Hybrid role-playing games seem to be popping out of the woodwork lately, and with Dark Cloud, you really can’t find much more of a unique way of playing than this. Placing you in control of Tonan, you must rebuild the world from scratch after an evil genie took issue with the fact that he was trapped in a giant urn for thousands of years. While the story line doesn’t really differ from the way that other role-playing games are put together, the sheer scope of the story and the innovation of having to create your own little world are enough to take notice of this title! Where most role-playing games force you from start to finish collection items and defeating enemies, bosses and the like, you’ll find that all of those features are placed here, but with the recreation aspect being something that is akin to Actraiser. Those of you who enjoy a constantly changing story line, different characters that all have their own way of doing things, rather easy puzzles and just a general dungeon exploring good time will find this to be a rather interesting break from all of the other RPG’s out on the market.
The game play is a strange hybrid of creation and dungeon exploration in which you have to find pieces of various towns and put them all back together again in the original form that they were in. Through your journey, you’ll meet other team members, involve yourself in quests and find items, weapons and objects that can help you in your overall quest. While this may seem to be your run of the mill type of game, there are some innovative features to the game that I’ve never seen before, in which your weapons are customizable with different attributes that focus around stones. As your weapon levels up, you can add more attributes to it and create something stronger than before! The down side to this, is that the weapon has a strength meter that depletes as you use it, and if you’re not careful, the weapon will break and lose all of its abilities and attributes. That is an aspect that I really haven’t seen before, and it does make for an interesting addition to just running around and fighting monsters.
The dungeons that you fight through are extensive, but something that you will find is that they are randomly generated through the PS2, which means that you’ll never journey through the same dungeon twice! However, some gamers may find that the sheer length of these dungeons is purely ridiculous, and the only way to leave them is to both clear it of monsters and collect a key to the next level, or die. One way or the other, you’ll be wandering dungeons for a good portion of the game, collecting items, refilling your health and just trying to figure out which enemy holds the key to the next stage. Something else that came as a rather disappointing surprise is that it doesn’t matter if you die or not, the game never truly ends unless you decide that you want to shut the game off. This little aspect of the game makes me wonder if the game is more or less aimed at the younger market, but that same though is offset by the different parts of the story line which are more or less teenager oriented!
Once you’ve found your way through that, you’ll find that the game takes a strange twist with the way that you have to recreate your towns. While the game says that you can create it any way that you want to, in order to get the different weapons of the game and even continue, you have to make sure that the people are happy with the way that you have it set up! A little bit of false advertising in this respect, it is still plenty of fun to recreate the town from the different globes that you find in the dungeons. In order to collect these globes, you have to use the main character of the game, Tonan, and make sure that you go through the creation screens. All in all, you’ll find that the game has plenty of features that make it unique, and fun to play, but the game is a simple one time through with nothing left to go back and find once you’ve finished it.
Control of your party takes a little practice and time to get used to, with the different menu options that you have at your disposal. Most of the time, you’ll be switching between characters, simply because one is getting too far down on health, or you’ll be in a boss battle that requires you to use a different character with a different ability! All of the characters pretty much move and react the same way in the three-dimensional environment, but the really challenge here is to be able to use the characters in battle effectively in order to get through the various fights. The most advanced thing that you’ll mess with will be the attributes on your weapons, and with an ever-present guide in your inventory, you’ll find that if you have any questions on how to use it can be answered there. Another small advanced control aspect that you’ll deal with are the duels, in which you have to press the correct buttons at the correct time, or the duel ends. While not the most technically advanced thing I’ve ever seen, any gamer of any skill level should be able to pick up the control and just start playing without having to learn anything too extensive!
Visually, the game is sound in the way that it is presented save for a couple of smaller gripes that I have with it. The towns that you roam through, once they’ve been created are rather sparse and the detailing that you find in the game is more reserved for the dungeons than it is anything else. Most of the game looks pretty cartoonish in its own way, with really the only thing really jumping out at you being the boss battles that you face off in! The magic that you use, and even the battles that you fight in all have their small neat looking effects, but after a while, you may find that the game just doesn’t offer all that much variety. One of the best looking points of the game however, is the Desert region, and you’ll find that the different environments that you roll through are worth taking a look at more than once, simply because there is plenty of detail. Again, not much here, but just enough to make it worth looking at and worth playing just to see what else may be waiting for you around the next corner.
The audio in Dark Cloud is first rate though. All of the music that you find within the game is placed the adventurous side, with key points of the game having that cool sounding mystery behind it. The dungeon tracks as well as the different towns all have their own rhythm to them so the variety that you’ll find throughout the game is really worthy of mentioning. However, the sound effects tend to draw on the nerves, especially with the beeping of your weapon gauge when it gets too low. I understand the need for warning, but when the beeping continues on for twenty minutes, simply because you can’t get out of a dungeon and fix your weapon, your ears just want to bleed from the pain! Voices are also not featured here in Dark Cloud, so if you’re looking for some exceptional voice acting, then you might want to look at Metal Gear Solid 2 and Final Fantasy X before you look here.
With several different elements from quite a few different games rolled up into this title, you’ll find that Dark Cloud is a rather wonderful diversion from the RPG norm. The ability to create your villages, although limited, is really an innovative way of presenting a role-playing game and does go a long way in creating some interest! The only problems that I can see with the game is that the sound effects {not the music} have a way of getting on your nerves, and the visuals are just a little too cartoonish for tastes. Featuring some pretty impressive characters that seem to be taken from other RPG’s, and several new elements, this title is worth checking out for a rental first, just to see if you like it. Die-hard RPG fans that want more depth might as well look somewhere else as Dark Cloud could honestly be considered a Play Station 2 RPG Tutorial!
8/10
