I didn’t have a wakizahi until after a couple new game pluses. So yeah my lack of gear/grinding didn’t help >.>
They are pretty easy to make, since you can get Shotels from one of the Crimson Blades in the last “above ground” area before the Cathedral. It was a little tough to find Falchions to make the Khoras but otherwise you can get it done in about half an hour, and get some pretty darn good armor while you’re at it.
All I cared about was that it had a ten-something defense against Slashing, so my default Beast Killer (Sword) didn’t do shit. I ended up wasting MP recovery items in order to cast Explosion over and over.
Man, those Warlock spells… useless as all get-out.
But yeah, don’t attempt VS without at least an item combining FAQ. Trying to do all those combinations yourself is torture.
And I agree that it’s a lot more enjoyable on New Game+.
I never got into VS. Do not get me wrong, I liked the game, and the customization was kind of fun. But, it was just too complicated to really get into it.
I never found any of the special weapons. Mostly I used medium strength weapons with uber powered grips and gems, like the rapier, shamshir, and katana.
I am guessing this wakizishi is one of those Uber swords? Heard about an Excalibur, but never saw it.
You can get Falchions off the lizardmen in the town walls right by that part of the town center. You can also get claymores from those lizardmen, which combine with the Shiavona that one of the humans has to make high level great swords. Not to mention that one of the humans is the only drop for tridents, which are required for high level spears and the other weapon needed for that is found on one of the lizardmen. The undercity near there has various high level daggers, so it is rather easy to spend hours fighting for drops in that vicinity to make lots of good hagane weapons.
@Amon: Wakizashi is the best regular sword. it is made from 2 khopeshes which are made from 2 khoras which are made from a shotel and a falchion. Excalibur is the name of a rare drop weapon found in the Iron Maiden B3 (only accessible on newgame+) it has the best sword grip in the game (spiral hilt) the best gem (Arturos which adds 25 to most everything) and has the blade of the sword the end boss uses (which is the best greatsword in the game).
I always change the buttons around so that the circle button is the “execute command” button… FF7 used that by default, so did all of the SNES era RPGs. I’m just used to it. As for the games, VS is probably the best of the three, Grandia is an excellent game, but Alundra is good too.
This thread got me to start up my copy that I never started. I’m at about the third save point, and not any bosses yet. Any survival tips in general?
I always use a short sword for VS, because I like shields for extra defense. Though I carry a crossbow for those highflying bat bastards.
One of my favorite games, this. The story freakin’ rocks. You should’ve just heard me and Jing screaming bloody murder towards the end when cutscenes involving Sydney’s downfall are played while I dwaddle with bosses trying to get there in time, and this despite that I already knew what would happen.
The way to go about VS to get a good weapon in the end is to carry three weapons that you use against certain enemies.
- Human, Beast
- Undead, Phantom
- Dragon, Evil
Change weapons whenever you fight something of different classes, so that you only use your first weapon against humans and beasts etc. If you use only one weapon, fighting one class of enemies lowers another. As you go along, combine your old weapons with new ones with good stats, now and then. Then at the end combine all three of them with a good handle and add a few gems. And if you feel the need, whack away at the training dolls scattered here and there, preferably the parts that have Dark affinity.
I know, I just couldn’t remember where to get them. I’m on my second time trough the game and I’m trying to turn my weapons (Wakisashi/Boar Spear/Morning Star) into Damascus, but I just can’t figure out what material combinations I need. Any tips?
Turning things to damascus is a pain in the ass. You are better off abandoning the wakizashi for a Romphaia (Rare drop in Iron Maiden B3, has more str than wakizashi, and 5 range to boot). If you are attached to the wakizashi, Holy Win works as a metal converter in this case
The spear is a long way from the top of the polearm tree, though the last few are slashing (Theres a guide on gamefaqs specifically for making a damascus version of the best polearm, cuz it’s a pain in the ass). The bad thing here is that there is no way to directly convert a hagane polearm to damascus. You would have to convert this to either iron or silver and then your options would most likely not yield a polearm. Your best bet is a silver great sword + an iron polearm which will probably, but not necessarily, yeild a polearm. Holy Win does not convert spears!
If you are willing to settle for Hagane, then Trident + Boar Spear yields Fauchard.
Fauchard+Boar Spear yields Voulge, Voulge + Fauchard yields Pole Axe. 4 Pole Axes and a fuck ton of frustration later you get a Brandestoc a 33 str 6 range piece of stabbity death.
The morning star can be combined with footman’s mace to yield a war hammer, and 4 war hammers top off the maces. You can use Holy Win as a metal converter here
Yeah, I know that only the sword is fully developed. Thanks for the tips though.
This thread got me to start up my copy that I never started. I’m at about the third save point, and not any bosses yet. Any survival tips in general?
