Rogue Galaxy | A Space Pirate Adventure (Retrospective)

Rogue Galaxy is one of the few video games and perhaps the only JRPG we've ever gotten with a space pirate setting... one of the cooler settings around in my opinion that games need more of. Nearly 14 years after its North American release, how well does this early Level 5 title hold up? Find out in this week's retrospective over 'Rogue Galaxy'
WARNING - Because this is a retrospective, by nature there will be some very light spoilers occasionally shown/talked about. They're never anything major that should ruin the experience however, and the most significant spoiler (still not even that significant though) is marked with time stamps.
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Edited by: Evan Pierson
Narrated by: Corbin Pierson
'Til next time everyone!
#RogueGalaxy #RogueGalaxyRetrospective #RogueGalaxyReview

[@Andrew-Gomez904]

Rogue Galaxy is so underrated!

[@apex_prey]

Is it? I've been looking for all the best old school jrpgs I've never played and this is one of those I've been considering.

[@youssefgader3564]

@@apex_prey it is

[@evanas2319]

For real! I just got a ps5 and upgraded my subscription, went to try out the ps2 games, got sucked in to rogue galaxy for 8+ hours. My only complaint so far is that the movement speed of the character in the map is so slow, but I can overlook it since it’s not really a big focus. I’m just a little impatient lmao Edit for more context: I am one of those people who will dodgeroll throughout kingdom hearts, even though Sora doesn’t move very slow. I just wanna get to the next exciting bit asap.

[@zeroreyortsed3624]

One thing you completely forgot to mention is that exploration is mostly seamless. You don't have to load every time you walk in or out of a building in a town or dungeon. Also that the random encounters are fairly seamless. Enemies appear in the same screen you're walking in with no loading screen, and when you finish a fight, you can keep moving down the path while the spoils screen is up. Not many JRPG's did this on the ps2.

[@TheSlammurai]

He does mention being able to move during battle results.

[@Shageru47]

I will forever hold Rogue Galaxy as the greatest game of all time. Flaws and all. This game was a perfect game in my eyes and still holds up.

[@raraviren1622]

Same. It's 100% my favorite game of all time

[@salamp4909]

I’ve been waiting for someone to make a video on this game since it came out. It’s such an underrated gem but the fact it made it to psn was shocking

[@youssefgader3564]

i was waiting for this too

[@MegaphoneFranke]

To this day, the ONLY game where I saw a commercial for it on TV and immediately thought “I NEED this game.” I’m a sucker for space operas.

[@TheBatmanMan1]

Someone else may have brought this up, but there’s something important to know about the Monograpy shot (The gun that allows you to shoot out platforms to jump on). You’re absolutely correct that it’s brought up near the beginning and hardly used at all the rest of the game. However, there’s one major use for the gun that anyone playing the game needs to know: You correctly mentioned that mimics are freekin horrible in this game. Way too much of a difficulty spike when you run into them, can’t run away, even with your special moves you kinda have to chip away at them… best strategy against them? Shoot em with the monography shot, get a platform on their head, and jump on them repeatedly. It takes a little practice to get it down so you don’t fall off - but every time you jump on their head you do pretty great damage, and all while they can’t hit you (the character your controlling at least.) Can’t tell you how many times this strategy saved my life.

[@megasoniczxx]

I've played this game like 5 times and never even knew this, good tip.

[@notdjamesentertainment4473]

I remember so much about this game. Truly one of my all time, if not my all time, favorite(s) My initial run was 6 hours, then I restarted my file and played for 36 hour straight. I will always love this game. The story, the combat, the quirks, the crafting, the characters, the SWORDS!!!!, THE HUNTS!!!! all of it. This game did me no wrong

[@SiincereARC]

I've been waiting for someone to provide an in-depth video of two amazing games...FFXII (PS2 version) and Rogue Galaxy. All props to you sir.

[@ortuslad]

This game was my childhood! I often struggle in that jungle planet and only managed to get far to that advanced planet because I never realized that the game has an action bar system so I just went ooga booga with the buttons not knowing why I can't perform my attacks. Nice vid, wish this space pirate theme was used more often in JRPSs

[@CeeJayThe13th]

"Rogue Galaxy" 1000% sounds like a Star Wars game.

[@dobadobadooo]

I had so much fun playing this back in the day, and I still do to this day, but I still feel like it never _quite_ lived up to its own potential. Not saying it was in any way bad, but the story and side-content just left me wanting more than we got. Still a solid 8.5/10 though, but I feel like if the story was just a little bit better it could have easily been a 9.

[@GamingBroductions]

Sounds like our thoughts are very similar on it overall with feeling it was a great game yet just never quite reached its full potential. It’s a game that I want to love more than I do based on the setting and characters, but there’s just some things that hold it back from being one of the all time greats like it was trying to be. With all that said it’s still a game I’m really fond of.

