I had a friend in middle school name Gary. Or maybe it was George. Gir... Giraldo? It was some kinda G name. We bonded over Battlebots and for a while we tried to build one of our own, which was just an RC car we stuck a really long nail to that we found near some train tracks. Gabe was also obsessed with Dark Cloud, Level-5's debut game and a cult classic for the PlayStation 2 that otherwise would've totally passed me by were it not for long afternoons of watching him crawl through dungeons after test driving Naildoser.
This review is dedicated to Naildoser, who sadly perished when Grant's mom backed over it with her car.
The last time I saw Dark Cloud being played was like, 2003, so I'd entirely forgotten what kind of game this is outside of vaguely knowing it to be an RPG. Going in with fresh eyes left me open to a number of surprises, like protagonist Toan giving a magic item to a stray cat that turns it into a very young looking girl that hugs his leg and calls him "master," and whatever the hell this is. This game might've been made by perverts. It was also made by a team that clearly took a few ideas from Actraiser. Dark Cloud is a hybrid action-RPG/city sim, wherein you scour procedurally generated dungeons for missing homesteads, residents, and items to restore a broken world. However, unlike Actraiser, the balance is way off and Dark Cloud fails to establish a satisfying rhythm between these two disparate gameplay types.
Neither dungeon crawling nor city building have any real depth. As mentioned, dungeons use procedural generation, meaning they're all random combinations of the same open spaces and hallways with aesthetics and enemies changing between locations. It reminds me a lot of Persona 4, and much like Persona 4, Dark Cloud artificially limits the amount of time you spend in a dungeon. Rather than doing so by making MP a precious resource, it instead employs some of the worst weapon degradation I've ever encountered in a video game. I'm talking two combos being enough to snap your +3 Sun Sword like a twig even after applying endurance buffs. It is insane, and I'd go so far as to say it's ill-advised to dive into a dungeon without half your inventory being composed entirely of repair powders. Toan just coming out of these dungeons covered in a thick layer of gold dust and a wild look in his eyes. Maybe I'm a bit biased here, because I think weapon degradation is an inherently awful mechanic that I've never found additive to the experience of playing a game. No follow up to that statement.
City building is also very rudimentary, and largely amounts to slotting specific items and townspeople into set buildings, then plopping them down on the map and speaking to their respective residents for a reward. You can fulfill additional requests, all of which relate to the proximity of their building to certain landmarks, but this is all optional and the game can be a bit finicky about registering whether these requests are satisfied. That's pretty much it, though. There's no method of taxation to increase your party's funds, no resource management, and extremely few townspeople are story or progression relevant. In fact, most barely have any dialog at all. This is fine for the most part, but I would have appreciated it if the game found new ways to make you consider how you're laying out your villages or populated them with more interesting characters.
The worst part about Dark Cloud is that none of these systems ever evolve. It is mechanically unwavering, shallow yet constant. New party members barely change how you actually play, and they all have zero plot significance or even dialog after joining you. Despite initially gelling with how quaint Dark Cloud is, it quickly became a chore. Like, great, I need to get five layers of the sunken ship done tonight. Maybe if I knock that out fast enough I can watch a show or cook a meal. Aw shit, my +5 Magic Hammer broke in two and I lost an hour of progress, I guess I'm eating out tonight, not enough time to make myself a meal.
On some level this makes sense. That level is Level-5 (HhhhhaaaaaaHA!) because this was their first game, and I have to assume they only had so much to work with. Dark Cloud feels like a vertical slice that happens to run 30 hours. There's good ideas, but all of them lack substance. Hell, there's virtually no plot to speak of outside of the first and last hour of the game. I have faith that Dark Cloud 2 resolves a lot of my issues as it seems to be better received, but I'm going to need a pretty big break before I get to it. Need to play something a bit more engaging, like uhhh... Xenosaga Episode 1.
I'm gonna go lay down behind Garrett's mom's car.
This review is dedicated to Naildoser, who sadly perished when Grant's mom backed over it with her car.
