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Platform: Playstation 2 Genre: RPG Publisher: SCEA Developer: Level 5 ESRB: T (Teen) Released: Q1 2003 Support AE! Buy Games Here:
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Dark Cloud 2Score: 8.0 / 10 |
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Pros: - Lighthearted, fun story - Nice visuals - Great voice acting - Building up weapons - Well balanced city building - Challenging enemies - Lots of mini games
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Cons: - Some control issues - Some music feels out of place - Some of the mini game rewards are hardly worth the trouble
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Related Links: Review: Dark Cloud (Playstation 2) Review: Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (PC) Review: Throne of Darkness (PC)
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"...the end result is more nice hack and slash action through randomly generated dungeons with fun puzzle-like town building on top."
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After
playing this game the first thing that jumped to mind for me was the
saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
This could not be truer in regards to Dark Cloud 2.
Visually the game is absolutely stunning with its use of cel
shading in comparison to the presentation used in the first game.
A longer quest, and a plethora of mini games also help to give
the sense that this is a very different experience from the original
Dark Cloud. But not so, as
the core, fundamental way in which the first Dark Cloud worked is still
the core, fundamental way Dark Cloud 2 works.
That’s just fine, however, as the end result is more fun hack
and slash action through randomly generated dungeons with engaging
puzzle-like town building on top.
Every
now and then a game will come along that tries to play like a Saturday
morning cartoon with its visuals, especially now that everyone and their
mother seems to want to cram some cel shading into their title.
Dark Cloud 2 has really hit the nail on the head with this.
The textured cel shading looks really nice, the way the colors
play off of each other, the character and monster design, the motifs of
the dungeons and cities, they all have a whimsical, fantasy air to them.
With some nice lighting effects and very smooth animation, even
with a number of enemies in close proximity, the visual appeal of Dark
Cloud 2 is hard to resist. The
sound on the other hand is a bit sketchier.
The sound effects are fine and dandy, but the music needs some
work. The composition of
the tunes is fine, but where the songs are placed in the game feels a
little off. There’s
plenty of dungeons where the music that’s being played in them feels
like something more appropriate for a calm, peaceful village.
I want music that will make me want to pummel monsters left and
right, or at least something full of mystery and whimsy.
Thankfully there are still plenty of dungeons whose music does
feel appropriate, more than making up for the others.
Dark Cloud 2 is a shining example of how games need more varied
battle music instead of the same song over and over, however.
The piece used here is fine the first few times you hear it, but
it gets old fast. If there
were three or four different songs that loaded up at random it
wouldn’t be so bad, but as it stands the repetitive, aggravating
battle music in the game only encourages players to hustle in finishing
a fight so the bloody tune will hurry up and go away.
Surprisingly, the voice acting is very good in the game.
The voices sound just right for each character and there’s no
sign of poor acting anywhere. If
only more games were like this. The
story itself is a wonderfully lighthearted affair.
A villain by the name of Emperor Griffon is making points in
history disappear and it falls upon the game’s heroes, Max and Monica,
to set things right by rebuilding the world and traveling through time.
Along their journeys there’s a number of little stories in each
town that are quite entertaining, not to mention large portions of the
story’s plot is told as a letter from Max to his long missing mother.
The story never tries to take itself too seriously, instead
simply trying to provide a fun ride and succeeding in this task.
Once
you sink your teeth into the game and log a good number of hours on it,
the potential depth and scope of what players can do is truly
impressive. The main quest
itself is already a long, involved affair, but with a number of mini
games thrown in the size of the game gets a whole lot bigger.
Just like the first game players have the option to go fishing
for fun and profit. Once
you get a handle on managing the tension on the fishing line pulling in
a catch becomes very easy. Adding
a new element to the whole fishing experience is the ability to keep
your fish and raise them in aquariums as pets or for racing.
It’s not too simplified, nor is it overly complicated, landing
it right in a happy middle ground for those who just can’t get enough
of these animal/monster/you name it raising games.
Most hit and miss of the mini games, though, is Spheda, a golf
game, which can be played on a floor of a dungeon upon clear it of all
the monsters there. Some of
the dungeons are an absolute nightmare to navigate as they are more
course hazard than they are golf course with all manner of difficult
obstacles out to make it nearly impossible to complete the course.
