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Demonstrates that the PS2 still has some life left in it. Although the new-generation consoles are currently hogging the spotlight, Rogue Galaxy—brought to you by Dark Cloud and Dragon Quest VIII developers Level 5—is one of the best action RPGs currently available.
Rogue Galaxy stars Jaster Rogue. Jaster quickly meets a bounty hunter who surprisingly offers him a spot in this man’s space pirate ship. Expectedly, Jaster meets a number of characters during his adventure. Although they aren’t particularly well developed or fleshed out, the story still makes for an enjoyable if predictable adventure. You initially control Jaster although the game does let you control other characters as it progresses. You’ll go everywhere from huge cities to scarce rural areas in the game.
Like any good action RPG, Rogue Galaxy places a lot of emphasis on combat. Like the Zelda games, you fight characters as they appear without moving to a combat scene which speeds up the game and keeps its action elements strong. This is strengthened by the fact that you regain life from the game’s generous placing of portions instead of relying on magic. Aside from pure combat, though, Rogue Galaxy does let you use items and abilities and the game does pause when you initiate either of this. Additionally, the game does reward you for keeping in mind the strengths and weaknesses of your enemies. Some enemies require a specific tactic or weapon to defeat them. As mentioned above, you’re usually joined by other party members and you can switch between them later in the game.
Rogue Galaxy doesn’t lose sight of its RPG elements. You’ll notice that the weapons gain experience points and become stronger. Furthermore, you can even fuse two weapons together into a stronger weapon. In addition to weapons, the game lets you create new items through a fun minigame that resembles an assembly line. The game also has a number of optional side quests and other activities in addition to the main storyline.
Rogue Galaxy is easily one of the best looking PlayStation 2 games. Although the game cannot compete on a technical level with recent new-generation games it more than makes up for this in style. Rogue Galaxy, simply put, is an amazingly stylish game. Forget about competing with other games, Rogue Galaxy’s sense of style and artistic merit competes with some of the very best animated movies. Technically speaking, the game’s environments can be a bit bland and stand in contrast to the fantastic character models and animation. However, the framerate is smooth throughout the game.
The game’s audio component is strong—though not as strong. The voice acting is quite good and context sensitive. Nonetheless, you’ll hear the same lines repeat too often and while it never becomes a serious detriment it will become an annoyance. The same fundamental issue applies to the background music. While good, it loops just a little too much to have a strong impact.
Rogue Galaxy is one of the best action RPGs in recent history and a great reason to keep that PS2 around. Level 5 has done it again. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Jan 30, 2007
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