Vagrant Story is a game in which enormous attention is paid to little details. Occasionally, such attention on your part can yield rewards or just interesting occurrences. Here's a list of some of them.

Rare Equipment / The Real Iron Maiden / The Stock Sigil
Sydney / Fake Save Point / Screwing With Enemies' Heads

The next section ("The Real Iron Maiden") will discuss this subject in greater depth, but this one covers the rest of the game.

I. The Hand of Light

Believe it or not, the Minotaur's big mace is a usable weapon, and you can obtain it. Whenever you fight the Minotaur, the Minotaur Lord or the Minotaur Zombie, you stand a small chance of winning the Hand of Light, the ultimate two-handed mace. It actually isn't ultimate, as there's another that's stronger, but it has the biggest range and also has special Combination properties (see the Combinations section for an explanation of those). Also, if you fight the Minotaur in the Time Trial in the Keep repeatedly, you'll stand a chance of winning a Hand of Light each time. I would recommend fighting the Minotaur Lord, since his Hand of Light is made of Hagane (the others are in Bronze and Iron). Just don't get your hopes up - your chances of winning one of these are abysmal.

II. The Rhomphaia

The first Dullahan you fight, the Nightstalker and the Last Crusader all carry Rhomphaia swords. The Last Crusader's is even made of Damascus. When you fight them, you stand a chance of winning their weapons. If you get really lucky, you can win one from the first Dullahan really early in the game. Your chances of doing this are just as good as the chance of winning a Hand of Light.

III. Nimje's Coif

In the Time Trial, the Ogre Zombie is carrying the Nimje's Coif accessory, the third best in the game. It's possible for you to win it from him, but the chances are low.

IV. Morgan's Nails

In the Time Trial, Ogre Zombie's partner Death is carrying the Morgan's Nails accessory, the second best in the game. Fight him over and over if you fancy winning it, but the chances are again infinitesimal.

V. Marlene's Ring

In the Time Trial, Asura is carrying the Marlene's Ring accessory, the best in the game. I'm sure you can deduce how good your chances of winning it are.

Man oh man, is the Iron Maiden hiding a secret. If you beat the Iron Maiden B2 normally, keeping your health up like sane people would do, you'll meet Shriekers, Lich Lords and an Ogre Lord at the end, and that in itself will be more than enough for you. However, if you fancy getting your hands on the best equipment in the game, you're going to have to complicate the situation some more.

First, contrive some device to lower your HP to below 150. This is crucial. Don't let it go above 150 at any point in this quest. To do this, you can jump off cliffs or cast weak attack magic on yourself. It doesn't really matter. Now, when your HP is below 150, put on your toughest equipment and head to the Iron Maiden B2.

Well, this is a surprise! Instead of Lich Lords, you're suddenly facing Dark Crusaders! And each of them is carrying a Rhomphaia made from Hagane, Silver or Damascus, attached to a Spiral Grip and with a rare Gem equipped! How about that? As you traverse the Iron Maiden B2, you'll meet Dark Crusaders in every room, and have the opportunity to wrest these weapons from all of them. The odds are, as always, tiny, but since you'll be up against many of them, you'll stand a slightly better chance of winning at least something in the course of your journey (provided they don't kill you). Oh, and stay away from those little side rooms, as those will still be full of Shriekers who will take advantage of your weakened state and kill you with Banish.

If you slog your way through B2 through all the Dark Crusaders and warps without letting your HP go above 150, you'll find out that the Ogre Lord at the end of the labyrinth has been replaced with a Last Crusader. This Last Crusader will be carrying a Damascus Holy Win, the same weapon that Guildenstern will use in the final battle! And moreover, it will come with a Spiral Grip and an Arturos Gem, the best Gem in the game. Of course, you'll still have to fight the Last Crusader to get it, and your chances of getting it are smaller than ever, but that won't deter you, will it?

If you've gotten every treasure chest in the game but one, and you've looked and looked and still can't find it, it's actually because it's one of the ones you've found before. If you recall, there was a treasure chest in the room in the Wine Cellar where you fought the Minotaur, the first major enemy of the game. Well, after some point in the game it gets replenished, and the door to that room gets locked with the Stock Sigil, which you can find in another treasure chest in Undercity East, in the room called Sale of the Sword. Once you've got it, you can teleport back to the Wine Cellar and use it to regain access to the room where you killed the Minotaur. The only hitch is that the room now contains a Minotaur Zombie, but by then you will be well enough equipped to make it a quick fight; just use Spark Fusion and an Edged weapon. Then, assuming you have the Chest Key (won from the Wyvern Knight in Iron Maiden B1), you can loot the chest. It doesn't have anything too special, but at least you'll have found them all.

When you get through the Snowfly Forest, you'll have to fight Father Grissom and a Dark Crusader. Fortunately, Sydney Losstarot will be fighting alongside you. You'll probably notice that he appears just about invincible to anything Grissom or the Dark Crusader can throw at him. However, he still has a finite amount of HP. If, on second play, you decide to attack him for whatever reason, you can deplete this HP. Nothing will come of it but a brief cutscene, and Sydney will be right back at the end of the fight, but you can do this if you really can think of nothing better to do.

There's a misconception going around that doing this will give you a chance at winning Sydney's sword. This is false, as he will never drop that sword. Furthermore, it shouldn't matter, since his sword is a mediocre Short Sword anyway. Don't waste your time.

This has absolutely no bearing on anything in the game whatsoever, but if you go to the Snowfly Forest East and press Start to activate the free-look pause while you're in the entrance area, you can see a Save Point on the ground that won't be there if you unpause.

When you fight enemies, you'll see little thought bubbles come up over their heads in which ellipses will slowly appear. When they do, the enemies will attack you. There's more you can make them do, though.

Run up to an enemy and hit it, then run away and hide behind something (such as a crate or a fence post). The enemy will look about and its thought bubble will display a little question mark. Now it will walk around looking for you, and you can ambush it from behind.

Okay, that isn't too interesting. But what if you can make enemies attack each other? It can be done! Go find a place where there are multiple enemies. I find that this works well when one enemy has a short-range weapon such as a sword and another has a long-range one such as a spear. Now, position yourself in such a way that the enemies are arranged in a straight line in front of you.

If the enemies are in range, they will just attack. This means that, if the long-range spear-carrier has his attack ready, he'll try to impale you even if there's another, close-range enemy standing right there between you and him. As a result, his attack will hit the other enemy, not you!

Now, the thought bubble of the enemy that just got hit will display shock, and the enemy will turn right around and whack his erstwhile ally. You can jump back and watch them hack each other to bits, or you can take it one step further. After the enemy who first got hit gets hit some more times, actually heal him, with a spell or item. If he gets hit some more, heal him again. Keep doing this until he beats his opponent and his thought bubble should display a big pink heart! Now, he will follow you around and help you fight other enemies...at least, other enemies in the vicinity. If you leave the area, the former enemy won't follow you anymore and will be hostile if you return to that area again. It's still a nice addition to the game, though.