Dark Cloud

"Cory's Dark Cloud Review"

Dark Cloud is a very original action RPG where you travel through countless dungeons battling monsters. You will have the opportunity to build cities with houses and people you find in the dungeons to be the savior of the world.

Gameplay 8/10
In Dark Cloud you will travel through dungeons looking for spheres that have parts of a town hidden inside. You will encounter monsters in the dungeons that you will have to hack and slash through. There is a targeting system that is quite simple, press circle to lock on the enemy and press X to attack it. Hold in on X to do the characters special move. You can strafe left and right around the enemy when you are locked on by pressing the left and right buttons. As you progress through the game your character will get thirsty so you will have to buy, find, or drink some water from a pool to replenish your thirst. You can find attachments for your weapons that will add more power to it. Once your weapons have got a certain amount of power you can upgrade it to a better weapon. Be careful because as you use your weapons its durability will decrease. You can repair your weapons with repair powder. If your weapon’s durability reaches zero it will be broken and lost forever. There are five playable characters that you will meet along your journey that each have their own special technique and weapon. A mini game that you have the option to play is fishing. With your fishing rod you can attach bait that you find or buy to catch many different breeds of fish including two legendary fish.

Story 9/10
In Dark Cloud you take on the role of a boy named Toan who goes on an adventure to restore the world and defeat the Dark Genie. The Dark Genie was sealed in an urn 400 years ago and now the genie has been released by a mysterious man who is blinded by greed. The Dark Genie destroys Toan’s town along with many others. As Toan wakes up from the attack on his village he is greeted by the Fairy King who gives Toan a stone with magical powers called Atlamillia. The Fairy King explains to Toan that before his village was destroyed he saved the buildings and people in spheres called Atla. The Atla got scattered around the world and now Toan has to find them all. With the power of the Atlamilla Toan can unlock the Atla and restore the world to its original form. Toan then heads out on his journey to collect the Atla. While doing so he will meet new people that you can play as to help him out in situations that Toan cannot handle by himself. As you unlock the Atla you can then re-create the city or town as you see fit. The villagers all have requests of where they want their house so you will have to find the right match to suit everyone.

Graphics 9/10
In Dark Cloud the game’s graphics are well done. There are some very fine jaggies around the edges of the characters and the worlds you explore. The game is well textured and laid-out so you can see very long distances and move around towns, houses, and dungeons with ease. I found that the playable characters have much more detail and better textures than the non-playable characters. This doesn’t take away from the game at all but it is just something to point out. I like the little extras that were put in the game that didn’t have to be such as the characters blinking and breathing. When you play the game time will progress naturally so when it is dawn or duck you will see some great lighting and shadowing effects with the trees, rivers, houses and people.

Sound 7/10
In Dark Cloud the sound suits the game well but it gets annoying. You will continuously hear the same noises coming from your characters, weapons and enemies. On the good side when you are in the towns you can hear birds singing in the day time and owl hoots at night time. This adds a lot to the game.

Music 8/10
In Dark Cloud the music suits the game very well. The game plays cheerful tunes that may or may not get on your nerves. I personally don’t mind it but I know many people where it does. When you encounter monsters in real-time the music will change to something more upbeat to suit the action of you killing the monsters.

Play Time/Replayability 8/10
Dark Cloud will take the average player about fifty hours to finish the game their first time tough you could easily rack up ninety if you build the towns so everyone is happy, max out the stats on some weapons, and complete the extras that you unlock once you beat the game. So the play time is good in this game but I feel the replayability is a little low. I didn’t have any reason to play through it again once I was done.

Final Recommendation
I would recommend buying this game if you like action role playing games and want to have the twist of building cities.

I Wish
I wish that this game had more moves for your characters instead of just two to make the game’s battling more technical and interesting.

Average Score 81.7
Cory's Score 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/09/02, Updated 12/09/02