retronauts
patreon
Episode 676: Vagrant Story
🕑 Added 2025-03-07 12:00:13 +0000 UTCNadia: This week on Retronauts: Show a little respect for faerie tales, Riskbreaker. Yasumi Matsuno's masterpiece action RPG Vagrant Story is officially a quarter of a century old, so now's as good a time as any for a few old-ass writers to swap stories about the cold, dead corridors of Lea Monde. I'm joined by noted Risk-taker Jeremy Parish and Alexander O. Smith, the translator and localizer responsible for bringing life to Vagrant Story's western script – and indeed, to the land of Ivalice in general. What special challenges did Smith have to overcome? Is Vagrant Story's battle system that opaque, or are we all just kind of dumb? And what kind of terrible butt-goblin went around cutting out the seats of everyone's pants in Lea Monde? Ashley and Sydney must've been pretty cold in hindsight. (Ayy!)
Art by Greg Melo
9:15 - Vagrant Story: "Opening Movie"
20:20 - Vagrant Story: "Factory"
38:29 - Final Fantasy Tactics +: "Antidote"
53:19 - Final Fantasy IX: "You're Not Alone"
1:05:18 - Crimson Shroud: "Show Your Mettle"
1:20:29 - Vagrant Story: "Grotesque Creature"
1:29:25 - Vagrant Story: "Robot Dungeon Mix"
Comments
Nuno Amaral
Focusing on the localization aspect of Vagrant Story was a pretty cool perspective that most outlets wouldn't or perhaps couldn't do. It's part or reason I love this podcast, brilliant hosts, interesting guests and an awesome, supportive community. And who knows, maybe later on, down the road we can get a deeper dive into some of the other aspects of this wonderful game.
Typhoon Jim
Retronauts is often like a con panel where I know the topic but they come at it with a weird slant.
Typhoon Jim
I didn't understand the Assless Ivalice Pants until I got into larping and started wearing armor: that is what armored leggings are like
Typhoon Jim
It answered my main burning Vagrant Story questions (who made up the names) so it was good enough for me
Galbana
I chanced upon Vagrant Story as I was exploring the Final Fantasy games available on PS1/2, and fell in love with its melancholically baroque story, complex but rewarding gameplay, and visual style that at times almost brings to mind a Rembrandt painting with it's stark use of light and shadow. More than even that, I was in awe of its poetic, but never too-complex writing. It was an absolute joy to hear Nadia and Jeremy interrogate Alex how he approached translating and writing the English script of the game, and hearing his general opinions on the challenges that come with localizing games.
Alex R
They hardly talked about Vagrant story in this episode…it was just about language localization. Disappointing.
Christopher Grunert Pedersen
Hell yeah, I love Matsuno’s games and Alex’s writing. Gonna give this a listen.
Andrew O.
The episode felt more about localization than about Vagrant Story. Still enjoyable though.
Kormakur Gardarsson
Having listened to the episode now I do wish more time was spent on its many esoteric systems and winding story, the Matsuno-ism of it all. Perhaps a follow-up episode focusing on Final Fantasy XII is in order?
Kormakur Gardarsson
An episode about one of my favourite games ever, with the person responsible for its incredible script? Christmas came early this year!
BlueWeaselBreath
Looking forward to this! I have Vagrant Story but haven’t played it yet. Is this one of those episodes that is welcoming to the uninitiated, or is it all reminiscences that I’m going to not going to be able to understand if I haven’t played the game? If it’s the latter, I will hold off on this episode until I play the game, which could be months.
FrancisYorkMorgan
Missing this episode would be an incomplete death.