What Weiila said about weapons and affinity is very good advice.
Also, watch your Risk! Once it gets around 20 or so, it’s going to be harder and harder to hit enemies. Incidentally, you’ll also take more and more damage, your evasion will lower, and you’ll be more susceptible to statuses. The only benefit to high Risk is that healing magic will recover more.
While it’s tempting to use a Vera item during a heated battle to reduce your Risk and start striking again, think twice before doing so. Vera items are quite rare, and there are fights late into the game (such as the final boss) where you’ll need to be at RISK ZERO as much as possible to even get a hit in.
What I suggest you do during boss fights is to strike the enemy a few times, and do a few chains so that you do a decent amount of damage, but watch that your Risk doesn’t go up too high. You’ll be able to tell if it’s too high if your hit rate goes down dramatically. When it does, exit battle mode (so that your weapon isn’t actually drawn), and do whatever you can to prolong the enemy’s attacking; run away, stay close to it, run around it in circles, etc. While you’re doing this, your HP, MP and Risk will all slowly recover. When your Risk is back to normal, use items if necessary to get your HP or MP back up, and then attack again.
When fighting Dragon bosses, run straight up to them and hide under their neck. This will prevent them from ever breathing fire/ice or whatever on you. You’ll still have to deal with their tail attacks, but they’re not nearly as bad.
Finally, Gems that raise affinities towards creature types and elementals are the most important Gems in the game. If you find one, KEEP IT. For example, the battles with the Elementals are almost dependant on a weapon with a strong Phantom class and good Elemental affinity. So when you’re about to battle an Elemental boss, stick gems of the opposite affinity into your weapon (i.e: water affinity gems against the Fire Elemental). You can also cast spells that raise the power of a particular element attack, which makes the battles even easier. Luckily, you usually get said spells before having to fight the elemental bosses themselves.
By the way, is it weird that I’ve obtained 2 Hand of Light heavy maces and a Holy Win greatsword, and I’m only on my third playthrough? O_o
Actually, I ended the game on both of my playthroughs with about 60 extra Vera items. So I didn’t find them to be all that rare. 
Mana items were much rarer.
Not really, I had a Holy Win/Rhomphaia factory going by running in and out of the Iron Maiden. The drop rate on Hand of Light is better than most equipment (13 of 255 for iron in the time trial, 8 or 13 for Hagane in a couple places). Holy Wins are just a matter of persistance, as they have a lousy 3 in 255 drop rate. Rhomphaias range from 5 to 13 in 255 depending on which specific one it is.
One good thing about camping for Holy Wins is that Dark Crusaders and Last Crusaders in the Iron Maiden drop Elixir of Queens with a rate of 48/255 which is damned good for anything in this game.
This is one game where you should use items anytime you think you might need them. You don’t get to take any misc. items on to the next game, so you might as well use them all whenever they might help. I ended one run with 70 vera roots, 50 mana roots and 90 something cure roots, and they all went to waste.
As for risk… It isn’t that big of a deal, if you are trying to just motor through the game. If you are able to time defense abilities well, you can fairly easily go through the whole game at 100 risk and low health, spamming raging ache chains as your sole source of damage. It’s rather mindless, but it can be effective.
I remember getting quite a few Mana items killing Lizard-types.
If I recall correctly, you used the circle button for commands in FFT, that option was available in other FFs(and RPGs)for PSX. Personally, I’d rather use the circle button for commands.
circle=command and x=cancel is easier for me as it resembles the a=command b=cancel setup from NES/SNES RPGS. If x was command and there was an option to change it(99.9 percent of PSX/PS2 RPGS do have configurable controls), I changed it to fit my old school dorkiness.
Lastly, I’ve never played Vagrant Sstory, but when I get my PS2, I’ll give it a whirl. I like tactical RPGs.
It’s not tactical really, it’s just the old “Spend an eternity leveling” replacing the “leveling” for “item hunting/training”. On your first playthrough, the “Game” part is divided by what might be called “Sim Blacksmith” and enough messing around with boxes and crates to make me believe I was back playing “Soul Reaver”. The cutscenes are what really shine and are more than enough to keep you interested until you finish the story.
If you want to have a fun gameplay, you are better off waiting until New Game+.
I dunno… I gave that whole uber-weaponizing a miss and I probably had much more fun that way. ^^; It’s not that difficult that you need any of them anyway. I kept three weapons around (a silver dagger for undead and phantoms, a hagane sword for humans and beasts, and a hagane spear for dragons and evil) and I managed just fine on both playthroughs. Uberizing is possible but not necessary to do everything in the game (unlike, say, FFX or SO3).
I liked Soul Reaver.
So did I, I’m just saying that the puzzles are very alike, if a bit crappier IMO.