(8.3/10) A Japanese Smash Hit Comes To The U.S.  
In Japan Rogue Galaxy was a huge success, selling over half a million units in Japan alone (thats a lot for a no name RPG in Japan) outselling smash hits such as Star Ocean 3: Till The End of Time and many other award winning RPGs. Rogue Galaxy: Directors Cut seemed like a natural choice to bring over to the US. Developed by Level5 creators of Dark Cloud the game shares the same art style but Rogue Galaxy makes it all oh so epic. This game was originally released in japan in 2005 boomed in sales and got rave reviews from Japanese game magazines. In late 2006 Japan got a directors cut released that added more voices some gameplay features some new outfits/armor and a few little fan extras only the hardcore fans would fully comprehend. We got this Directors Cut version in January of 2007 and the game is truly grand..... at first. 
The game starts with very high hopes tells you very little about anything at first leaving a little mystery in the air. Rumors are now surfacing that the story was changed drastically for the english release and is part of the reason the story ends up going the way it goes. The game states that there is over a hundred hours of gameplay which is true, you only need about 35 hours to beat the main game, but the side quests, mini games, monster hunts & outfit finding all take up the rest of the 65 hours. Why? Simply because of the amount of fighting you'll be doing. In fact this game is pretty much ALL fighting, apparently thats how the japanese like it, and in this case its not a bad or tedious thing at all. In fact my 35 hours felt more like 20 since i was having so much fun, the only way to describe the battle system is Final Fantasy 12 mixed with Devil May Cry.
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The graphics are 3D cel shaded and resemble Dragon Quest 8 a lot, but i think Rogue Galaxies graphics are much more superior than those of Dragon Quest 8. The programmers included very minor details that sort of 'perfected' the image of each character when looked at up close and it was well worth it, the quality is stupendous. The cities and dungeons you'll visit will always appear large and important while being simple at the same time but they'll always be gorgeous. 
You'll be immersed in this world from the start due to the amount of talking your party members do while your wandering around trying to get to your next goal. Whether it be opinion on events that have just transpired or comments on the next assignment or even a random joke, the characters are definitely filled with lotsa character! The voice acting is pretty damn good with a lot of variety in the cast and the acting keeps your interest since theres little story here but the little we have is very well executed. |
Opera sounds fill the boss fight scenes, epic operas though, operas where swords clash and heads roll operas! But seriously this game has some very good tracks but nothing too spectacular that sticks out or becomes memorable. I'd have to say one of the best tracks is during the last battle I'm not sure if they played it during an earlier segment of the game but it definitely stands out the most to me. |
Rogue Galaxy gets a lot of flak from the younger generation and a few websites but i enjoyed it heavily. One of the games flaws is it becomes too easy, who knows if they changed the difficulty and made it easier like many video game companies that bring over Japanese RPGs over to the states do. Whether or not it was changed the game remains rather easy and beat the final boss with everyone pretty underpowered and under-equipped. Still this game is worth its price tag and should be enjoyed by anyone that at least remotely enjoys J-RPGs
10/16/08 
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