Pimping Level-5

It’s a bit early to tell, but there’s a definite chance that there may be a new kid on the RPG block. Square’s been around for almost 20 years (Starting waaaay back in 1987 for you kids that care) and truthfully, it’s been getting a little long in the tooth. Final Fantasy, while still a great series, has become, like so many success stories, a Franchise, an Intellectual Property, and as such, has all the attendant restrictions placed on it because of branding and marketing concerns so as not to upset its audience.

But here comes some new blood in the form of Level-5, who are already making waves in Japan and look set to possibly take up the mantle that Square has held almost uncontested for the last few years. There just may be a new RPG heir to the throne, and it could be these guys. They made waves initially with their cel shaded Dark Cloud series on the PS2, but they made their big debut when Square-Enix hired them on to create Dragon Quest VIII for them. Now they’ve got a new game that’s just been released in Japan and is likely due to hit English consoles by March.

The game is called Rogue Galaxy, which I’ve mentioned before, and man, the more I find out about it, the more I really, reeeeally want to get this in a way that supersedes even my interest in Final Fantasy XII.

The thing that first caught my interest is the world the game is set in. It looks like someone over there must have really dug the whole galactic swashbuckling motif of Treasure Planet because the entire game is based on a similar premise of the 18th century style nautical life, writ large on a space-faring scale. There are many worlds to explore, many characters to meet, but all of it in a weird Science-Fiction/Quasi-Victorian sort of way.


















Like the upcoming Final Fantasy XII, but more similarly, like Kingdom Hearts (Not too long now for Kingdom Hearts II, by the way, that’s also due for release next year, in summer, I believe) the combat in Rogue Galaxy is not turn based, but twitch based, meaning the success of your fighting will be far more dependent on your reflexes than your character’s current level, or equipment, though those obviously factor in. You will need to physically manuever around, jump and hit your opponents. But you can also pick them up and toss them into each other, and some bosses only have certain vulnerable points that will require you to jump around and gain access to them since the bosses can be FREAKIN’ HUGE.

Like Dragon Quest VIII, the graphics are cel-shaded so it looks like a classic anime yarn, with the usual assortment of exotic characters, and like DQ VIII, it also has an alchemy pot system of sorts, although in this case, it’s not a pot, it’s a purple talking frog. Yeah, I know, I got weirded out by that too, but apparently it has two MASSIVE cheek sacs, so you pop items into its mouth, and it moves them into its cheek sacs and then starts “gargling” them together like mouthwash to form your new item. The future is a strange and uncomfortable place.

I’m really looking forward to this one now. It has the feel of something new and excited about it, kind of like Square did back in the day. The Japanese have already been going nuts over the game, which is a good sign for RPG fans in other countries, so here’s hoping that the localization process to English goes by FAST. Level-5 has already hinted that they don’t want to get lost in the avalanche of Square RPG goodness coming in the summer with Kingdom Hearts 2, and more importantly in the fall with Final Fantasy XII, so spring seems to be the most logical time for them to release what will likely be the first RPG hit of 2006.

Keeping going, Level-5, we’re watching you, and we like what we see so far…