Rogue Galaxy Session 12

Okay, so I realized a few things since my last post:

1. Kisala's portion of the battle is even easier if you stay back all the way.  You can guard the only attack that ever gets sent your way a lot more easily when you have more time to react.
2. You can target Valkog's eyes in the final part with Jaster, and aerial attacks are a lot faster than ground ones.  You can land three hits and then jump and repeat.  Switch your target according to wherever his hands are guarding and stay all the way to the left to avoid the giant beam.  The purple orbs of instadeath are less of an issue if you jump a lot, as they'll typically spawn in the air and you'll be on the ground laughing.
3. Also, Simon's, Steve's, and Jupis' parts of the final battle can be completed without taking damage, which helps you save health potions for the other parts that need them more (Deego, Lillika, Zegram, Jaster)

So, after we destroyed the corrupted battleship, shit happens and we end up getting rescued directly by the Dorgenark and Captain Dorgengoa.  Rune splashes onto the ship in the process, and it looked like we would be dragged down, but then the Rune gave the ship wings and few us to safety.  The blue sky returns to Mariglenn, and the Rune fades from existence.  Kisala says bye to her mom, everything's serious for a while, then Jaster cracks a joke and everyone has a laugh.

After they go through the portal, Mariglenn reappears within the galaxy proper.  For us, it was a matter of moments, but for them, it had been 10000 years since we departed.  Kisala is presented with her mother's tiara and decides to go ahead and take on her role as Queen of Mariglenn.  Some old guy with a stick up his ass calls us lowly individuals and says we'll never be allowed to approach her.  We decided everyone's got a place they have to be and this is Kisala's, and leave the planet.

The closing credits reveal everyone's voice actors, and there are some recognizable names in there.

In a post-credits cutscene, Dorgengoa, Zegram, and Jaster decide to go back to Mariglenn and "get back their 'ultimate treasure'", which can only be Kisala, though the cutscene ends before it happens and you just hear Jaster saying that it was their last heist as pirates.

Thoughts on the game now that I've finished it

You know, since Kisala's the queen and all, surely she could use that position to get the old guy with the stick up his ass to give us special exception to see her, since we, you know, saved the galaxy together and all.  Just because she's queen doesn't mean we should stop being her friends...  Just a thought.

The game has a lot going for it in the graphics and sound department.  The music is excellent and really sets the tone for the area you're going through.

The gameplay is solid, with the suggestion system it makes controlling three characters in an action RPG pretty simple.  One thing I really wish would happen is that characters should automatically suggest healing potions when their health either gets to a certain level or if it drops quickly.  I've had way too many times where a character (usually Zegram) is just running around with about 20 HP and not going "oh hey, can I use a heal potion".  I know I can set the party to "go all-out" and they'll use potions as they need them, but I'd like to stay reasonably in control of my limited supply of them.

I really like the costumes you can find for each character.  They do have an ever so slight difference in stats, but it's not enough to force you to use a specific costume for its stats when you like the look of a different one.

The factory introduces a neat mechanic in that you can make items that will appear at vendors around the game.  The factory is also a nice puzzle game and a pretty good distraction from what's going on, but since it has rewards that can affect your gameplay, you'll want to do it.  Unlike Insector, which the game really tries its hardest to get you into but it has no impact on gameplay whatsoever, other than taking your supplies.

If you want full completion there are a ton of things you'll have to do.  You'll have to scavenger hunt for the rare items, pretty much all of which involve finding NPCs and talking to them in a fairly specific order so that you can go somewhere else to find the item, all the while only giving you vague clues.  You'll have to do all the quarries, which involves finding a bunch of items from around the game to fight optional boss battles, but with a reward in that it gives you items and progress on the Hunter rankings.  Getting to the top of the Hunter rankings is full of rewards since you get items for passing certain rank milestones, and the top one gives you a very good sword for Jaster.

Handing out abilities and stat boosts via Revelation Flow is a neat thing.  It's kind of like the Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X, but not nearly as large.  Essentially, with the limit of requiring you to have a certain set of items, it lets you go "oh, I want that ability" and then unlock it.  Some items are rarer than others, and some are frustratingly rare.  With some of the items it's like I reach a stopping point where I require 20 or so of it to continue but can't find any, then the game flicks a switch and the floodgate opens.  I don't know if I was getting things too fast or not, but I noticed it on multiple occasions.

The save points essentially having six purposes is pretty cool too.  First and foremost, you can save your game at them.  When you step on one, it will activate if it wasn't already, and then it refills your party's HP/AP.  You can teleport to any of the other save points you've activated, which functions as your fast travel and works well with the world map travel since you can teleport straight into the Dorgengoa and then select a different planet.  As you kill things and take on the quarries, you can "turn in" your results and get your due credit at any save point.  It offers expanded item storage so you can keep your inventory reasonably free from old weapons and other things you're not using.  Last but not least, you're encouraged to find all of them on a planet because doing so will reveal the full map and show you where chests (and mimics) are.

The game gives you a reason to keep old weapons around, as well as a reason to buy weapons that aren't as good as what you currently have.  That reason is weapon synthesis.  After fighting a few battles with a weapon, the bar next to Skills will fill and say MAX.  Once you've done that, you can analyze it to figure out what it might combine well with and then do that combination if you have the items.  You can get some pretty nice stuff from it.  For example, the shoes that Kisala is using I crafted around the midpoint of the game.  They're just that good.  In addition to the combinations you can find through analysis there are other combinations that work as well, so you get to experiment with it and see what you can find.  Just like with most RPGs, after a certain point in the game money basically becomes no object, so there's very little barrier to playing around with it.  At the same time, it also gives you very little reason to sell items.

After you beat the game, there becomes more to it as the post-game area called Ghost Ship is unlocked.  I believe there's also some form of a New Game + available, or at the very least you can start a new game and have all the costumes from a previous save, which means you could play through the entire game with Jaster dressed like Desert Claw.

Overall I'd have to say it's a very good game.  It's long and there's a lot to do, but at the same time it's fairly straightforward and a lot of the stuff it gives you to do is of the "optional, but helps" variety.  For instance, you could easily beat the game without touching weapon synthesis, but the only way to get the most powerful weapons is via weapon synthesis.  Basically, play it how you want to play it.  That's always a good thing.