Perhaps the biggest letdown in the fighting mechanics is the CPU party member AI. When you have the opportunity to tell them what to do, all is well, but when the fighting is left to them, hope that you have a ton of resurrection potions. The game requires a huge amount of item management and you will find yourself buying an insane amount of healing items in order to keep your teammates out of trouble. I failed to see my cohorts block even the most obvious of attacks and their attack tactics seemed quite questionable at times.

Through the course of the game, the story of Rogue Galaxy unfolds with many twists and turns. While the story may seem a little on the slow side in the beginning with inane tasks turned into big ordeals, the game really picks up and explains the universe in which Jaster seeks to experience. Sure, it may be cliché to many RPG or anime standards, but Level-5 makes it work along with its excellent presentation.

Rogue Galaxy is living proof the Playstation 2 still has at least one good year left in it. Its graphics no doubt push the system to the max and looks like a livid animation unfolding a massive story on Sony's black box. For PS2 owners, $40 never bought you so much to do on one disc and the fact the U.S. release has added features over the original Japanese release will easily give hardcore RPG players something to do for at least the next week.

With the item combinations, revelations, factories and more, menus were never so much fun and management nuts could spend hours doing nothing but tooling with the various options. All of the extra objectives at least double the game's playtime beyond the main quest and all of them vary in nature, providing almost multiple games in one.

Rogue Galaxy backs up a stunning look with solid game play, effective execution and replayability. While the majority of the month has been spent looking forward to games coming out months ahead, Rogue Galaxy's release ends January with a bang and kick-starts gaming into 2007. Although a few minor setbacks put a few snags in the game's design, it should be no surprise to see the name Rogue Galaxy pop up again when the end of 2007 brings forth the "Best of" awards.

Rogue Galaxy is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB for Blood, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence.