"Quite probably the best thing I have played in long time"

Dark Cloud 2(refered to herein as DC2) is simply great. I had never played the origional, but saw it and rented it on the offhand chance that it would be good...boy was I surprised. Although it starts out a bit slow,(more on that later)I was soon deep into the game and positively hooked. I bought it soon after and was not disapointed

Graphics 9/10

The graphics contained within DC2 are excellent. While the enviroments are'nt as detailed as those of Final Fantasy X, they don't fall short either. The dungeon architexture and textures are a little bland and repetitive, simply because of the fact the dungeons are randomized, but the other locations are done quite well. Locations such as the town of Palm Brinks look quite good, with detailed textures and a distinctive art style. But all that aside, the character models are where the game truly shines. I had always been wary of cel-shaded graphics before; seeing them in screen shots dosen't do them justice. You must see them in motion to truly understand. Cel-shading allows awesome ammount of detail to be put into the models, while still looking great and not slowing down the frame rate one bit. When you are actualy playing the game you won't be thinking about the differences in cel-shaded graphics or not, you will simply be thinking about how beuitiful they actualy are. Once you see them in motion, you cannot pass them off for glorified 2D drawings; they are unmistakably 3D. While the most detail was put into the game's two main characters,(Max's pendant swings realisticaly as he moves, as does Monica's long braid),some of the other characters suffer only slightly in the fact that their mouths are'nt synced with their speech, but this is minor, and you most likely wont notice after a while, seeing the quality elsewhere.

Gameplay 10/10

Addictive and fun are the only two words I can summon up to describe Dark Cloud 2, even though that may not do it justice. To me, the combat system is what makes or breaks an RPG, seing as most of the time you will be doing that the most. DC2 does not fall short in this area, in fact, it excels. Although some people may pass the combat off as, ''repetetive button smashing'', this is not the case. Combat is quite deep, even more so than other action/RPGs such as Kingdom Hearts. Both characters have a melee weapon and a ranged weapon, but the simplicity ends there. As you defeat enemies, the weapon that landed the final blow will acumulate ABS, or Experience points, basicaly. When a weapon aquires enough of these points, it will level up. You are then awareded a number of ''synthesis points'' which you can spend to increase one of the weapons many atributes. It is the manner of spending these points that makes DC2 truly unique. Almost every item in the game has its own stats that correspond with the 10 stats of the weapons. As you aquire synthesis points for your weapons you can ''spectrumize'' these items and synthesise them with the wepons to increase the stats of the weapon by the corresponding stats of the said item. Once these stats reach certain levels, you may build up, or upgrade, your weapon to a more powerful version. This is just skimming the surface, as there are many more possibilites to explore using the synthesis system. The other great gameplay element is the ''Georama System'' which is quite complicated, and best left to the player to discover and learn, easily done with the games exvelent in-game tutorials. Suffice to say that is reminiscient of town/city building sims such as Sim City, but different in many ways. The georama system is crucial to the game, it is not optional, but although I was doubtful at first, I later found myself compelled to venture into the dungeons to recover more materials for my towns.

Sound 9/10

While the actual sound effects are hard to comment on, they are hard to put down either, because they are exactly what you would expect, and they do just fine. The music is quite good, and even though it may not compare with some works by composers such as Umatesu or Mitsuada, it is still great, and fits the theme well. The music is dynamic, that is, when you enter battle with an enemy, the music shifts appropriately. All of the tracks ive heard are quite good quality, I havent heard a single ''stinker'' in the whole bunch;although of some note, you may get tired of some of the music in dungeons with many ''floors''.
The voice acting is excelent, and comes out as exactly what you would expect from the characters in question. DC2 also does'nt suffer from the horrible translation that some RPGs do.(although there are a few questionable lines in there)

I am not going to rate the story, I simply dont see that possible, as many people have many tastes, but I will say it is quite good, just not my favorite. It is origional, sure, but it isnt without its fair share of cliche mixed in as well. All in all, do I recomend it? of course. Should you rent it? no. Because all its going to do is make you want to buy it anyway :) If you like action RPGs, then by all means, get it. Even if you dont, give Dark Cloud 2 a try, its worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/03, Updated 03/05/03