Vanguard Bandits

[Brian Moy]

Just got to one of the endings for Vanguard Bandits.  Cool strategy RPG with mechs, called ATAC's. 

The manual leaves out a lot of details on gameplay, which surprises me for a game.  The game is interesting as in addition to Action Points, each move also uses Fatigue Points - and when a character's FP bar fills up, that character gets dizzy and is unable to move or defend for a turn.  The FP really balances things out, so a single strong character has to watch their FP and can't just use their strongest attacks every turn.  Also, the ATAC's on one side can gang up on an ATAC on the other team and with consequtive hits, that ATAC will get dizzy and be defenseless - and its the way for weaker characters to team up and beat a stronger one.

The story is complex with relationship points (which as mentioned, aren't really explained in the manual how they affect the game) and responses you make branch the game in different directions, and the game has multiple outcomes and endings.  With the choices I made on my first playthru, I got the "bad" Empire ending where I helped the bad guy to kill all my friends and the Empire took over the world.  Kind of sucks, all those hours of playtime to get to that ending, but the story is pretty intense, and seem from various viewpoints - and various characters will fight for one side or another, and maybe change from one side to the other depending on the responses you give.

[Brian Moy]

Still playing.  Just finished the game for the third time so seen 3 of the endings.  The "good" ending as well as the "bad" ending and the one where Bastion gives up Ultragunner.

[Brian Moy]

Still playing.  Finished the game for the fourth time a few days ago, so saw four of the endings.  Playing thru again to see the fifth ending.  I've played thru all but 3 of the missions.

I ordered the strategy guide to make sure I've done everything in the game, but its looking I may have done everything in the game anyways from playing it so much.

[Jared Patton]

I remember getting this game purposelly for the Lunar 2 demo, but I never beat it.

You most be enjoying it to beat it 4 times.

[Brian Moy]

I remember getting this game purposelly for the Lunar 2 demo, but I never beat it.

You most be enjoying it to beat it 4 times.

Yeah.  I went thru the Lunar 2 demo last year before starting Vanguard Bandits.  Pretty lengthy, I think it gave me 5 hours playtime if I recall.  The demo is long enough that I'm disappointed actually that I couldn't transfer my save from the Lunar 2 demo to the retail version of Lunar 2. 

I'm not the kind of person that just plays a game once, beats it, then trades it.  I'm the kind of person that finds a game he likes, (or can fall asleep to) plays it for 100+ hours, finishing it multiple times consecutively, playing only that game for months. 

There is one especially interesting bonus feature in Vanguard Bandits you can unlock after you beat the game a few times on the same save.  There is alternate opening FMV intros as bloopers.  Brilliant!  The alternate intros are set up like a outtakes reel where characters will fall down or mess up...  If you recall, the opening intro was drawn animation, so that means they had to go in and draw the alternate blooper cartoon that the player can only see as an unlockable option after beating it 3 times.  The thought put into that is what I love - the people who play the game enough times to be able to have the option to see that I'm sure appreciate it. 

[Brian Moy]

My strategy guide came in the mail yesterday.  Neat! 

Its hard cover with dust jacket and even has stickers in the back!  Very nice typical attention to detail and quality.  I'm not the kind of person who usually buys and uses strategy guides.  I do like to complete 100% of the things in games, but I'll just play thru the game and find everything for myself.  Usually that means I need to play thru the game at least 2 or 3 times longer than someone who has a guide and already knows what to do at every option.

I'd estimate I've probably put about 80 hours into Vanguard Bandits and after beating it 4 times have seen and done at least 95% of what's in the game, so I guess its okay to read and see if I missed anything.

[Jared Patton]

Do you do a complete run-through each time you beat it, or do you start from a saved point?

[Brian Moy]

Do you do a complete run-through each time you beat it, or do you start from a saved point?

Oh gosh, I'm an idiot...  I do a complete run through each time.  If I was smart I'd use save points right before the places where the story branches.  But I guess I'm afraid I'd mess up my game save if I didn't start from the beginning each time, so I go thru it each time.

To me its like a good TV show or movie.  If its something I really enjoyed the first time, why wouldn't I enjoy going thru it again like how I would watching a repeat of an certain episode I really liked?

[Jared Patton]

So the game must be on the short side considering you've beatin it 4 times and have clocked in around 80 hours.

This is one of the few games I haven't beatin'. Say what you will about Victor Ireland and , but they always gave me quality products a packaging. Try saying that about EA with thier 5 page black & white instruction manuals. Yet they can charge $60 and it's somehow acceptable.

[Brian Moy]

So the game must be on the short side considering you've beatin it 4 times and have clocked in around 80 hours.

Yeah, I'd estimate so.  The game doesn't record the actual play time on the saves so I'm estimating, each playthru consists of 20 chapters (depending on your choices, however the specific chapters will change, but its always 20) and each one I'm estimating at about an hour or so per battle - kind of basically like what you'd estimate for most games like Hoshigami or Saiyuki where with each battle is your whole team against theirs, turn based on a grid.

This is one of the few games I haven't beatin'. Say what you will about Victor Ireland and , but they always gave me quality products a packaging. Try saying that about EA with thier 5 page black & white instruction manuals. Yet they can charge $60 and it's somehow acceptable.

EA is pretty arrogant and they market all their products VERY well.  I get the impression they can sell things with their name on it and people will buy it.  There's a lot I could say about EA's politics now, but I did like EA's early releases they did on Genesis, when they did the ports of various computer games and highlighted works done by independent developers. 

[Brian Moy]

The strategy guide comes with 2 pages of full color stickers!  Including memory card stickers!      Luckily whoever owned this book didn't use em so they're still there.  The game takes I think only 1 or 2 blocks - too bad - if it used up a whole card, then I'd use the memory card stickers to use for a Vanguard Bandits memory card.

The other stickers are pretty cool, I'd like to put them on something.  Too bad they didn't do any stickers of my favorite character in the game - Andrew. 

[Brian Moy]

I just beat Vanguard Bandits for the fifth time and won all 56 missions.  And I have this screenshot in the options to show I saw 32/32 ATACs in the game and won 56/56 missions.



Another picture I took didn't come out bright enough, but I put the Vanguard Bandits memory card stickers on one of my memory cards and it looks cool.

So what  game to start next?  I would like to play Vasteel.  Hopefully I've got that one...  In the Vanguard Bandits strategy guide,  does some name dropping, mentioning that Vasteel is another turn based strategy RPG with mechs in it by the same people who did Vanguard Bandits, Human Entertainment - so that sounds cool to me.