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Dark Cloud 2

Those that played the original Dark Cloud likely remember it as a game full of good ideas that unfortunately ended up being far too bland and repetitive to hold one’s interest for very long. Dark Cloud 2, on the other hand, is extremely varied and very fun and addictive. Every aspect of Dark Cloud 2 is improved over the original, from graphics to sound to presentation and gameplay, and while you can still see the groundwork laid by the first game in Dark Cloud 2, this title flies to places the first game only dreamed of.

In the game, players assume the role of Max, and later gain the ability to switch back and forth with a second playable character, Monica. Resident of the secluded and peaceful town of Palm Brinks, Max is the son of an aristocrat and an apprentice to the town’s mechanic, and is a whiz with machines. Being the requisite plucky hero, through a series of events Max discovers a plot to hide the truth from the town’s population: That Palm Brinks is in fact the only remaining town on the planet. Later Max comes across Monica, a princess from the future, who explains that an evil force bent on world domination is disrupting time to control events in the future. As such, the two set off on a quest to rebuild the world and defeat evil.

The game’s storyline seems to take a lot of enjoyment bounding back and forth between the extraordinarily cliche and the unusually bizarre. One minute you’ll run into a mysterious character speaking of prophecies and whatnot, and the next you’ll be fighting psycho homicidal clowns. And that’s not to mention the flamboyant narcissistic giant fish. Such an eclectic presentation could have easily had the potential to have gamers losing interest very quickly, but instead it’s strengthened by an uncanny visual and aural presentation.

Dark Cloud 2 uses subtle cel-shading effects to give the game’s anime-styled characters a more cartoonish look, which actually ends up being very effective. The game’s bright, colorful world features some gigantic locales and is populated by characters with fluid animation, and while often the graphics lean towards the simplistic, and there are a few occasions of pop-up and slowdown, the lush and beautiful graphical style the game has is very endearing.

The sound also seems to have received a good deal of attention. The game is loaded with voice acting, most of it pretty good. Characters talk in cutscenes, during battle, and even the game’s numerous help menus feature voice narration. Furthermore, the game’s soundtrack ranges from decent to wonderful, and some of the game’s more slow-paced peaceful tunes in particular are very catchy.

Dark Cloud 2’s gameplay starts off rather unassuming, an action-adventure dungeon crawler kind of like a cross between Diablo and Zelda 64. The battle system is somewhat reminiscent of Zelda 64’s, with combat taking place in randomly generated dungeons. At first, there isn’t really a whole lot to it, and if the gameplay stopped there, this would undoubtedly be a very boring game. However, little by little, new elements are added to the gameplay, making the game increasingly deeper, and it wasn’t until I was halfway through the game’s second dungeon that I realized how gradually every element of Dark Cloud 2 comes together to form a well-balanced whole.

Maybe it starts with the realization that the game’s combat system allows for a wider variety of moves than it first appears, or maybe you’ll discover how to best utilize the game’s weapon upgrade system. There are multiple goals to complete in every stage of a dungeon to earn medals, which can later be traded in for better equipment, and all this is just the start.

Shortly into your quest, new gameplay elements are added. You’ll get a camera that’ll allow you to take photographs which Max can use as ideas for inventions, or gather “scoops” to exchange to Max’s friend for items to help you on your quest. You create a robot that you can build up to help you fight monsters. You learn to fish. You can play golf. You can run errands for the townsfolk. And of course, there’s the game’s world-building element, which is much more evolved and important to progressing in this game than it was in the first.

All this stuff I’ve mentioned barely scratches the surface, as there are essentially dozens of different activities the player can participate in. I suppose you could call these all “minigames”, but that term hardly applies, because unlike the occasional (crappy) minigames Square tosses into their RPGs, every new gameplay element introduced in Dark Cloud 2 is both very fun, extremely helpful, and often integral in helping you accomplish your quests. And the suffix “mini-“ hardly applies either, because every element of the game seems somehow tied into everything else, all humming in harmony together with each other.

This is the quality that perhaps makes Dark Cloud 2 shine more than anything else. Even if you grow bored with dungeon crawling for hours on end, you can switch gears and do something else. Every single part of this game seems designed to make Dark Cloud 2 excel as a whole, enhancing everything else, and it’s a rare and wonderful treat to see such incredible variety all harnessed to the same end.

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Posted by Jake McNeill on Jul 31st, 2003 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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