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65 of 71 found the following review helpful:
Exploring a Galaxy Never Felt So GoodFeb 10, 2007
By S. Rhodes
The Playstation 2 has tons of RPGs. When a new one marches forth most RPGers can usually say "Yep" or "Nope." Rogue Galaxy is definitely a "Yep." It's easy to grasp, yet difficult to master. It's shorthanded in some key areas which keep it from being perfect, but it's still one of the best RPGs to come around in a while.
Rogue Galaxy follows the story of Jaster. Jaster dreams of exploring the galaxy someday. He more than gets his chance after having a run in with a Bounty Hunter, and then being mistaken for said bounty hunter. In all honesty, Rogue Galaxy doesn't have a great storyline. It's certainly not horrible, but it's standard. It's also full of predictable plot points, and it actually lacks a little in the character development. These two aspects of any RPG are crucial. Whether you want to accept it or not, story and character development are important, and Rogue Galaxy lacks both. It's sad because you'll meet a lot of characters who are interesting. The problem is that you just don't learn enough about them.
Luckily, the game is saved by the sheer fun factor that comes with the battle system. Unlike other RPGs, Rogue Galaxy doesn't have you running around and then there's a transition into a random battle. Rather, enemies just pop up and you take a battle stance right in the area you're exploring. It's very similar to Kingdom Hearts in that regard. When in battle you'll be able to jump around, slash as your enemies and switch between primary and secondary weapons. Your primary weapon is usually a melee weapon, while your secondary is a projectile. Battling is fast paced and fun. It deviates away from the menu based combat that has dominated RPGs over the past couple of decades.
Battling isn't entirely simple, though. The game is quite a challenge in many regards. First, there's the emphasis on strategy. This is more than just you smacking an enemy until it dies. Some enemies you'll have to expose their weakness in some way before you can start dealing damage to them. Some only take damage from certain weapons. There is a definite emphasis on strategy. Your characters will often give you hints on what to do as well.
You only control one character in combat. The others are controlled by AI. Unfortunately this is another aspect where Rogue Galaxy falls short. Your allies are hardly aggressive. There will be plenty of moments where you'll have to revive your AI controlled characters. There are moments where the game's difficulty is so high that reviving and healing characters becomes a constant chore. This is mostly apparent in boss battles. Which brings up another factor that can make or break the experience of Rogue Galaxy. Leveling up also feels like a chore sometimes. It takes a lot of battling to level up. It's fun, thank goodness, but much like Dragon Quest VIII there are times when you'll spend more time level grinding than progressing through the game. Some RPGers will love this challenge, but others may not be patient enough to do so much level building. The game is long as it is, and so much more of it requires the player to be dedicated to level grinding. For the most part, though, it's still a fun game to play, and the battle system is so much more involving than other RPGs out there.
Another factor to aid the battle system and peak the interest of any RPGer is the weapon fusion. As you go through the game, your weapons also level up. They can be be fused with other weapons to make more powerful weapons. So much of Rogue Galaxy isn't so much dependent on your defense as much as it is your offense. So it's a good idea to fuse some good weapons. However, weapon fusing isn't completely fun and games. There's no way for you to become a God right from the get go with weapons. Factors such as the weapon type, weapon level, your characters skill with the weapon etc. play a pivotal role. So even if you created a really powerful weapon early on, your character may not be skilled enough to wield it. This works very well, because it keeps the game from becoming too easy too fast.
Rogue Galaxy also offers a complex ability system called "Revelations." Each character has a Revelations Flow Chart. By buying certain items and placing them in the Revelations Flow Chart, your characters will learn abilities, and other parts of the Flow Chart will open up for them. Like a lot of the game, it's actually pretty simple to learn. This is what's nice about Rogue Galaxy. It's easy to pick up and play.
There are some pretty cool optional quests that you can do throughout the game. You can collect bugs that can be used in a stadium (very similar to Pokemon), go on bounty missions, explore other planets. Rogue Galaxy is a pretty big game all on its own. The main quest is big enough, but some of the secrets and extras are enough to rival the Final Fantasy games.
Visually, Rogue Galaxy is one of the most artistic and beautiful looking games out there. It has a beautiful cel-shaded look very similar to Dragon Quest VIII. The environments are detailed and pretty. The fact of how exploration is done is also fantastic. Instead of just roaming around you'll have to jump up platforms and such as well. There are better looking games, but the style of this one is what makes the graphics stand out. Load times also feel non-existent. Since battles take place in exploration, and the game's cutscenes don't have to load (because there are no flashy FMVs), there's not much the game really has to load.
