Rogue Galaxy
Could Rogue Galaxy be the “last great RPG” of the PS2 era?
Tags: Rogue Galaxy Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jan 30th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rogue Galaxy (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action RPG | No | ||
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Ever since it was announced over a year ago, RPG fans have been anticipating Sony and Level-5’s latest RPG, Rogue Galaxy. Promising to be a mixture of influences that included Star Ocean and Skies of Arcadia, the space pirate RPG has been atop the list of RPG fans even since they completed Level 5’s last big release, Dragon Quest VIII: Legend of the Cursed King, which was their first foray outside of Sony, a game in which Level-5 partnered with SquareEnix.
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For those not in the know, Level 5’s resume includes a brief but impressive game list. Their first title, Dark Cloud, was an RPG that Sony published in the first year of the PS2’s life cycle. While the seed of the company’s future achievements was there – the willingness to experiment, the light-hearted drama, etc. – Dark Cloud was a somewhat flawed, but still amusing, RPG experience. Far better was their follow up, Dark Cloud 2, which squeezed all the “suckiness” out of the original Dark Cloud formula and only kept things that worked well. It also introduced the “cel-shaded” art style to the series, which gives the feeling of playing characters rendered with a comic book/anime/hand-drawn art level of detail, while maintaining a 3D world for them to interact with. Dark Cloud 2 proved that Level-5 was not content to churn out games that were “more of the same,” but a company that strived to improve constantly.
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Their work landed the team a plum assignment: teaming up with SquareEnix to revitalize and update the staid and stuck-in-first-gear IP, Dragon Quest, which used to be a top-selling franchise for Enix, but in the PSone era had managed to release only one chapter of the series, Dragon Quest VII, while Final Fantasy saw three new installments in the same time frame. Level-5 worked closely with DQ creator Yuji Horii to keep Dragon Quest true to its roots while updating the game to the PS2 generation. The result, Dragon Quest VIII: Legend of the Cursed King, was an RPG of the year candidate in many quarters, and won several of those honors.
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Rogue Galaxy, which has been out in Japan for a while now, is Level-5’s latest effort with Sony and marks the beginning of a completely new IP. The game is unlike either Dark Cloud title and unlike DQVIII – unless you count being united by a similar art style and being a game that “totally kicks butt.” The game opens with Jaster Rogue, your main character, a 17-year-old who has dreamed of getting off his desert planet and traveling the stars as a space pirate from a young age. Raised by a church after being abandoned on the church steps, the closest thing Jaster has to a family is the holy man who raised him. Their familial bond is touchingly portrayed in the game’s opening action, and adds to the depth of a character who otherwise would come off a bit “cookie cutter” at first.
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Level 5 loves characters with accents and that penchant is on display again in Rogue Galaxy. The voice work, entirely redone and expanded for US release, is definitely up to the standard Level 5 set for themselves with DQVIII, and perhaps a bit beyond. While the voice cast doesn’t contain any movie actors or other “superstar” voice talents, the work they’ve turned in is nevertheless quite impressive, with just the right mix of enthusiasm and subtlety, according to the needs of each scene.
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The story is powerfully told, and although there are eight hours of cut scenes and cinematics, they are well spaced out throughout the game; in one early boss fight, the battle is divided into three distinct phases and between each phase, there’s something added to move the story forward. While a less skilled developer would use this merely for a tutorial on boss battles, and it does to some extent serve that function, Level-5 masks the utilitarian purpose of this by using the story breaks to advance both the excitement of the battle and to move the narrative forward.
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Unlike many RPGs, Rogue Galaxy doesn’t drive you forward nonstop along a predetermined path. While not quite as free and open as, say, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, the game actually delivers many opportunities to go off the beaten path of the main story and do other things that are quite interesting and frequently rewarding. There is the Insector mini-game, for example, which is kind of like Monster Rancher or Pokemon, and offers over 120 different insects to collect, raise and battle in tournaments.
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There’s even a new ultimate-challenge bonus dungeon that only opens up at the very end of the game. It involves first clearing a “ghost ship” to gain access to the dungeon. The dungeon itself is a 100-level behemoth that has a boss-level foe awaiting you on every 10th floor; to clear it, you have to defeat everything on all 100 floors without leaving the dungeon once. It’s a hardcore challenge that measure up quite well to the skyscraper in the original Parasite Eve. Only more fun!
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There are also special hunter license battles, in which you must defeat boss-level foes, often under specific conditions, in order to earn hunter points and hunter coins, which can be exchanged for rare items, discounts at item shops and more. In the US release, Level 5 has also added an entirely new planet, complete with its own story and plot expansions, to make the Rogue Galaxy experience even deeper.
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Adding to the game’s appeal is a deep action-style battle system that allows for a lot of expansion, customization and control; one can also craft their own items and weapons using an intricate and not-easy-to-master item generation system. And the galaxy has a generous six main planets to explore, including Jaster’s home world – one more than appeared in the Japanese retail release. Level 5 went far beyond the normal localization process, instilling a list of at least 25 major changes, revisions, corrections, expansions and enhancements, to make sure that the game was not only played in English, but even better-balanced, more fun and more exciting than even the Japanese release was.
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Rogue Galaxy plays well on PlayStation 2 and has turned up no issues of backward compatibility on PS3. While it may not be quite as deep or free as Oblivion, it is important to keep in mind that Oblivion is a true next-gen game. Rogue Galaxy isn’t that far behind, and that’s while appearing on a “previous gen” system like PS2. When the history books are written, games like Rogue Galaxy will be exhibits in the case to be made that PlayStation 2 was never fully “maxed out” by most developers.
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For all the sheer depth, detail, attention to improvement, solidly entertaining story and a load of other top-notch qualities, I think it’s fair to say that Rogue Galaxy will live up to the moniker of being the last great PS2 RPG. Not only that, but in many ways Rogue Galaxy plays better than their previous masterpiece, Dragon Quest VIII and sets a new high-water mark for the company. From here, even Level-5 is moving beyond PS2. They have two titles in the works for Nintendo DS, Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Sky and Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village. Also, in development for PlayStation 3 is the hotly anticipated, recently announced White Knight Story. Their first PSP effort, Jeanne d’Arc, was recently released in Japan, though US release plans are unofficial at this time.
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For the game at hand, though, Rogue Galaxy goes beyond the circumstantial scheduling of being the “last great PS2 RPG.” Based on over 100 hours of addictive fun that’s easy to latch onto for a newbie and as hardcore as it gets when facing the final 100-level dungeon, Rogue Galaxy, in this reviewer’s opinion, deserves a spot in the Top 5 PS2 RPGs of all time.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Over 100 hours of addictive RPG action, with a deep battle system. + Tons of things to do outside of the main storyline. + Very nice evolution of Level-5’s signature cel-shaded art style. + Lots of enhancements and additions to the game for US release. + Great voice acting and other audio work. + No load times when you encounter foes! Battles take place on the same world you explore, not a “battle stage.” |
9.7 |
| What Doesn't | |
| – It’s not quite as “open” as Oblivion… | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A true classic, Rogue Galaxy brings Level 5 full circle in their growth as a developer; they have created not only the last great PS2 RPG, but one of the top five PS2 RPGs of all time! | |
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Tags: Rogue Galaxy
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Jan 30th, 2007 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
