Rogue Galaxy Review
A
young orphan on a desert planet at the fringes of a galactic empire joins a
motley crew of rebels and outlaws and soon finds himself traveling the galaxy
and taking on the empire itself. Sound familiar? Well it’s not Star Wars, it’s
Rogue Galaxy, a massive RPG that shows that there’s still plenty of life left in
the venerable PlayStation 2 console.
The desert world in this case is Rosa, and the orphan in question is one Jaster
Rogue who hails from a town with more than a passing resemblance to Mos Eisley.
From there the story departs from its source of inspiration, but you may find
yourself wishing it stayed to script. The story is pretty derivative and not all
that exciting, so if you play RPGs mainly for the story you’ll probably come
away from it a bit disappointed. However if it’s all about the gameplay for you,
then you’re going to find plenty of it in Rogue Galaxy.
When playing console RPGs I’m often put off by the fact that the combat can be
so passive and tedious. Select from a limited number of attacks, sit back and
watch the same attack animations that you’ve seen hundreds of times, watch the
health bars go down, and then repeat the cycle all over again. Bor-ing. Rogue
Galaxy breaks away from this overused combat model and the game is so much
better for the change. The battles in Rogue Galaxy are a much more hands-on
affair that take more of an action game style approach to combat. The battles
take place in real-time and you’ll need to actively move your character around
to engage enemies and defend yourself. Some enemies such as large or flying
monsters will even require you to jump before you can hit them. So far it sounds
like an action game, but there is an RPG engine running under the hood. Each
character has primary and secondary weapons, in Jaster’s case they are a sword
and pistol, and their use is limited in a way that effectively adds an
equivalent to rounds to the fights. Using the primary weapon requires “breath”
which is essentially an action meter that drains each time you perform an action
with your main weapon. Once you’re out of breath you’ll need to rest for a few
moments or successfully block an enemy attack to recharge your meter. The
secondary weapon isn’t tied to the breath meter but there are also limits on it
use. In this case it’s limited ammunition that will require a brief reload time
when the weapon is emptied. The game will also let you charge your attacks by
holding the attack button down for a bit before releasing the attack. This not
only leads to more damage delivered, it is often required in order to break
through an opponent’s block. This new combat system certainly requires more
reflexes and fast thinking than is needed in a more traditional RPG, but for
those of you who can’t help but be bored by the old way will love the way the
combat is implemented in this game. On the downside I do need to point out that
Rogue Galaxy does suffer the same random encounter overload issue found in many
console RPGs. Sometimes it will feel like you can’t take two steps without
launching into another battle. At least the battles themselves aren’t as
tedious…
