I've been playing video games for most of my natural life. One of my earliest memories is going to Sears and coming back with an Atari 2600 (and the E.T. game, unfortunately). That being said, I've seen much in my 20 years or so of gaming, and as a result, it takes a lot to impress me. When a game goes beyond just impressing me and keeps me hooked to the screen for hours on end, often losing track of time in the process- then that game has something special going for it. Few games have managed to do that. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has done that. As has Diablo and its sequel.
Now, I can add Dark Cloud 2 to that exclusive list.
I'll admit I was a bit skeptical at first; I'd rented the original back when I first bought my PlayStation 2, and was not overly impressed. However, I'd read interesting things about the sequel (also known as Dark Chronicle in Japan), and the concept intrigued me enough to pick it up. At worst, I figured, it would help fill the time until the new Zelda game comes out. I purchased the game on a Friday night and by the end of that weekend, I was already fifteen hours in and addicted like a little kid to Pixy Stix.
The basic premise of the game is that you play Max, a boy in his teens who likes to build and invent things. After what seemed to be a routine trip to the circus, he finds himself at the center of a plot to destroy the world. In fact, most of the world is already gone; only the town he lives in remains, as the item that the evil forces want are somewhere within it. Max discovers that the item they seek actually hangs from his neck, and with it comes a responsibility to rebuild the world from the ground up. Saving the world is a daunting task, but Max receives help from a couple of unlikely sources. First, there is Monica, a girl from 100 years in the future who has witnessed her era disappear before her very eyes. In addition to being an accomplished swordsperson, Monica can also collect “monster badges” which she uses to transform into a variety of creatures. Also, there is Steve the Ridepod, a mechanical robot-like invention who Max can ride and use to fight other machines. Before the story comes to a conclusion, there will be time travel, giant talking trees, sea creatures under mind control, and a gigantic mobile fortress named Paznos that can transform into a robot. The story, though occasionally told in lengthy cutscenes that can drag a bit, is ultimately engaging and is enough to keep the player wanting just a little bit more.
The gameplay itself is difficult to explain in one sentence. It takes elements from games as diverse as Diablo, Zelda, Animal Crossing, SimCity, and traditional RPGs, and adds its own little twists to blend everything together into a unique and satisfying gaming experience. That said, the bulk of the game is spent dungeon crawling, action-RPG style. At its simplest level, you enter a dungeon, smack around a series of enemies, and then move on to the next floor. But there's more to it! First of all, as in Diablo, the floor layout is completely randomized, so even having to play the same floor repeatedly is a new experience every time. A player has incentive to venture through a floor more than once because of the chance to win “medals” for completing several goals such as defeating all the monsters in a certain amount of time or with certain characters/items. While the medals don’t necessarily unlock anything spectacular, they are something to collect and they provide additional challenge and/or diversion.
The other very different aspect that Dark Cloud 2 brings to the table is that weapons, not the characters, are the main focus of the character development. While Max and Monica stay roughly the same in terms of their abilities, the weapons have their own hit points, gain experience, and level up. Leveling up a weapon, in addition to increasing its attack and hit points, provides “synth points” for that weapon. These points are used to improve the weapon by "spectrumizing" items in your inventory and then synthesizing them with the weapon of choice to improve it in one of ten attributes. The really cool part is that anything can be spectrumized and added to a weapon, from crystals (whose sole purpose is to be spectrumized), to healing and status-curing items, and even to other weapons, which add all of their current stats to the synthesized weapon.
Going dungeon crawling and building up your weapon would be a fun game in and of itself, but there is another aspect of the game to break up the action, Georama. Georama is the "rebuilding the world" portion of the game; you come across various sites which will be the site of something significant in the future, except that in the present the site is completely bare, having been obliterated by the dark forces. Your job is to build up each site in a certain way, as indicated by an in-game menu, so that the future will be set right again.
To do so, you must collect Geostones (which can be found in the dungeons). These Geostones unlock both goals for the level and blueprints for actual pieces (i.e. wooden house, tree, windmill, et cetera). In order to build houses and what not, you must gather raw materials like sticks and stones from the dungeon. Or, if you are lazy and rich, you can purchase raw materials, but this can be more tedious than dungeon crawling at times.
Because of their interconnectivity, the dungeons and the Georama don't feel like separate parts of the same game, but instead one tightly integrated experience. You need to crawl the dungeons to get the materials to complete the Georama, and you need to complete the Georama to be able to advance further in the dungeons.
But wait, there's more, as the infomercials would say. It's not enough to simply build a Georama; you also need to populate it. To do that, you need to go back to Palm Brinks (Max's hometown) and convince the residents to move away to the new frontier. To do so, each has a different requirement of you. Some require you to run errands for them, a la Animal Crossing. Others require you to pass certain tests such as running a distance in a certain amount of time, or solving a logic puzzle. All of these tasks are different and keep the game fresh and interesting.
