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2007, the year we saw the demise of the PS2, os so we were lead to believe. In fact it has produced some of the best games of the last generation. This includes two of the best Japanese RPG`s since FFVII. The first of these was, unsurprisingly Square Enix`s groundbreaking Final Fantasy XII. The second is the highly anticipated Rogue Galaxy. The latest from Level 5 whose previous outings include Dark Chronicle & Dragon Quest VIII.

like a Hollywood Summer Blockbuster- High on action, looks stunning, but lacking any substance when it comes to the characters & Plot

Rogue Galaxy is a stunning looking game. The cel-shading, anime style suits the Sky Pirates theme of the game. You play the role of Jaster Rogue, and begin your adventures on a dessert world not unlike Tatooine. The back story is a bit too generic for my liking?and has certain parallels to a certain St*r W*rs franchise. Even down to a camp android (oddly called Steve). I guess if you are going to ?borrow? a few plot & characters from any franchise in movie history, you may as well go for the best.

Gameplay is standard for this kinda game with exploration taking part in towns and dungeons with smaller enemies and boss battles. This all takes place in real time and impressively constant world. Yep we have no loading screens and battles take place where you were exploring-none of this transporting you to an arena type battle screen.
The combat is most satisfying, and even though we do get random battles, since they are real time (a bit like kingdom hearts 2) they never become annoying. Each member of you party has a main and secondary weapon (Jaster has a sword as main and a gun as a secondary weapon).and you can attack either on the ground, or while you jump into the air to attack some of the larger or flying enemies. It is possible to throw objects and enemies at your opposition as well.
Add to this the ability to merge weapons together and the ability to double team, and there is always something new and cool to experiment with. There are a few simple puzzles to keep you interested also.

The only real problem with this game is that you don't actually care what happens to the characters you are controlling, which is one of the reasons FFVII is still considered one of the greatest games of all time, you actually cared about Cloud and his mates. We do not get to find out enough back-story about the protagonists in this story. In this way it like a Hollywood Summer Blockbuster- High on action, looks stunning, but lacking any substance when it comes to the characters & Plot, which is a real shame as the rest of the game is up there with some of Square Enix`s best, awesome, just short of a 10/10 score.