Rogue Galaxy

So, uhm... Anybody playing it?

Bought, yes, played, no.

Working too late and slowly working through NWN2 in my few free hours.

How is it, if you've played it? I'm curious about the side content and mini-games and all the other stuff they do to make the game as big as it is.

I actually started the thread because I'm interested in buying it since it's been getting a fair bit of very positive reviews. Sorry about that

It seems to be one of the PS2 last great titles and since I've recently gone back to console gaming I'm very interested in it. It doesn't seem to have many similarities to the type of games that initially pushed me away from consoles so that's a plus already.

Role-Player said:

I actually started the thread because I'm interested in buying it since it's been getting a fair bit of very positive reviews. Sorry about that

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I know that one of the writers at GamerDad is playing through it with her kids and enjoying it quite a bit. When I see more details I'll let you know.

Thank you

I felt more like this than NWN2 this weekend, so I popped it in and played a few hours. Bearing in mind that I've only just gotten off Tattooi... er, the first planet, here are my impressions:

1) Cutscenes. Man, there are a lot of cutscenes. Some of 'em are good, some of 'em are bad, but they're all over the place. I know it's a JRPG staple, but I don't play a ton of JRPGs, so this was newish for me.

2) The writing isn't great, but it's about on-par with what I've seen in a lot of JRPGs. The guy who voices the hero (who apparently did the VO for the young Batman in Batman Beyond) does, I think, a good job with really weak material, so at least he's, you know, emoting and stuff.

3) The combat is about on par with Jade Empire -- if you thought it was pretty easy, this won't be that much tougher. There are a few monsters that require special tactics, and one nice boss fight (with three cutscenes interrupting it to explain to me what was going on) that required me to use special tactics. I think it's ahead of where Jade was in terms of special stuff, because there are more special abilities and items and such, but in terms of overall difficulty, I don't think it's a huge challenge (although it might get more difficult later).

4) I am surprised by how much I like the talent-progression tree. There's no explanation for why plugging a given item into a flowchart causes me to learn a new talent, but it does, and it makes me feel a little cooler than I feel just plunking points into "Ability to Throw Fireballs" in simpler point-buy games.

So essentially, play it for the gameplay, nod politely during the story, and enjoy. It's a game that I'd honestly rather play in Japanese with English subtitles, but then, that's the way I watch my anime, and this is most definitely anime. (I don't know if anyone here will get this, but in the cutscene that introduced the first city, I chirped out, "Last-ah Exile!" in the voice of the woman who does the commercial lead-ins for the "Last Exile" anime, and my wife laughed until she fell off the couch.)

Similar thoughts from my GamerDad friend - she said "As far as Rogue Galaxy, we like it very much. Once you get past the Treasure Planet and Full Metal Alchemist flashbacks.

Play-wise, it feels a lot like Full Metal Alchemst 2, but a lot less on
rails."

But with a caveat - "But it's combat system is pretty difficult for going younger."

That was in reference to her teen girls playing ...

Thank you both for the input, appreciate it

It seems it's turning out to be better than I thought, but the excess of cutscenes from games like Final Fantasy VII was what initially took me away from console JRPGs, and consoles in general. Too many movies, not enough gameplay. Maybe Rogue Galaxy will have more meat in it.

Now it's only a matter of time of finding it around here...

If you don't like cutscenes, you should really check out Dragon Quest 8. I have been playing it for 80 hours now and I've yet to see a lenghty one. Plus, all cutscenes are in-game, and they are very rare. My only complaint so far is how simplistic the combat system is. Especially if you played Shin Megami Tensei series before.

Difficulty's ramping up a little bit -- a fair number of basic spawn monsters now require me to do something special to hurt them (guys I have to jump up on top of in order to knock down their shields, for example), and some really cool challenge matches -- every once in awhile, the game will challenge me in a certain way (win in less than 30 seconds, win without taking damage, win without using your special abilities), and if I win, I get a Hunter Coin that essentially translates to bragging rights, as far as I can tell.

It's one of those nice little touches that lets the game be cool for me and my wife simultaneously. My wife can ignore those things and just get through the game, while I, hyper-competitive, try to win every single one and become ranked as the awesomest hunter ever.

Also, I just got my ass handed to me by a chest in about the ugliest fight ever. So so so so sad.

I've played it... and liked it. Have you played Dark Cloud 2? It's a solid game from the same developer, and reminds me a lot of that. The gameplay is different, but the style and the wide amount of things to do is similar.

Fun game. Although, the combat gets a bit old after a while.