Ah Level 5, how you have launched your way into my and the hearts of gamers everywhere. Relatively unknown a few years ago you now have given us the masterpiece of story and stimulus that is the Professor Layton series and have revitalized the western interest in the Dragon Quest (Warrior) series. Over the horizon we see them at work on of the most anticipated and completely new IP RPG that is White Knight Chronicles and are working the famous Studio Ghibli (you know the studio that does those crazy Japanese cartoon movies that every one is always talking about) on The Another World. Still, one wonders how this all started, how this company came up from almost nowhere to be working on greatly anticipated titles with industry superstars. Well they didn’t exactly appear from out of the blue, but their flagship title, at least had me, wanting more and feeling enthused about their success past present and future. I am talking about:
Just looking at this game box makes me feel somewhat nostalgic and that is because this was the first game I ever owned on the Playstation 2. I remember looking at an issue of Game Informer and seeing the little blurb about Dark Cloud. The writer of the blurb stated that it was a cross between a Zelda and Sim City game and knowing what I know now I can easily say that the writer, much like a lot of the staff of Game Informer are mostly misinformed (hahahah you see what I did their, it is called a joke). Sure there are some aspects of this game that are similar to the aforementioned titles but there are some little details here and there that completely separate from either of those titles.
First off let me explain the game’s story: The story presents itself as a fairy tale as the game’s narrative begins from an ancient tome uncovered in some ruins (a scene that is only implied but never shown). The legend talks of a land with two moons and a brave warrior (your main character) that was sent to vanquish a great evil. From their the opening shifts to a dark temple where strangely dresses people are performing “the dance of blood” in front of a giant urn in order to summon the legendry Dark Genie inside it (whose real name is Kazaam…nah I am just kidding). This process has be started by one Colonel Flag who although does not divulge his motives for releasing the Dark Genie clearly wants to harness its destructive power to take over the world. Out of nowhere, an unseen by anyone, a mouse enters the temple and falls into the pot and becomes infused with only (we are told later) with a minute amount of the Dark Genie power which turns him into the a stereotypical India fabric wearing, earring pierced, fat ass Genie who after accepting Colonel Flag as his master takes it upon himself to destroy the world as he once did.
We are then taken to the Harvest Festival in Norune village where our silent protagonist Toan, a green hat-wearing individual, is enjoying the festivities when the Dark Genie destroys the entire world. Luckily the Fairy King, a mystical being with great power protects the world by sealing its buildings and its inhabitants into atla (that look like Walnut shaped objects). Toan is spared from these attacks by the Fairy King who states that since he is pure of heart that he must wear the Atlamillia, a stone with great power, and with it restore the world and defeat the Dark Genie once and for all. From there Toan begins to explore the dungeon near his town, picks up his sword (okay maybe I am wrong about the whole Zelda thing) and attempts to find the atla to rebuild his town once more. It is there he meets Seda, a mysteriously androgynous man with what looks like a nine pack, who is in conflict with the evil inside of him and wants to steal the Atlamillia from Toan. Toan not only rebuilds his own town but many other towns and even a giant robot in his quest to reach the source of all evil in the game: Dark Heaven Castle. Toan does not have to fight this battle alone as he is accompanied by many people whom he restores, each of them with a different weapon and ability:
Xiao: A cat found in Norune that is transformed by a magic potion into a little cat girl (anime freaks rejoice???). She can jump over ledges and uses a slingshot.
Goro: The son of a famous warrior from Brownboo Village. He attacks with a hammer and uses it to hit switches on the ground.
Ruby: A mystical Genie from the sea village of Queens (and although she looks like one she is not a hooker). She uses magic generated from rings and uses the magic to unlock other switches.
Ungaga: A proud warrior from Muska Lacka. He attacks with a Bo staff and spins it around in order to air out poisonous rooms.
Osmond: A scientist from of the moon people (who are all talking rabbits by the way). He uses a gun and uses his helicopter pack to make Xiao basically useless by flying right over gaps (note this is another one of those games where people can breathe and move normally on the moon without any explanation. Just needed to get that out of the way).
As you begin to rebuild the villages you begin to learn not only of the overarching story line but the pasts of all the villages. These are shown as separate vignettes and although are a nice thing to have are riddled with classic RPG clichés: The child of a great warrior who after is father’s death becomes a loner, the evil spirit of a brokenhearted bride and the warrior who feels torn between the village he is sworn to protect and his greater purpose. Sure this might be spoilers to some of you, but really if you have played a few RPGs you already know what I am talking about. Although the climax and plot twist are where the story is strongest even they are weak compared to other games and even games Level 5 would create later on (I guess compelling story is an ability tempered by time). Still the story is not the biggest draw in the game when compared to the dungeon crawling and city building aspects.
The game presents itself as a basic dungeon crawler. Travel through one level of the dungeon, defeating monsters and collecting items until you find the key that takes you to the next level. The dungeon map (whose size can be modified on screen and even removed if desired) displays itself as you travel through the level of the dungeon, displaying the enemies, chests, atla, secret passageways, ability specific areas and the steps to the next level in different colors. Two items: The compass and the map could display all enemies, chests, and atla and the entire floor map respectfully. Each floor would have certain types of enemies that would become stronger the closer you came to the boss level. As you enter any dungeon you can see how many atla are present on that floor and whether they have been opened or not. Halfway through the dungeon you would find an area impassable with any of your current abilities and you would need to gain a new ally to pass through and continue down the dungeon to the boss. You would beat the boss, using the ability of your newest character to help you and defeating it would grant you access to the next village and dungeon. That my friends is pretty much the explanation for every single dungeon crawler give or take a few aspects. What truly makes Dark Cloud a different kind of dungeon crawler is its attention to customizing your weapon. Now you can say this is exactly like any other dungeon crawler you would be sadly mistaken, as the only other game I know to use this mechanic is Diablo and even it does not apply it to this level of detail.