Even more frustrating is that the prizes won for getting the ball
in the whole vary an awful lot. For
the sheer trouble it takes to win a round of Spheda it is a huge let
down to get some sort of potion or another equally lackluster item.
If the prizes were largely new weapons, gems, and the like it
would make the game a lot more pleasurable.
But despite the downsides, there’s a lot of satisfaction to be
had when you win at Spheda if only for completing such arduous courses.
Not so much a mini game is Max’s ability to invent things, then
build them with raw materials. Near
the start of the game Max is given a camera which he can use to take
pictures of things that may give him some ideas for inventions as well
as collecting scoops for one of the games characters, Donny, resulting
in various goodies as rewards. There
are lots of items to invent with hints at items scattered throughout the
world. You can try guessing
at things to make, but this is a real crapshoot and likely to wind up
being a huge waste of time. Nonetheless,
learning how to make new things is very useful, especially if your out
in the field and need a specific item, don’t have it, but you do have
the materials to make it on the spot. Navigating
through the game is generally straightforward.
The controls are very intuitive, feeling natural at all times.
Players can lock onto individual enemies to attack, and switching
between close up melee and ranged attacks with ease.
The one problem with the game’s controls comes from being able
to switch between Max and Monica by pressing down on the L3 button.
Unfortunately this is also the directional lever on the Dual
Shock 2 that controls the characters’ movement.
There have been many times in the heat of battle that I’ve
accidentally pressed down on the L3 while trying to dodge enemies
resulting in a character being called up that I didn’t want to use.
This problem could have been easily avoided by assigning this
character switching hot key to one of the shoulder buttons, but that
isn’t even a choice in the options menu.
It’s a very unfortunate, and glaring fault in the Dark Cloud
2’s control scheme. Still,
it isn’t enough to ruin the core gameplay of the title.
Searching through one random dungeon after the next, hoping to
find treasure of one sort or another, all the while hacking and blasting
away on all sorts of enemies is great.
More importantly, it’s very challenging.
The enemies in Dark Cloud 2 won’t go easy on you for a minute
so it becomes important to learn their attack habits early on or
you’ll be restarting from save points frequently.
Blocking, dodging, and carrying lots of healing items are key to
performing well in combat here. When
going through the dungeons players can also choose from branching paths
at times, but unfortunately they don’t provide any non-linearity since
you’ll be forced back to complete the other path in order to perform
some mandatory task or another anyway.
The selectable fighting characters all bring something useful to
the table. Max has a slow
attack, but it does a good job of penetrating armor and dishing out high
levels of damage, while Monica is all about the finesse with smooth,
flowing sword strokes. On
top of this players have access to the Ridepod, a large robot piloted by
Max capable of dealing high amounts of damage against larger enemies.
There’s no real set order to use these characters in, but they
each serve a distinct purpose and devising a strategy as for how best to
use them is very rewarding. We
also see the return of the highly addictive leveling up of weapons,
building them up into newer, shinier bringers of destruction.
A big part of the fun in Dark Cloud 2 is building up a weapon to
see what it turns into.
The
Georama portion of the game (aka the city building) is thankfully a lot
more forgiving than it was in the original.
Unlike the first game where you needed to fulfill very strict
guidelines in order to make everyone in the town happy, in Dark Cloud 2
building and item placement is a lot more open to interpretation.
However, adding a degree of challenge is the need to find the raw
materials to make the different things that must be planted in the city
you’re trying to rebuild, be it plants, buildings, landmarks or
whatever. Thankfully these
materials can be found in the dungeons, but for those who want them
quickly a few characters in the game sell the them so you can get back
to fixing a city right away (assuming you have enough gold for the
materials). What
we have here is a sequel that retains all that made the original an
entertaining romp, while adding a whole lot more to fatten it up.
There are a few sticking points that prove to be nuisances, but
they aren’t nearly bad enough to ruin the game.
There isn’t a lot of action RPGs on the PS2, so if you’re
looking for a new game in the genre Dark Cloud 2 is definitely one to
check out. -
Mr. Nash (April 6 2003) Search for Related Topics: ...More Playstation 2 Game Reviews... ...More Role-Playing Game Reviews... ...More Reviews of Games from Level 5... ...More Reviews of Games from Sony Computer Entertainment... |
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