Rogue Galaxy
Level-5 is a game developer that always deserved a little more attention. From the two Dark Cloud games to the beautiful (and heinously on permanent hiatus) True Fantasy Live Online, the Japanese company has a knack for creating amazingly well fleshed-out worlds, filled to the brim with places to visit, people to see, and vilely addictive little pastimes to waste dozens of hours on. They hit it really big last year with Dragon Quest VIII (which they co-developed with Square Enix), and with the reputation they earned from that masterpiece, it’s little wonder that Rogue Galaxy has been selling like hot rice balls in Japan. Now their latest is out in the US, and it’s so hot that it’s absolutely worth dropping your newly purchased PS3 or Wii for.
Phantasy Star Universe
Sega’s newest Phantasy is sweet, sweet reality for those enamored with online role-playing titles. Widely anticipated for over a year now, the sequel to Phantasy Star Online has made thousands of gamers worldwide excited, ever hopeful that the new experience will come close to the addiction that occupied most of 2000 and 2001 for them. Does PSU deliver? Absolutely—in fact, if anything, its only fault is that it’s too kind to its fans.
Final Fantasy XII
The fears surrounding Final Fantasy XII’s long development, frequent staff changes and drastic departures from Final formula were all reasonable. At the time, they were even justifiable. They were also so wrong that it’s hard to look back at them and even understand how anyone could think that Final Fantasy XII would be anything but what it is: an extraordinary swan song for the PS2 role-playing game genre. More than a great end to the Final Fantasy games on the PS2, more than one of the last great games on the system, this is simply the best RPG to have been released for any Sony platform.
Okami
Capcom’s Clover Studio hit the road running with Viewtiful Joe, but then it got bogged down in sequels. Only now, two years later, are we seeing its next major work. Okami, a pun that can mean either “wolf” or “great god” in Japanese, is an epic action-adventure that takes after any of the recent Zelda games. But like Viewtiful Joe, Okami is anything but a clone—in fact, in many ways it outdoes Zelda. No kidding.
Yakuza
Japanese gangster Kazuma Kiryu curses in front of small children. He has no qualms about beating a man to death with a baseball bat, an expensive umbrella, a sofa, a bicycle, an advertising standee, a gold club, a flowerpot or a decorative column. Yet he’ll spend quality time hunting the streets of Tokyo for dog food to save an injured puppy, or he’ll help the less fortunate by giving them what they need (mostly liquor). He is—not to sound like a tenth-grade English report or anything—a study in contrasts.
Chromehounds
The first thing Armored Core veterans will notice when they power up their lumbering “chromehound” is that this game offers a much better control system. Armored Core, for those not in the know, is the long-running mech series from Chromehounds developer From Software—and the game most folks thought this 360 title would mimic almost completely.
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