I wrote this review a while back, and put it on onrpg and a few other places, just thought I'd share it with you all. Oh and the beginning for gameplay, I'm about 30 hrs into game instead of 10 now.. This review contains no spoilers.
The other day I was in Wal-Mart, had to get some food for dinner. Like always before I do anything I run to the electronics section. So I was there, checking stuff out, and I seen Rogue Galaxy, I remember a few months back I got a demo and a nice poster from Playstation Underground and I thought it was quite fun, so I bought it.
Gameplay: 8/10
So far I'm about 10 hours into the game, It's fun. The storyline is pretty decent. The back of the case of the game says 100+ hours of gameplay, and boy I believe it. Maybe the storyline isnt 100+ hours ( I have no idea, haven't got very far). But the minigames are far from boring. I only ran into one so far, where you can invent items in a factory, and later on shops will stock them. It took me like 30 minutes getting one item made. This game is made by the company Level 5, same people who made Dark Cloud, Dark Cloud 2, and pretty much made Dragon Quest VIII, and a few others. The battle system is also pretty cool, it mixes really well being Action based.. really well, I enjoy the battle system. It has random battles, but theres "no loading at all" ( There is some, like when Full Motion Videos load) so the random battles aren't all that bad, this is the first RPG that I thought that random battles didn't get so tedious so quickly. The no loading thing, it feels kind of weird, I'm so used to exiting a building and waiting 2-3 seconds for it to load. The revelation panel (how you obtain skills) if quite nice, you get items, you can either buy these from stores or loot from monsters, and add them to a slot, once you obtain all the items needed for that skill, you get the skill, and it also forks off, and opens new ways for new slots for skills, not a bad skill system, the panel sort of reminds me of the License Board from Final Fantasy 12, except you don't spend LP, you spent items, and once you get all the items for that skill, you automatically obtain the skill or "augment" (skill increase [yes, I used a FF12 License Board term heh])
Sound/Music/Voice Over: 7/10
The music really reminds me of Dark Cloud 2 A LOT. It's good stuff. The music fits pretty good though, especially with boss battles and etc. The voice overs are pretty decent, I think they fit the characters well. Sound effects are quite nice too.
Graphics: 8/10
These are cell-shaded graphics, they are above Dragon Quest VIII's, and really nice. The Full Motion Videos are good, but the gameplay graphics are good too. For a Playstation 2, these are good graphics. The face emotions are quite well done, as well as character movement and the sort. The cut scenes are pretty good, that again goes with face emotions, mouth movement, etc. The camera angles actually has a really decent feel, easy to move around the camera. The weapons look cool, as you use them overtime they start to.. 'evolve' is the word I'll use, in looks, like say I have a sword, but then it starts gaining elemental attributes from fighting, and it gains its own Skill EXP, eventually they start looking different, same shape and all but glowing lines may appear along the blade or maybe encarved runes may appear near the handle and glow lightly, its pretty cool. When you equip armor your character design also changes, I know, no whoop-de-doo for MMORPGs, this is a Console Solo RPG, its different, it feels cooler to equip a type of armor and the armor on your body changes, even if it is a console RPG.
theres a screenshot (click to view the full image) of a battle.. thanks Gamespot for the image.
Expectations: 8/10
I enjoyed the demo, thought it was pretty cool. I at least thought maybe some of the planets you land on would be a little vaster (Note: I only played 10 hours into it so far) but they are pretty big anyway.
Final: 7.75/10
It's a good game so far from what I seen. Not really a letdown, if you want a different feel from console rpgs, have at Rogue Galaxy. For 40 bucks right now, I'd say its worth it, but for 20, even better.
Hope you enjoyed my first impression review.
