An engrossing RPG that makes you want to go "Yaaar!"
The gameplay is basic. You control the leader character, although you can change the leader at any time by pressing L3. Other party members (a maximum of 2 more) will follow your leader. The battles are real time and random. Each of your 8 characters have a main weapon and a sub, the latter usually taking up ammo with each hit. This can get frustrating, as sometimes you are forced to use the sub weapon, which can deplete your ammo quickly and leave you in a very vulnerable situation. There is an Action Gauge used in all Rogue Galaxy battles. Each time a character carries out an action, a small portion of the Action Gauge will deplete. This can get annoying, but if you guard when the Action Gauge is empty, it fills up again. There is also no healing abilities in the game, so you are forced to rely on healing items. And the healing items are quite expensive in shops. That's not a really bad thing though, as you'll get plenty of them from chests and enemies. All in all, i'd say the gameplay is quite good, although the battle system can be confusing at times.
There are plenty of sidequests in this game. The Insectron sidequest is one of them. It's a time consuming quest where you catch Insectors from one of the 6 worlds, feed them, train them and enter them in tounaments. Other sidequests include the water planet of Alistia, the Ghost Ship and The Factory. In the latter, you mix items on a special layout to create new items. I found this Factory very difficult, especially as there was no real tutorial to help you.
The graphics in this game look really good. The cutscenes are cinematic and the voices are done perfectly. The worlds are large and atmospheric, with many save points littered throughout. There are no loading times in this game, which is a very big step in RPGs.
So, my final conclusion is that this is a game not without it's flaws. It is very engrossing and there's so much to do in it. But there's the confusing bits, a lack of unique abilities and an annoying Action Gauge. A great RPG that needs more attenion.