Dark Cloud 2

"One of the PS2's Finest RPGs."

The PS2 seems to be seeing a lot of sequels these days: Red Faction 2, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, and Onimusha 2, to name a few. And they all seem to be living up to their predecessors, if not turning out better. But Dark Cloud 2 is different. It breaks the pattern by not being better than the original, but by being ten-fold the game the original Dark Cloud was. This title packs so much content, playability, and – above all else – style into the mix that it can’t help but be looked upon as the true blossoming of the series [although, in reality, there’s not much of a continuous series, given there’re only two games and what-not].

The gameplay of Dark Cloud 2 is a mixed bag of good old-fashioned hack-n’-slash with a side of weapon-leveling [which fans of the original will remember, but not always fondly] tossed in for good measure. Add to that some retro dungeon-crawling, a bit of puzzle-solving, and world-building, and you’ve got a genuine concoction of untapped potential. But, one has to wonder: Does it all come together cohesively? Or is this just another game that was
a bit too ambitious for its own good?

Even given the whole scope of the game, and how many different elements there are to “beating” it, it’s still got the underlying backbone of a traditional Japanese RPG. The gameplay is fairly linear – although, contrary to traditional thought, you are allowed to go back and visit worlds you’ve already conquered; it’s often required to advance the storyline – and most of your time will be spent either leveling your character in the dungeons, or tinkering around with the GeoRama segment of the game [which comes up at least once in every chapter; I’ll get to it later].

The weapon-leveling system involves the tried-and-true method of killing baddies, racking up points [referred to as “Synethesis Points” in the game] and using them to advance your weapon’s attributes. These attributes include fairly generic things like Agility, Strength, and Attack, but there’s also elemental attributes tossed into the fray, like Flame, Lightning, and Frost. A normal leveling scenario goes something like this: 1. Kill monsters, 2. Rack up about two floors’-worth of points, and 3. Go to the weapons menu and use your Crystals [you find them around the dungeons; each Crystal advances a specific attribute] to level up the attributes of your weapons. Max, the male character, can use his Wrench and the Gun. The female character [her name escapes me at the moment] can use her Sword and Armband [for ranged magic attacks]. For some odd reason, they can’t use any other weapons, although the girl can use a few different swords. You can buy these weapons and their higher-level versions at shops in the towns you visit.

The weapons have a certain minimum quota of attributes [which are displayed when you press the Build Up button] that you must fulfill in order to advance the weapon to the next stage. For example, to build up a certain weapon, you may need to increase its Attack to a certain level, in addition to its Destruction. This means you constantly need Synthesis points and Crystals to level up your weapons. The weapons themselves, as in the original, have WHP [Weapon Health Points], which gradually decline as you use the weapon more and more. If your weapon breaks, it becomes useless, and you’ll need to repair it immediately.

Moving right along, the visuals in this game are simply magnificent. Eye-popping effects are never in short supply. The cel-shading in this game is implemented to brilliant effect. Unlike most other cel-shaded games, Dark Cloud 2’s shading doesn’t scream out for attention. It’s been applied with a soft tone in mind, and gives the game a look distinctive of pretty much any other recent RPG. The characters are very detailed, and their body textures rarely, if ever, fail to impress. Max’s amulet, which plays a major role in the storyline, moves and rocks back and forth exactly as you’d imagine it would.

The backgrounds, too, are at no lack of visual splendor. There’s been many a time that, while running around like the typical RPG errand-boy in Palm Brinks [the town you begin in, which oddly resembles Medieval France], I’ve looked into the distance and seen a building that I just knew was a flat, pre-rendered image. Well, once I got up close to the building, I was amazed to find that it was, indeed, a fully three-dimensional object. Definitely some of the best visuals yet seen on the somewhat underpowered PS2. The dungeon backgrounds, however, tend to be generic romps, lacking any special detail. I guess they would be, given that they’re randomly generated, but just a little more care could’ve been given to ensure that they were on par with the rest of the game, in my opinion.

In the spirit of thorough review, I feel I should mention the sound in this game, although I don’t particularly feel it deserves any special mention. The sound delivers just enough kick to really immerse you in the experience, but pretty much just cuts it there. No real uniqueness to any of the tracks you encounter during gameplay: you’re given a good – but not great – set of songs played in acoustics, to give the game that really fantasy-setting appeal. But, like I said, nothing special.

The controls of Dark Cloud 2 offer a fairly reasonable scheme to get things done quickly, and with the least amount of time required. While running through a dungeon, Circle is your main attack button [or it might’ve been Square; gimme some credit, it’s 2 AM] and the left and right analog-sticks are your run/camera buttons, respectively. L3 and R3, your character/sub-character change buttons [sub-characters are things your characters can ride, in Max’s case, and transform into, in the girl’s case]. The sub-character for Max is a robot [with customizable weapons and upgradeable parts, given the game’s immersive RPG experience] and the girl can transform into a number of monsters by getting a special badge [found in the second chapter] and using some kind of bait to lure them to you and, presumably, kidnap them and copy their DNA sequence, but that’s just a theory.

As I mentioned earlier, world-building is a big chunk of this game. You’ll spend a good deal of time trying to meet the specific goals laid out for you, while also trying to balance the geographical stability of the area you’re working with. For example, in Chapter 2: Balance Valley, you’re given four isolated platforms on which to build. One of your objectives, though, is to keep all four platforms level, which can become somewhat difficult when trying to place houses, a church, etc. The trick is to place the houses in the right places. In this case, though, the game does give you some help, since the platforms need considerable weight to move up/down. In summation, though, the world-building aspects offer something to do in between the dungeon-crawling, and do play a large part in the storyline, but in the end don’t really offer the sandbox-type play we’d all like to see in a game like this.

In my opinion, this is definitely an RPG not to be missed. But it may prove a bit too long for some, clocking in, by my estimates, at just over 40+ hrs of play the first time through. Longer if you take a good deal of time figuring out what to do next [this, like a lot of otherwise good RPGs, sometimes doesn’t give you clearly-defined objectives, making for a few headaches along the way]. All in all, certainly worth at least a rental, although it probably won’t be enough time to thoroughly engage in the game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/20/03, Updated 04/20/03