While Microsoft and Nintendo had its previous console efforts whimper away into the retirement home last year, Sony's Playstation 2 continues to live successfully on its own, thanks in part to quality titles like Rogue Galaxy.

Ringing in the New Year as the Playstation's first big title, developer Level-5 has pieced together what is pound for pound the most quality title released so far in 2007.

With the developer of such adventure titles as Dark Cloud 2 and Dragon Quest VIII behind the helm, Rogue Galaxy doesn't lack in quality and really shows what the Playstation 2 can do technically for an RPG title. Additionally, with its faster-paced real-time combat, Rogue Galaxy should be able to draw in more than the traditional RPG fanatic and provides players with a potential 100-hour adventure.

The game centers on Jaster Rogue, the cliché RPG "diamond in the rough" who through one circumstance after another gets involved in a save-the-universe campaign. Raised on the sand-laden planet Rosa (just imagine Luke Skywalker at the beginning of Star Wars), a grown Jaster has become a hunter in order to earn rations from an empire force that keeps his people under slavery. At the start of the game, players join with Jaster following one of his hunts to find a not-so-typical scenario.

Monsters termed as "Beasts" suddenly overwhelm the city Jaster resides in and is threatened by a massive flying menace that threatens the area's residential section. Confronting the menace, Jaster is joined by a mysterious hooded man looking to bag the monstrosity for his own personal gain.

The man leaves in a hurry, but not before giving away his seven-star sword to Jaster. Left with a one-of-a-kind sword in his possession, Jaster is quickly mistaken as "Desert Claw," the number-one bounty hunter in the universe, by members of the infamous Dorgenark space pirates and is "enlisted" into the crew. While upfront, Jaster isn't given a choice, he follows of his own will, hoping to live up to his childhood aspirations of traveling the galaxy and being in space.

Of course, as Jaster meets new cohorts, they can become selectable as party members giving players three total warriors to keep tabs on at all times. While the player controllers a character of their choosing, the remaining two party members can still be managed at any time.

Rogue Galaxy implements a suggestion system where a CPU-controlled ally will call out special attacks and item assists which can be utilized on the fly with the L1 and L2 buttons. The computer AI will execute basic attacks on its own but by offering the said suggestions, players can activate special attacks without surfing a menu and even be healed at the press of a button without interrupting the flow of battle.

All of the game's battles are run in real-time, offering characters a longer-range and close-up melee attack mapped to the square and X buttons. Jumps can be executed for mid-air attacks and to avoid attacks, blocks reduce damage taken by enemy attack and the triangle button interrupts the battle to open up menus for item and special attack use.