In addition, numerous side quests keep players distracted. Item synthesis promises rewards for taking the time to fight with various weapons before combining them into an even-more-powerful whole. Meanwhile, factory management supplies stores with the latest items, all brought about by careful exploration and frantic item collection. Participation in the Insectron Stadium demands a large chunk of time, from capturing the Insectors with traps to feeding them, training them, mating them and eventually, battling them through the numerous Insectron tournaments. Similar to Bingo, Revelation Flow awards new combat abilities based off the random junk collected throughout the adventure. For those more interested in exploration, Rogue Galaxy goes so far as to offer a completely optional planet.
A cast of notable characters also helps maintain interest throughout the adventure. Space pirates, bounty hunters, a robot named Steve and even a talking frog known as Toady populate the game's vast universe, almost always willing to provide their thoughts on recent events. Not only do fellow party members follow Jaster throughout the environments, players can take control of them at any time for a different perspective on combat thanks to each character's unique capabilities. Optional combat challenges also spring up from time to time, rewarding players for defeating enemies under certain conditions.
Through these features, developer Level-5 obviously put admirable effort in its attempts to keep the frequent random encounters from growing too tedious. Yet despite the quick pace of battle and the aforementioned efforts at spicing things up, those twenty or thirty second bursts of button-mashing do get repetitive after a while, especially when interest in a particular dungeon or area begins to wane.
Fortunately, the large variety of Rogue Galaxy's many areas and planets ensures the action doesn't slow for long, even if the plot ends up rather average. Between exploration, battle, item synthesis, item creation, the Pokemon-esque Insectron portions and a predilection towards collecting every random bit of junk strewn about the galaxy, Rogue Galaxy always has something to dangle in front of players bored with one particular play style. Toss in its technical achievements, such as the large worlds appearing with nary a loading screen, and Rogue Galaxy clearly marks one of the most polished and packed role-playing adventures on the PlayStation 2.
Final Score: 8 (out of 10)
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