Dark Cloud

"Shedding light on Dark Cloud"

When I first tried out Dark Cloud at a friend's house, I just couldn't see why it was so highly regarded. To me, it seemed like it was just yet another generic dungeon-crawler, like there already are countless. I could understand the village building was an appealing feature, but there was no way it could entirely, by itself, make up for the bland gameplay. Even the weapon customization didn't seem like it was that well implemented. Regardless, I somehow still ended up with the game. Even after beating it, I'm still puzzled as to why the game was ranked so high for something so low, but I can see there is something going for it. It probably explains it all, and that something made me enjoy the game, after all.

Dark Cloud was Sony's try at the first RPG for the PS2, sometimes referred to as Sony's "Zelda". I'm still questioning this, as I fail to see any remotely similar resemblance, save perhaps for the protagonist, who looks so much like Link it's not even funny. Everything else has absolutely nothing to do with Zelda, both games being part of two very different sub-genres of RPGs.

While Zelda has a rather serious and dark tone to it, Dark Cloud is very light-hearted and almost cartoony. The story is pretty abysmal, it's very unlikely you would care for it. Let's just say it's about a Dark Genie destroying the world, and a plain boy from a quiet village, who has this mysterious power to bring the world back to life. You get the picture, there's nothing new here, so let's move on.

After I bought the game, the back of the game's case drew my attention. My inquiries about Dark Cloud came back to my mind and had me wondering why I wasn't seeing the game as being as great as almost everyone else was seeing it. I know you shouldn't trust the praise at the back of a game's case, but still, in Dark Cloud's case, it's highly misleading. Now let's take a look into it, shall we?

"Innovative new gameplay, GEORAMA"

Build it, play it, live it. This is Dark Cloud's main appeal. While it's not innovative or new, it's the first time this kind of system is implemented in a RPG. Toan, the main character, can use the Atlamilla stone to restore the villages destroyed by the Dark Genie. All essences of what was, are now concealed in spheres scattered through the dungeons. By opening these spheres, the essences are released. Everything from trees, rivers, houses, villagers -- everything from before the destruction. Toan has the task to rebuild the villages using all these elements, so the world is once again like it used to be. It's a very interesting idea, but sadly very limited.

You can rebuild the villages as you please, but to a certain extend. It's up to you to place the houses where you want them to be, set the rivers in the shape you want, put trees here or there, but that's all you can do. You can't arrange the houses, you absolutely have to build them the way the game planned it, and you are very limited in the number of items you can place. For instance, most villages only allow up to ten trees, which isn't a lot when you imagine your dream village having more. The pieces of rivers are also too limited, sometimes you're on the way to make something great, then suddenly you realize you're out of river, so you have to just stop it there. So, yes, you do build the villages, but in a very restricted way. You can't put more than how the game meant it.

If the limitation is frustrating, it's only because it's Dark Cloud's best feature, so it's really too bad you can't do more with it. There is something immensely fun about building up a village as you want it, like you were creating a world that is yours, and only yours. Not just building it, but then walking through it, and interacting with the world you created. Of course, the restrictions make it a lot less immersing, because it doesn't feel that unique. I know everyone with the game has remotely similar villages, because you can't customize them, but setting stuff where you want feels satisfying enough. Obviously, this very same feature could bore some people out of their minds. It's a nice change of pace in-between the dungeons, though.

Being the meticulous person I am, I could spend hours re-building the villages until they're perfect, changing little things here and there, moving this or that. I got addicted to Dark Cloud in that way, wishing the game was only building villages, without the boring dungeons, which I'll cover in a bit. Going through these dull dungeons, the only reason that kept me going and interested, was getting to the next village and starting to build it. The harsh reality however stroke me soon enough. I had to put up with the disappointing fact that Dark Cloud only featured four villages to build. I could have gone on and built countless more, but the game stopped to have a reason for me once I was done with the fourth and final village. I only kept playing through the last dungeons because I had gotten there, so might as well defeat that Dark Genie. If only it had destroyed more villages.

