JRPG Retro-Review: Dark Cloud

[Andromeda]

Going back into the vault, we have a launch title from the early days of the Playstation 2, Dark Cloud. Dark Cloud was the first game by now renowned game developer Level 5 and published by Sony. Out in 2000, it was one of the first RPG experiences for many on the PS2 and what laid the groundwork for many of Level 5 PS2 RPGs and RPGs into the future.

Dark Cloud has a unique history for myself as I actually played it on two different occasions. While beating games multiple times is rarely an uncommon occurrence for myself or others, what happened with Dark Cloud for me was that I got stuck on the final boss years ago. I had gotten myself stuck unable to improve further and not geared well enough to survive. I had gotten through the first phase by the skin of my teeth and the next just kept beating me down. Other games came out, frustration set in and I moved on from it. Years later though, with a larger collection of games and more RPGs under by belt, I was set to finish this game. I succeeded that time.

The fact that I went back to it after being stuck and replayed it completely speaks a lot for the game. It was enjoyable and a different experience from many of the other games I had grown accustomed to at the time. My mindset was in a more traditional setting like FF, turn base combat, where this was more like a Zelda game. Feeling a lot like Zelda was the first thing that drew me to the game.

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Starting with combat, it is a real time system, like Zelda. You have to move around and can dodge the enemy’s attacks. It is all done in the dungeon, no transitions. So it had a very Zelda like style, it’s an action RPG, something that I did not have a lot of taste of at the time. But combat is fairly simple and because it is most of the gameplay is focused around how it affects combat. It always felt fair and responsive. There were certain enemies designed for different characters as well, to keep you trying them all out so you find the ones you like.

Most of the focus came down to the external forces and the customization. This is where the Dark Cloud sets itself apart from just being at risk for being a Zelda clone and the parts that I found really enjoyable.

The dungeon, where all combat takes place, is randomly generated with the exception of specific story related floors. Every time you enter, the layout is completely different. However, there are specific things to always expect. There will be a place with water, chests with keys unlock doors, and sometimes a secret door into a harder part of the dungeon. There is also assigned town items to be found randomly in there as well, more on that later.

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Additionally though, each dungeon floor presented different risk and challenges. Sometimes a floor would restrict character usage, which meant you needed to give all your characters equal attention. This was one of the problems I had at times because leveling six characters is not easy and a lot to juggle. There would also be the chance for dungeon wide effects that work against the player like weapons break faster or you dehydrate faster.

These dungeon debuffs brings me to the next subject. There is one constant factor always impacting the player during dungeon crawling, water. Apart from health, every character a water meter, this slowly drains over time and if it is hits zero it starts going into your health until you’re dead. The only ways to fill the water are to enter areas with water or drink water, which can be stored in jars for use. So it is a resource that always has to be managed, but can also be gotten around a little when you start getting more characters. I often would switch characters around if I ran out of water just to pull out a fresh character to push through the last part of the floor until I found water again. It always meant that there was something else other than just the monsters that threatened your journey. It was often more annoying at times, but it gave more thought to should I keep diving or go back and resupply.

The second factor that impacted combat directly is the weapon durability. All weapons have a durability and it varies from type and uniqueness of the weapon. Each weapon type would take way different amounts of durability, so some characters were a little more ideal than others. However, typically those with slower durability ticks also meant they had weaker weapons. So it was a trade off, one the player always had to be thinking about. Naturally, durability could be repaired with items, but like water it was another something that went into deciding to keep going or fall back.

Now to the customization, this is one of the parts that I got really sucked into. It is a fairly simple, but powerful system. All weapons have 4 core stats along with 5 elemental stats and 10 monster-slayer stats. All of these stats have preset starting values based on the default weapons, but could be improved individually by the player.

The way the system works is that all weapons had a number of slots that stat bonus items could be applied to. These items can be removed and added at will as the need required it. However, when upgrading the weapon, any of these items still in the slots when it is upgrade become permanent and removed from the slots. This is how weapons improved. Base damage improved and durability in general, so it is possible not to customize and still get a slightly better weapon, but the idea is to upgrade and customize based on what you left attached.

This tied into how you made new weapons, as in order to transform the weapon into a different named weapon it required specific stats. And when a weapon hit +5 it could be split. If you split the weapon, the base non-upgraded weapon would return, but you would also gain an attachment item that had a percentage of the stats of the weapon at the time of splitting. So it is was possible to slowly improve a weapon over time by just upgrading to +5 and splitting and equipping the attachment to the base weapon for an overall better weapon. The control it gave to the player to craft their style of weapon was one of the biggest strengths to the game and something I suck a lot of time into when I played it.

As a mention, there are also items that upgrade the player’s stats as well, but they were commonly unique to each character. So it actually was the easiest part of the game, since it was simple to just feed it to the characters and not have to choose. Only one of the items had to be shared between all characters and there was normally enough to get everyone up to a fair level, the water meter.

