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vagrant story

Beware: spoilers!

Released in 1999 for the Playstation by Squaresoft (now Square Enix), Vagrant Story presents an enormous world full of enemies, which we have to go through using strategies and resolving difficult puzzles (I repeat: difficult), It has a very distinctive game play, focusing much more in weapons and armor than other RPGs. The only negative point is that we are only able to control one character: Ashley Riot.

The story precisely goes around him. In a time that reminds a lot of the French Revolution, Ashley Riot is a special agent from the VKP (Valendia Knights of the Peace, a special unit under the Cardinal's control), with the title of a Riskbreaker, who is sent to deal with some rebels assaulting the Duke's manor and taking the family, servants and guards as hostages. Their leader is Sydney Losstarot, a man with the fame of a 'prophet' (plus some resemblance to Edward Elric from FMA ^^;)

In fact, there was another person with that mission: Callo Merlose, a young woman. However, there's really few she can do on her own, so Ashley presents himself as the 'reinforcements' the VKP has promised her to send (!) and enters the manor on his own. Ashley finds Sydney, and they have a 'skirmish'. The Riskbreaker finds out that Sydney is immortal... His plans are not very clear, but he kidnaps Merlose and Joshua (the Duke's son) anyways, so we have to go after him, in a 2000-year-old town called Leá Monde, where Ashley's past, other people's interests and the whole secret hid inside the city will determinate the future... 

Ashley riot

Beware: spoilers!

As I said before, Ashley Riot is a special agent aka Riskbreaker that, although he's sent to catch the rebels in Duke's manor, ends up in a quest to rescue Merlose and the Duke's son from Sydney. He has an 'obscure past': his son and his wife were killed in front of his eyes, and he could not do anything for them. However, Sydney shows him another 'past' - revealing that he was an agent, and that he and Rosencrantz (his partner in that time) killed that family by accident, and the VKP changed his memories in order to not make him suffer (any similarity to Cloud Strife from FFVII is pure coincidence =D)

Ashley is cold, serious, skilled and has a strange ability: he is able to use other people's eyes and ears (some kind of telepathy, let's say). That's why we can hear other characters' conversations, secret plans and stories (mostly through Merlose). However, he is trapped by Guilderstern (a revolutionary) while he is using that ability with his girlfriend Samantha. In the final fight, Ashley decides that whatever the truth is, he can't be absorbed by darkness (a common concept in the game, how to control the dark), and defeats the 'final boss': Guilderstern.

Finally, he gets the 'key', and in consequence, all the abilities it may give.

Sydney Losstarot

Beware: spoilers!

Sydney Losstarot is indeed a strange man, Very polite but proud, he kidnaps Callo Merlose and Joshua, for unknown reasons, along with his so-called brother, Hardin. Early in the game we're told that he's known as a very charismatic 'prophet' (between many others with the same title), leader of Müllenkamp (a cult) and has something 'special'. Also, he is able to disguise as other people. Later, we find out that he has some 'issues' with other people, especially Rosencrantz and Guilderstern (Hamlet-deja vu? XD;). His plan is to control the dark, and he already does, since all undead enemies we are fighting are controlled by him. According to him, 'those who crave the dark cannot control the dark'. That's why he's waiting for his 'successor', someone who will use 'the key', and whose identity is not revealed until the end of the game. Of course, that person is Ashley. And the key is in a rather visible place: the tattoo on Sydney's back.

In the end, it's revealed that Sydney is actually a Duke's son, The problem is that he has his tattoo 'stolen' by Guilderstern, who wants to start a new revolution based on fear and power. After the final fight, since he is not immortal anymore, is killed by his father. But apparently they had all that planned from the beginning.

relationship

Strange and unclear from beginning to end, but very interesting indeed. At first, Ashley wants to kill him, directly, but Sydney seems to want to play or something like that... making people like Hardin get disgusted at this. Then Sydney shows him a different past... and Ashley doesn't believe him at all. 'LIES!' he constantly says. The thing changes when Sydney shows to be against Rosencrantz, supposedly our 'ally' (well, Ashley doesn't like him either), and he even helps us during the fight against Guilderstern's Dullahan (!!). Ashley doesn't say anything, of course, but eventually, through his scryings he realizes who's the real evil here, and treats him in a more friendly way. However, he still doesn't know that Sydney has chosen him as his 'successor'... Our ultimate scene is in the very end, when Ashley takes those steps and finds Sydney lying on the floor, with much blood under him. Here Ashley is kinder than ever, holding him in his hands and worrying about his fate. Sydney just makes him realize what happened and tries to tell him something, but Ashley says 'I know' and the thing ends there.

After the final fight with the scary Guilderstern, Ashley saves Sydney while the city falls... Nevertheless, as we see later, he dies anyway.

title

Before anyone says anything, no, I did NOT name it after the room in the Great Cathedral! It was something very funny, while I was trying to 'refresh' my mind, I got lost in the game and went to the map. I almost fainted when I read 'Truth or Lies' on the bottom of the screen! XD

Being more serious, since Ashley doubts all the time if what Sydney tells him is the truth or not, I came up with this title after a lot of thinking. Of course, after I found the room, I was sure that I should use it. =)

(BTW, I checked if any important Ashley/Sydney even happens there, but no, it doesn't. =( It just leads to other 2 rooms with bosses in them... )

LAYOUT

Css-wise, it's original, or at least coming from me =D I found this layout a bit difficult to make because finding a picture of these two together wasn't really easy >_> Then I suffered of layout-block for a while, but I recovered soon. I really like it, even though it's simple.

That beautiful fanart is from Apsylus.com <3, the brushes are from Aethereality, the moon was made by me