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Every Dark Cloud has a Silver Lining

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: June 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Dark Cloud is a truly interesting game. It manages to borrow elements of Zelda 64 in its gameplay, Vagrant Story in its weapon system, and even has shades of Actraiser in its Georama system. While it may be a bit repetitive, and may not be for everyone, no one who has played this game can deny the sheer fun of building up a village and then walking around and interacting with objects and people in that village in 3D. For Dark Cloud, the sum of its parts are much greater than any of them alone, and is a game I wholeheartedly recommend for a rent or a purchase. This Dark Cloud definitely has a silver lining. Who knew saving the world from a fat pig with a little man in his hand could be so much fun??

SITTING ON DARK CLOUD NINE

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 26
Date: May 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

No video game you've ever played will prepare you for the joy you will experience when playing Dark Cloud. I mean, if you've never controled an elf for nearly two weeks of your life, and experienced the struggle one would feel if you were an elf living in a magical land and trying to save the world from being destroyed by an evil villain, well then my friends, you just haven't lived yet. This game captures that scenario with percision. It is the most realistic "I'm and elf and have to save the world" game ever produced. To prove my point, I allowed a real elf who had lived in a magical land before moving to Pasadena, and saved it from an evil mongrul years ago, and the game brought him to tears with it's realism. In fact, after defeating the game, he was so choked up he could barely speak to me about it, just like the WWII survivors who refuse to speak about the horrifying ordeals they've endured. But when he finally spoke, he went on and on about how the game reminded him of his home land, and how the action was so realistic that they must have hired a consultant from a magical land to get the authenticity so dead on. He even mentioned a specific battle that was so realistic he had a flashback of a battle in which his best friend, an ogre named Ulf, was killed. It pained me to see my friend brought to tears in recollection. But he did it for you, so you could finally know how elves all over the universe have been struggling to free their worlds from evil warlords. And that is what this game does best, it helps us to understand other cultures and thier differnces, so that we may be more tolerant of others. So buy this game, for the good of hummanity. We need it. All of us.

Hurry Up

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 21
Date: May 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Its hard to rate a game that's out, so ill have to go on what i have seen. The bits that i have seen in magazines and on the interenet are making me want this game so bad. All i willsay is that i wish they would hurry up and release this game ASAP

Why are you doing this??

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: May 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I can't believe some people. They just take what they read and think that is the truth. The reason the game is as it is is because Sony is COMPETING with The Legend of Zelda series for the Nintendo 64. And why is everyone complaining about graphics? The graphics are well suited for this game. Also, this game had a low budget, so why would anyone expect graphics like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty? The game is meant for ages six to adult, so that is why a lot of you complain it is "kiddy". The game puts together strategy elements along with RPG elements. You must rebuild your town and then explore dungeons and other things. I hope this will be a good game; I have played the import and loved it, even though I couldn't understand Japanese. As always, rent first, then buy. Because if this game is bad, which I doubt, at least you wouldn't have spent the money.

y diss a cool game before play it?the awnser: you shouldn't

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: June 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

First of all let me say if you're considering buying this game, then please disregard all reviews done before 5/29/01. You see the American version wasn't released until then. And while these people may accurately grade the Japanese version. The know nothing about the U.S. release. Let's list some reasons why: 1.) They say the story didn't make sense, here's why, 95% of them probably couldn't speak fluent Japanese. 2.) The game is now 30% larger than the original. This makes the game about 45 hrs long now. 3.) This is for the ... who said "it has a rating. it's E, Sony just doesn't want you to know it. Well, Contrary to that brilliant statement the game was rated T. And even if it was an E game, who cares. Did anybody notice Zelda 64 was the most hyped and anticpated game, it also sold the most pre-orders for any game ever. Nobody said "It's a bad game because of the rating (it was E). 4.) And finally, For the ... comment about the box art being bad, when did people start paying $50 for a box, it's the game that counts. Overall this is a great game, and while the weapon repair system can get annoying it doesn't detract from the game's overall coolness. Oh,and to Sony great job on this one!

Addictions...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: June 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I wasn't expecting much out of this game when I first got it. Yes, I got the game with only knowing it was an RPG. This game was a huge suprise for me - and I love it.