Speaking of which, the sound and audio quality is really good. There are times when the soundtrack feels like it isn't big enough, but you'll enjoy what you get from it, regardless. The voice acting is also done really well, even if a lot of dubbing is off more so than other RPGs.
The point is simple: With video games moving on to newer systems, it's nice to see that the Playstation 2 hasn't been left in the dust, and that Rogue Galaxy really is a high quality RPG. It may not have the best story in the world, or the best characters, but it's a huge game, with tons of things to do. The sheer amount of fun you'll have with this game is a testament to it's good quality.
Pros:
+Beautiful Looking Game
+Great soundtrack
+Good voice acting
+Tons of sidequests and optional things to do
+Very engaging battle system
+Load times feel non-existent
+The game is a good overall challenge
+Weapon fusion is deeper than most RPGs that try to do the same thing
Cons:
-Predictable storyline
-Not enough character development
-AI controlled characters don't do enough
-Some boss battles are unreasonably challenging
-A huge emphasis on level grinding, but you won't get enough experience from most of these enemies
28 of 32 found the following review helpful:
 Fantastic views; not much to seeJul 05, 2007
By Michael Clarkson
OVERALL: Worthwhile (66%)
ROGUE GALAXY is a long RPG that has plenty of visual sparkle and audio zip to distract you from the occasionally dull gameplay and the pitifully limp plot. Young adults will likely find it a good ride, but the monotony, relentless focus on item collecting, and lack of a compelling story may leave more mature gamers underwhelmed.
GAMEPLAY: Average
Rogue Galaxy is an action rpg with some turn-based elements introduced by an "action gauge" that depletes with almost everything a character does in combat. As a result, battle consists of rapid-fire button-mashing followed by a long pause while you wait for the gauge to refill. This can be hastened by defending -- any blocked attack replenishes an empty gauge immediately. Each character has a main weapon and subweapon; in almost every case the main weapon is a short-range physical attack such as a sword or knife, while the subweapon is a ranged weapon. Combat has an extremely shallow learning curve; if you haven't picked up most of the nuances by the end of the introductory dungeon you need your head checked.
Like most RPGs, characters earn experience through battle (the three in the battle earn slightly more than the reserves). At first, level progression is extremely rapid, but experience utility rapidly drops. Also, between level 50 and 60 the experience required to go up one level explodes from ~20,000 to nearly 100,000 points. Accordingly, your characters essentially stop advancing unless you are willing to trod back and forth through the (long) dungeons.
Of course, you're likely to be doing that anyway, because the only way to give your characters new abilities in Rogue Galaxy is to gather items and place them into a "Revelation Flow". Some of the items required are quite common and available from shops -- these are easy to deal with, especially late in the game, because after some lean times early on money rapidly ceases to be a problem. Other items are only dropped by enemies, some of them quite rarely. For these, you have no recourse but to jog back and forth through some dungeon or other, hoping that you will encounter the particular enemy you need, and if you do, that it will drop the magic lipstick you're looking for and not something else.
Item collection is also key to the several minigames. One of them, the Insector stadium, I did not attempt because the early parts bored me and I was already exhausted by the item-collecting slog. The other, a factory game, I personally found to be quite entertaining, involving some interesting design problems. I found myself wishing that it had been made a little more robustly (placing and moving equipment was a bit of a chore), and that the rewards were a little better. By the time I had gathered the materials to make some of the factory's unique weapons, they were already far inferior to what I had in hand. Additionally, because the main character Jaster is also a bounty hunter, you can hunt various "quarries", a task that also requires some of those same rare items.
The primary problems with the gameplay is monotony. Once you've learned the system, that's it. That's all you're going to do for the next 40-60 hours. It never develops any nuances or gets more interesting. There is an attempt to spice combat up with special enemies that have attack resistance, but each of these has serious problems. "Jump to attack" enemies suffer from poor hit detection, "shield" enemies have a problem in that sometimes a charged strike just doesn't happen, and "barrier" enemies are simply annoying because the game's enemy lock-on system is somewhat unwieldy for large mobile groups. The ally AI cannot deal effectively with any of these enemies except the "jump to attack", and even then your teammates occasionally become confused and just stand there. Generally, your allies will occasionally suggest something useful, but not frequently enough, so you will often pause the action to command them directly. Moreover, in combat they have an odd tendency to choose throwing an enemy over attacking them outright, which is often inconvenient. But in the end the solution to all these problems is to just bull through doing most of it by yourself -- you can't control your allies' normal attacks, and their special attacks are all ineffective against the attack-resistant enemies (they can't even fire their guns at the heads of the "jump to attack" foes).
