most of which were derived from challenge rifts) - or by disassembling equipment.
Both of these are time consuming, but the latters a little bit worse, because breaking down gear is somewhat punishing. First off- you need to actually upgrade gear enough that you can see the runes that are in it- in order to have a chance at gaining them when you dismantle it. -If- it has any. Which, is also pretty taxing mana wise. Secondly, the type of runes inside the weapons are -wholly- arbitrary-. Thirdly, you don't get to choose which rune you want to retrieve from the weapon when you break it down. Lastly, I wasn't kidding when I said 'chance' at gaining the rune. It's entirely plausible to just get nothing, even from a weapon loaded with runes.
Oh, and on top of that, you actually need to get items specifically to facilitate harvesting decent tier runes. Which, is already going to clutter your inventory- before you take into account that, you don't have a means of fusing or upgrading lower level runes, so you're just going to have to deal with the fact that you'll eventually have a very large pet rock club in your inventory.
But, perhaps the nastiest fault of all is this- While the runes do list a general idea of what they do, they don't actually tell you the exact stats they bequeathe, so you actually have to gamble with them, since investing them into your gear is a commitment. And, to this day, I still don't know if Health or rage generation runes stack up with Multiple variants of themselves or . . .
Yeah, it's just a bit of a frustrating nightmare.
I Didn't Mean Vanilla As An insult
Which brings us to the graphics, and honestly- If you're a fan of Vanilla Works titles like Odin Sphere, Muramasa or Dragons Crown- you'r going to feel right at home. The world and monsters are gorgeous to behold- ...aaand there is definitely a surplus of curvaceous characters that feels distinctly on brand- though, The Vagrant feels overall hornier on the whole.
Still, while I couldn't do anything about Vivians state of relative undress- I was able to change up what her weapons looked like, which was then made better by how the changed the attack animations.
As for the audio- well. First off, there is voice acting. None of it is english though. If you're the sort of person that enjoys sub titled content, and can get by on the overall tone and strength of a voice actor doing a role- you might even enjoy it. Might.
And that mixed feeling also extends to the OST, because while there were some great tracks- there's also some fairly lengthy stretches of time in the game where you've got zero musical accompaniment beyond the subtle staccato of stabbin' baddies.
The Part Where I Sum Things Up
Ultimately, I do consider The Vagrant to be a fairly competent hack and slash to romp through. There's great boss fights, and the combat system gets more engaging the further into the game you get - even if the lack of autosaving meant dying as things ramped up was especially punishing in certain lengthy segments. That said, what really marred the experience for me was the middling story, the murky and abrupt feeling conclusion- and the bevvy of small issues that plagued the entirety of my journey. Including it's -font- being a hassle, my inability to map the controls the way I wanted- and a few other odds and ends (Fuck you, Runes).. Ultimately, I stepped away from this feeling that the game was a FUMBLE. It's not the best thing out there- but, If you're looking for stabby action, and an abundance of Fan service- this can definitely provide.
That said, if you thrive off narrative depth or a well oiled experience- you can expect to get tripped up here and there.
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