Pretty damn good PS2 RPG amidst many others.
MY cousin buys a lot of RPG's. some of them are good, some of them are greats and some of them.... Shadow Madness. Needless to say, i'm usually wary whenever i snatch something from his pile o' RPG's. Luckily for me, Dark Cloud 2 is actually a fun damn game. Shadow Madness, not so much. Though despite what I say, Shadow Madness sure was memorable for better or for worst.
Anywho, on to the actual review, I'm talking too much.
GRAPHICS: [9/10] [4 1/2 stars]
Back in the day there was a huge uproar about fancy cel shaded graphics. Some folks thought the were gimmicky as all hell. Others thought the were some sort of fun way to play cartoons. Personally looking at it now, I think cel shaded graphics might have been gimmicky in the past, but a sound investment in terms of game longevity. At the time, plenty of games had fancy 3D graphics everyone would think of as the bee's knees (prime example: Halo) that simply look ugly and outdated to the discerning eyes of consumers. Try playing Halo 3 and going back to Halo. It's pretty damn ugly nowaday. Meanwhile, Darkcloud with it's colorful cel shaded graphics STILL looks good and inviting. Characters are inventive and colorful, charming in their animated whimsy. Who can possibly resist something that still looks good 7 years later? it's like the video game equivalent of a cougar. or a MILF if you're into that sort of thing.
STORY: [9/10] [4 1/2 stars]
The story involves plenty of time traveling, ALA Chrono Trigger. That being said, expect plenty of head scratching at time due to the fact that time traveling is just plain confusing even by Sci-fi standards. Anywho, We play as the delightfully dull-named Max. some rich kid who wants to spend all of his time inventing crap for some reason. sometime into the game he meets up with a girl from the future (Monica) who explains that together they can travel in time in order to stop the plotting of some evil emporor from the future. also, there is a fat clown guy who tries to kill you for the first chapter. I thought that was worth mentioning. Point being, plot is fun and filled with memorable characters and several tear jerking moments.
GAMEPLAY: [9/10] [4/12 stars]
This game plays more like a zelda style game with a focus on clearing out enemies from dungeon levels than a traditional RPG, so I wouldn't really classify it as such normally. But it does feature an insanely detail buildable weapon system(complete with level ups and upgrades!), so I suppose it is one. Consider it a predesessor to the many pseudo-RPG's we have been acostumed to in recent years. 2 characters are available with 2 seperate psuedo characters latched on to each. max can enter his custom made badass battle robot name...steve (this game has a knack for names.) whilst monica gets to transform into monsters you collect and level much akin to pokemon. Difference being Steve kicks ass while monica's monster transformation suck ass. The game is damn hard at times but filled with plenty of opportunities to gain strength via the georama system of town building. essentially, you build your towns while listening to the instuctions of how it shoulf be built in theory. done right, the cities of the future will look bitchen and you'll amass tons of power-ups and access to useful shops. Also, there's a character recruitment theme in which you look for potential town inhabitants. I LOVE CHARACTER RECRUITMENTS IN ANY GAME. Especially Suikoden.
REPLAY VALUE: [8/10] [4 stars]
The game is pretty damn long, and the mini games are pretty fun to play. Plus there's tons of them. Spheda, a golf like game, can be attempted after clearing a dungeon level. It offers great prizes to people who can master the intricacies of what is essentially Hot Shots golf for the PS1. also, there's fishing. not as exciting as spheda in my opinion, but you can keep your fish in a tank. Yeah... Anywho, there's even an optional end game dungeon complete with psycho clown rematch. So if you're a dedicated gamer, there's plenty of meat on Dark Cloud's bones.
OVERALL SCORE: [9/ 10] [4 1/2 stars]
A sky scrapper with legs.
Nuff' said.