The unique combination of an action rpg with sim city building worked wonderfully. It combined two passions I have in game playing - which is probably one of the reasons I loved it.

Its an addiction. I suppose after a while you might get tired of entering the "dungeons" and beating up monsters - but the story line is impressive. Immortality, bitter undead ice queens, giant beasts ruling the forests, a moon kingdom, the Giant ugly fat Dark Genie, the beauty fun Genie girl, the cat girl, the moon-child, desert warrior, and the elf looking lead boy. This game packed in a ton of information that is great for the RPGer, and the wonderful city-building for the SimCity gamer.

I look forward to upgrading my weapons and finding new treasures in the "backdoor" rooms. I love searching around the newly-re-build cities for treasure cheasts and upgrading my people's defenses. Although it is depressing if you don't watch the weapon damage meter (your weapons can get worn out and distroied) and find that your favorite weapon went "buh-bye" but that's what the reset butten is for, right? (I hope you were saving your games...)

Anyways... its an all around fun adventure full of addictions.

~*Julie

Greatest Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: December 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game last Sunday. Today is now Sunday, and I've already racked up 30+ hours of gameplay. All this time had been in the hours between work, school, and other things. It is extremily addictive. Despite anything anyone or any critic says, Dark Cloud is well worth the money and the hours you will spend working to reconstruct the world!

One of the better PS2 games. Defies categorization.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Dark Cloud is not a heavy, plot driven RPG like you would expect from Final Fantasy or Breath of Fire. It is more or less a splice between Zelda and Sim City. The object of the game is to search dungeons the world over to find bits and pieces of your destroyed village. Once you find the pieces, you must rebuild the village. The grid system is similar to Sim City because of the layout, which seemed very familiar to me. I like the whole concept of the game, which makes it a winner in my books.

The graphics are great, despite those who say that the graphics are Sub-Par. The environments are well detailed, and the character animation is very well done. The music is the games biggest weakness. It is mainly background music that doesn't stick in your mind like the music in FFX or Maximo. It also would have been nice to have some voice acting, simply because the PS2 can handel it. Some people might complain that the characters and enemies look "cartoony", but it didn't bother me one bit. Remeber "Ocarina of Time"? Everyone loved that game, and Dark Cloud is quite similar to that.

The battle system is real-time, similar to Zelda and Maximo. People who don't like the random battles with enjoy the battle system here, and controlling the characters is a breeze. The in-game map is also quite nice, and it avoids the hassel of getting lost all the time. I am not the most attentive gamer, and this is a common problem for me.

So who would I recommend Dark Cloud to? Almost everyone I know, since it has RPG elements, but not the lengthy battles and cinematics to put off people who are not RPG fans. Re-building the village is a nice twist, and it becomes quite engrossing. Enjoy.

A Fun Game...but it has some killer flaws.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

STORY-

You play as a character with the default name of Toan, a young boy who grows up in a small village, living a relatively peaceful life (we're already off to a bad start with that statement, but it gets worse). Suddenly, out of nowhere, an evil dark genie is summoned up by a man with vague origins and even vaguer motives. Well, at the very least, it looks like he wants to blow up some stuff. So Toan's village is attacked for no particular reason on the night of their annual festival and thrown into panicked-villager chaos. He attempts to save his childhood friend Paige from a falling windmill (?) and then everything whites out. When Toan wakes up, he meets the Fairy King who explains that everything in his village was about to be destroyed, but he miraculously managed to fit all the buildings, people and landmarks in the village into small, walnut-shaped capsules called Atla. Furthermore, he goes on to tell you that only YOU, _insertnamehere_ can save the world. The Fairy King gives you a shiny blue stone called the Atlamillia, which can absorb and restore Atla. Being the nice guy he is, Toan doesn't object and somehow has become both responsible for and capable of saving the world...

