When I look back at the history of videogames and the way in which I've participated in that history, I've often found RPGs at the top of my all-time favorites list, including such games as several Final Fantasy installments, Chrono Trigger, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Skies of Arcadia, etc. I love nothing more than a great RPG, and now I can add Rogue Galaxy to that list, which manages to combine various elements into one tightly knit package that you couldn't really ask for more from.

THE STORY SO FAR
You play as Jaster Rogue, a 17-year-old boy living on the desert planet of Rosa, who one day, while heading off to defend the city he lives in from a monstrous beast bent on destruction, Jaster suddenly finds himself becoming a victim of mistaken identity, being confused for a famous bounty hunter that goes by the name of Desert Claw, and suddenly Jaster finds himself hooking up with two Space Pirates and heading out on a grand adventure.

You'll amass quite the motley crew of Space Pirates, including the short Simon, robotic Steve, the warrior princess Lilika, the mysterious Zegram, the pirate captain's daughter Kisala, and two others. Each character is fully realized, featuring their own unique voices and traits, such as the Scottish sounding Simon and proper talking Steve. Throughout the course of the game, not only will you embark on an epic galaxy-spanning quest, but you'll also embark on the more personal quests of your crew as well.

The story is told through an abundance of cutscenes, though they never stay out there welcome, and are instantly skippable at all times if you don't want to see them in the first place (or for the second time if you died and find yourself seeing the same cutscene again). Most of the cutscenes are in-game, though there are a few more animated ones as well; no matter which ones are displayed, they each handle the anime styled graphics beautifully. The cutscenes are also fully voiced, which is actually a blessing for this game, because the voice work is so well done.

GAMEPLAY
It's important to stress this point of the game: you will get frustrated early on with the game, if only because you are unused to it. However, please stick with it, because soon everything will become second nature, and you'll wonder how you could have ever doubted it to begin with.

The battle system of the game is completely real-time and action oriented, matching in style probably closest to that of the Kingdom Hearts series. As you walk around, you'll encounter random battles like in most of the Final Fantasy series (though to be fair, the encounter rate is fairly low, so that won't frustrate you), and once you go into battle mode, you'll find yourself slicing left and right, jumping around, shooting your gun, blocking, etc. By pressing the X-button, you'll attack with your primary weapon, and by pressing the Square button you'll attack with your secondary weapon. For Jaster, the default is a sword for the primary and a gun for the secondary. While playing, there will be two things to be mindful of, as you can't just continue to hit over and over without issue, as your battle gauge goes down after each performed actions (whether it be attacking, using items, etc.). You'll also have to be mindful of your secondary weapon, cause Jaster's gun only has so much ammo, and after using it up, it'll have to spend some time reloading.

Some enemies can easily be taken on by chopping away at them, but some require more finesse and thought, such as bouncing on a creature to open it up for attack, or breaking down the natural shield with a power strike so you can attack it normally.

You'll also be using items throughout the battles, such as heals, resurrection items, and ailment healers. Since it is action based with no turns to be seen at all, you'll have to keep an eye on the state of your two teammates that fight with you. Most of the time you'll probably want to do things for them, such as telling them to use abilities or items when you deem them necessary, but they'll also throw out suggestions to you, such as use this item, and you can easily have them perform that suggestion by pressing either the L1 or L2 button it is attached to.

While we are talking about abilities, you get those in a neat way to, where you'll use items that you find to place in a grid system, and after filling in all the slots for any given ability with the required items, you'll unlock that ability and open up access to any abilities associated with that ability you just unlocked. You'll find many of the items you'll need through combat and chests in the field, but others you can buy in shops. The nice thing is that characters will flash on the Revelation menu when they can equip something, and when in shops items will flash when you can put them to immediate use, so you'll always know what goes where and never waste money on unusable items.

I also love the weapon creation system, which I'm pleasantly surprised and amazed at, because I typically hate confounding things like that – only in Rogue Galaxy it is very intuitive and easy to get used to. The way things go is that you'll run across a frog that eats items and merges them together. The catch is that he will only eat items of the same type (only two Jaster usable swords for example) and they must be Maxed out in skill, which is easily done just by fighting in battles, since weapons get experience points in a manner of speaking like you do. Once you have two items meeting requirements, you can put them in the frog to create new, cooler, and more powerful weapons. The game is also smart enough so you don't waste time or money, because it will tell you when it will create an inferior product (rarely happens) or won't let you create a new weapon when you won't be able to use it (you can only wield weapons at or below the same experience level of you).

The game also has an interesting side quest type part of the game, which though admittedly not a huge fan of, it is pretty interesting gameplay wise and intriguing. In Insectron, you'll place traps out on the battle fields, outfitted with different food types, and after collecting the bugs you trap, you can raise them to make them fighting weapons, and then you take them to these tournaments where you play against other Insectron players, where you'll move your insects on a board, positioning them to perform attacks, and whoever manages to take the opposing King player out first wins. Though I'm focused more on weapons and leveling, I can easily see wasting time (in a good way) in Insectron as I capture better creatures and raise them to be killers. I already know I'm getting into it a little, because after I get the word my trap has been set, to arrive and find the bug escaped with my food always disappoints me.

GRAPHICS
Rogue Galaxy is a beautiful game, featuring a lovely anime styled spirit, as the characters are all cel-shaded in appearance, and the world is so bright and cheerful you just have a good time playing it. The characters and enemies are designed nicely too, as you'll run across everything from talking cats, to shop owning sharks, to rough and tumble dogs. It's a bit confusing the first time you see a cat talk, but once you accept that as the game's world, you'll love everything you see. The environments are also nice, such as the lush jungles of the first planet you experience to the large factories of another.

SOUND
During battle, a few of the lines are used repeatedly, like Zegram saying "Bastards" almost every time you are attacked with him in your party, but that is just one little nag. Otherwise, I love the voices of the characters, as they aren't over exaggerated and settle in well with the game. The game does feature a few voices who should be familiar to you, such as Will Friedle playing Jaster (Boy Meets World) and Steve Blum, who has done a lot of anime and videogame work before, and sounds remarkably like David Hayter who does Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid series. Sound effects are top-notch, as well as the music, which I was literally impressed by from the moment the first song played over the title menu. The music conveys the spirit of the game during its lighthearted moments and is poignant during the more serious stuff.

IN CONCLUSION
If you own a PS2 or PS3 (it will play on it mind you) and you are looking for a great RPG or just a great game period, then give this game a purchase, as it promises to give you hours and hours of gameplay. I'll admit that I was quite skeptical about the game and thought it looked rather generic just from the ads I've seen around, but I was sure mistaken. I can't believe it took this long for Rogue Galaxy to fly under my radar, so I'm here to tell you not to let it happen to you and highly recommend this game. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some more weapon merging I need to take care of.

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