Rogue Galaxy

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Rogue Galaxy

Developer(s) Level-5
Publisher(s) Sony Computer Entertainment
Designer(s) Akihiro Hino (game producer, game director, lead designer, scenario writer)
Takeshi Majima (art director)
Keiji Nagao (character designer)
Jiro Morinaga (character designer)
Koji Mori (planning director, scenario writer)
Tomohito Nishiura (music composer, sound director)
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
Release date JP December 8, 2005
NA January 30, 2007
EU September 5, 2007
AUS September 20, 2007
UK September 7, 2007
Genre(s) Sci-Fi RPG
Mode(s) Single-player
Rating(s) CERO: A
ESRB: Teen
OFLC: PG
PEGI: 12+
Media 1 × Single Layer DVD-ROM (original release)

1 × Dual Layer DVD-ROM (Director's Cut)

Rogue Galaxy (ローグギャラクシー Rōgu Gyarakushī?) is a science fiction console role-playing game developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. The game was first released in Japan on December 8th, 2005, and later in North America on January 30th, 2007. The European release was initially expected in 2006 but after a series of postponements it was released in most European countries on 5 September 2007. Release in the UK and some other countries followed on 7 September 2007. A Director's Cut version of the game was also released in Japan on March 15, 2007. The Director's Cut included all the added features and improvements of the North American and European localizations.[1]

Rogue Galaxy enjoyed immense critical success upon its initial release in Japan, scoring a 36/40 in Famitsu and an 85 average in Dengeki, two of Japan's most popular gaming magazines. Sales were also very strong for an original IP RPG in Japan, with sales totaling over 350,000 units in just three months.

Contents

[edit] Plot and setting

[edit] Story

The story begins with Jaster Rogue, a young boy who was abandoned on the planet Rosa as a child. He was raised by a Priest named Raul, who is like a father to Jaster. His long time dream is to travel around space and be a space pirate. One day a huge monster comes and attacks the town; a man known as the Desert Claw, the best Bounty Hunter in the galaxy, shows up and helps Jaster defeat some monsters that outnumber him. After the battle, Desert Claw spots two pirates from the crew of Space Pirate Dorgengoa. He gives Jaster his weapon, the Desert Seeker, one of the Legendary 7 Star Swords, so the pirates will mistake him for Desert Claw. They soon help Jaster defeat the boss monster (the Flaming Alchemist: Mark XIII Salamander) that attacked the village. After the battle the 2 Pirates (Simon and Steve) tell Jaster that their Captain(Dorgengoa) wants to hire him on his crew. The next day Jaster decides to leave planet Rosa and join the pirates in their journey to find the Lost Planet Eden. After leaving the planet Rosa, Jaster meets up with the rest of the crew of the Dorgenark. Kisala, the captain's daughter, Steve, a robot and Simon, a space pirate and finally Zegram, a mercenary who agreed to join the crew. Dorgengoa, the captain, is after the legendary Planet Eden which is supposed to have vast amounts of treasure and the people that live there are immortal. As their journey continues Jaster meets new friends from different planets such as Lilika, an amazon, from the Jungle Planet Juraika, Jupis, a hacker from the Advanced Planet Zerard, and finally Deego, an Ex-Longuardian soldier from the Mining Planet Vedan. On their journey, they discovered that the Great Tablets are connected to Eden. They also learn that they need Artifacts from Ancient Kings who ruled specific planets years ago. They also don't know that the president of Daytron is also after Eden. When both parties discover the secrets to reach Eden, an epic battle starts.

[edit] Gameplay

The game's engine features a continuous environment with no load time and battles taking place in the overworld in real time. The graphics bear a resemblance to other Level-5 RPGs, most notably Dragon Quest VIII and Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2).

[edit] Combat

Battle screen from the U.S version of Rogue Galaxy.
Battle screen from the U.S version of Rogue Galaxy.

Combat is handled very much like in a Western RPG; enemies roam the playing field and there is no transition between battle and exploring the game world. The player controls a single character, but can change the other party members attack patterns using the team command function. In addition the player can switch characters and access their skills on the fly.

