Preview
Platform:
PlayStation 2Developer:
Level-5Publisher:
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (Japan)Previewed by
Justin Fassino on 2006-12-12
Level-5 has, over the course of the life cycle of the Playstation 2, proven that they are one of the best in the business at constructing epic video games with huge adventures. From
Dark Cloud to last year's phenomenal
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, to the upcoming
White Knight Story on the PS3, they are masterful in their craft.
Somewhere in the midst of the RPG blitz this year, Level-5's newest offering,
Rogue Galaxy, was lost. Originally scheduled for an October release,
Sony decided to push back the game until January of 2007. We've recently obtained the latest demo for the game and are set to share what will undoubtedly be one of the most vast RPG adventures ever.
The demo has two playable areas: a jungle village and its surrounding areas, and a boss fight amidst a temple in perhaps that same jungle. The first scenario is close to the beginning of the game, as all characters were level 11, while the boss fight featured a significantly advanced portion of the game.
Featuring cel-shading similar to that found in
Dragon Quest VIII,
Rogue Galaxy is visually stunning in the strongest sense of the word. The environments are lush and colorful while at the same time being immense in their size and scope. And to make things better, because the game streams data right from the disc, there are no load screens between areas, only a seamless transition highlighted by text at the bottom of the screen to tell you where you are. Because of this,
Rogue Galaxy does away with a definitive "town" versus "dungeon" area by integrating the two right into each other. And similar to
Final Fantasy XII, battles take place on the same screen, so there is no transition in that arena, either. The only difference here is that battles are in fact random, with enemies jumping unpredictably out of their hiding places as you walk by. But the encounter rate is not incredibly high, and because there is no transition screen, they don't break up the pace of the game.
The actual game world is also home to different features and spectacular vistas. Rivers cut through the jungle floor, and paths wind back and forth, around trees and under logs. What's more, your characters can swim and jump, so these environmental features will not obstruct you from exploring; in fact, they even go so far as to invite your wandering nature as you may swim downriver and discover a trove of treasure chests just waiting to be opened.
The art direction, too, is superb. Each character, from the blond hero Jaster, to the swarthy one-eyed space pirate Zegram, has been crafted with much attention to detail. There's even a squat lizard-like creature that fights with a rocket launcher and sounds remarkably like The Simpsons' Groundskeeper Willie. Even cooler is that new equipment will change the appearance of the characters themselves. This "paper doll" effect may not affect gameplay, but it's nice to know that if you get tired of Jaster's futuristic space shorts, there's always new armor that may look cooler. While the demo didn't feature any cutscenes, the voice acting that there was to be heard was above average. Party members will comment on the current situation you may find yourself in while wandering around, or express their feelings to nobody in particular. While there are a variety of lines, walking around long enough delivers some repeats. Having Jaster repeatedly say "Keep poppin' up..." was not only annoying, but made me wonder where his head was.
The gameplay itself is action-oriented. Combining elements of
Dark Cloud and
Star Ocean, battles are quick and chaotic. While you fight with a party of three characters, you can only directly control one at a time. If you wish to switch, you can, but the action will keep moving. However, in order to give more control to the player, your AI-controlled allies will occasionally ask for your input from time to time during a fight. The special attacks and/or items they can use will be mapped to the shoulder buttons; pressing the desired button will result in the action you want them to take. And if they don't ask for your instructions, you can always force them to do it manually from the menu screen.
Once you're in the shoes of the character you like, you can perform two different kinds of attacks. Your main weapon will allow you to do powerful melee combos by repeatedly pressing the X button. The square button will give you access to your secondary weapon, which is usually a long range gun or projectile. It does significantly less damage. Both weapons have a limited number of uses before you must allow them to recharge in order to begin hacking away again. Guarding during this time will charge your weapons quicker.
In addition to regular and magic attacks, there are also limit break-like special moves that feature some slick animation along with precise button presses. After defeating some enemies, they will drop energy orbs. Gathering these orbs will fill a character's special gauge. This gauge can be filled multiple times, and the higher the level it is filled to, the longer and more powerful the special attack will be. Once you're engaged in the attack, the PS2 controller's button icons will swirl onto the screen; once they're in the middle of the blue box they're traveling to, hitting that button will trigger the next hit in the attack. This system not only rewards you for fighting a lot, but it's also a nice change from the hack-and-slash nature of the combat.
There's also a deep character-building system that works similar to
FF XII's License Board, only it uses specific items. For example, while exploring the jungle, you may happen upon an exotic fruit. Opening up Jaster's skill flow chart might show you a space with the outline of a fruit. By inserting the fruit into the space on his board, he will learn a new skill or ability. As the board is broken up into sections, completely filling a section with the items required will open up new sections for you to begin work on. It's not something you haven't seen before, but it allows for a healthy level of customization, and more importantly, a reason to go out and hunt down those elusive pieces of loot.
There is so much to like about
Rogue Galaxy that this preview could go on for pages and pages. The visual style is very similar to
Skies of Arcadia, complete with the colonial-era ships that fly through the skies and the foreign, exotic places that make up some of the best eye-candy on the PS2. If you want a better idea of what the game holds in store, you can check out
some screenshots to get a feel for it all.
Look for
Rogue Galaxy this winter for the Playstation 2.