In Dark Cloud you do not level up your characters, you level up your weapons. Sure you have a health bar and a defense stat but certain items can only increase these. You also have a thirst meter in this game, which slowly decreases as you walk and fight in the dungeons. Even your weapon has a health bar. If you thought that is complicated the game goes even further with a very annoying aspect, which could have been easily avoided. You see if a character dies and you have another member in your party still alive you still get a game over unless you have a certain item. Sure all of these meters have easily found items to refill them but since you only carry a limited number of items you soon find yourself questioning how much of each item you should buy a lot. Not only are there too many types of necessary items the items DO NOT STACK. AAAAAAAAAAH this game was so aggravating at first for me, I thought this game purposely had it out for me. Still, the game tries to remedy this by having three boxes on the top of the screen, which you can fill with items to be used on the go (such a healing items or water). Thankfully these items are both independent of your inventory and are, yes, stackable. Still the game allows you to switch characters on the fly and access the items menu even in the heat of battle. While this helps it still doesn’t make up for the poor inventory system. It makes you keep a careful eye on your inventory screen more than I thought was necessary and made you take into account how valuable each item was, especially your weapons.
Every weapon in the game, save for the starting weapon for each character, can break permanently, which seems like it doesn’t matter until you realize how much work you put into a really good weapon. You see every weapon in the game has one or more slots which you can equip augments to which increase weapon stats, elemental stats and the amount of damage dealt to every type of creature in the game. Thankfully these weapon augments have a separate menu on the inventory screen and therefore do not take up vital space. After you use a certain weapon long enough, it upgrades and those augments are permanently fixed to your weapon. Once a weapon upgrades five times you can either see if it has the criteria to evolve into a different kind of weapon (which is shown on screen throughout the upgrading process) or break it into a synthesis piece, which destroys the weapon but adds 40% of it’s attributes to any other weapon you equip it to. This allows for a lot of grind time for both attaining certain augments and leveling certain weapons in order to achieve the final weapons for each character. In addition, a weapon’s elemental power can be changed on the fly through the weapons menu. This allows the player to exploit the elemental weakness of the enemy without having to switch weapons. The weapon customization is one of the better aspects in this series and is deceptively complicated if you want to create a great weapon.
In addition to the normal floors in a dungeon there are certain challenge floors. These floors contain not atla and instead restrict you to using a certain character, make you unable to change weapons, get thirstier faster, become permanently poisoned or make all the enemies super strong. These floors change up the monotony in the dungeons and force you to spend time with all your characters, which can be a blessing or a curse. There are also secret items in each dungeon that open up the back door to each dungeon. All the enemies in the back room are supped up versions of themselves from the regular room and the floor plan is exactly the same; however, those willing to take the risk are rewarded with rare items. At least all the enemies have their health bar on display. Throughout there game there are also quick time events. This was the first time I saw quick time events (since I never played Shenmue) and I thought they looked so cool. Now after seven years, God of War and every other game that has them Dark Cloud’s quick time events look seriously hokey. Still they are few and far between so it doesn’t break up the action too much.
The city building or Georama menu can be accessed anywhere in the various overworlds throughout the game, allowing you to rebuild the city and fast travel throughout the overworlds. There are three types of atla in the dungeons: Buildings, Objects and Miscellaneous. Buildings are the different houses shops of the town, Objects are the items needed and people to complete said buildings and miscellaneous are roads, rivers or bridges. When you get a building atla you will see various pieces need to be placed inside it in order for it to be complete. These items range from house specific (which include those that live there) to items that most houses have. You can place down a building immediately but it is only until you fully complete it does it give you a cutscene with Toan and the building’s resident(s) who will give you an item to help you out on your journey. Even after a building is completed the members of the household might have other criteria on where they want their house. If you comply with all the residents’ requests then you are treated to another cutscene of the completed town and you are given another, usually rare item. It is a fun diversion that forces you to keep diving into the dungeon to see what you can dig up first.
The game looked magnificent in 2001 showing a level of detail and color that was almost unheard of before it. There are many different enemy models in the game and although there are many pallet swaps, there is enough variety that you do not feel like you are killing the same thing over and over again. They dungeons look great at first but after a few floors they all look the same. The villages are where the engine really shines as each reflects some semblance of culture and a lot of detail. There is also a day and night cycle which although is really cool to look at, with accurate shadows and all, is basically pointless. Still it is a nice graphical touch.
While the sound effects are adequate for the time, it is the score for the game that is phenomenal. This is the first time we get to hear Nishiura Tomohito, the composer for almost all of Level 5’s games (save Dragon Quest VIII). Each town is given a distinct theme that is both whimsical and fitting, each dungeon has a different theme that seamlessly switches from the battle theme and back. The boss themes are excellent and really give you that epic feel you want from that type of battle. All in all this is a great soundtrack that should really be appreciated (I actually own it).
Even with it’s faults, clichés and similarities to other games at the time Dark Cloud still has enough going for it to make it worth playing. It was one of the better titles for the Playstation 2 that year and without its success who knows what would have happened Level 5? Sure it dates me as a younger gamer but this will always remain one of my nostalgic games.
Hopefully this review doesn’t bore you read as much as it was tiring to write. I still thought it was worth it and I hope you feel the same way.
-AceofOpus