Some of the Combat's features are as follows;

Revelation Chart
Each Character has his/her very own revelation chart. The chart has unlockable AP commands and upgrades. Each character starts out with an empty box with an outline of an item. Completely fill the certain slot with the correct item, you can now use that AP command. When a slot is filled, another one or more opens.
Tech Attacks
These are team based attacks in which two or more team members combine their abilities into one devastating attack. They are unlocked on the Revelation Flow for each character and are unique for each one with various requirements for who must be present within the active party to be enabled in combat (á la Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross).
Burning Strike
In the Japanese release, these special attacks would occur at random, but this was changed in the U.S. release so that the player may activate them manually by collecting enough Burning Chips dropped by foes during combat to fill a special gauge. Once filled, the player may activate this ability at which point they must follow a series of prompts onscreen to string together attacks in order to generate a great deal of damage to a targeted enemy.
Throwing Enemies
The player can throw an enemy into another enemy to cause damage. Various obstacles and items also appear within the combat area for the player to use in like fashion in most instances.
Special Conditions
Several enemies are immune to damage unless made vulnerable through various means; some must first have their barriers destroyed by one of Jaster's guns. Others can only be harmed at very specific points to deliver any damage. Others must be jumped on to lower their guard. Still others must have their guard broken through the use of a strong attack. Players must be aware of this, as such enemies are invulnerable to even the strongest attacks in the game until made otherwise.

[edit] Dungeon exploration

Keeping in tradition with Level-5's Dark Cloud/Dark Chronicle series, some areas contain puzzles. These can range from the mundane fetching of a key that matches the lock to more exotic ones, such as freezing a waterfall and then using created platforms in order to climb it. Unlike Dark Cloud and Dark Chronicle, the dungeons are not randomized.

Many of the puzzles encountered involve "Thinking Circles" - areas with a question mark where the player directs the characters, is informed of a situation there, and then attempts to select the right item from the inventory to address the situation. Doing so unlocks other parts of the dungeon, summons important bosses, and so forth.

Dungeons in Rogue Galaxy are notably long affairs, and may have odd and specialized enemies in them requiring the player to determine the best way to deal with them.

[edit] Insectron Tournament

The Insectron Tournament is a completely optional mini-game where the player pits up a team of his collected and trained bugs against opponents in a chess-like board, turn-based combat. Bugs can be acquired in each of the worlds by setting up traps and using food items as bait. Some are more powerful than others. A good source of bait is the sticky gum. You can buy this by the Insectron area from the man that sells more traps and rearing cages. The sticky gum catches The small bugs easily . The insect system is almost identical to the fish tank system found in Dark Chronicle, however there is a longer time period in which insects mature.

[edit] The Factory

At a certain point early in the game, the player's characters get access to a reconfigurable factory. They then are able to find blueprints by talking to others in the game (who have orange or blue icons over their heads). Using the blueprints, the player can set up factory equipment and raw materials to make new items. Upon completion of the item, the party gets a "sample" and the item will be available in some stores in the game.

The factory layout is essentially a 2D flow-puzzle where the player lays out equipment and conveyor belts, hooks up power cables, and attempts to make sure the right materials are processed properly, and combined at the right time in the manufacturing process. Consideration of the materials used, how they are processed, and the time it takes is required for success. However, the materials used are not lost if the player sets the the assembly incorrectly.

[edit] Weapon synthesis

The game also features a Weapon Synthesis system similar to Level-5's Dark Cloud series, albeit in a simplified form, which can be used to create powerful and effective weapons.

All weapons gain EXP from battles until they reach a level where they are "Maxed" and can be synthesized along with another similarly-developed weapon to create an even stronger one. This is accomplished by the use of "Toady", a strange froglike creature whose exposure to the mysterious substance Rune has given him the ability to swallow weapons and regurgitate a more advanced one. Toady can also analyze weapons and make suggestions for combinations, and will helpfully warn if a combination he's attempting to digest will give useless or negative results. He can only combine two weapons of the same kind.

After a weapon is "Maxed" on its experience, it continues to gain additional damage in specific "elemental" categories - fire, ice, lightning, wind, and holy. These can improve to a limited degree. When the experience and the elemental damage is at maximum, a weapon is considered "Mastered" and cannot be improved further. Improving these stats can mean a more powerful weapon is produced when Toady is used.

All playable characters possess two weapons: primary and secondary. The majority of the characters have a close-range weapon set as primary, while long-range weapons will be their secondary. The exceptions to is Lilika, who has the opposite set up, and Kisala, who has no ranged attacks. Combining weapons is no different among characters.

[edit] Audio

[edit] Soundtrack

Soundtrack Cover
Soundtrack Cover

Composed by Level-5's chief composer, Tomohito Nishiura, Rogue Galaxy's OST is reminiscent of games such as Skies of Arcadia and Star Ocean. The title's ending vocal track, "Dreaming My Way Home", is composed by Nishiura and written, arranged and performed by Barbara Kessler.