"Real-time weather and day/time display system"

I understand this might have been revolutionary enough back then that the game would brag about it, but it has been done before, and way better. Instead of just switching gradually from day to night with no intermission, which adds a lot of realism, Dark Cloud has a short cinematic stopping the action and announcing you if it's morning, afternoon, dusk or night. I really question the necessity of this. After you've seen this message over ten times, it really becomes bothersome. It makes something of no importance cut into what you're doing and just stop everything for ten seconds while you watch that screen you've seen so many times already. Ten seconds is nothing, but it's too long when it's every five minutes. Dark Cloud might have no loading times, but it has this instead.

As for the real-time weather system, it's not even in the game. It never rains, never snows, there never is fog and the weather is always the same through the whole game. I'm left without a clue here.

"Six playable team members"

Six characters sounds like the perfect number of party members. In Dark Cloud's case, however, it might have been best to keep it at two or three. The characters all feel thrown in, just like Toan who is the usual silent, no personality protagonist. Each character has about four lines in the whole game (and no voice-acting at all), so that's saying a lot. Not that you'll care for either the storyline or the characters anyways. They're just there to be there, to fill up a gap that is still empty in the end. There are two types of characters, ones that use close range weapons, and ones that use long range weapons. There was no need to add four other characters that are just clones of the two first you get, but with different designs and weapons. In the end, they're all the same and you'll just end up using Toan. After all, why would you use Ungaga the spear wielder when you can use Toan and his powerful swords? Oh so tough choice.

Since you're only using one character at a time, it becomes very hard to level-up everyone once you get all the characters, unless you're willing to waste hours on nothing. You'll probably only use one character, the one you prefer, because it's such a hassle to switch from a character to the other especially since they don't differ that much from one another. The game tries everything to make you use all of them however, like forcing you to play one floor of a dungeon with a character other than Toan. So if you haven't been leveling-up that character, you're in for a difficult trek. Another completely silly way the game forces you to use the other characters in dungeons is by placing ridiculous obstacles on your way. The best example is the infamous pit only Xian can cross. Or the door only Goro can open. It forces you to stop, switch character, get past the obstacle, then switch back to whatever character you were using. Then it leaves you wondering, what was the point of this?

"Detailed weapons system"

Another interesting feature about Dark Cloud is unarguably its weapons system, although it could have been pushed a lot further. What differences the game from other RPGs is that instead of leveling-up the characters, you level-up their weapons. Throughout your trek through the dungeons, you'll find many weapons for your characters hidden in treasure chests. Each character specializes in a certain type of weapons, like swords for Toan, slingshots for Xian, hammers for Goro, and so on. Once you've chosen your favorite, it's time to level it up, or you won't make it through later dungeons. Defeating enemies with the weapon makes it absorb Abs, and when it's full, you can upgrade it. It doesn't limit itself to that however, as there is more to it.

Upon upgrading a weapon, you can attach gems to it to make it more powerful in one attribute (fire, water, wind, thunder and holy), or more effective against a certain type of enemies. The game wants you to think it's up to you how you want your weapon to be, though in the end, it doesn't make a big difference. After you've upgraded the right elements on your weapon, you have the option to transform it into another form. There aren't that many evolved forms though, so talking about customization might be a bit too much. Sure it's a very detailed system, you build the weapon to evolve into the one you want, but it takes such a long time to level-up a weapon in Dark Cloud that it's not really all that fun when you realize you just got a better weapon and would have rather leveled up that one instead. Might just level-up anything since it all comes down to the same in the end.

The most frustrating aspect about the weapons system and Dark Cloud in general, is the way your weapons can break. When they break, they disappear forever. As you beat up on enemies, your weapon will consume Whp, and when it falls down to zero, the weapon is no more. To avoid this, you need to use Repair Powders. The problem is that it doesn't last very long, so between healing your character and healing your weapon constantly, you'll find yourself doing that far too often. It's so easy in the midst of a battle to forget to heal a weapon and just loose it, just like that. Hours of work lost, and your character is back with a weak weapon. The only way to prevent this is to save between each floor of the dungeons, but it's a hassle as you can only save outside the dungeons. I could go on and on about how the weapons system is neat, yet flawed, but what you should retain is that it's a clever concept that didn't come out the way it was intended.

"Hundreds of items"

If I took the time to count all the items in Dark Cloud, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't even come close to a hundred, and I fail to see how praising Dark Cloud's items plays in its favor. Potions, healing items, gems, attachments, weapons, and what not. Everything that all RPGs have. Nothing more, nothing new, and not that much. Instead, let's take a look at the dungeons.

Exciting dungeons?

