Rogue Galaxy

Rogue Galaxy

Recommending It: This is a great RPG for all players regardless of experience. I recommend you have a slim version of PS2 for this game. If you don't have one, this game is well worth buying a slim PS2 just to play. (see note at bottom of review.)

Controls: Well designed game controls. It is easy to move your characters around in this 3-D world due to excellent control of camera angles. The auto-lock onto a target feature is well designed. The direction pad is used to turn auto-lock on and off as well as cycle through enemy targets. The AI in the game can also be given different commands to alter your teams strategy.

Loading: This game loads almost everything before you start playing. I have seen this done with the Grand Theft Auto games. This gives you nearly no transition time once you start playing. The game play is therefore extremely smooth.

Gameplay:(10/10) This is the best aspect of Rogue Galaxy. Once you start playing you don't want to stop. So much so that the characters will remind you to take a break if you have been playing for too long in a row. After you finish the game there are bonus areas unlocked.

Again input controls make the game play spectacular. Several abilities are used in the tactics of the game such as: Jumping and jump attacking, blocking, picking up and throwing, dash attack, charge attack, primary and secondary attack, the burning strike special attack, and the characters' special abilities. Items are the only way to heal so item conservation is a must, though your plan of attack can prevent you from using too many of these.

The two things that set this game apart are the action gage and ability menu. The ability menu is the only paused aspect in the game play. Here you select character abilities, including ones that are so powerful they take your entire action gage. Every time you attack, use an item, or use a special ability you take a portion of your action gage. Once this gage is used up you can't perform any of those actions until it is recharged.

Enemies: You may find it easier or possible to kill certain enemies when: in the air, using a range weapon, using a certain weapon first, or after using a certain character ability. Hence you can't just use special abilities to kill off all the enemies in the game. Listen to your party members. They often give you tips on how to kill off enemies and prompt you for permission to perform special attacks. The L1 and L2 buttons are used for two options that are appropriate for the current situation.

Graphics:(8/10) Characters are well drawn and move smoothly. They often seem a bit 2-Dish and have simplified color schemes. It is less like being in a movie and more like being in a live action comic book. This is the cost of smooth loading time on the PS2, though I probably make it sound worse then it is.

Plot:(9.8/10) In a word touching. Each character has their own plot line and they all fold together nicely. The length is long enough to keep you entertained, but not long enough to bore you. Also you can skip almost all cinema scenes by pausing the game and pressing triangle. Pesky boss kill you? Now you don't have to re-watch the same cinema scene. Though tbh I don't mind watching them two or three times. Still the feature is nice when you need to go someplace or go to sleep.

Audio:(9.7/10) The voice acting is very well done, though I want to strangle one of them.(Jupis is annoying) The voices have a nice array of tones to them, including the NPC voices. The voices selected mesh well with the characteristics of each character. The soundtrack is also moving and compliments each area and the story progression well.

Side Quests: Working on these one at a time would get old. However, these quests are all related and fairly early in the game you should know about all of them. You need to go to new places to fight mini bosses for one quest. In each area you need to kill a certain number of the random monsters. Random monsters give you money and items which are used to unlock skills, buy better gear, unlock things in the factory and character skills. Hunting for a specific rare monster can get old and as the storyline progresses you unlock new enemies that can make that monster harder to find. But all in all a good distraction. They are very effective in keeping you busy and telling you when to move onto the next area.

Special note: If you don't feed your bugs as you go the Insectron side quest will take a large amount of time at the end of the game. Every five to ten minutes you can easily take a short break from what you are doing to feed each of your bugs and or breed them, though it isn't a big deal if you wait longer then that or forget to from time to time. Building your bugs up takes longer then playing the Insectron rounds.

Lasting Value: You can easily play over 100hrs. As far as replaying the game goes there is only the storyline for that. However, there are new areas opened up after you finish the game and plenty of optional bosses along the way.


Summary:(4.75/5) Loading style, controls, game play, sound effects, and storyline are all very good in this game. The graphics aren't the best possible, because the system resources of the PS2 are spent on making the game play fluid and highly addictive. You can finish the majority of the side quests very easy, but the last bit to 100% completion takes up more time.

Note: Original PS2 loading issues have been discovered with this game. Games with a similar loading style to this game and the Grand Theft Autos have difficulty reading the disc at certain times in the game or while initially loading the game. You will wear out the older style fat PS2s and have many problems loading when playing a game like this.