[@noelistedu13]

I used to feel the same, even I did it again last year I feel "need more" but I had great time on it 😇

[@eugenejcalpo7098]

Such a great gem! Thanks for taking the time to make a retrospective it deserves! I had very fond memories of this game when I was a kid. Also, I would just like to add one of the elements that got me hooked playing it which is the minigame "Insectron". I know this might be subjective, but it is one of the best minigames I played in an RPG!

[@dentanau]

A well considered perspective. Props on the editing, you cleary put a lot of effort into all the little details and timings. Congrats!

[@alvercaine8893]

Speaking of space jrpgs, we can't forget infinite space. Albator+outlaw star+suikoden, incredible game

[@yourstruly8911]

This game is way too underrated. I remember I had a blast playing this game way back on the ps 2 era.

[@brandonbiallas2813]

Love the channel man. You make me nostalgic for games I haven’t played yet.

[@russellg9622]

Props on the editing for this video. So much of it had me chuckling 😂

[@VogueDistortion]

I remember really wanting to love this game because of the style and the universe, but in the end it just didn't click with me. I remember becoming very bored and frustrated at some point and I never came back to it. For some reason I have this a lot with Level 5 games. They really know how to make cool characters and worlds, but when it comes to gameplay I often miss something.

[@giovincello96]

Hey dude, thanks for giving Rouge Galaxy the spotlight with this video! I feel the same way as you do, I guess developers had so many cool ideas with this game, they couldn't really develop any of those properly. I totally love the atmosphere and the OST, and I also enjoyed some side-mechanincs like the factory and the crafting system; never took the insects competition seriously though. It was nice to have a look at this gem once again! Keep it up, I love your content! PS: I hate how they killed my boy Gale, I think he deserved more screentime as he was one of the few side-characters with an interesting background and development!

[@GamingBroductions]

No problem! Glad to hear you enjoyed it and the content in general. And yeah I feel the developers just spread themselves too thin across too many features they tried to implement. I know they were trying to go for something like FF7-10 in terms of creating a large amount of side content while still having a compelling main storyline, but ultimately they just didn't execute it as well. And yeah, would have loved to see more Gale! Tbh I would have taken him over Deego in the party haha

[@IamJacksSTD]

If you shoot Mimics with the platform gun, you can jump on them and then you just bounce on their tops and damage them. That's how you out-cheap the cheap fights.

[@Artimes.]

I am trying to go to sleep and your not helping here. (lol) jokes aside, Rogue Galaxy is such an amazing experience easly one of my favorite Level 5 developed games along with Dark Cloud 2.

[@evanpetelle5669]

Just installed this on my ps4. Never got to play it back in the day so, wish me luck!

[@shizuwolf]

Pretty fun game. My major gripe is the crafting system. When you see it, you’ll know what I mean

[@Mayeur000Donz]

Played this a couple years ago. I don't think I've ever quit a game at the final boss before. Didn't even get a second shot. Was just so demotivated after getting KO'd like half an hour into it that I dropped it and watched the ending on youtube.

[@JaeshaunDT]

I barely recall this game. Not even sure if I beat it but I’m pretty sure I did lol. It was one of the last rpgs I played on ps2. I loved the setting but if I remember there were a lot of sections of the game that made me question my sanity.

[@Tony-qt4zv]

@@JaeshaunDT Yeah, after the jungle planet the difficulty shot up... then when I finally beat the prison section.... the difficulty seemed to double again lol

[@raymondsellitto4867]

I quit elden ring at the final boss and same with dark souls 3 😅

[@Mayeur000Donz]

@@raymondsellitto4867 At least with them they're just super hard. Rogue Galaxy's last boss was just a 45-minute anxiety package. Couldn't force myself to try it again.

[@raymondsellitto4867]

@@Mayeur000Donz 😆

[@Dacho_Shaki]

Solid JRPG, but pretty flawed. I think it was Level 5's biggest project at that time filled with ambition and, I believe, it was considered as a competitive answer to Final Fantasy XII. The setting is right up my valley because I dig the Star Wars-esque sci-fi pirate bounty hunting stuff and something like that is rarely utilized in video games. But, I guess they wanted to implement way too many elements at once but by putting a subpar effort in all categories. The unfocused and jumbled story, decent but basic action based combat system that hasn't reached the full potential and clumsy and unbalanced design. Rogue Galaxy seems like a perfect JRPG for my tastes on paper, but a lot of aspects of the game were underutilized. But the vsuals still hold up a lot for a PS2 game and the world and setting are creatively put together.

[@noparkingnoparking]

yo the curb your enthusiasm cut was amazing

[@johntracy72]

That's awesome you showed clips of Captain Harlock/Galaxy Express.

[@DaoistYeashikAli]

I used to play a little DC rpg called Skies of Arcadia. Every city in that game had their own unique way of traversal fitting to their theme.

[@mattmaddogwheaton4724]

Personally I thought the storytelling in this game's pretty damn good.

[@lnsatiate]

Loved playing this game back in the day with my younger siblings

[@tchitchouan]

If you want a jrpg in a space setting play the star ocean or phantasy star or xeno series There's no shortage of space in jrpgs

[@TheRandomGuyTheFarNoGameCat]

I absolutely love this game.

[@CBZero]

Quality videos. Subbed!

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks for watching and for the support!

[@zyrxom]

my favorite game from level 5 is fantasy life really great game.

[@UnknownFilipino]

This game was not on my radar back in the PS2 days. Wish they could port this to the Switch, would love to play this on the go.

[@Li0nMa5K]

Dude, I like the wikiHow bit! XD

[@GamingBroductions]

Because I win!

[@Li0nMa5K]

@@GamingBroductions XD

[@jasonhunt6936]

❤️

[@rctecopyright]

Damn Jaspers beginning is a bit of a star wars xerox which was a Dune xerox

[@YThdhs]

This game scratches the treasure planet itch

[@johntracy72]

A galactic war. Now where have we heard that before?

[@SeviathTheHumanDrago]

I absolutely loved this game! I never knew or heard of a JRPG before that one besides Kingdom Hearts and I didn't know what categories of games were as a kid lol. But I was definitely guilty of the OP AOE attack strategy because I had a habit of overleveling myself for the next area ever since I played Kingdom Hearts and I had both games at the same time. I had this habit because I was angry Goofy started off a higher level than you so I grinded in the first area my second playthrough. I did the same with Rogue Galaxy and doing what I did made the second walkthrough even easier.

[@maybeidontexist]

Damm, u make some good vids

[@raymondsellitto4867]

Wait a min… dark cloud was not the only rpg at the time, nor was it a launch title. Summoner was the very first rpg on ps2, which released October 2000 right at launch. Dark Cloud, however was not a launch title and actually released mid 2001 😁

[@chrisdiokno5600]

I remember playing Rogue Galaxy via PSN

[@erikskundzins9729]

This was one of my favourite games, i want to play it on my pc and i dont know how

[@piccolo1525]

Pcsx2

[@user-gh6gf2tb9e]

Dark cloud and dark cloud 2 are grand hidden gems, im talking the hope diamond of hidden gems. I want to try rogue galaxy so bad.

[@LIAM-iu4nj]

i really miss this game

[@RonnyLive19881]

I remember loving this game put not sure I want to get it on sale thinking about the random encounters… that is an old JRPG feature I probably couldn’t go back to. I remember doing a battle and then half a step later ANOTHER BATTLE. Nope, best left in my memories lol

[@willieswolley7311]

What the heck man nothing about the frog or insects? U dispointed me to say the least. Game had some really cool stuff!

[@TrevRockOne]

Space Cobra is seminal anime in this genre that demands a mention.

[@darkgod8398]

I think the battle could have been done better, not to have battles in town, shorting the two towers, and the bug tournament. But I love the rest of the game.

[@FoNgThOnG]

I need to pick this game back up. Hate to admit it but I was broke during the PS2 days and had to "pirate" a lot of games and Rogue Galaxy was one of them. Never did finish it since the game would freeze up at a certain point due to being a pirated copy.

[@UKMikey]

Gladius Towers 😫😫

[@TheEquivalentXchange]

Literally the style of gameplay is the same as ff7 remake. A game ahead of it's time.

[@tobiasbracknagel4998]

Gaming Broductions: Rogue Galaxy, the only existing space pirate adventure game! Skies of Arcadia: * sad Batfleck face... * Ok, to be fair, SoA takes place on one singular planet without ever leaving it, so the "space" part of space pirate adventure might be debatable here.

[@GamingBroductions]

I do really love me some Skies of Arcadia! One of my favorites from that era, I much prefer it over Rogue Galaxy tbh. But yeah like you said not really space themed as it all takes place on the same planet. Still extremely cool though, air pirates were an awesome concept

[@Chummy8]

Just played this for the first time not too long ago. The music and graphics are the best things about this game. I never finished it, Bro was right about the story feeling shallow.

[@shizuwolf]

My second favorite action RPG from the PS2. My biggest gripe with it is the crafting. It just felt really slow and annoying to engage with

[@jameswaaaaa]

The robots make it star wars!!!!!!