Dull, rather.

If you've already played a dungeon-crawler before, then Dark Cloud has very little to no surprise in store for you. In between building villages and upgrading your weapons, you'll be doing a lot of walking in generic dungeons. Most have around twenty floors, which are all randomly generated. Inside, you'll find treasure chests and enemies. It's not Zelda, there are no puzzles, only walking through long endless hallways, looking around empty rooms, and battling the same enemies over and over, until you reach the final floor. Randomly generated or not, it doesn't change the fact that all the floors are the exact same. In fact, all the dungeons are the exact same. Different designs perhaps, but still the same general idea of hack'n slash. Thankfully, the floors don't take that long to complete and you can always leave between each floor to work on your village for a change of mind.

The combat system isn't any more exciting, shaped in a real-time battle system that is the closest thing to being anything like Zelda. You can lock into an enemy, circle around it, hit it, and defend yourself. Characters with a long range of attack can hit from afar, and that's how far it goes. It would be somewhat enjoyable if you were doing something else than battling enemies in the dungeons, but you're not. Not to mention the enemies are extremely annoying, constantly moving back so you can't hit them. Cheap, cheap. The bosses could have shaken up things a bit, but they're just as uninspired as the rest. They involve switching between two characters constantly by bringing up the pause menu every minute, breaking the flow of the action, and just repeating the same simplistic process in an insipid way.

The game also throws in a thirst meter, in addition to your character's HP and weapon's Whp. As you walk around the dungeons, your character will get thirsty, so you'll need to find water or give him water through items. This means three things to keep an eye on: thirst, HP and Whp. Whether it was to add strategy to the game or just make it feel more packed, it's a bit too much annoyance and quite unnecessary.

"Breathtaking graphics"

Now I know this game was released in 2001 and I've played a lot ever since, but even for a 2001 game, Dark Cloud is very far from what I'd call "breathtaking". Good-looking, yes. Impressive? No. Dark Cloud just does little to impress. The character models are exceptionally good for the time, with absolutely no sharp edges and a clean look that is hard to come by, but everything else is just "good". Nothing less, nothing more. The environments have a fair draw distance, feature enough details, and the overall look is aesthetically pleasant, but there is nothing that will awe you. The dungeons are too drab to get your attention visually, and some later areas are far too barren to feel creative. If something in Dark Cloud is to take your breath away, it won't be the graphics.

Same with the music, while good, is far from groundbreaking. The intro theme is catchy and inspired, the villages have peaceful music that fits in perfectly while you work on them, and the dungeons have calm musical scores that feel appropriate since the pacing is so slow. All of that is good, but here again, it's decent and it's just that.

"Over 50+ hours of gameplay"

Going through six dungeons, leveling up a weapon, and building four villages, even for the most perfectionist of us, doesn't take all that long. I wish there were more villages, then maybe the game would reach 50 hours, but unless you're really slow, Dark Cloud is barely 40 hours. That's more than enough for a dungeon-crawler however, but the fact that I was ready to spend another 40 hours on the game had there been more to it, should show that Dark Cloud doesn't fail in the end, despite the shortcomings...

Last Words

As much as I want to say Dark Cloud isn't technically a masterpiece, as much as I fail to see how such an ordinary game gets such love, I can't deny Dark Cloud has something addictive about it. Let's face it, it's a very mediocre game; the GEORAMA system is too limited, the weapons system isn't fleshed-out enough, the weapon breaking is frustrating, the battle system is repetitive, the dungeons are dull... yet Dark Cloud is enjoyable to play. Building villages and walking through them feels rewarding, perfecting your weapons is interesting, and even the dungeons, to a certain extend, are fun in small chunks. It's contradictory, but that's really what Dark Cloud is: a blend of a lot of things that seem like they don't work together, but somehow, Dark Cloud puts everything together in such a cohesive manner that the game feels satisfying. It's obvious there are so many things in Dark Cloud that none feel like they are pushed to their limit, and when you're just starting to get really into it, the game abruptly ends, but there's always Dark Cloud 2 for that.

Presentation 6/10
Gameplay
-GEORAMA 8/10
-Weapons 7/10
-Dungeons 5/10
Graphics 7/10
Music 8/10
Replay Value 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/07, Updated 09/04/07

Game Release: Dark Cloud (US, 05/28/01)