Software:Vanguard Bandits

Short description: 1998 video game

Vanguard Bandits
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Human Entertainment
Publisher(s)	JP: Human Entertainment NA: Working Designs
Composer(s)	Kouji Niikura Chiyomaru Shikura
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release	JP: July 30, 1998 NA: June 28, 2000
Genre(s)	Tactical role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Vanguard Bandits, known in Japan as is a tactical role-playing game (RPG) for the PlayStation. The game was developed by Human Entertainment and originally released in Japan on July 30, 1998. It was published in North America by Working Designs.

Vanguard Bandits is a support-centric strategy RPG featuring tactical combat in a medieval fantasy world in which knights and soldiers pilot mecha. This game takes place on the Continent of Eptina where numerous battles have taken place over territory, goods, and beliefs. In the midst of the conflict archaeologists in the Pharastia Kingdom discovered giant armored mecha that they called ATACs, or All Terrain Armored Combatants, that could be controlled by the thoughts of the pilot seated inside the unit's head. The Kingdom used the power of these ATACs to assume control of the entire continent, and then decided to use them to keep the peace in their new territories. Pharastia soon began to lose control as Coup d'etats and civil wars erupted which left it in a defeated state, with only their standing army remaining.

Gameplay

Vanguard Bandits is an RPG strategy game played on an isometric grid of squares with representations of all the player and computer controlled ATACs, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics and the Front Mission series by Square. Each character can move around on the grid, attack, and perform support abilities. All actions during that ATACs turn takes up AP (Actions Points), and attacks produce FP (Fatigue Points). If the Fatigue Points reach maximum, the pilot becomes unable to perform any actions until he/she awakens, leaving him/her open to attack. When an ATAC unit attacks or defends from an attack, a detailed three-dimensional battle animation with music is shown over the normal grid. Between each battle is a story cutscene where the characters within the ATACs are represented on a similar grid and can interact and further the story line.

The player progresses through a total of 20 missions in one of three different story lines. Different battles and events happen based on the choices of the character within certain story scenes between battles, a character's level, or the morale of the group. Notably, if Bastion reaches a high enough level by the end of the third mission, he will be faced with the choice of whether to remain with his companions on the Kingdom branch or to chase after the game's villain, ultimately reaching the Empire branch. Each of these branches has two endings, the Kingdom branch depending on the overall morale of the characters and the Empire branch depending on Bastion's relationship with two female characters. Players who have beaten the game once are given the option of switching from the Kingdom branch to the whimsical, pessimistic, non-serious Ruin branch.

Combat

Each ATAC has a number of attacks available to it, depending on its weapon and gemstone; many major characters also have one (or more) special attacks not available to other characters in the game. Each attack deals a different amount on damage and has a different chance of hitting the target (affected, of course, by the character's own stats). Most attacks can only be made on adjacent squares; some can hit enemies further away, the Turbulence attack in particular having a range of four squares. Attacks from the side and rear have higher success rates and leave the defender fewer options; thus, flanking is a vital strategy in Vanguard Bandits.

Attacks can be classified into three types:

• Normal: Standard attack. Most attacks fall into this category.
• Knockdown: If the attack succeeds, the defender is knocked down and thus unable to respond with a counterattack. Selecting the Defend option prevents the defending ATAC from falling over.
• Collision: Used only by particularly heavy attacks, collision rams the defending ATAC full force, always toppling it unless the attack is evaded or parried.

Additionally, some attacks can cause temporary negative status effects on the victim, such as reduced speed or attack power.

When attacked, the defending ATAC has several options:

• Attack: Once the attacker has carried out their attack, the defender responds with an attack of their own. While this can cause significant damage, it also costs high FP (all AP costs are converted to FP for the purpose of counterattacking). Additionally, the counterattack will be canceled if the attacker uses a successful Knockdown or Collision attack. It cannot be used against rear attacks.
• Defend: The defender braces themselves and takes defensive maneuvers, thus reducing the damage received. It costs 30 FP and cannot be used against rear attacks.
• Avoid: The defender attempts to avoid the attack, thus preventing any damage. This is the only move that can be performed against rear attacks, and costs 20 FP.
• Counter: The defender preempts the enemy attack, thus doing damage while protecting oneself from harm, but if it fails the defender receives more damage. It can be only used against frontal attacks and costs 20 FP. If the defending character has the appropriate skill, some enemy attacks can also be parried, resulting in no damage to the defender.

As well as attacks designed to inflict damage, players can also use special abilities which assist friendly ATACs, such as increasing a stat, recovering HP or reducing FP. One skill, Turn Quake, is designed to be used on enemies; it rotates them in a random direction.

Terrain plays an important role in the game. Moving across difficult terrain such as forests and deserts requires more AP than normal, although not all ATACs suffer equally from this effect (some not at all). Some terrain is completely impassable.

The ATACs

All-Terrain Armored Combatants, or ATACs, are the main fighting force of the various armies in the game; the entire combat system revolves around them. They are large bipedal, humanoid (though one ATAC is a quadruped) mechs powered by gemstones. Despite their high technological complexity, ATACs still utilize traditional weapons such as swords and spears, but they can also use special attacks such as fireballs, earthquakes, flying shards of ice and tornadoes, depending on their gemstone.

ATACs that existed before the game takes place are called "Excavated ATACs". These were built by Eptina's original inhabitants and were discovered by archaeologists of the continent's current settlers. These machines became the basis for modern ATACs though none created since have surpassed an Excavated ATAC on the combat field. Each ruler of Eptina possesses an Excavated ATAC.

Development

Prior to its North American release, Vanguard Bandits was titled Detonator Gauntlet by Working Designs, but Midway forced the company to change it due to its similarity to the Gauntlet series of action-fantasy games. The North American release included a bonus demo disc of Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete for PlayStation.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 62/100 Review scores Publication Score EGM 5.5/10 Game Informer 7.75/10 GameSpot 6.2/10 IGN 6.5/10 Next Generation OPM (US) PSM RPGamer (2000) 9/10 (2013) 3.5/5

The game received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Eric Bratcher of Next Generation was positive to the game, commending the story, characters, and gameplay, but said that it did not brought anything new to the genre. Game Informer gave it a favorable review, about two months before the game was released Stateside.

External links

• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers". This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months. The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing. A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school. Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information. In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount. This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign. A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art). Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel, and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million. The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager. Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface. This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue. Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.

See also

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions