A bland story, unbalanced gameplay and dungeons that last too long makes a potentially great game mediocre instead.
The story follows that of Jaster Rogue, an orphan living on the desert world of Rosa. Much like a certain Star Wars character he is modeled after, Jaster longs to see the vastness of the galaxy himself. Also much like the same character, Jaster isn't just an ordinary boy, possessing powers and a destiny that no other possesses. Soon a case of mistaken identity lands him among the crew of a space pirate ship and sets a series of events into motion.
Unfortunately the story starts slow and familiar, then soon picks up to just being familiar. A game with a cliché story is perfectly fine, as long as it is presented in a way such that it brings something new or unique to the table. Rogue Galaxy sadly does no such thing. Like with just about every space RPG, the ship quickly has to make a crash landing on a primitive planet in order to pad some game time. After getting things workable again, they need to head to the capital planet to get their visa renewed - apparently even pirates can't get very far in the galaxy without being able to dock at approved spaceports. Some bunch of pirates they are. Finally, after a dozen hours, does the actual story really start. Jaster joins a number of cookie-cutter characters, including a generic love interest, a primitive warrior, a former soldier, a lone wolf bounty hunter, and an eccentric robot. They end up going after wonderful treasure hidden away on a legendary planet, but as luck would have it, the fate of the very galaxy will be at stake.
The action RPG battle system is simple and easy to pick up, yet has a little bit of hidden complexity. You control one character, and the computer controls the other two members of your party. The computer attacks based on some general strategy guidelines that you can set in the menu. The other party members occasionally make suggestions of special moves or items to use, which you can either select with the L1 or L2 buttons or ignore. This makes healing a lot easier, as items are essentially your entire source of healing. Enemies can certainly dish out a lot of damage, but thankfully your item carrying capacity is pretty high and the most basic healing potion heals half of your maximum health. For those used to conserving healing magic, the sheer amount of damage output of the enemies and restorative items used will seem rather extreme. However, the game is certainly balanced around the heavy use of healing items.
Each action consumes some AP. Once the AP meter is empty, it will totally refill after a few seconds. However, if you block an attack during this time it will instantly refill. Blocking is a rather important feature, especially as the game goes on. While it won't totally block all the damage, unblocked attacks can do a rather extreme amount of damage and will rapidly burn through healing potions. However, this does not mean too much in the end, as there are usually a good number of save points scattered throughout the dungeons. Seeing how you may instantly warp between any save point on the same planet, a shop is rarely very far away. On top of that, about a quarter of the way through the game the cost of restocking your inventory is relatively insignificant.
Character growth is accomplished through a grid system called revelations, and through actual weapon growth. Each time you win a battle using a weapon, its experience meter increases by a sixteenth of its max. Once it hits its maximum, the weapon becomes capable of being combined with other maxed out weapons. Combining weapons usually results in a more powerful weapon, which can then be combined with other ones as well. This makes even somewhat weaker weapons a good buy at shops, as you can usually use them to boost the power of your more powerful weapons. The growth itself is pretty fast - so fast in fact that you'll find yourself frequently rotating your party members as before long each character will run out of weapons to gain experience with. While it may be a bit too brisk, it does have the nice side effect of encouraging you to give each character a try periodically.
Revelations are a grid system that essentially teaches each character magical abilities, or boosts innate abilities like attack power and elemental resistances. Abilities require between one and six items to be placed on the grid. Once all the items are there, the ability unlocks, and it opens up the ability to unlock adjacent skills. Items used can range from common restorative items, items dropped by enemies used just for revelations, and even the occasional storyline item. Since some items do not drop until you get a certain distance in the game, the system is set up such that you cannot become too powerful too quickly.
There is one problem with the offensive abilities though - against most enemies, they're often enough to either kill most enemies or almost kill them. Having a well-balanced battle system means little if all you need to do is just cast a spell to win a fight. Items that restore your MP are rather inexpensive and efficient, and like healing items are of trivial cost starting about a quarter of the way through the game. Needless to say, this takes a lot of the wind out of the game's sails.
Not all enemies can be easily taken out with a spell right at the start of a battle. Some enemies have a form of protective shell, which can only be taken down by charging a spin attack. However, you can easily target these enemies, quickly nullify their defenses, and cast a spell as normal. Other enemies have a form of space-time shield, which can only be taken down with a gun that just Jaster can use. Again, firing the gun at these enemies and casting can easily be done. Unfortunately, though, guns cannot be reloaded manually, nor out of battle. They reload automatically only when they run out of ammo, where you'll simply have to wait for a good twenty seconds, so you'll often have little choice but to run around in circles and wait. The lack of being able to reload manually seems like a lack of foresight - ending a battle with one shot left, and having to stay at one shot until you get into another battle requiring to use that one ammo, is rather frustrating. The other form of enemy is a giant, which can only be hit by jumping and slashing at their heads. For whatever reason, these enemies are totally immune to magic. The frequency of these enemies increase quite a bit at the end of the game, seemingly thrown in just so you can't get easy wins from a single spell cast. These enemies can also be rather cheap, as they can wind up for big punches while you are hanging in the air near their heads.
To make matters worse, many of the levels go on much longer than they should. Level 5 wanted to create the largest playing world in a Japanese RPG, and in that they succeeded. Unfortunately, some of the planets are simply too large, resulting in some repetition that goes on a lot longer than is necessary. The designs are a lot like the dungeons in Level 5's Dark Cloud games. These dungeons were constructed with right angles and interchangeable pieces, as they were randomly constructed. Rogue Galaxy is not randomly constructed, but someone must have forgotten to tell the designers. The dungeons tend to recycle the same pieces over and over again as a means to extend the length of the dungeon. In the prison, you'll find yourself going through some very familiar banks of cells over and over again. In the starship factory, you'll lose track of which of the assembly lines you just passed. In some instances you pass the same landmark so many times that it makes the dungeons feel a lot longer than they actually are. And they're pretty long to begin with, some taking upwards of five hours to complete, though most take a couple of hours.
Visually, Rogue Galaxy is a marvel to look at. Level 5 has always pushed the envelope for cel-shaded graphics, and Rogue Galaxy is no exception. The locations are detailed and full of atmosphere, especially Zedard, the metropolis planet. There are hovercars constantly buzzing by on Zedard with lots of other activity throughout the city. The only real downside is the previously mentioned reused locations, which seem to not be a fair tradeoff to make the worlds larger. The straight lines and right angles used on the passageways are rather out of place at times, especially on the jungle planet. In the jungle you often follow a stream that flows in straight lines, and turns at perfectly right angles. It's simply startling how beautiful some of the handmade areas are, and how dull the reusable dungeon pieces can be. The bonus planet added for the American release shows just how great the game could have been if the planets were designed better instead of just copied and pasted. The beautiful-looking tropical planet was totally built from scratch and was just a joy to explore. It certainly stands out from all the other planets that just recycle the same few assets over and over again. The characters all look great, and all of the various weapons and outfits change a character's appearance when its equipped. Since many of the cutscenes are rendered using the game engine, seeing your characters always carrying around the weapons you actually have equipped is a nice touch. The ship design is just great - the pirate ship is an actual wooden pirate ship straight out of the 17th century, with a few engines added. Seeing a ship actually raise its sails and take off is just a sight to behold.
The audio is also of a high quality. The music of Rogue Galaxy is strong, even if it doesn't always stand out. Still, many of the tracks do a great job of setting the mood for each location, from a mysterious old castle to a lively futuristic city and a primitive jungle. The music for a few key boss fights is particularly strong. The voice acting cast was great, and did a really good job with their lines. Each character has a great personality that is brought alive through the voice actors. Also, each character speaks what is on their mind periodically, giving you hints where to go next. Unfortunately, since each dungeon is rather long, the characters can get to be rather repetitive and thus annoying. There's an option to turn this feature off, though. It was certainly a nice touch, but was used a little too frequently relative to the dungeon lengths. The sound effects are also rather good, from sword swings to fired blasters.
The game itself takes around 50 hours spread throughout 13 chapters. The action does not stop there for those that wish to fully explore the game. After you beat the game, a bonus Ghost Ship level opens up, which will add to the challenge. There is also a crafting system involving setting up factory assembly lines in a way such that the raw materials hit the right components at the right time. It is certainly a more enjoyable way of crafting materials than simply following a written recipe. This assembly line is totally optional, not even a token simple item is required in the game. The same is true for the Insector tournaments. This is a battle tournament using insects. You catch insects on various planets by setting traps, then build up their battle abilities and have them fight it out with other competitors in a large tournament. This minigame is rather fleshed out and will provide hours of battles for those that wish to pursue it, though again it is totally optional. There are also a number of optional bosses that you can hunt to gain other rewards, not unlike the hunts in Final Fantasy XII.
Rogue Galaxy had a lot of potential with great production values, but it falls short in a number of areas. Repetitive dungeons, overpowered magical attacks, annoying enemy defenses, and a bland story all add up to drag a potentially great game down to a rather mediocre one. Those that are able to overlook some of the game's flaws, or manage to avoid abusing magic, will likely find the game enjoyable. However, there are many games in the PS2's library that will probably be better off spending your time on. The optional planet just demonstrates what could have been, though some of the most basic battle system designs would still have been present. In the end it will likely keep action RPG fans entertained, but the game will quickly fade from memory as it brings little that cannot be found elsewhere.