The last time I saw Dark Cloud being played was like, 2003, so I'd entirely forgotten what kind of game this is outside of vaguely knowing it to be an RPG. Going in with fresh eyes left me open to a number of surprises, like protagonist Toan giving a magic item to a stray cat that turns it into a very young looking girl that hugs his leg and calls him "master," and whatever the hell this is. This game might've been made by perverts. It was also made by a team that clearly took a few ideas from Actraiser. Dark Cloud is a hybrid action-RPG/city sim, wherein you scour procedurally generated dungeons for missing homesteads, residents, and items to restore a broken world. However, unlike Actraiser, the balance is way off and Dark Cloud fails to establish a satisfying rhythm between these two disparate gameplay types.
Neither dungeon crawling nor city building have any real depth. As mentioned, dungeons use procedural generation, meaning they're all random combinations of the same open spaces and hallways with aesthetics and enemies changing between locations. It reminds me a lot of Persona 4, and much like Persona 4, Dark Cloud artificially limits the amount of time you spend in a dungeon. Rather than doing so by making MP a precious resource, it instead employs some of the worst weapon degradation I've ever encountered in a video game. I'm talking two combos being enough to snap your +3 Sun Sword like a twig even after applying endurance buffs. It is insane, and I'd go so far as to say it's ill-advised to dive into a dungeon without half your inventory being composed entirely of repair powders. Toan just coming out of these dungeons covered in a thick layer of gold dust and a wild look in his eyes. Maybe I'm a bit biased here, because I think weapon degradation is an inherently awful mechanic that I've never found additive to the experience of playing a game. No follow up to that statement.
City building is also very rudimentary, and largely amounts to slotting specific items and townspeople into set buildings, then plopping them down on the map and speaking to their respective residents for a reward. You can fulfill additional requests, all of which relate to the proximity of their building to certain landmarks, but this is all optional and the game can be a bit finicky about registering whether these requests are satisfied. That's pretty much it, though. There's no method of taxation to increase your party's funds, no resource management, and extremely few townspeople are story or progression relevant. In fact, most barely have any dialog at all. This is fine for the most part, but I would have appreciated it if the game found new ways to make you consider how you're laying out your villages or populated them with more interesting characters.
The worst part about Dark Cloud is that none of these systems ever evolve. It is mechanically unwavering, shallow yet constant. New party members barely change how you actually play, and they all have zero plot significance or even dialog after joining you. Despite initially gelling with how quaint Dark Cloud is, it quickly became a chore. Like, great, I need to get five layers of the sunken ship done tonight. Maybe if I knock that out fast enough I can watch a show or cook a meal. Aw shit, my +5 Magic Hammer broke in two and I lost an hour of progress, I guess I'm eating out tonight, not enough time to make myself a meal.
On some level this makes sense. That level is Level-5 (HhhhhaaaaaaHA!) because this was their first game, and I have to assume they only had so much to work with. Dark Cloud feels like a vertical slice that happens to run 30 hours. There's good ideas, but all of them lack substance. Hell, there's virtually no plot to speak of outside of the first and last hour of the game. I have faith that Dark Cloud 2 resolves a lot of my issues as it seems to be better received, but I'm going to need a pretty big break before I get to it. Need to play something a bit more engaging, like uhhh... Xenosaga Episode 1.
I'm gonna go lay down behind Garrett's mom's car.
7 Comments
I just remembered that when I first discovered this game and say the box-art I thought it was one of those fake games that appeared on movies, I don't know if it's because of the title, the main character looking like Link or what, but I really thought that at first.... and then I saw that clip and now it must be the truth.
Great review as always!
Great review as always!
@DemonAndGames I think the fortune teller is the most out-of-left-field shit I've seen in a game. Easily in the top three along with the Cat Man.
It's like if Soul Blazer had cooler city building but also sucked
I always figured this was one of those games where you either dug what it's doing or was underwhelmed by, after seeing some reviews on it. I think the sequel's reception is rather commonly touted as the better game though, but it's been a while since I've seen discussion on it that I can't remember.
@MeowPewterMeow Never heard of Soul Blazer, actually.
@BlazingWaters Despite being overall pretty negative, I can't be too mad about Dark Cloud because I totally understand why it's underwhelming. I'd have to think 2 is the better game just because there's so much to build off of the first one that it'd be crazy to assume they didn't.
@BlazingWaters Despite being overall pretty negative, I can't be too mad about Dark Cloud because I totally understand why it's underwhelming. I'd have to think 2 is the better game just because there's so much to build off of the first one that it'd be crazy to assume they didn't.
Jenny
11 months ago