How far did you get: One completion, attempted post game dungeon
How many hours did you put into it: 65
One of the Playstation 2's earliest titles, it was often referred to as Sony's response to Zelda. To anyone who played Dark Cloud, this comparison probably seemed rater unusual. Zelda games are action adventure titles with smooth controls. Dark Cloud plays more like an action RPG with rouge-like elements and less smooth controls, designed for more tactical gameplay. The comparison came off as unfair, as the Zelda games are certainly better than Dark Cloud, but Dark Cloud was not trying to do what Zelda was trying to do, and Dark Cloud does do what it does quite well.
Dark Cloud has a very basic story, where the Dark Genie is resurrected and attempts to destroy the world, one village at a time. An old man called the Fairly King traps all the buildings, infrastructure and people into little balls and spreads them out through a dungeon, in order to keep them all from perishing. The Fairy King saves you, and entrusts to you an armband that can open these balls so you can bring each village back to it's former glory. It's a simple and kind of silly story, but it sets things up fairly well. The stories in each village are far more interesting than the overall story.
The battle system, which takes place in the dungeons located in each village, is actually the worst part of Dark Cloud. The game has pretty abysmal controls. On several occasions I found myself dead because my character did not react when I pressed a button. Due to the game having very tight controls, everything is based on timing. You have to be aware of just how long it's going to take to swing your sword if you want to dodge the enemies next attack. If you button mash, your character with attack with most of the buttons presses you made, meaning you may find yourself attacking a few more times than you wanted, causing your death.
Fortunately, as you play through the game and reach new villages, you get new playable characters. The characters that attack with ranged attacks tend to be much easier to play, as mistakes are easier to correct when you're not on top of an enemy. Half of the playable characters are ranged, so this gives you some variety, too.
The dungeons also have a few things you have to keep up with in order to stay alive. You have HP, like you do in most games, however you also have weapon HP and a thirst level. If your weapon HP goes to 0, your weapon breaks and it is gone forever. This can be especially frustrating if you've spent a lot of time leveling one. On a couple occasions, I restarted the game when my weapon broke so I didn't have to level another one. When your thirst meter runs out, you gradually lose HP, so you have to keep water on you at all times to make sure this doesn't happen.
The dungeon layouts are randomized every time you enter them, much like you would see in a rouge-like. This can make the game feel quite gindy, though. If you're looking for a particular item, you can't just go to a particular and expect to always get it. While enemies tend to stay the same on each floor, they have pretty horrible drop rates. Treasure chests are completely randomized. Fortunately, your weapon levels as you use it, so grinding for items isn't a complete waste of time.
The most fun part of Dark Cloud is when you're not in battle. Once you collect enough balls in the dungeon, you can return to the village and begin rebuilding it. It gives you a grid of the village, and you put buildings and infrastructure down anywhere you like. Then you can put add ons to the buildings, such as stairways and the people that actually live in them. As you put down buildings, items will appear near them, which can raise your defense, health, or ability to not get thirsty as quickly. These are absolutely necessary, as your characters do not level up themselves, and this is the only way to raise your non-weapon stats.
As you begin building your villages and talk to the townsfolk, you'll notice they will ask for their buildings to be placed in certain places. Sometimes there is someone in the village they don't like and want to be away from them, or maybe they want to be woke up by the morning sun, so they need their house turned in a direction so the morning sun shines in their window. If you manage to make everyone in the village happy, you'll get some nice bonuses, usually including a new move for one of your characters. It also encourages interacting with the villagers, which I enjoyed doing.
While I certainly wouldn't consider Dark Cloud to be a top tier PS2 RPG, it is fairly fun to play. The most important thing Dark Cloud did was set the groundwork for it's far superior sequel, Dark Cloud 2, which I will get around to reviewing at a later date. It is a long game, so you will definitely get your money's worth, just don't expect a smooth ride.
Rating: 79/100
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