[PS2] Rogue Galaxy

I, too, really wanna play this game. Though I've got no desire to import it, I'm anxiously awaiting an American release. I've tried to email Level 5, but the only English portion of their website doesn't give any details as far as contact information goes.

Please, please don't let this skip over us Level 5. Pretty please?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I've heard that it was getting a Jap/Euro release, but no US one. That's why I'm getting kinda nervous about this title.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

http://ps2.ign.com/objects/729/729765.html Just look at their release date.

Quote:

US: Europe / Japan Only

That wouldn't be priceless! It would suck! ; ;

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I certainly hope that's the case. I don't want this to end up like Namco x Capcom.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I put my preorder in a few days ago, as it reappeared in our Coming Soon list at work. I'm still completely enthralled by this and I REALLY hope it does undermine Final Fantasy and Oblivion as the best RPG this year.

Most amazing jew boots

Part of the charm of the game is the ability to not just travel between continents like traditional RPGs, but to be able to span planets. It's been hailed as one of, if not the largest RPG to date in terms of the sheer size of the areas.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I share your opinion, Gechmir. I rather liked Dragon Quest VIII's voice acting.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Gechmir

I'll overstep both of those to play this lovely game. FFXII isn't high at *all* on my list. And unless PSU lives up to the original series as opposed to PSO's sort of playability, I won't touch it.

Agreed entirely. FFXII can stay in Japan for all I care. Androgynous piece of shit is what it is. =O. Although, having never played a Phantasy Star in times past, I'd like to play Universe -- at least the single player campaign, so long as it gets good scores.

Rogue Galaxy's gonna be flippin' amazing, and it better not get shoved under the radar i.e. Dark Cloud 2. DC2 is still my favorite PS2 game EVER and I've got a sneaking suspicion that Rogue Galaxy will either usurp that or tie it. We'll see.

Originally Posted by Kaiten

It looks like Level-5 has the potential to be the Blizzard of it's field.

Fucking right. When I talk to people about my favorite developers, without hesitation I mention that I'll follow Blizzard and Level-5 to the ends of the Earth with blindfolds on if they wanted me to. If they collaborated, made a game, and only sold it in Hell -- well I'll be first in line.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Hmm...to quote Stewie from Family Guy. In particular, the episode where he finds out Lois and Peter and trying to have another baby, and his reaction to it.

"WHAT?!"

Goddamnit. This breaks my heart, as this was by far THE major release I was waiting on, and have been waiting on for over a year now. Are they seriously going to delay this even further? Damnit.

The problem, Gechmir, is the other major release Sony has planned for Q1 2007 -- God of War II. And you thought KH2 overshadowing FM5 was bad...

How ya doing, buddy?

They are different genres, but I've seen it all too many times. A lot of gamers nowadays won't just come in and say "What's the best RPG right now?" and completely ignore the action games. Too often they just want to know what the best game that's out right now is, and how much it costs.

If that scenario persists, it'll be God of War II ftw, I'm afraid.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Either that, or Level-5 will be have limitd publisher resources. As of right now, Square-Enix is the only other company they've worked with, and thus the only company they've established any reputation with. Now I'm not saying that EA, Activision, THQ, etc. need to be all up-in-arms with Level-5, but Capcom, Konami....even Nippon Ichi, Atlus, and X-SEED would greatly benefits Level-5's future projects.

I'd love to see a collaborative effort by Clover Studios and Level-5. OMFG GAME OF TEH YEAR.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

While I do believe Hindman's information is correct, even still I somewhat share's Inhert's desire to see further indication. Just let me see it appear on IGN or GameSpot, and then the tears will flow.

Edit -- As of right now, even Sony's website still has the date set for Fall 2006. Granted, that could be Sept. through Nov., so we'll still have to see.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Kay well, I just wanted to reaffirm Hindman's statement -- according to EB/Gamestop's release date list, Rogue Galaxy is now set for 01.01.07.

Damn you Sony -- the fuck's taking so long?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Let me trace back a bit...

Quote:

Sony has announced that the release of Rogue Galaxy has been delayed until January of 2007, due to the insane amount of changes going on with the American version. Until now, the game was to debut stateside this fall. For those wondering "what changes?" these include a new planet, over 100 new items, and a radically different use of the combo system. This information comes officially from the publishers.

As provided by Hindman at the top of this page. Hopefully that's all that's up. I'd hate for this to become the next FFXII delay, or the annoying Twilight Princess delay fiasco/series of lies. If they're going to add content and modify the existing content, then hopefully that's exactly what they're doing and why it's taking a bit longer now -- I'd rather not hear that it's getting a PS2 and a PS3 version for no good reason. :/

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'll give credit where credit is due, and Level 5 has not failed yet. If they say they're making some changes to the combo system, then it must be for the best.

FELIPE NO

So, GameStop just got a demo in.

::inhales::

Fantastic. Fan-fucking-tastic. This is, by far, the most attractively cel-shaded game [I]ever/I]. Level-5 did great with Dark Cloud 2, even better with Dragon Quest VIII but Rogue Galaxy looks amazing. The videos and screenshots, I think, don't do it justice.

Shitty thing about the demo -- it's a timed one, unlike the DQ8 demo, which just stopped once you beat a dungeon. They give you two parts to play through: the first has you walking through a village, exploring and talking to the people, opening treasure chests, and just getting familiar with basic controls. Standard stuff.

The second part puts you in a dungeon where you can participate in battles. Random battles are back, in so far as you are randomly placed into battle. You don't go off to a different screen though; it stays on the map you're on. You just brandish your weapons. Combat is fully real-time, and after you execute so many actions, you have to go through a sort of exhaustion period which can be sped up by guarding. It's optional, but you can turn on "battle suggestions" as a way to control your two teammates. They'll call out to you (whoever you're controlling) and offer suggestions, be it healing, using a technique, or magic. The suggestions can be selected with L1 or L2, if they have two suggestions. It actually comes in handy.

