Abandoned Vagrant Story 2 Prologue Has Some Enticing Ties to Final Fantasy 14

Word of a Vagrant Story sequel, even a shred of an abandoned idea for one, is the sort of story that would have certain RPG players chomping at the bit for more. A little while ago, Vagrant Story's writer and director Yasumi Matsuno gave fans exactly that by posting a prologue from his abandoned proposal for Vagrant Story 2.

If you're a big Vagrant Story fan or a follower of Matsuno's work on Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy 12, or his recent contributions to Final Fantasy 14, you'd be forgiven for not having seen this yet—he only posted it in response to a fan on Twitter. Matsuno adds that while he made the prologue document in question in 2013, the "original plan" dates back to 2002, about two years after the release of Vagrant Story.

Matsuno posted the prologue in Japanese and mentioned being unable to translate it to English himself, but @hiansphere quickly came through with one. The biggest takeaway from the prologue is that instead of starring Ashley Riot, the protagonist from the first game, it seems that Vagrant Story 2 would've instead followed a "tracker" named Jack, who possesses a "special ability" that allows him to extract information from people's minds.

As a post from Redditor Dreamboum explains, it seems we're hearing about all of this now because Matsuno has explored similar ideas, if not repurposed parts of his Vagrant Story 2 proposal, for a questline in FF14's latest expansion.

Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida recently told USgamer that Matsuno's "a hardcore FF14 player," explaining why he returned to make Shadowbringers' Save the Queen questline. There have been thematic ties and references linking Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy 14 before, but the similarities between this prologue proposal and Save the Queen (namely, the focus on rooting around in peoples' minds) do suggest Matsuno may have taken some of what he would've liked to do with a Vagrant Story sequel and put it into his current darling.

Even if we never get a sequel, it also seems that Square Enix hasn't completely forgotten about Vagrant Story. For its 20th anniversary earlier this year, Square Enix revealed a couple high-quality Bring Arts figures of Ashley and Sydney Losstarot. If reading about what could've been has stirred up your Vagrant Story fondness, you should also read USG's in-depth interview with localizers Alexander O. Smith and Rich Amtower.