I bought this game when it was relatively new. I had just finished my 90 hour play through of Dragon Quest VIII, which was the best console RPG experience I have ever had. 
Since this game is made by Level 5 just like DQ8 was, it looked interesting and it had a different setting than most jRPGs, in that it was a sort of sci-fi/Star Wars theme. 
I originally sank about 6 hours into the game but it was a struggle. I have never been much for the story in RPGs, that is not the main reason I play them. I do however realize that most people seem to enjoy story in video games in general so I'm not saying they should have left it out. That's what the majority wants and that's what they get. 
The battles are my main gripe with this title. They are setup to be semi-real time in that the battle takes place in real time just like it would in an action game, but you can at any time pause the game and give commands to the other members of your party. This works out pretty similar to western games like Baldur's Gate and the more recent Dragon Age: Origins. 
While this is a neat idea in theory it makes the combat hard to handle at times and the encounters are more or less divided into two types: The ones where you can just hammer on X to swing your sword at whatever is close and let your other party members do their thing on auto pilot, and the ones where you can die in 3 seconds if you do not pause constantly to give commands and use health potions etc. 
 Since there is no way of knowing if an upcoming fight is gonna fall into the first or second category you can often feel like the game is constantly trying to trick you and catch you off guard and it creates a form of antagonistic feeling towards the game itself, and you are often left wondering if the programmers were sadistic bastards who wanted to lull the players into a feeling that everything is smooth sailing, only to then pounce on the unsuspecting player with a very hard encounter. 
 
There is a character progression system in the game that feels similar to the one in Final Fantasy X (I believe it was X atleast, I couldn't stand that game myself so I'm not entirely sure). This works out fairly okay, even if it is rather convoluted and feels clunky at times. 
 
The graphics are very good and the voice acting is almost on par with Dragon Quest VIII. 
 
I have now played it for almost 9 hours total and I am going to try and devote a couple more hours to it. Maybe it will pick up and I will get used to the chaotic battles and unnecessarily large number of characters. I have never understood why modern RPGs gives you more characters to choose from than what fits into your party at any given time. It only serves to force people into reading FAQs to not make mistakes like level up the wrong dude and be screwed at some later point in the game etc.  
 
One thing I must give Rogue Galaxy huge credit for is that when you load up a save game you will get a screen of text that recaps the story so far. This really helps you out if you haven't played the game in a long time like me. Every RPG should have this. 
 
So, what do you think of Rogue Galaxy? Do you like the total chaos that ensues whenever you get into battle? Do you think the story is worthwhile? Would you rather have it be turn based combat like the Dragon Quest or Persona games? I know I sure as hell would!
 
I am going to go back and look at some other games in my collection in upcoming blog posts. Maybe some semi-obscure stuff like Bujingai Swordmaster, Giga Wing Generations and Homura.

I bought this game when it was relatively new. I had just finished my 90 hour play through of Dragon Quest VIII, which was the best console RPG experience I have ever had. 
Since this game is made by Level 5 just like DQ8 was, it looked interesting and it had a different setting than most jRPGs, in that it was a sort of sci-fi/Star Wars theme. 
I originally sank about 6 hours into the game but it was a struggle. I have never been much for the story in RPGs, that is not the main reason I play them. I do however realize that most people seem to enjoy story in video games in general so I'm not saying they should have left it out. That's what the majority wants and that's what they get. 
The battles are my main gripe with this title. They are setup to be semi-real time in that the battle takes place in real time just like it would in an action game, but you can at any time pause the game and give commands to the other members of your party. This works out pretty similar to western games like Baldur's Gate and the more recent Dragon Age: Origins. 
While this is a neat idea in theory it makes the combat hard to handle at times and the encounters are more or less divided into two types: The ones where you can just hammer on X to swing your sword at whatever is close and let your other party members do their thing on auto pilot, and the ones where you can die in 3 seconds if you do not pause constantly to give commands and use health potions etc. 
 Since there is no way of knowing if an upcoming fight is gonna fall into the first or second category you can often feel like the game is constantly trying to trick you and catch you off guard and it creates a form of antagonistic feeling towards the game itself, and you are often left wondering if the programmers were sadistic bastards who wanted to lull the players into a feeling that everything is smooth sailing, only to then pounce on the unsuspecting player with a very hard encounter. 
 
There is a character progression system in the game that feels similar to the one in Final Fantasy X (I believe it was X atleast, I couldn't stand that game myself so I'm not entirely sure). This works out fairly okay, even if it is rather convoluted and feels clunky at times. 
 
The graphics are very good and the voice acting is almost on par with Dragon Quest VIII. 
 
I have now played it for almost 9 hours total and I am going to try and devote a couple more hours to it. Maybe it will pick up and I will get used to the chaotic battles and unnecessarily large number of characters. I have never understood why modern RPGs gives you more characters to choose from than what fits into your party at any given time. It only serves to force people into reading FAQs to not make mistakes like level up the wrong dude and be screwed at some later point in the game etc.  
 
One thing I must give Rogue Galaxy huge credit for is that when you load up a save game you will get a screen of text that recaps the story so far. This really helps you out if you haven't played the game in a long time like me. Every RPG should have this. 
 
So, what do you think of Rogue Galaxy? Do you like the total chaos that ensues whenever you get into battle? Do you think the story is worthwhile? Would you rather have it be turn based combat like the Dragon Quest or Persona games? I know I sure as hell would!
 
I am going to go back and look at some other games in my collection in upcoming blog posts. Maybe some semi-obscure stuff like Bujingai Swordmaster, Giga Wing Generations and Homura.

I am so pissed that I've never gotten to play this game.  My PS2 died on me about a week before this came out, and I've just never gotten around to playing it.  I LOVE Level 5, and I've really wanted to check this out.  They've got it at Game Crazy new for $20.  I've considered buying it before it isn't around anymore.

i remember really liking this game

Rogue Galaxy just didn't do it for me, and I agree with you in some parts. Like, the combat, I also never felt that it really worked. I don't know if you resorted to the same thing, but I came to a point (fairly early on in the game, the prison part) in which enemies were able to kill me with 2 to 3 attacks. This led me to just spam area attacks, which tended to end battle with just one, sometimes two. Neddless to say, combat got repetitive and boring rather quickly.
 
Aside from this, I have other two maind gripes, that I'm not entirely sure you'll agree with. Firts, the dungeons are too long (specially those twim towers) and way too repetitive. The scenery seems to be recycled too often, creating a feeling that you're not progressing.
The other thing (I guess you didn't come around this one) is that the real plot only becomes clear at the last 3, maybe 4 hours of the game. This, in my conception, is just bad design. You don't really feel that you're fighting for something important, when you have just found what the real enemy is.
 
But I'll agree that it's good looking, and that has little details, like the story in the loading or the bug combat and the factory, really give the gameplay a nice flavour. But, overall, I think it commits more missteps than anything else.