Vanguard Bandits is a Good, but not Great PS1 Game

The PS1 library is full of RPGs that I’ve never heard of. Every time I think I know about them, I manage to find a few more. I know this won’t last forever, but at the moment, it feels like I keep stumbling across a new one every other month.

Vanguard Bandits is one of those games. It is a Tactical RPG that was released by Working Designs. For those who don’t know, this is a company that localized and published RPGs, as well as other genres, for North America. It has a long history of bringing amazing games to market and creating some of the best covers and early special editions of video games.

Back to the game. Vanguard Bandits takes place in a fantasy world that blends magic and technology. It was released in 1998 and brought to North America in 2000. It has a lot going for it.

TLDR: A good game that is too easy and short to be great.

Story and Setting

There are a number of tropes from other Tactical RPGs in this game. It seems that many games in this genre share similar plots, or at the very least, similar plot points.

They start with a war between two or more countries. A smaller country or a rebellion is fighting against an empire or its proxy. The player’s character fights against the empire for various reasons, often driven by a desire for revenge. There is also a royal who switches sides, or joins with the player’s party.

Vanguard Bandits is no different. You’re thrust into the middle of a war between a Kingdom and an Empire. The player’s character is the last member of a royal family and is fighting against the empire. There is also a mentor character who dies early on.

Bastion, the main character, is the rightful king of a kingdom that is at war with the empire. This kingdom has a super mech called the Ultragunner. It can only be piloted by a member of the royal family. That is basically the story for the first few chapters.

You deal with a lot of betrayal and manipulation in this game. Almost all of it is due to the Empire’s schemes, specifically from Faulkner using spies, assassins, and blackmail to turn the other countries against your party.

The Imperial Princess Sadira is trying to end the war and the atrocities being committed by her army. We don’t hear much from the rest of the imperial family, but we do know there is a prince and an emperor.

We get a familiar plot point about halfway through the game. The Emperor is killed, and suspicion is cast on the Prince. Unsurprisingly, Faulkner is behind it, but the rest of the characters wouldn’t know that.

Faulkner has the Prince arrested. There is the loose end of Sadira, but I’m sure that will be tied up at some point. Then, Faulkner gets the Zulwarn, which is the evil version of the Ultragunner.

As a side note, every country is spying on one another, and assassins are everywhere. It is one of the things I didn’t like about the game, especially when some characters bring it up out of nowhere. It just doesn’t fit for all the countries in this game.

There are a few dialogue choices that can change the story a bit, but for the most part, it is a very linear story. I do like the story, but it could’ve been better if it were a branching story. There is something that makes me want to revisit this game at some point, so I can see what I missed.

The walkthrough for this game is a little confusing. There are three main branches to this story:

• Kingdom – The Main Story. It has two endings.
• Empire – Splits after the third mission if you choose to go after Faulkner. This branch has two endings.
• Ruin – Splits at mission eleven if you choose to take over the continent. The branch has one ending.

I got the bad ending on the Kingdom branch. I’m not sure how I got it, but I ended up with it. One character mentions the relationship system in the game. I have no idea how that system works, but I can only assume it was because I let two characters get defeated too often.

Gameplay

Vanguard Bandits is a tactical RPG where your units are mechs, referred to in the game as ATACs. The battles take place on an isometric map where terrain and direction of attack play a role in combat. It is rather refreshing to have something simple like this.

I’m unsure if there is permanent death in this game. It wouldn’t surprise me, but at the time I’m writing this, I’m not sure. It doesn’t appear that you lose characters if they’re defeated in battle.

The combat is pretty good. The standard formula for Tactical RPGs was changed up a bit by giving you more options when you’re being attacked. Here is what I mean:

• Attack
• Avoid
• Defend
• Counter

You pick which action you want to take, and then select “Go!” which starts combat.

Like some Tactical RPGs, Vanguard Bandits gives you a hit percentage for your and your opponent’s attacks. These numbers are mostly crap, or at least they feel like it. You’re either going to hit or not.

You do have healing and buff spells. I didn’t realize this until halfway through the game. There is always something I mess up when I play Retro RPGs, and in this case, it was not paying attention to the skill you have outside of combat.

Victory conditions are somewhat vague, especially early in the game. There is dialogue both before and during the battle, but the way to win isn’t always made clear. You need to pause the game and click on the “Tactics” to learn what you need to do, if you just click through the dialogue, or forget over the course of the mission.

 I do like the way you get more attacks/skills in this game. It is a little cryptic, but I like the idea of using skill points to unlock more attacks/skills.

