Dark Cloud 2

"A great sequel in what has become a great series"

While creating the 2002 action-RPG Dark Cloud 2, Level-5 keep almost all of the elements from the original Dark Cloud that made the game great and removed many of the issues that players had problems with. Dark Cloud 2 is the story of Max, a young inventor who soon joins Monica - a knight from 100 years in the future on a quest to save the future by changing the past. In the future, the Emperor has destroyed several villages in order to erase important people and places from history and Monica has gone back in time as well in order to stop the Emperor and his henchmen. By restore the villages and helping the ancestors of those that will be important in the future, Max and Monica can restore the original timeline.

Of course, restoring the villages isn't a simple matter rebuilding the buildings and waiting for people to move in. All of the necessary structures are sealed in orbs called Geostones and buried in nearby dungeons which, along with all of the materials needed to build the structures, must be collected from the dungeons. Basically, you will be moving between three sections of each area: the present day village, the village in the future, and the dungeon. The pattern is generally: go through the dungeon until you hit an obstacle, restore the village as much as possible, and then go into the future to do something that will unblock the dungeon, and so on. The story line is explained in all three areas which helps break up the cut scenes into numerous short ones instead of long times of plot development broken up by combat.

Each of the different levels takes place in a unique environment, such as a large city, along a shore, high in the mountains, and so on. This also gives variety to the dungeons, both in how they look and their general layout. All of the dungeon floors are randomly generated each time you enter, so you will never go through the same exact thing twice. However, each dungeon has its own style; for instance the sewers are usually a tight maze of corridors with a few large rooms while the forests floors are a group of small lakes with paths going around them and the mountains floors consist of two loops of paths interconnected by bridges. The floor styles can also vary within each dungeon as well. For example in the shore caves dungeon the first and last couple of floors take place both above and underground, while the middle section is completely underground. All of this helps break up the monotony of dungeon crawling, which is something you will spend a lot of time doing.

Not only are the dungeons massive with numerous floors and branching paths, but you will also have to keep returning in order to build up your characters and weapons. Breaking from traditional RPGs, Dark Cloud 2 continues to use Dark Cloud's complex weapon building system (which was modeled after Vagrant Story) instead of developing your character's stats by leveling up. Weapons will gain experience as you defeat enemies with them, and as their level increases you can attach items to them in order to boost certain stats. Then, when the weapon has reached a set minimum in each type of stat it can be transformed into a new, more powerful weapon. Weapons have between one and three other weapons they can transform into, which makes the weapon growth very complex. Weapons not only have their stats, but can also have unique abilities or weaknesses such as poison, steal, fragility, durability, etc. either added on or inherent to the weapon. There is also no single "best" weapon for each type; swords and hammers will have to balance speed for power and guns can be rapid-fire, explosive, or energy weapons.

Since developing your weapons is the main focus of combat, improving your characters' stats is almost a non-issue. The only stats you have to worry about are hit points and defense, which are boosted by finding items in the future; you do not have to fight to level up your character like you would in a typical RPG. Both of the characters have another, for lack of a better term, mode for attacking. Max has a vehicle called a Ridepod, which is usually much more effective at fighting than Max in human form, but needs fuel to keep running. The Ridepod will use the experience from fighting as a currency to get more weapons, armor, and speed power-ups. Monica will eventually gain the ability to transform into monsters that you encounter in the dungeon. Both of these skills have their uses, but are still secondary to the weapons you use in human form.

Quite a few minigames have been added to give you something to do when you're not saving the world or making really cool weapons. The fishing game from Dark Cloud returns, but has been improved and expanded to include fishing tournaments and an aquarium in which you can raise your fish. Other games include Spheda, which is kind of like golf but involves putting orbs into time distortions as well as goals for finishing each level such as completing it under a certain time, finishing without healing, or only using certain weapons.

Changes from Dark Cloud 1

While the game is very similar to its predecessor, several things have been changed. For starters, Level-5 was kind enough to remove two of the most irritating elements from the DC1 gameplay - there is no thirst meter, so how long you last in the dungeons no longer depends on if you are lucky enough to find enough fountains, and weapons will no longer be destroyed if they run out of hit points. Weapons still have hit points, but if they break their power is simply reduced to zero instead of the weapon completely disappearing.

Another noticeable change from the first game is that there are only two controllable characters instead of six and they both have similar fighting styles. In the original game all of the characters used very different weapons which varied their fighting styles and meant there was no "best" character, it depended on the situation. However in Dark Cloud 2, both Monica and Max have a melee weapon and a projectile weapon, which, despite different swinging/reloading speeds, are basically the same. There are many other characters that you will meet and recruit into your party, but they are non-playable. Instead, each character has certain abilities, such as being able to open locks or giving stat bonuses when they are in the party. While it would be nice to have more characters, limiting it to only two does allow for much more character and plot development between Max and Monica.

The weapon growth system has been slightly modified in a way that makes leveling up take much less time. Instead of only being able to add two or three items to a weapon per level you will be given points for each level. Adding items on to the weapon takes one point, but the points can accumulate so you do not have to build your weapon up right away in order to be able to gain experience points again.

The Georama system has also been changed and is significantly more complex than in the original game. Rather than finding specific pieces and people for a building you now have the option of moving whomever you choose into a building and there are not specific buildings and objects for each area; you now building whatever you need or want. There are certain conditions that must be met in order to restore the future so the village setups are not completely open-ended, however you are given much more freedom than before.

There are also many other minor improvements, such as new minigames, celshaded graphics, bug/glitch fixes, and more variety in the dungeon floor generation. As mentioned above there is now much more difference between the dungeons than there was in DC1. In the original game the dungeons were merely the same design with a graphical theme, but now they each have a different feel to them. There are a few changes that are less than desirable, such having weapon management in the same menu as the items, but all of these are relatively minor. For the most part the gameplay of Dark Cloud 2 is vastly superior to the original.

Conclusion

One problem with many videogame series is that the games in the series are either so similar that there really is not reason to play anything buy the latest edition or they are so dissimilar that they might as well be considered independent of each other. With Dark Cloud 2, Level-5 managed to find the perfect balance between the two. Anyone who was a fan of the original Dark Cloud will probably like DC2, as would anyone who is a fan of dungeon crawlers and action-RPGs in general.

Dark Cloud 2 could easily be described as a 3D Soulblazer or Actraiser (both SNES games) and uses elements from games such as Azure Dreams and Vagrant Story (both PS1 games). Since the game is also two years old at this point, it can be bought for $20 - $30 and is worth every penny.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/28/04, Updated 07/28/04