A jack of all trades, Rogue Galaxy provides a fun PS2 RPG experience.
Developed by Level 5, RG is the story of Jaster Rogue and his many adventures through space. He starts out as a young warrior on a back water desert planet, but when some space pirates mistake Jaster as the legendary bounty hunter Desert Claw, he finds himself thrown onboard a pirate ship and into space. As a new member of a group of space pirates, Jaster and his friends search for exotic treasure and other secrets of the universe as they fight against the corrupt Daytron Corporation. Jaster and all of his unique allies are vivid and well-fleshed out characters. The space pirate crew includes bounty hunters, aliens, robots, and even a female Tarzan from an under-developed jungle planet.
For a PS2 game, Rogue Galaxy's graphics are fantastic. The cell-shaded technique looks great on the PS2. All of the environments and characters are vibrant and colorful. In his journeys, Jaster travels from a desert planet to a prehistoric jungle to an advanced technological city, and all of these environments have a different feel from the next. The soundtrack from Rogue Galaxy is pretty standard for an RPG. Some music is pretty forgetful while some tracks are good. The voice acting does shine however. The voices all fit the characters and help bring them to life.
The battle system is not a traditional RPG turn based system, but more of an action system. As the player, you can control one character in game while the computer controls the other 2 characters. You move around the battle field in real time, as you have a button to attack, jump, and block. You can also open a battle menu to cast spells, change equipment etc. Each character has a different feel, and though you have to have Jaster in your party, you don't always have to control him.
There is plenty in Rogue Galaxy to keep a gamer occupied. The weapon combining system is fun to play with. You can work to improve your bounty hunter rating by hunting rare and common enemies. There is also a factory that can be used to make rare weapons and items, and each character can find new costumes to wear to spice things up. To add even more hours of game time there is a large post game dungeon with stronger enemies and bosses.
All in all, I recommend Rogue Galaxy to RPG fans and gamers looking for a light RPG adventure. It isn't a revolutionary game, but it does everything it needs to: provide a fun gaming experience.
Ratings:
Graphics: 9.0
Audio: 7.0
Gameplay: 8.0
Extras: 9.0