The main story arc will have Jaster and company traversing the galaxy, visiting strange worlds and saving himself and others for a variety of predicaments. The main story arc isn't very deep and many of the characters you meet are one dimensional but it's hard to deny this game's overall charm and appeal. The worlds and characters are bright and colorful and hide plenty of secrets that you'll have to uncover. Later on, after you've completed some of the game's main story, you'll be given access to control the pirate ship and take it where you like. This is where Rogue Galaxy really opens up and the fun begins. You'll be free to explore the planets, collect information, capture bugs, gather materials and hidden goodies or level grind to your heart's content.
Later on in the game you'll be inundated with activities that aren't necessarily important to the main plot of the game. In the early part of the game you'll run across a young boy who gives you an insect trap and habitat so that you can capture insectrons. This allows you to capture insects and then feed, breed and grow them. Feeding your little bugs will make them grow and level up. Why would you want to do that? To battle them for fame and prizes, of course! Capture five of them and you're ready to enter the Insectron Tournament, a bug battle royale where you pit your team of bugs against someone else's in a chess style battle. Fame and prizes are certainly good motivation for getting involved in this activity, but this diversion from the main plot is yet another reason why Rogue Galaxy is too cool for school.
If fooling around with bugs isn't your thing perhaps running a factory might be your calling. In the middle chapters of the game you'll gain access to a fully functioning factory that will allow you to take raw materials and create unique objects and items. At the heart of this gameplay element is an "Incredible Machine" style interface where you'll put together machinery, tubes and material specific devices to combine everything into a workable object. The Factory can be used anywhere once you get it online, so there's no real reason not to tinker with it. The real trick to getting it to work is paying attention to timing; each piece of tube, machinery and platform has a time associated to it. To get it to work and be successful, you must make sure that your materials meet at the combiner at the exact same time.
This can be tricky depending on what materials you use because they have to be process before combing them using special machinery. While the who factory process -- including connecting tubes and making sure everything is plugged in to power -- can sometimes be frustrating, there's satisfaction in being successful on some of the more complex designs. Many of the more intricate designs will have to be found by your party all over the galaxy. Many of the citizens in cities on all these planets have crazy design concepts via Blueprints that you can collect just by talking to them. Sometimes you'll have to talk to multiple people to get all the details of a blueprint design but that extra effort is worth the time because of the objects they allow you to create. The factory isn't all the important in the grand scheme of things but it's another great reason to spend a lot of time playing Rogue Galaxy outside of the man story arc.
Rogue Galaxy is a wonderful role-playing game experience and a testament to the power and capabilities of the PlayStation 2. The game offers a cool setting, interesting characters, a great combat and skill system, and lots of extracurricular activities, providing countless hours of RPG fun. Level 5 deserves some credit for delivering yet another excellent game and Sony Computer Entertainment deserves some recognition for being smart enough to publish it.