Now I want to focus on the story, as it ties into the rest of the game. The story of Dark Cloud is a fairly simple one. The Dark Genie has been released and turned much of the area into a wasteland. However, the Fairy King was able to save the people and towns from destruction by sealing them away in things called Alta.

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The characters are fairly one-note entries that all have some issue or problem caused by the Dark Genie. You learn about them a little, but they receive just enough characterization to know their motives and personality. Little more time is spent on them beyond their introduction and short character arc they get in each town. The main character is a silent protagonist, chosen to save the world, so he gets even less development as being the player avatar.

The purpose of the player, besides just defeating the Dark Genie, is to free the sealed away towns and people and restore them back to their former state. This makes up a large part of the reason to initially go into any dungeon. You need to rebuild the basics in the town so you can have a base of operations as you dive deeper. Often early on you have to back track to older towns you’ve restored until your current town is up and running.

This is the other part of the game I got a lot of fun out of, because it was part puzzle and part city building. Every town has a defined space. And there are a set number of buildings, people and attachments for said buildings. The people are predetermined for what building they belong to, but many buildings have different number of sharable attachments. And so you have to decide which buildings you finish over others. Since once completed they grant rewards and even adding some attachments unlock a new chest by itself. So there is reward in just finding and placing them.

However, it doesn’t just end there. All of the townspeople have likes and dislikes. They want things in a certain way and if you talk to them you can find out what they want. This is where it becomes a puzzle. You have to fit all the pieces into a small area and still make everyone happy. A 100% happy town grants even more rewards. So it comes in multiple layers. It was the one part of the game that I did not really expect and thorough enjoyed rebuilding each town.

As a retro-review, it is hard to value the visuals of the game. It is an early generation PS2 game that was not from Square. So it does not push anything by any means, but it still looks good for the time and while very blocky and blurry these days still holds up fairly well overall. It is a bit of a common appearing game, but the gameplay is what the game is about not the visuals.

Now the last note, as always I have to talk about the quirkiness/uniqueness factor. There is nothing quirky about it, but there is plenty to find here that can’t really be found somewhere else. The city building aspect alone was a lot of fun and something I have really found in another game since, the closest thing is White Knight Chronicles another Level 5 that I suspect they did as an homage to Dark Cloud. The customization for weapons is something that I felt you don’t find in enough games, while potentially overwhelming and too many stats, it grants an unseen before level of control on weapon growth.

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Reasons to Play:

As a retro-review, this is going to be a reason to go back and try it out if you’ve been missing it. If you enjoy Level 5 games, especially their RPGs, this is what started it all. You’ll find that many of the things you find common in games like Rogue Galaxy and White Knight Chronicles got started in Dark Cloud.

It has a strong Zelda vibe from it, hence why I named the main character Link and used several Zelda inspirited names for some of the characters. So if you’re up for a Zelda like game that does a great job of really separating itself from the pack with some deep customization and interesting puzzle city building mini-games, it is a very enjoyable experience. Only down side is that the customization may be a little too intimidating if you did not want to manage 17 different stats.

Story - 3/10 – This is a common save the world story with very little development outside of it. Don’t expect plot twists or deep character involvement, you’re not going in for the story, but the gameplay.
Combat System - 7/10 – It is simple Zelda style combat that holds up well and is varied with the multiple characters that all attack in unique ways, but it is not the combat alone that is the strongest part of the game, it is the rest of the game that supports the combat.
Customization 9.5/10 – A deep and satisfying system that allows you to upgrade how you want and made the super weapon you want, but it is pretty grindy and intimidating.
Graphics - 6/10 – Standard launch title PS2 era graphics, they looked good at the time and hold up well enough, but you’re not playing for the amazing visuals.
Characters - 3/10 – The characters are fairly one-note types. The main character is the standard silent protagonist, though the rest of the cast get a little work.
Uniqueness/Quirkiness - 7/10 – It’s missing quirkiness, but has plenty to be unique, the city building aspect alone is immensely satisfying and addictive.

7.5/10 (Not an average)

[Heartless Angel]

This was such a good game back in the day. I really enjoyed the level of customization, and that if you felt like investing the time, you could build these insane, overpowered weapons. And they did a really good job with end game content for that era, giving you the 100 floors of hell in the Demon Shaft. I spent a lot of time on this game when I had just bought my ps2. And though I'm sure a lot of people would disagree, I really enjoyed Dark Cloud 2, and think they improved on this winning formula.

[Andromeda]

Yeah, the depth of the customization in Dark Cloud is something I miss a little in their later games Rogue Galaxy and White Knight Chronicles. It is there, but they scaled it back a lot. I still need to get around to playing Dark Cloud 2, I love Level 5 games and it is the only one of their games that I own I still haven't played yet.

[Heartless Angel]

I highly recommend it. Customization was every bit as good, and Georama became even more interesting. It involves time travel, so you're not just building to make people happy, but to try to guide the development of an area to create a certain future. It's really pretty sweet.

[Andromeda]

Yeah I remember seeing ads for the game talking about time travel. Makes really want to try it out. Dark Cloud was such a fun game to play. When I get some free time I might pop out the game and run through it.