[@RC-we4gt]

Sky's of arcadia was a space pirate game as well. Never beat it myself tho. Game got busted from careless kids (myself included)

[@IgnacioStegmayer]

the mini games are best in class. The bugs chess on FFIX's Tetra Master level

[@Afroman_Gaming]

A lot of these "useless" or trivial mechanics seem to come from left over mechanics left over from the dark cloud games. Like throwing or the primary and sub weapons. Especially the different types of guns.

[@johnong2655]

Okay... I think I've been playing it wrongly. I was reluctant to use AP recovery, and keep dying

[@GamingBroductions]

There are some random difficulty spikes earlier in the game when you don't have access to a lot of recovery items yet but as you progress forward money starts becoming a non factor so you can just stack up on all those AP items which takes a lot of that difficulty away. I would use them to your heart's content, the game isn't balanced very well anyway regardless of the approach you take

[@rameybutler-hm7nx]

I like rogue galaxy, but its not perfect. There is a learning curve at the start, but once thats over its pretty simple. P.s. I was so mad that they didnt bring rogue galaxy to the vita it would have been so cool to play it on the go.

[@LeonardoBramante]

I've always loved this game, but it really is so flawed. I wish it got a remake where they could fix a lot of these problems. Especially the story, I would have really loved for the war to have been a bigger part of the game, because Chapter 6 pretty much sold me on the horror of the war (and I legit cried at the end of that chapter). I'll still constantly go back to it though, because despite the flaws, the gameplay is still really fun.

[@alveeomar4018]

Can you please make a video on games that visually shows customisation rather than just increasing stats. Make the video based on every console. Please please please.

[@KevTheGalaxybender]

You never heard of Skies of Arcadia?

[@GamingBroductions]

I have, I’ve given it a lot of love in some videos before. It’s just not really a space pirate theme as it’s all on the same planet. The concept of air pirates is super cool though, I actually like that game quite a bit more than Rogue Galaxy

[@annuvynarawn392]

still free on ps+

[@alaacharaf_]

question does the EU release has more content as I read or that's a wrong nice video by the way

[@MiBrCo4177]

Haha love this game to pieces. Glad it's on PS4/5 with trophies now sadly however thier emulator they using suuuuuuxxxxxxxxx but still solid overall.

[@Jamesssssssssssssss]

Dragon Quest 8 is great tho.

[@russellg9622]

I wish they would have learned when making DQ8 how to make a good battle system. I just can’t get into action rpgs as easily as I can turned based one’s. I’ve tried playing this multiple times but as soon as I start hacking away I get bored. Sucks because the atmosphere and story look interesting but the combat I think will keep me away forever unfortunately. Especially since the current market is over saturated with action RPGs now. Maybe if a company would blend in turn based elements along with action I wouldn’t dislike them so much but with so many RPGs going from turned based to action it leaves a sour taste for me.

[@louradean9293]

Aww I Really prefer jrpgs with very engaging stories, it's what's makes me keep playing and coming back. Atmosphere and ost alone aren't enough to keep my attention. Sadly I will have to give this a pass.

[@mypalAbra]

I remember thinking “This game is horrible” while playing it. But I just kept right on playing it and enjoying myself at that. I don’t finish games often so I guess it said alot that I did. A shame tho the game really could’ve been great if they just fixed a handful of things

[@mcm426]

I really wanted to like this game but the dungeons just killed it for me

[@rockdesu]

The way he died was just stupid af. Sorry but who thought it was a good idea?

[@razmeanie4519]

Sorry but the random swearing is really off putting. If this was littered with rude jokes or something it wouldn't seem out of place, but as this is read pretty straight they really stick out. You don't sound like a natural cusser, they aren't casual. They always sound forced but I can't imagine why you would do that. Please either practice swearing casually, give an actual reason for profanity, or just stop doing it.

[@GamingBroductions]

I don’t swear as much in our most recent videos. Even when I do on occasion it actually fits now I think. These older videos didn’t have the best voiceover I’ll admit, I think I’ve gotten a lot better

[@zangzhiao8374]

Don't get why people keep comparing this trash game with dark cloud

[@raymondsellitto4867]

I was 13 when dark cloud came out and I loved it. I found the repetitive dungeons quite addictive because I wanted to continue to build my towns! And I loved dark cloud 2 even more

[@KalinhoPL]

The atmosphere is so good that you want this game to be awesome but it's just not. Is really bad actually. Battle system is terrible (spam skills or die, no balance, enemies can stunlock you to death), dungeon design is nonexistent and uninspired, characters are voiced extremely well but dialogue and story is bland. I'm a RPG fan so I think I'm gonna somehow finish it but it's gonna be a real challenge (I'm in chapter 7 and it sooooo boring). Don't bother wit this game. It's just not good. I feel like Dark Cloud 2 and DGVIII were 10x better than this.