Review: Rogue Galaxy - A whole galaxy to explore

Mike Bantick
Sunday, 28 October 2007 10:16

Opinion and Analysis

Where in Blue Dragon , the game revolved around character development, with the inventory providing only secondary consideration, the reverse is true in Rogue Galaxy.

Once you get the hang of the awkward interface, you will find that the inventory screen is the main driver behind character development in Rogue Galaxy.  Certain characters can only equip each weapon or armour, and at the end of each battle (see below) not only characters, but also their respective equipped devices gain experience.

Early in the game, a small creature joins the troupe, providing a method to combine like equipment to form an even more powerful single device.  This will only work if the character has gained experience in said equipment.  A mini game on its own, this weapon and armour alchemy provides a solid portion of the enjoyment to Rogue Galaxy.

Contained in the inventory is another Pokemon style mini-game centred on trapping and training pets.

Finally, the inventory provides the character skill system in a nod to Final Fantasy XII .  Called Revelation, character abilities are unlocked by placing mundane to rare items into correct slots on an ability board.  Once again, each character has a distinctive range of abilities that can be employed during combat.

Oh yeah, combat.  The basis of any JRPG worth its salt.  This time around turn based is eschewed in favour of frenetic random real time encounters, liberally seasoned with a smattering of Boss battles.

Each encounter generally taxes the friendly AI, but at anytime you can take control of a character, dispensing sharp justice or healing potions as the need arrises.  There are some camera issues and awkward control mechanisms.  On the whole however combat is an enjoyable experience that can become somewhat samey during the later stages of particularly large environments. 

There is still more to explore in Rogue Galaxy, such as Hunter ratings, trap disarming and more.  Now if only you had more control over which members joined your party for each outing and a little more depth to the puzzles, this would be a JRPG to rival not only the classics already available on the PS2, but those emerging for next-gen platforms.