Monotony is also a problem in the level design. The dungeons themselves look great, and most of them have unique architectural features (the staircases in the Gladius Towers, for instance) that help evoke a sense of place beyond the art on the walls. However, neither of these features can disguise the fact that most locales are big, empty hallways. Long hallways too. The characters occasionally ask you "When are we gonna get there?", and you'll feel that way yourself before long. Some of the burden is alleviated by the save points, between which you can teleport, but for the most part the dungeons are simply too big, and too empty, and have too much of the same battle over and over again.
There were some minor technical problems with the game. With two different controllers I found the game to have occasionally sluggish response to button presses -- particularly when it came to opening the battle menus or selecting an overworld submenu. In battle, the camera occasionally gets trapped in an awkward position, usually right behind the character, making it difficult to make sense of the situation. In these cases the problem can usually be alleviated by moving the character, but this is sometimes impossible because some enemies seem to take up more space in the battle area than they occupy on screen, making it difficult to move around them.
In the end, this game has passable combat mechanics that are competently executed, but nothing new, and linked to an overall motif that accentuates the combat system's shortcomings due to the length, focus on item collection, and quirky level progression.
STORY: Poor
The story of Rogue Galaxy is about a young man named Jaster who longs for adventure and finally gets his opportunity when... you know what, let's skip the synopsis. It doesn't matter. Rogue Galaxy limps through a stock plot populated by one-dimensional characters that tumble into and out of the story whenever the writers find it convenient. A few good lines here and there are all lost in the script's dreadful flatland of inane dialogue. Some interesting themes and angles are toyed with, but none are ever developed. The villains are also underdeveloped, with no arc of conflict to make the final battle feel like anything more than just another boss battle. Even the denouement is deeply unsatisfying, and leaves several (already underdeveloped) elements hanging. The story is a total dud, from start to finish.
AUDIO: Superior
The failings of the story can in no way be laid on the voice actors, who turn in a fantastic performance, down to the last extra. Honestly, I was moved by the fact that they could approach this flaccid script with such effort and devotion. Steve Blum deserves special praise for the job he did with Zegram. The backing music is also pleasant, with one remarkable vocal piece that deserved (like the voice acting) to be in a better game.
VISUALS: Superior
And the dumb story is presented in visual glory that may be the most eloquent argument yet against the PS3. Despite the supposed limitations of the PS2 the game is a stunning cel-shaded wonder. Some of the visual elements are familiar, perhaps almost passe at this point, but other bits, notably the bizarre pirate ship Jaster finds himself on, are strikingly designed works of art. Character designs are of excellent quality also, and all the playable characters have multiple outfits (which generally appear in the cutscenes but inexplicably not on the Dorgenark). The monster designs are original and mostly go beyond the simple pallette swap (notably awful exception being the "mask"-type enemies); the variety of monsters is also fairly high. The environments are also a joy. I especially liked the look of the Gladius Towers for some reason. The art department and graphic encoders really outdid themselves on this one, and the visual treat is a major counterweight to the game's shortcomings.
REPLAYABILITY: Mediocre
Rogue Galaxy is fair bursting with extra content, considering the minigames and two optional post-game dungeons. But to actually replay the main game is something you're not likely to pursue, given the factors I've discussed above. If you feel like the visuals and voice acting can pull you through the slog a second time, more power to you, but that wasn't the case for me.
18 of 21 found the following review helpful:
 How To Make A Game That WorksJun 04, 2007
By Marc Ruby™
"The Noh Hare™"
Rogue Galaxy has been one of 2007's top rated role playing games and on reflection the reasons for this are obvious. This is a game with a well developed story line that centers on two 17 year olds. One is Jaster Rogue, raised by a priest on the planet Rosa and hungry for a life among the stars - something almost impossible in the political clime of that part of the universe. The other is Kisala, been raised as the daughter of a space pirate who is seeking some of known space's most important treasures. Neither, of course, is what they seem. When a unexpected series of events catapults Jaster in with the pirates, the two are off on a wild adventure that involves 5 worlds, countless secrets and the discovery of who each of them really is. With them is a series of companions, each with their own characters and history. While dialog is never the strength of a console game, one of Rogue Galaxy's strengths is the quality of its character development.
