Dark Cloud

UPC: 711719711124

Platform: PlayStation 2

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.

Developer: Level-5

Category: Role-Playing

Style(s): Third-Person 3D Action RPG

Synopsis: Toan is on a journey, seeking rebirth and renewed hope. He seeks also the evil spirit that has been rampaging through the countryside and enslaving innocent townsfolk. Toan is the hero in Dark Cloud, one of the first role-playing titles released for the PlayStation 2. Dark Cloud features puzzles to solve, NPCs to query, enemies to battle, and even a "lock-on" targeting system similar to the one introduced in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In addition to several other gameplay conventions common in contemporary RPGs, Dark Cloud features an intricate plot told through over 60 minutes of cut-scenes and an expansive, highly interactive game world. Dark Cloud also includes a "Georama" mode, in which players design and develop towns and villages in the game world. It seems that several good villagers have been captured and locked away in magical containers, hidden deep in the darkest dungeons and caves. When Toan finds one of these treasures he may open it to free the villagers inside. He also will free the houses and other buildings that were captured and may decide where to place these items. Toan will also decide where to place rivers and trees as he rebuilds a village. By freeing the captured villagers and helping them to build new towns, Toan moves closer to finding the terrible evil that enslaved the good people in the first place. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

Package Contents: 52-page Instruction Manual

Controls: Joystick/Gamepad

This contains a 48-page manual that is very helpful in learning the basic concepts. It also explains the story of the game in great detail. ~ Brad Church, All Game Guide

Obviously first generation, and pop in is extremely widespread in dungeons and towns. Also dungeon textures are bland and repetitive, but never get too sore on the eyes. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

At first glance, you could almost mistake Dark Cloud for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The main character is an elf, wears a green hat, and walks around with a sword in hand. Time in the game also passes through four phases: morning, afternoon, dusk, and night. The game mechanics are almost identical as well; you can battle individual enemies using a lock-on target, perform various charge-up moves, and assign three shortcut items to specific buttons. Unlike Zelda's land of Hyrule, however, where the regions were seamlessly connected to form one giant world, Dark Cloud has you navigating from town to town by pointing and clicking on a "magic" map. Although arguably more convenient than walking from town to town, this ultimately makes the world seem disjointed and less realistic. It is at this point that the game starts to diverge from its primary inspiration by drawing on many themes, ideas and gameplay elements found in other popular games. For example, Dark Cloud has what is known as the "Georama" system, a town-building system reminiscent of SimCity. A main theme in the storyline is the total obliteration of several towns by an evil genie. Townspeople, buildings, rivers, ponds, trees, roads, houses, and other items have been sealed into orbs called Atla, something the game's hero Toan is able to retrieve from the various dungeons situated in a town. Once these orbs are retrieved, town inhabitants and buildings must be placed in the correct areas in order to advance the plot and retrieve helpful stat-boosting items. Each of the characters has specific preferences on where they want to live -- one may want to see the rising sun each day from a bedroom window, while another may want to be near a lake but away from another character. Your status is tracked through a convenient "request percentage meter" so you always know how close you are to satisfying everyone's needs. While it is easy to simply plop down houses all over the place to satisfy the inhabitants' needs, gamers who take the time to make a town complete with roads, rivers, and trees will experience the same kind of satisfaction they got from perfecting cities in SimCity and its sequels. The dungeons in Dark Cloud are also randomized in a fashion similar to Diablo II, and contain health power-ups and weapon upgrades as well as treasure chests. This randomization means the only thing saved is the number of Atla you've retrieved and the furthest floor you've progressed to. Navigating the levels of the dungeons is easy, thanks to an onscreen map, but there are barriers you will encounter that are only passable by switching to a certain character. The weapon system in Dark Cloud has been lifted from Final Fantasy VII's materia system and is extremely detailed. Weapons are found in the randomly generated dungeons, bought in shops, or earned by completing certain tasks in town. Each weapon has basic attack, defensive and magic attributes as well as elemental and specific monster attacking stats that can be upgraded by obtaining rare gems. One of the most common ways in which gems are retrieved by entering back areas of each dungeon level, accessible by finding certain keys. Gems can also be obtained by playing an addicting fishing game; each town has a pond complete with different types of fish attracted to certain types of bait. Bait is sold in towns and found in treasure chests, and each fish has a certain amount of fishing points, based on the type and size of the fish. Since these points can be traded in for rare gems and weapons, catching fish is not only fun, but also useful. However you manage to find gems, they can be put into slots onto the weapons in order to boost statistics. Each character's weapon can also be assigned an elemental property as well as weapon magic and attack points. This is necessary for attacking enemies that are weak against a certain type of weapon, and the properties can be switched at any time during the game--giving Toan's sword a Fire attribute will help him when fighting ice monsters, for example. Weapons will also level up by themselves after extensive use in dungeons, and once leveled up, all of the gems will be infused into the weapon permanently. Using certain weapons can also reveal some interesting things, as evidenced by a rare slingshot called (get ready to laugh) "Steve." When you lock onto an enemy, Steve starts talking to you via text at the bottom of the screen, delivering extremely humorous dialogue. For example, in the Moon level when you lock onto a fish-like character, Steve quips, "Why's a fish wearing scuba gear?" A few moments later he chimes in again, saying "No, better question: Why's a fish wearing scuba gear on the Moon?" Different lines occur that poke fun at specific enemies, your character and the RPG genre in general, and it's a wonder why the creators were so meticulous with this rare weapon. The downside is that many gamers will not even get to experience Steve since everything in the game is random -- if you do find and use him, he'll have you cracking up throughout the entire game (he'll even thank you for using him while you fight the last boss). Dark Cloud has a lot going for it, and there is a great deal to do when gamers want to break away from the dungeon crawling. The Georama aspect, the weapon upgrading, and the fishing alone will consume a large amount of gameplay hours, and the game never seems to get boring during the entire time. Dark Cloud does, however, have a few flaws that keep it from being a landmark title. First of all, each of the six playable characters is only available in the dungeons, never in the towns. They are quickly introduced and do little to advance the plot, which causes an inevitable detachment from the characters. Another complaint is in the way the battle system is constructed. Rooms can have anywhere from three to five monsters at a time, each having different elemental attributes. This means that gamers will most likely have to kill a monster that's weak against a specific attribute, open the weapon menu, select another attribute for the other monster, close the menu and repeat until all the monsters are defeated. This could have easily been remedied by using the up and down buttons on the directional pad to switch between elements. The Georama aspect of the game is truly unique for a game of this type, but also suffers from some problems -- the towns need to have bigger populations of random spectators or consumers, and while the first two towns look great if properly completed, the large third level looks incredibly sparse, with huge distances between buildings. The city level <I>begs</I> for the bustling activity of shoppers, rather than simply being populated by the storeowners and city officials. Despite all of its flaws, the positives of Dark Cloud outweigh any negatives. The game could not have survived as a dungeon crawler alone, and thankfully the many side diversions offer hours of fun by themselves. And while there are hints of talent behind some of the story elements, there needs to be more emphasis on creative, original storytelling if Dark Cloud is going to become a franchise capable of going head to head with The Legend of Zelda. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

Building up weapons and a bonus area at the end extends the life of the game, as well as the many diversionary side games. Experienced players should expect the game to take around 30 hours to complete. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

There is one piece of theme music that repeats over and over again whenever you enter a shop or complete a request of a town member -- it's extremely annoying, along with much of the other music in the game. This must be improved. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

Dark Cloud offers the same kind of time consuming, long stretches of addicting gameplay that made Zelda legendary. There's always something else to divert your time to when you get sick of one area. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

the game requires Joystick/Gamepad.