A 10-track arrangement album entitled Rogue Galaxy Premium Arrange was also released in early 2006, and featured contributions from quite a few popular video game composers including Yasunori Mitsuda, Kenji Ito, Yoko Shimomura, Motoi Sakuraba and Noriyuki Iwadare.

[edit] Disc one

  1. The Theme of Rogue Galaxy
  2. The Sandy Town
  3. The Omen
  4. The Crisis
  5. The Church
  6. Brave Heart
  7. A Hasty Man
  8. Hazardous Desert
  9. Timeless Town
  10. Severe Voyage
  11. The Jungle of Jyuraika
  12. Burkaqua Village
  13. The Ruined Castle
  14. A Road to the Ruined Castle
  15. Shadow of the Sun
  16. Swinging
  17. Planet Zerard
  18. Two Horns
  19. Sweet Memories
  20. The Galaxy Public Corporation
  21. Factory (In Editing)
  22. Factory (In Production)
  23. A Peaceful Moment
  24. A Hidden Insanity
  25. The Prison
  26. The Lost Gene
  27. Exploder1
  28. A Childhood Memory
  29. Starship Factory
  30. Open the World
  31. Varkogu's Theme

[edit] Disc two

  1. The King of Legend
  2. A Masked Man
  3. Exploder2
  4. The Misty Town
  5. The Bar "Angela"
  6. Overcome the Sorrow
  7. The Cave of a Mine
  8. Insectron (Strategy)
  9. Insectron (Battle)
  10. The Watery Relic
  11. Wandering Way
  12. Strain
  13. The Labyrinth
  14. Le Marie Glennecia
  15. Enormous Threat
  16. The Castle in the Air
  17. The Battle Within
  18. The Mystery Forest
  19. History Tells
  20. The Holy Valley
  21. Blue Tears
  22. The Valley of the Evil Lava
  23. The Mother
  24. The Relic's Song
  25. The Beast Battleship
  26. A Wish For Tomorrow
  27. The Ghost Ship
  28. Escape to The Victory
  29. Dreaming My Way Home ~ Ending Theme
  30. Dreaming My Way Home ~ Unrecorded Version <Bonus Track>

[edit] English voice cast

[edit] Japanese voice cast


[edit] Localization improvements

Due to its success in Japan, Level-5 opted not only to localize Rogue Galaxy for North America and Europe, but to add a significant amount of new features and content, and address any complaints concerning the original version. These improvements, which feature in both the North American and European versions of the game, and the Japanese Director's Cut, include:[2]

  • The game now uses a dual-layer 8.5GB DVD to play instead of a standard 4.7GB DVD the Japanese version used. This allowed smoother, better looking graphics and additional data to be added into the game.
  • A fifth planet, the water world of Alistia. While it is separate from the main story arc, the planet includes its own sidequests and special items, and helps flesh out some of the characters. However, it is only available after obtaining a key item in Chapter 8.
  • Toady's Analysis of weapons, which became much simpler to use.
  • The Burning Strike system. Players now collect Burning Chips during battle, which allows them to store power and execute their Burning Strike when they want to.
  • The layout and visual design of several dungeons and planets was altered and improved, making them more visually appealing. Affected areas include Rosencaster Prison, the Gladius Towers, the Daytron factory, Rosa's desert town, and Rosa's Labyrinth.
  • Additional content within the Insectron Tournament sidequest. Main difference is that two species of Insectrons, the Bomber Snail and the Spidan, have been added, each with 8 types of Insectrons per species.
  • Each character (except Jaster) has two new types of weapons, thus increasing the number of weapons in the game by 140.
  • Each character has 5 bonus costumes, except for Kisala and Simon, who get 6. The difference in defense is small, but each character's clothing changes according to the costume they wear, even in cutscenes and in battle (except during the pre-rendered cinematics and, oddly enough, when in the Dorgenark).
  • Improved and expanded battle animations.
  • Over 2000 lines of additional voiced dialogue.
  • Making it easier to damage enemies, as the formula for attacking has been modified.
  • Every character gets three extra abilities to their Revelation Flow, except for Lilika, who has 4. Lilika and Kisala have an extra combination ability called "Star-Linked Venus", and Jupis and Steve get a combination ability called "Black Hole".

[edit] References

  1. ^ Winkler, Chris (Jan. 10, 2007). Rogue Galaxy Director's Cut Announced. RPGFan.
  2. ^ Vore, Bryan (Oct. 16, 2006). U.S. Version Of Rogue Galaxy To Include Loads Of New Content. Game Informer.

[edit] External links

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