Rogue Galaxy

Rogue Galaxy is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective in which the player moves through a continuous environment, with no load time between overworld exploration and combat. Battles occur as random encounters, a la traditional role-playing video games such as Square's Final Fantasy X or Level-5's own Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, but unlike such games, which feature turn-based combat, Rogue Galaxy uses a real-time hack and slash combat system in which the player fights with a party of three characters. The player has direct control over only one character, although which character this is can be changed at any time. The two NPCs fight independently of the player character, based on the strategy selected prior to the battle.

Available strategies include fighting very aggressively, targeting a specific enemy, or not fighting at all. The strategy can also be changed at any time during the battle. Additionally, the player can issue specific orders to the NPCs during combat, such as having them use an item or activate one of their special abilities. NPC allies will also offer advice to the player character, such as suggesting they perform a special move or use a particular item.

Jaster Rogue

Voiced by: Hiroshi Tamaki (Japanese); Will Friedle (English)

Rogue Galaxy was first hinted in August 2003, when Level-5 revamped its website, and included a single image for a "New RPG". No further information was provided, although, at the time, some thought the game might be the rumored Dark Cloud 3. Nothing more was heard until February 2005, when Level-5 president Akihiro Hino revealed that "New RPG" was going to be released for the PlayStation 2, quelling rumors the game was being developed for the PlayStation Portable. The name was revealed in July, when it was also revealed that the game would feature cel-shaded graphics in the style of previous Level-5 games, such as Dark Chronicle and Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King.

Level-5 refer to the technique as "tonal rendering" - a mixture of cel-shaded 3D graphics for the main characters, set against detailed, realistic backgrounds. Hino was director of the project. The game was officially unveiled in July at the PlayStation Meeting in Tokyo, where Hino said it had been in development for the past two and a half years, with its development time overlapping that of Dragon Quest VIII. He also revealed the game was the biggest project Level-5 had ever worked on, both in terms of production length and the number of staff working on the project.

Rogue Galaxy received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

Although Eurogamer's Simon Parkin praised the graphics and range of mini-games and side-quests, he felt the game's release after Final Fantasy XII placed an unrealizable burden of expectation upon it, saying that Rogue Galaxy did not put new conventions to the genre compared to the former.