The worlds the game takes place in are well-defined desert, jungle, industrial and technological worlds filled with many NPC's and the usual cast of Johnny one liners. Graphics are neatly done without too much dependence on CGI (which means that there's plenty of room on the DVD for voice and story). Clues and treasures abound. Movement is three dimensional so there are both story line and battle athletics (jump on the roof of a trolley and ride it to a treasure box sort of thing). Artistic design is a strong element in the game - another important factor in its attractiveness to a player. In short, the worlds of Rogue Galaxy are worlds that you will want to adventure in. And take a bit of time looking around, as well.
The battle system is fairly simple - run around a `dungeon', get discovered by monsters, and beat them senseless. Many of the monsters require jumping on them, shooting them with a special weapon, or using a special technique. There is nothing that can't be managed with careful leveling up and RPG ingenuity. Often you will have the option of avoiding a fight. In fact you should pace yourself carefully or you may cause yourself more difficulties than you would expect.
This doesn't mean that you can get through without a lot of slaughter, but that, if you really don't care about having Kisala's bathing suit you can limit yourself to needful violence. Needless to say I'm a compulsive, so that by the end of the game I was more than a little sword slap happy. In fact, this is one of the game's defects - the battle system isn't rich enough to support long killing for stats runs. The after games extras are weak dungeon deep dives. I hate to admit it, but Kisala's bathing suit wasn't worth the effort.
On the other hand the weapon system, which involves combining different weapons to get new ones is fun, although the results are a bit less predictable than you might want. In addition there is a whole system involving laying out the pieces of a factory and running raw materials down assembly lines. To get all kinds of goodies. This really is a compulsive's delight. Thus, items and weapons are an active part of the game. Yet another plus for Rogue Galaxy.
If you are compulsive, expect several hundred hours of play. Or expect to play through the game several times to get all the twists and turns. Yes, a good strategy guide is a necessity, and maybe a couple visits to online resources. This has been a good year for RPG's that Rogue Galaxy is one of the outstanding ones.
16 of 19 found the following review helpful:
The Last Great PS2 RPG!Feb 06, 2007
By S. R. Little
I first read about this game about two years ago in "Game Informer" and since then I had been waiting immpatiently for this game to be released. Well now it has, and it doesnt disappoint on any level....NOT EVEN THE VOICE ACTING!
I figured I would rent this game first just incase ut ended up being terrible. No less than 30 minutes into the game I found myself utterly enthralled and captivated by the game. The gameplay is not hard at all, the concept is extremely fun, and the characters keep you interested as well.
I highly recommend this game to anyone who is trying to restore use back into that PS2 that is collecting some dust, or to anyone with a PS3 that wants to play an excellent role-playing game.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
A "Dark Cloud" by any other name...May 21, 2007
By M. A Jenkins
"southerndudeman"
...just isn't the same, but that's not to say that "Rogue Galaxy" isn't solid. It's just that liked the original "Dark Cloud", and was a HUGE fan of "Dark Cloud 2", so naturally, I view this game (which surely is from the same developers, judging from the gameplay) with a more critical eye.Thankfully, though, "Rogue Galaxy" does deliver the goods, ultimately, although there are many flaws with the presentation and gameplay. If the option was present, I would rate it 3.5 stars overall, but I can't call it 4 stars, and I refuse to submit to grade inflation.
Let's begin with the good, of which there is a healthy amount. First, "RG" is very nice to look at. I was skeptical of the cel-shading mixed with polygonal effects, and the initial game was less than stellar (the cel-shading look a bit out-of-place against the plain brown backdrop of the desert), but once the characters appear in cities, in jungles, etc., I love the look. The backgrounds are colorful and detailed, and the characters look pretty good against them, particularly when there is a lot going on.
