If you're looking for a solid role-playing experience, look for Rogue Galaxy.
- Long and immersive story with plenty of side missions
- Some of the most best cutscenes and graphics on the PS2br />
- Superb voice acting and music
- Lots of items, weapons and deep but simply customization
Negative
- Random encounters are too frequent, though you can escape
- Combat gets repetitive eventually
- Bosses aren't particularly interesting
From the creators of Dark Cloud 1, 2 and Dragon Quest VIII, yet brings another superb game on the PS2. Rogue Galaxy is a great game largely because of its stunning graphics, environments and much more. Level-5 should focus more on the actual fighting since it gets repetitive, but the game redeems itself with high quality presentation.
Rogue Galaxy features 8 playable characters. You will take role of Jaster Rogue, a normal guy who lives on a 'slave' deserted planet named Rosa. Then a creature appears and at first you will join a 'hooded man', later he leaves and leaves you alone with other 2 characters to fight the beast. His dream was always to go into space. After the fight, these 2 people though he was a man named Desert Claw and thanks to them he managed to get into space. There will be 3 playable characters in the party. You can switch to each of them, only thing is that Jaster can't be taken out of the party. Also you can't change the characters until you get all the 8 characters. The story is a good one, lots of cutscenes and terrific voice acting, just like in Dark Cloud 2. You will visit lots of planets, all with stunning environments and high quality.
If you remember Dark Cloud 2, all the good stuff is here. There are many weapons for each character, a main weapon, and a sub weapon. Lots of items and clothing. Better thing then DC2 is the leveling up weapon or whatever it's called. After some time in the game you will be able to fuse weapons which are at MAX. Cannot fuse those who aren't at MAX. Though this takes less time than it used. To make a weapon stronger simply just use it in a battle. Battles aren't all the same. Sometimes challenges appear instead of a WARNING!
The main enemies in the story will be reveled later in the game, almost in the last chapters. Rogue Galaxy is long 13 chapters + there is the ghost ship which consists of 100 floors of levels. Also some side quests like completing quarries by defeating optional bosses. Though the game gameplay gets repetitive after a while. Burning strikes are nice addition to the game which a by pressing R1 + square lets you go it when you collect some orbs that enemies drop. Abilities can be obtained by doing the very simply though not at all frustrating customization. You simply have to put the item needed and if you have all that you require you get a new ability. Abilities are really helpful especially in boss fights.
The game has random encounters like most RPG turn-based style games. The encounters are very frequent but you can escape all of them. Still the combat gets repetitive, mostly in the ghost ship. Environments are really awesome especially in one of Juraika which is full of vegetation. Other modern planets such as Zerard are less great since all of the places are corridors. Though the outside part of Zerard is quite impressive. Graphics are great. Lots of cutscenes, almost all voiced. You can skip the cutscenes but they are worth watching. The graphics are the most thing to shine, superb presentation, and anime like visuals, colorful worlds, what's that RPG.
Music is just awesome. Voice acting is superb. Music doesn't get annoying at all, except for some minor places. Otherwise it's not bothering at all. You might ask about the building system. There is the factory but it's not obligated. You get the factory after defeating Jupis in Starship factory. Factory helps you to get new weapons or items you can't buy or find.
Dark Cloud 2 suffered from boss battles, too annoying. Not much about Rogue Galaxy's either. Most of them are boring and some are over-powered. At half the game some boss fights will start but not end, you get saved or the boss escapes. Fortunately you can carry 50 resurrection bottles, 50 heal bottles and lots and lots of them. You can switch to other characters even those which aren't in the current party. Also characters AI, will always give you suggestions of either abilities or items and sometimes burning strikes. Either way you can also make the AI characters use them.
You can't attack forever. After sometime fighting you won't be able to attack. This happens when your meter of attack falls. Simply defend, or wait, doesn't take long at all. The final boss might prove to be challenging since there are more than 5 of them, I won't tell the exact number. And only 2 are full party, the others are one on one. Might prove to be a real chore if you're not used to use other characters in the party. Level of difficulty is medium.
Rogue Galaxy proves that the PS2 still has more to show. Almost everything superb. Stunning graphics, excellent sound, great variety, just a little in the combat can be improved. Ignoring that, Rogue Galaxy is flawless. It's a beautiful action role-playing experience that last more than 35 hours, not including ghost ship and side quests. Its looks like this, you should probably check Rogue Galaxy, any gamers out there. And if you're an RPG gamer, you NEED to play Rogue Galaxy before moving to next-gen.
Graphics = 10
Some of the best on the PS2. Superb looking character, great looking environments, well anything you expect from a great RPG. No glitches or anything throughout the whole game.
Sound = 10
Terrific voice acting. Background music is superb. Even if you spend an hour on a single planet, you won't get bothered by the music.
Presentation = 10
Excellent cutscenes, short load times, brilliant production values. Rogue Galaxy shines in almost every aspect.
Gameplay = 8
Gets repetitive, even with 8 playable characters and loads of weapons and sub-weapons. Customization is really simply though engaging. Though a lot of encounter hurt the game a bit. Even so the combat is interesting and quite good, better than Dark Cloud in some aspects, not in all. Bosses are almost as they were in Dark Cloud 2.
Camera = 8.5
The right analog stick moves the camera is every direction. Like DC2, facing a boss and running can be tough, but otherwise camera is well placed and comfortable.
Story = 9
About 35 hours, lots of side quests, the ghost ship, and tons more to keep you busy for more than 60 hours. The characters and story makes this galaxy worth exploring.
Score = 9.4 / 10
There's no reason to leave yet if something like this comes again. If you are still here, Rogue Galaxy is a superb RPG despite its repetitive nature.