Amazon.com Review
Mixing a wide variety of genres, Dark Cloud gives fans of role-playing games between 30 and 50 hours of quality gameplay. Gamers control Toan and his motley crew as they attempt to reconstruct the world and vanquish the dark genie. In addition to hours of dungeon trekking, the game also contains elements found in simulation, puzzle, fishing, and rhythm games.
The combat system is nearly identical to the one used in Legend of Zelda games for the N64. Players choose a target to lock on, and then whale away. Between rounds of slaying monsters, players will have to strategically rebuild cities to advance. Successful fishing trips will lead to valuable weapon upgrades. Some battles test your rhythm, requiring you to match button commands, similar to such games as Um Jammer Lammy and PaRappa the Rapper. Weapon management is a vital part of the game--weapons can break if not cared for properly, but you can also transform them into powerful objects of destruction by shrewdly managing upgrades.
The multifaceted game contains an excellent tutorial to help you learn its many aspects. While it has its imperfections, Dark Cloud is the best PlayStation2 RPG to date. It's perfect for the angling adventurer that likes to dabble in urban planning. --Raymond M. Padilla
Pros:
Successfully mixes a wide variety of genres A deep and compelling weapon management system Great character design
Cons: Subpar graphics Some unoriginal and outright goofy opponents Dungeon trolling can get tedious
Amazon.com Product Description
The threat of world destruction lurks in almost all role-playing games as the inevitable consequence should the hero fail in his quest. In DarkCloud, however, the world is destroyed by a malevolent genie in the very beginning, and it's your job to put it back together. This action/RPG will require you to battle your way through dungeons to collect vital artifacts with which you'll rebuild the game's world in real-time 3-D. From there, you can view the world from above, zoom in, revolve 360 degrees around it, and, of course, explore it for more artifacts to build other parts of the world.
GameSpot Review
Dark Cloud, one of the several PS2-exclusive titles Sony is preparing for the PlayStation 2's North American launch, aspires to be all things to all gamers. The game was displayed at E3 for the first time, and we had the chance to test out a couple of its much-talked-about features.
In one sense, Dark Cloud has a storyline and presentation much like those of an RPG. You take control of a single player and guide him through a quest that takes him across an epic game world. Control, on the other hand, feels as though it was borrowed from an adventure title - especially with its very platformer-like camera angles and perspective. On top of this, the title is supposed to offer other more revolutionary features like the ability to shape and design your own game world (dubbed the Georama system), as well as action-packed battles and puzzle solving.
Control is simple enough, with the analog joystick proving to be a suitable method of manipulating the main character (Toran) through the opening area's town. Here you can enter buildings, run over bridges, and interact with townsfolk as in any other RPG or adventure game. The aforementioned camera perspective also makes it hard at times not to ignore the wonderful atmosphere of the town. Standing on top of a building gives you an unobstructed view of the tiny community at twilight, complete with smoke billowing from smokestacks and gently bubbling streams alongside the neatly detailed houses.
Dark Cloud promises an in-depth story and the Georama creation system along with epic battles and mind-bending puzzles. From what I saw of the title, it looks fully capable of realizing its ambitions. Dark Cloud is scheduled to be released at approximately the same time the PlayStation 2 debuts.
--Chris Kirchgasler--Copyright © 2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.
Customer Reviews
Fun gameplay and a variety of mini-games
I'm a huge Zelda fan, and was looking for something similar on the PS2. Dark Cloud combines a very Link-like character with dungeon crawl combat, quest solving, and mini games too.
The main thrust of the game is that you're trying to rebuild a series of homes destroyed by the Evil Enemy. To do so, you go slogging through nearby dungeons, finding home-bits like beds, lamps and so on, on your adventures. When you bring them back to town, you have to figure out which items to where to please the people. In addition, the houses themselves have to be placed so that the people are happy. Some people want to live near a stream, some want to have morning sun in certain windows, and so on.
Your weapons can be customized as you go, and need to be maintained. This gives you a bit of RPG-like control over your life, more in fact than most Zelda games provide to you.
In addition, there are some fun mini-games which help break up the dungeon crawling, and give you a bit of variety.
The game's provides much longer gameplay time (usually several weeks) than many other PS games on the market, meaning it's a good value for the price. Perhaps the only downsides are the graphics, which aren't top-notch, and the dungeon crawling being a bit tedious after several hours. Still, it's a good, fun game to play. Grab one for your PS library!
Shut up and read this!
Whatever the people who gave this game 3 stars or less, TOTALLY IGNORE THEM! It's not necessarily their fault,though, for they have only read the Japanese reviews. The people who made this game didn't have time to include all of the details that they wanted to, in the Japanese version, because they had to make a deadline. But since the U.S. release wasn't for 6 more months, they added a lot more to this game. Such as: 35 additional weapons, nine new items, 18 new monsters, two new bosses, an additional form for the last boss, one new duel/event battle, 11 new fish for the fishing minigame, a revised lock-on targeting system, a new chest quiz character that offers you a choice between items, mystery circles that can help or harm your character, new expanded combo attacks for Toan and Ungaga, enhanced enemy AI, an enhanced weapon system, a bonus 100 floor dungeon called Demon Shaft, and lots of other minor changes. How do i know all this? Cause i have a subscription to the sweeeeetest PS2 mag out there, O.P.M.(Official U.S. Playstation Magazine)! Anyway, what's not to like about fighting through dungeons to collect Atla pieces which you use to build villages any way you want to? And who cares if the main character has a hat that looks like a turban with tube socks stapled to the back? There are 5 other playable characters in the game. I don't know about you, but I AM SO BUYING THIS GAME!
A fun game with some minor flaws
To look at this game, your first impression might be to compare Dark Cloud to the Zelda series. You would not be far off the mark in doing so. Fans of the Nintendo series will likely feel right at home in this dungeon crawling environment.
It also harkens back to the days of Actraiser, a game where you fought to reclaim lands and then build them using your magic. Don't be fooled, the premises may be form other games, but DC is great in its own right.
It is Toan's task to rebuild his world from pieces called Atla, found stashed away in various levels of the dungeons you encounter. Enter the dungeons, tackle the flow of monsters, and reclaim the pieces you need to restore your world, but don't run out of water, and don't let your weapon break.
The combat system is a bit awkward, but nothing that can't be dealt with. The realtime system, weapons damage/upgrade system, and the water system are all interesting concepts. At points the can be tiring (The heroes getting tirsty every few minutes...Take a drink before you enter the dungeon or something...), but also fun concepts.
Wepaons can be upgraded and merged, strengthening in the process, provided you don't break them in combat first. The in-game tutorial is boring and unskippable, which is annoying to those of us who actually read the manual and know what to do.
Do not let minor flaws distract you, this is a fun game, perhaaps one of the best I've played in the RPG genre
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