Another cool feature in combat are the special attacks. When you execute them, the screen changes and you're pitched into a button pressing mini-game quite similar to the standard combat found in Legend of Dragoon, wherein you press the necessary face button once it gets inside the box. Makes for cool stuff. If you screw up, you just get a "miss." At least, that's all that's happened to me.

When you die in battle, you're given the option to switch out the dead character for another teammate, or revive him as you normally would. I haven't yet discovered if you can swap out teammates at will, but I imagine you could.

Moving out of combat, exploration is set at a pretty nice pace. Your characters will walk and talk with you, reminding you of your objective and make general observations about the area. In the first portion, the gruffy pirate guy kept saying "Remember, we're here for the booster oil, not the Star God." The girl spoke up two or three times, commenting on what some NPCs were saying. The most notable incident happened after I spoke to one regarding some event in the village, and she perked up with a question and answer, something along the lines of "I wonder where she went? Maybe she went to the forest."

The music's pretty fantastic, if not a little on the loud side. Of course, I imagine you can lower the BG volume. On the plus side, it doesn't interfere with the voices, as some games lately have not bothered to increase the volume on characters' voices so they can be heard over the music. It's a good thing. Speaking of voices, I believe the guy who played Spike Spiegel and Vincent Valentine is also a part of this game, but I can't remember the VA's name.

Anyway, check your EB Games/GameStop locations for a demo. The demo's fantastic and has successfully revitalized my desire for Rogue Galaxy to finally see the light of a U.S. day. It looks awesome, sounds awesome, and plays incredibly smooth.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

January 31st it should be in stores.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Not surprised by it. That's what the demo came in too.

How ya doing, buddy?

It's $39.99, MS. And definitely a steal, at that. With all the added content from the Japanese release, they could've easily priced it up to $50 to make up for whatever labor costs they'd need to. But, Level-5 pwns n00bs, so there you have it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by RPGLand Review

...but these issues don't keep it from being an above average RPG that will be enjoyed by many.

And he gave it a 6.5. In my mind, a 6.5 is pretty average. Truly, anything beneath an 8 could be considered average. Maybe what he considers "above average" is 1.5 points lower than what other people do, who knows. His review is by far the lowest I've seen for it, and largely in the minority.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Ahh, the joy of playing a good game.

I'm roughly 4 hours into it, and I can't wait to get off work tomorrow so I can play for far, far longer periods of time.

Since it's not much of a spoiler, I'll just say that I've just actually entered and saved inside Burkaqua Village. I've spent a good bit of time leveling up my characters and my weapons -- weapon synthesizing fuckin rocks. I went from having "Hey, these are pretty good." weapons to "Holy shit! Pwnd." weapons in a matter of seconds. Awesome.

Any word on a soundtrack release for this?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Granted, but I was curious about the American version's soundtrack. With a whole new planet added, there's bound to be additional songs.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'm roughly 18 hours into the game -- yeah, I had an off day from work. Ahem.

I'm definitely loving this game. Like you all've said before me, the voice acting is top-shelf work, and the graphics and art style of the game are truly something admirable. Arguably, this game's best feature is the battle system, which is why I've spent the better part of 18 hours just grinding out level by level.

Heard some comparisons between the battles in FF12 and Rogue Galaxy, and while there are some similarities, there are also very distinct differences. FF12's Gambit system acts more like...programmable AI. "For every event 'X', react with action 'Y'." That's essentially the Gambit system. In Rogue Galaxy though, it feels a lot more like an MMO than FF12 does, since the battle suggestions feel a bit more realistic.

Between Rogue Galaxy and FF12, I definitely prefer Rogue Galaxy. Travelling is quite a bit easier thanks to the teleportation system, and while that's extremely similar to FF12's, it's a lot more user-friendly, for lack of a better phrase. FF12's teleport-enable save points are scattered few and far between, but RG's are...well, every save point. It also makes grinding out levels and weapon levels a lot easier too, what with their being four or five save points in every dungeon. It might make the game easier, but the game itself is no cakewalk.

So yeah the story's a little cookie-cutter and so are the characters. Jaster longs of going into space, Zegram the eye-patch wielding lone-wolf mercenary, Kisala the daughter of the infamous space pirate captain, etc. etc. But that's not to say it's a boring story either.

The music is rather forgettable too, however for those who've played Dark Cloud 1 and 2, it's also quite familiar. I suppose this kind of music will be one of Level-5's trademarks.

How ya doing, buddy?

Spoiler:

I'm back on Rosa now, and now the game is starting to open up. I can now fly to any of the previous planets I've been to. Right now, it's mostly for item-grinding purposes, but as with all RPGs you'll eventually have to go back and do side-quests, etc.

So anyway, back on Rosa. I'm at the point where the party has to cross the Sylvazard Desert to get to a ruins site. Now, the path to the ruins is a linear one and relatively short, but filled with mostly high-exp monsters, rare drops, and even better, plenty of zehn -- 90% of the time I'm getting more than 1,000 zehn per battle. For me, level-grinding as I am, acquiring zehn is still somewhat of a difficult thing. But on this path it's so easy. Plus, there's a Save Point just before the ruins, and just inside Salgin. I just run between the two points to heal.

Nothing spoilertastic really. More of a...just in case. Anyway, I'm gathering up a bunch of Revelation Flow items, zehn, and weapon levels at the moment. I'll probably stay on that stretch until I get every weapon I've got upgraded and combined, just because right now the spot I'm in is too convenient to pass up.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

You know what though, Tritoch? I don't even bother with trying to find them. Illusion Sword <3

How ya doing, buddy?