NIDZUMI+

Rogue Galaxy is one of the many games to come out during the RPG rush of 2007 and quite possibly the best of all. Given high scores from many of the major gaming sites as well as having a very flattering review from the PS2 magazine, this is one of the many games that shows the PS2 should not be put away just yet.

Rogue Galaxy follows the story of Jaster Rogue and his adventures. The game starts out in a windswept desert then you will slowly progresses through multiple environments including the jungle planet of Juraika, the advanced world of Zerard and the gloomy cities of Vedan. With each planet being vastly different, you never get a sense of repetitiveness as you progress through the game.

The characters are also as varied as the planets with each having a different background, a different weapon and always having a different reason for traveling the galaxy. The voice acting is exceptional and always gives a feel that the characters are actually talking, but during the game the characters say little things as you walk around and while it’s always relevant it does tend to get annoying after a long time in the same area, as well as when you return to an area later in the game.

This game is very much set apart from other RPG in that nothing ever becomes redundant. All planets in the game have to be visited multiple times in order to get through the story line and almost always open up a new area with a new chapter. Weapons never get left behind either, where as with most RPG’s inferior weapons tend to get left in the stock or are sold, whereas in Rogue Galaxy the synthesizing system means that almost all weapons cannot just be thrown away. The synthesizing system revolves around getting 2 weapons of the same class and melding them together through a little toad conveniently called “Toady” and getting a new, better weapon, but Toady won’t synthesis any weapon that is totally upgraded which means training up weapons before synthesizing which can be extremely annoying especially in the later stages of the game where you already have good weaponry and because of the harder monsters around you have to return to an earlier level to train, although it does leave a good feeling of accomplishment after getting the Seven Star sword Earthshaker and other such weapons.

Along with the synthesis there is also the factory which is in part taken from “Star Ocean: Till the End of Time” though is vastly harder to use. The Rogue Galaxy factory system is unique in that you can’t just go straight into making items and weapons, you have to travel the galaxy to find people with orange marks above their heads because these people have blue prints. Once you have the blue prints, next comes the extraordinarily difficult task of actually making the item/weapon that may discourage most from actually using the factory until much later in the game, or using it at all, but unfortunately this is the only way to get some of the Seven Star swords.

Another addition to the Role Playing genre is bounty hunting which also appears in Final Fantasy XII, though has slightly more meaning to it in that it has a bounty hunting table. At the beginning of the game you are number 100 and as such you are the worst bounty hunter in the universe, but as you battle creatures and quarries you ranking improves and at certain milestones you gain hunter coins and additional items that increase in valve as you climb the ranks, until you get to the top ranked bounty hunter in the land.

Overall this is an RPG that far excels other PS2 games of the genre with its innovative additions to the core RPG format along with an action based fighting system and occasional mini game it will appeal most all gamers.

9.5/10