Vagrant Story? Oooh, that's one sexy, sexy battle system you've got there. Mmm, yes, I likes it good. Never mind that it requires some skill with timing and button pushing- I still like it, for some strange and unfathomable reason.

It reminds me a great deal of Tactics, and I think the relationship between the two games was intentional on Square's part; the music is similar, the character art is similar (they actually have noses, though), and the quote near to the beginning was by one "A.J. Durai", who made an appearance in Tactics. It pleases me greatly.

I figure that Ashley is the result of Seymour's illicit love affair with with a WEAPON- it explains the inhuman strength and the hair. I can't come up with any explanation for his pants, I'm afraid, or any of his clothing, really- not a valid explanation, at any rate. Unless you consider "screaming fangirl fanservice" a valid explanation. *shrug* Good enough for me, I guess...But Sydney? *blinkblink* Uh, Sydney? If Ashley is "screaming fangirl fanservice", then Sydney is...fanservice to the nth degree! *blinkblink* Yeah...there is no explanation, reason, or excuse for Sydney's pants. None at all. At least Ashley makes an attempt at being decent, sort of.

Funny how all the other characters are fully clothed...Although Hardin's pants also seem to have issues. Everyone else wears a skirt (yes, Guildenstern, that's a skirt, you're evil and in denial), or a kilt, or something of the sort, and apparently it's just the pants that have issues in this game. I want Callo's hair, because it's nifty and braided. She's plot device material, but at least they don't try to disguise her as anything else, so I don't mind her much...yet. (I'm only about two/three hours into the game because I keep getting killed by random things, you see. Save spaces need to be more prolific...)

So...it's a pretty, pretty thing for an older game, with pretty, pretty people (and pretty fanservice), and I do very much so like Ashley (why does he look so young?), while Sydney creeps me out ever so slightly (...the levels of wrong that are his arms, pants, and waistline, my god! ...he looks like an anorexic Swedish extra from the set of Frankenstein 2525...), and Hardin- oh, Hardin. Poor, poor Hardin. He's a lackey, he is, and like all good lackeys he grovels and complains and gives his master good advice that gets ignored, and he's so. very. doomed. *pats Hardin on the head* Callo's cool, because Ashley promised her all the wine in the wine cellars of Lea Monde, which would very easily make her quite rich and powerful and it would mean that she'd be able to buy enough cloth for a longer skirt. Like Guildenstern's skirt. *snicker* I'm sorry, but I just can't respect him as a villain when he has both a goatee and a skirt in denial. I imagine that he'd have a nasal voice, too. Possibly a lisp. *snicker*

I suppose the niftiest thing is that Ashley is a veritable walking arsenal; my favorite weapon, naturally, is the spear. Mmm, polearms. Also naturally, I have renamed the weapons to random things; my favorite is the Rusty Nail, which was immediately renamed to the much more dignified and fear-inspiring...Pokey Poke. The Fandango needed no changes, because Fandango is an arse-kicking name for a sword.

Oh, yes, and the way they speak in dialect? *falls over and dies* "Buggered if I know!" *dies again* Yes, this game is a ridiculous amount of fun. The ending is going to make me cry (you do realize that I'm speaking figuratively when I say things like that, don't you? Because I don't cry- ever.) but that's okay. I'll enjoy it muchly up until the end, and then I'll probably enjoy the end anyway, since I'm sure it'll be on large amounts of crack. Then I can read all the fanfic that I've been avoiding for want of not ruining everything completely, and actually understand what's going on.

I just can't wait 'til I get to meet Grissom and Duane and Rosencrantz. *splee*