The only complaints I have about the whole Georama system is that it can, at times, be less than user-friendly. For instance, you will rarely, if ever, have all the materials to build any given piece when you need them. As stated earlier, the game does allow you to buy materials, but not from the Georama screen. Instead, you must make a mental note of what you need, leave the Georama, and go to your train, where there is a gentleman who will sell you what you need. At first, this isn't a particularly big deal, but after the fifth or sixth time you run out of Rolling Logs or Sticky Clay and need to make another run to the train, the temptation grows to simply build what you can with what you have and give up. Just an option to be able to build what you want, and deduct the appropriate amount of gold in place of the materials that you don't have, would go a long way to making Georama a less frustrating experience.
Similarly, recruiting people can be difficult for no other reason than that Palm Brinks is a humungous place and people do not often reveal their names, so when the Georama tells you that person X must reside in your town, it can require a lot of wandering around to try to find them. The game does provide a notebook to remind you of outstanding tasks that you need to perform to recruit people, but that doesn't help not being able to find a particular person in the first place.
If all that weren't enough to keep you busy, Dark Cloud 2 provides plenty of side activities to occupy your time should the main quest become too overwhelming. A fishing mini-game is included, and you can fish anywhere that there is water, even within dungeons. Plus, if you build an Aquarium in which to put your fish, you can raise them (like Seaman but without the attitude), and eventually race them in the regular Palm Brinks fish racing contest. Another mini-game that pops up after most dungeon floors have been completed is Spheda, which is sort of like golf, if it were invented by the devil. You're given a sphere which is either red or blue, and you have to hit it at a "time disturbance", which must be of the opposite color. The trick is that the sphere changes color each time it hits something, so you not only have to get the sphere to hit the disturbance, but hit the right number of times so it doesn't match colors.
The side activity that the most has been made of, however, is the invention system. Early on, you are given a camera, with which you are able to take pictures of anything and everything in the never ending search for ideas. Any three of these can be combined to try to form an invention. Of course, this takes either a hint found around the game world, or a lot of luck and patience, but the results can be well worth the effort. With very few exceptions, this is completely optional, but can be a fun way to pass the time, though it can be exceedingly frustrating after a while.
If this sounds like it's a lot to take in and remember, it is. That's why the designers included a full help system, complete with animated movies and explanations voiced by the characters in the game, covering just about any topic you could possibly need further explanation on. It's a great addition to the game, given that there's only so much that can be covered in in-game tutorials and the game's manual, and it was so useful at various points in the game when I wasn’t sure of what I needed to do.
As far as the game's control, while there is a lot that you are able to do, just like the rest of the game, everything is so natural that it never becomes overwhelming. X is the main button, which is used for attacking with your melee weapon, and fires your ranged weapon in conjunction with L1. Square uses an equipped item (usually the camera for Max) and triangle brings up the in-game menu. R1 is used (and used often) for blocking, and will pick up items when pressed in conjunction with X; this is the only element of the control scheme that I don't like, because you will often try to counterattack after blocking, but will instead end up picking up (or attempting to pick up) the enemy instead. The game also has the most prodigious usage of L3 and R3 (pushing in on the analog sticks, for those who rarely use those buttons) that I've seen since Ape Escape. The sticks are used to switch between active characters, which is something you'll do often, since each character has his or her own specialty. Other than occasionally pressing it accidentally in the middle of a tense battle, though, this system works extremely well for switching characters on the fly. All in all, the control just works, to the point where you barely realize you're controlling the characters at times.
Graphics are excellent as well; Dark Cloud 2 makes the best use of cel shading since Jet Grind Radio for the defunct Dreamcast. While the game looks cartoony, it looks realistic at the same time, just like anime. The game also runs at a fairly consistent framerate with no apparent bugs to be found, so the experience is maintained throughout. As far as visuals are concerned, Dark Cloud 2 is a class act throughout.
Sound is also well done, from the orchestrated music that changes tone as the on-screen action adjusts, to the voice performances that are performed by talented actors. The only glitch I noticed was the wrong line dubbed in one scene, and other than that, while a couple of the parts are a bit overacted at times, everything is extremely convincing and well done.
Overall, Dark Cloud 2 is easily one of the best games of 2003. Just from the main game proper, you'll easily get 50 hours of gameplay, and considerably more than that if you choose to complete all of the side tasks sprinkled throughout the game. Don't let Dark Cloud 2's mediocre predecessor deter you from experiencing this masterpiece which is about as close to a genuine work of art you can get from a video game. Even if you hated Dark Cloud, at least give the sequel a rental, if not a flat-out purchase. Within one day, you’ll be convinced that Dark Cloud 2 is easily one of the most addictive, most fun games available for the PlayStation 2.