When you level up a character, you’ll get three skill points. These can be spent on your base stats, and these will unlock new attacks/skills. Here is a list of the stats you can upgrade:

• Bas
• Power
• Dexterity
• Agility
• Defense
• Weapon

There is an interview system in the game where you can talk with your party members. This happens between missions, and you can talk to three people each time. I have no idea what it does or if it impacts the game.

Now that I’ve done a little more research on the Interview system, I realize how badly I screwed up the game. It is tied into a Morale system, which determines the ending you get. So, how can you change the morale of your troops, and how do you get the good ending?

• The game takes the average of your party’s Morale. A +7 gives you the good ending, and less than that gives you the bad ending.
• Talking to them in the Interview menu can raise their Morale.
• Keeping them alive during battle will raise their Morale.
• Using them in battle will also raise their Morale.

You won’t know exactly what your score is until you start the final battle. It’s a little frustrating, but if you just want to get to the ending, you can ignore all this. If you want to get the “good” ending, then do your best to keep everyone happy.

This isn’t a difficult game. Compared to other Tactical RPGs, the combat is fairly simple and easy to understand. If you stay in a group and attack from the sides and the rear, then you’ll be just fine. Defeating the enemy leader also seems to demoralize or cause the regular troops to give up. It is a little weird.

Visuals

Like other games I’ve played from the late 1990s and early 2000s, Vanguard Bandits uses two graphic styles. Most of the game is rendered in pixel art, which I think holds up better; in contrast, the combat is rendered in 3D polygons. There are also anime cutscenes, which look awesome!

The pixel art looks okay. It isn’t as detailed as other games from 1998, but it gets the job done on the combat screen. Outside of combat, the character sprites are more detailed and look much better.

The further you get in the game, the better the sprites look on the battle screen. The enemies get more detailed, and your units get more personality. I like the way they look, but it takes a little while for the cooler looking sprites for the mechs to appear in the game.

When you attack or defend, the 3D models look okay. I’m sure they were great in 1998, but by 2000, they weren’t anything special. Looking at them today, all I see is some generic PS1 graphics.

Special attacks and spells are in the game, and their graphics are okay. It is similar to how I felt about the spells in Wild Arms and other PS1 RPGs. They don’t look back, but are underwhelming.

The anime cutscene at the beginning looks very good! Like many other RPGs from this period, I wish there were more of them in the game. As it stands, they look good, but they are few and far between.

Nothing looks bad in this game. The graphics are a little above average. I wish this game had been given 2D art, similar to what you would see in a Capcom fighting game. I just don’t like the 3D graphics from this period that much.

Reviews at the Time

I think the reviewers got this game right back in the 2000s. Vanguard Bandits received above average reviews, with the lowest being a 5.5/10 and the highest being a 7.75/10. At the time, a 5/10 was considered to be an average game.

Game Informer had a team of three people review this game. Their scores were 8, 7.5, and 7.5. They compared this game to Front Mission 3, which is a great comparison! It has more in common with that game than something like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre.

GameSpot gave the game a 6.2/10. The biggest issue they raise is the graphics. The reviewer called them dated, but I’m not sure I agree with that. They aren’t too different from other RPGs that were on the market. They used Final Fantasy Tactics and Vandal Hearts as points of comparison.

PSM gave the game a 3/5, and I think this is about right. They called it a good game, but nothing special. I can’t really argue with this.

There weren’t any outliers on this one. Because of this, I didn’t see anything that made me question one of the reviewers’ sanity.  

7.5/10. Despite having a good story and gameplay, there are a few small things that keep this game from being great. I love the ideas in this game, and I’ll always like games with giant robots. It would’ve benefited from having more playable characters and a longer story.

Pros

• Good Story
• Good Gameplay
• Fun Story

Cons

• Linear
• Lack of content
• A bit too easy for my taste.

Conclusion

If Xenogears had a tactical RPG spinoff game, then this would probably be it. It seems like everyone has a mech to fight in, which creates some odd moments where a group of bandits all have them. I guess it works for the game, but I find it a little strange that our main character is trying to hide while driving around in a huge robot.

This game felt too easy until the last few missions, which is how it should be. Once I figured out how the combat was set up, I didn’t have too many issues. Vanguard Bandits is a fairly easy Tactical RPG.

There are a few things I didn’t like about this game. The store isn’t always available, and the weapons don’t matter too much. The equipment felt like an afterthought in the game.

For the most part, I like the story. I wish there were more of it, and that some characters had better endings. The way it is now, too many characters get built up only to die off screen or disappear from the story.

If you liked this post, please check out my reviews of other RPGs, such as Wild Arms and Thousand Arms.