The Vagrant Story Gallery
Both 2000 boxes of Vagrant Story carry the same illustration: Ashley Riot and Sydney Losstarot back to back, Ashley in front with his looped hair ornaments, Sydney behind with his long hair bound up, and the title lettering speared through by a sword where the T should be. What differs is how hard each publisher leaned on the painting.
The Japanese box washes the art almost to white, two pale figures dissolving into a blank field, with only the small katakana title above the logo for company. The North American box runs the identical art at full strength, warm parchment tones, the tattoo on Ashley’s chest legible, and then adds the furniture of a sales pitch: the black PlayStation spine strip, a Teen rating, a red 2 discs badge, and catalog number SLUS-01040 printed under the rating.
Flip the American box over and the pitch continues: the headline Agent of the Crown, a crossbow portrait of Callo Merlose, a screenshot carrying a comic style speech balloon, and a bullet point advertising the SQUARESOFT preview disc packed inside. This page documents the boxes as objects; the Library’s collecting page censuses every edition they belong to.
THE TWO BOXES
The same art, February and May 2000Ashley and Sydney, twice
The pair is the whole argument for keeping both. Neither box is a redraw; they are two printings of one piece of art, and the difference between them is purely a decision about how a dark game should sit on a shelf: as a rumour, or as a promise.
THE OBJECTS AROUND THEM
Discs, backs and paper