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If it’s got spiky hair, it’s a Japanese console RPG main character. Jaster Rogue is front and center on the box for Rogue Galaxy, a Level-5-developed masterpiece published by Sony. First released in Japan, the game has received something of an overhaul before its US release, including the addition of a whole new planet to visit. Nao Higo, SCEA’s U.S. producer for Rogue Galaxy, recently sat down with Gamespy and talked about what’s new and why the changes were made when they could have just done a straight-ahead port.

(Gamespy’s 4.5/5 star review shows the additions are welcome ones.)

Nao notes that just about all of the new content included in the North American release was kept from the JP release to meet the deadline. The US game is the game they wanted to make, he says, and the reworking of features is in response to feedback from JP gamers and SCEA.

To start with the game features an entire new planet Alistia and chapter, a new battle system, completely different weapon synthesis rules, and a new mini-game mode. The dialogue was rewritten to be funny in English, instead of just a translation from the Japanese. The combat was rebalanced and otherwise modified in drastic ways, which Nao mentioned was in response to JP gamers who felt that the game was too hard in some parts and too monotonous in others.

There’s also a tournament mode called the Insectron tournament. The mode was present in the JP release, but the NA release includes tougher AI and a new password system that lets players trade passwords and fight their Insectrons against each other. New Insectron types were added as well. Nao comments that this game mode was a very popular feature of the game in Japan, and these changes serve to flesh it out.

As for the whole new planet Alistia, Nao comments that while its quests aren’t as well integrated in to the whole game as other areas, it is a reward for gamers who have waited for the US release.

To cap it all off, the NA version is so much better than the JP version that SCEJ is considering porting it back across to Japan as a second release.

I’m pretty surprised at all the extra content and re-localization work that went into the North American release of Rogue Galaxy, and it’s just different enough from other RPGs that I’m intrigued enough to take it for a spin. I did get an official demo disc from Sony a little while back, but it was a little difficult to understand what I was supposed to be doing in the two test areas because of little introduction and plot explanation. I’ll throw it on my game rental queue and post back if it hooks me.