The fighting is standard "Dark Cloud" - characters bash on enemies until they are defeated, occasionally guarding against attacks. I was pleased with the addition of abilities (such as spells which hit all enemies - more on this later), and the enemies are of a pretty substantial difficulty (with some being out-of-this-world difficult). Guarding is more useless than in the previous "DC" games; you will still take fair damage, and your guard is broken often, many times resulting in combos which leave you...dead. But all in all, I enjoy the fighting, if only because the system is slightly broken.
The game is long - if one goes through each of the subquests (of which there are many), you will easily reach 70 hours of gameplay, without including the massive levelling which is often necessary to progress. Some of the minigames are pretty fun - I enjoy the Insector Tournament (essentially, a cock-fighting tourney where you raise bugs to fight in an arena), although I dislike the "Factory" (read "Item Creation") mode - it is very tedious.
Weapon advancement is...interesting. I'm not as much a fan as some of the reviewers here (as it pales to the weapon creation in "DC2", which was incredibly fun and extensive), but it's not bad. More fun is the "Revelation" map. Reminiscent of the sphere grid in Final Fantasy X, each character has a map which can be filled out to obtain bonuses and special attacks. The catch? One must find items to place in the "Revelation" map, and some of the items are difficult to obtain, to say the least. It is always fun after battle (or opening a treasure chest) to see if any of the obtained items will net a new ability in the grid.
However, there is much bad about this game. First, the characters move much too slowly while walking. Many of the rooms/streets/towns are very large, and it is annoying to move like a tortoise through the streets. It isn't as much of a problem in combat (since so much of combat is up-close and personal), but it is a pain otherwise. Thankfully, the developers have instituted a GREAT teleport system. Cross a save point on a world, and you can teleport from there to any other save point on that world, and back. The save points are generously distributed, so travel isn't TOO much of a chore, but it is still slow.
Another annoyance is the high encounter rate. In some areas (the lower levels of the mines of Vesan, anyone?), one fights enemies every couple of steps. Battles are often grueling, and party members are inept at guarding, resulting in many items used per battle. The developers definitely erred on the difficult side for these battles, and the results are less than stellar. Thankfully, the system is somewhat broken - the main character has some incredible attacking spells, which can destroy groups in a single blow, as well as allow him to snipe mimics (the worst enemies in the game) from afar. The spells are expensive, but thanks to the friendly teleport system, one can simply return to an item shop, stock up on AP-restoring items, and return to the heat of battle. The amount of money made is absurd, and the levels go up quickly. Is it cheating? Possibly, but otherwise, the game slows to a crawl. Utilize it to the fullest.
When characters are walking, they will sometime make an exclamation (in the form of a voiceover, usually describing the characters thoughts on the situation at hand). Without a doubt, this is one of the biggest misfires in the game. Each character has about 4 thoughts on each situation, and the length of some quests assure that you'll hear these same thoughts, OVER AND OVER. To add insult to injury, if you decide to explore your surroundings, often you will hear another character say, "Are we going the right way?!?" I don't know about you, but an RPG that PUNISHES me for exploration is one of the dumber ideas in existence. I don't know what the developers were thinking - the most annoying aspect of "DC2" was adding the voice module to the robot helper. However, you could always REMOVE the module. This is 10x worse.
Another problem is the story. I love the idea of pirates searching the galaxy for treasure - why do I have to be bothered with the stale idea of "evil corporation bent on ruling the galaxy!"? I would have MUCH preferred a free exploration game based on the pirates themselves. When the game centers on the pirates, the story is nice. When it centers on the Daytron corporation, it bogs down. And boy does it BOG DOWN - the cut scenes are really boring as a rule, with people making insipid observations repeatedly - how many times does the character Jaster need to be told, "Wear the power glove, and you'll be more powerful!" Sheesh, do they need to feed him, too?).
Anyway, that's my take. There is a hunter subquest, where you attempt to raise your hunter rank by defeating certain numbers of the same enemy, or hunting hard-to-kill marks, but I'm fairly indifferent toward it (I feel that FFXII system was significantly stronger, with its more-immediate rewards - this one feels like a cheap knockoff). In general, this game should NOT be compared to FFXII - although at times it feels like a synthesis between FFXII and Dark Cloud, it seems more like the latter (which is a good thing - the developers stuck with what they understood). In fact, this pretty much characterizes the game itself. When "RG" attempts to be like "DC" (such as its presentation, combat, and weapon synthesis mode), it is very strong. When it attempts to be a FF-like RPG, it falls short. But, I like this one overall...
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