Rogue Galaxy

Rogue Galaxy starts out on the planet called Rosa, homeplanet of the main character Jaster. Jaster a teenage boy was abanded as a child, Raul a priest took Jaster into his care, and became a father like figure to Jaster. Jaster dreamed of traveling the galaxy, this wish is fulfilled one day as a giant creature attacks his town, this starts off a chain of important events. He runs off to fight the creature, and is paired with another ally, Desert Claw, a very famous, and well known legendary hunter. The pair fight off some creatures, and defeat the giant creature attacking the town. A pair of space pirates witness the battle, and run towards them, Desert Claw gives Jaster his sword and runs off, avoiding the space pirates. In a case of mistaken identity, the pair assume Jaster is the legendary Desert Claw and invite him to travel the galaxy with them, Jaster agrees to leave, and says goodbye to his father like figure Raul, and sets off for the galaxy. This then starts up the game where Jaster travels to different planets, and experiences many battles.

Rogue Galaxy's storyline is like a mix of Stars Wars, and an Anime show, it depicts, relationships such as love, hate, betrayal, and battles. There are about 8 playable characters in Rogue Galaxy, Jaster, Kisala, Zegram, Simon, Lilika, Steve, Jupis, and Deego, each has there preference in weapon types. The characters are able to wield special abilities unique to there style of fighting, such as Jaster, he specializes in his sword, and his abilities include elemental attacks using his sword, or special moves the make the sword more powerful. The abilities are unlocked with the use of the Revelation flow chart. Each little slot contains a soliloquy of an item such as an antidote, after placing all the items into a specific spot, an ability is unlocked for your character, which is used in battle.

Rogue Galaxy's battle system is action paced, and requires alot of running, and selecting options such as using potions. By pressing the triangle button, you can access a little mini interface, whether to use an ability, or items (usually to heal a character or cure a character). In battle, there are 3 allys, Jaster (You), and 2 others characters of your choice. They are controlled by the A.I and battle as you would, sometimes, they will make reccomendations asking you whether to use a potion, or an ability. This can get quite repetitive, by spamming an ability continuously on regular creatures that pop out, making the battle sequences a bit boring, but the battle sequences are a bit different for a boss. While battling a boss, you find yourself using tactics to defeat them, each boss has a unique battle style, and different ways to apporach the battle. You might have to attack the back side only, or the arms only to defeat the boss, so spamming an ability is much more difficult.

The weapons you are able to wield vary, and help you greatly. There are a plethora of weapons, and subweapons to choose from. There are swords, axes, bow an arrows, staves, firearms, any type of weapons. And the choice os a subweapon which is useful for tactical battles, such as a guns, or a stave. Each weapon has a category, such as the weapons power, and the weapons level mastery. Each character when weilding a weapon, can level up there weapon when the character himself/herself level up. meaning everytime a character levels up, the weapon of choice levels up, and is more powerful, and goes up until to the point where it says "Max". That means the weapon is at its highest peak in mastery, or level. There really are no armor in the game, just costumes which changes the looks of your character, they might not do anything for you, but they are pretty eye catching, and makes your character look better.

Rogue Glaxy features a factory. You can access this feature by pressing the triangle button, this feature enables you to make an item, or weapon. Placing a table or a belt that transports the items that are used to make the item or weapon to other tables and machines that are placed. After it is completed, it is then transported to other shops around the galaxy, and is available for purchase. Although it will be a little difficult to find out which items are needed, there is a little helper that you have that can aid you, a blue print. it shows you what you need to make a specific weapon. There is also a Frog that can chew two items together to make a new weapon, so there are two different ways to make different and new weapons.

The graphics in Rogue Galaxy are subpar with many new games, and are gorgeous for a PS2 game. When upscaled is even better, and the graphics are detailed, and very colorful, and vibrant. Each building, and character models are very well detailed, and dont show any scruffs or unbalanced graphical details. The cinematics are very very good to say at the least. In short, the graphics are awesome for a PS2 game.

Rogue Galaxy is yet another reason not to put away your PS2 in a shelve, Rogue Galaxy is a great game with alot of depth, and a variety of sidequests that will keep you busy for a while, I highly suggest this game, and is developed from a well known company, Level 5.