BATTLE SYSTEM-

Toan starts out with just one default weapon that can't be broken, but that's it. This lack of artillery leaves one thing clear: this ain't no Ratchet & Clank. Sadly, the only way for you to get new weapons at this point in the game is to look for large treasure chests which hopefully contain something of value that can be equipped. Weapons are upgraded once they reach a certain level of experience which is accumulated through defeating enemies. Weapons also have certain items that can be attached so that they will have a certain elemental advantage or stat boost. It's an interesting idea, but the system isn't explained well enough at the beginning of the game and will no doubt leave new players confused. Enemies can be locked onto and attacked, and the real-time combat is executed quite well. However, each attack causes your weapon to take damage. Meaning that the more you strike the enemy, the more likely it is that your weapon will break. And although you can't break your default dagger, weapons you earn later on can. Breaking a weapon doesn't just render it unusable for a period of time, it makes it disappear entirely. Despite the fact that this game tries to act `real' by forcing you to drink water and consume bread, this is perhaps the most ironic fault I've spotted in Dark Cloud so far. Yes, you must eat and drink. But weapons magically vanish when they break and cannot be repaired. Somehow, a certain type of powder can make a weapon as good as new, yet it has no effect on a broken weapon. What, did all the blacksmiths go out of business? This system of constantly having to repair weapons means that unfortunate accidents can occur when a weapon is used by mistake and consequently vanishes. The feeling of frustration when a leveled-up sword shatters in front of your eyes can't be compared to any other gaming experience I've gone through so far.
There are other characters that can be played as you progress through the story, but there can only be one person on the field at a time. Switching back and forth can become tedious, annoying, and generally anything but fun. The allies you have are so unbalanced that you'll end up playing simply as Toan most of the time. Really, there's almost no use for the allies you gain over the course of the game.
Dark Cloud ends up forcing you to use each new `friend' you gain anyway by making each consecutive boss battle suited just for one character's needs. So even if you'd rather not use one of your allies, the game laughs in your face and throws an enemy at you that can only be brought down with a slingshot, hammer or some other weapon that Toan doesn't possess. All in all, the combat is smooth but fighting dozens of enemies with weapons that threaten to break is just too much.

GAMEPLAY-

There are basically two parts to Toan's quest. The former is trekking through hopelessly long dungeons to find Atla...among other items. The latter is the Georama section where you can place the buildings, structures, rivers and people you have found back in their respective places. First I'll go over the good news. Laying out your town just the way you like it is a pleasant diversion from scrambling through floor after floor of dungeon. It actually feels rewarding to get someone's house just right or to fix a building by making it exactly as it was before. Along with placing things throughout the town, you can also move around as Toan and speak to the various inhabitants. This aspect of Dark Cloud is enjoyable and satisfying. If you cater to everyone's needs, you can gain special abilities or equipment for your characters.
But unfortunately, that doesn't account for even half the gameplay in Dark Cloud. The other part of the game deals with entering a dungeon and fighting your way through levels and levels of monsters, all of which leads up to a big boss at the end. There are several problems with this dungeon system, first of which is Toan's neediness. He needs water, he needs repair powder, he needs escape powder...is there anything in this game that doesn't put a burning hole in your wallet? Dying because of `thirst' isn't exactly realistic or particularly fun to deal with. A real human can survive three days without water. That isn't very much time, but you can bet it's more than the few minutes that it takes Toan to dry up. In each dungeon level there is a random assortment of monsters that will attack you upon sight. None of these are exactly original or interesting. You've got your bats, your club wielding `Bashers', your obligatory skeleton warriors, etc. Everything feels used, as if it's already been done before. And that's my point here: Dark Cloud brings nothing new to the table in terms of the dungeon sequences. The developers don't seem to have bothered improving on anything, and, as a matter of fact, it seems they took away some of the fun of dungeon trolling with their system of constantly drinking water, repairing weapons and healing Toan.
To advance in the dungeon levels, you must find a certain key or talisman that will open a door/passageway into a different area. Unfortunately, you're getting a raw deal with this system, because you must defeat monsters to gain the key. It is entirely possible that you will have to go through every last enemy in the level to get a single key item. Players low on health or items will find this a maddening experience as they try to implement a hit-and-run strategy. Randomization of the dungeon levels is also fairly annoying because they entire layout of previous levels will change. What Dark Cloud lacks in quality, it apparently tries to make up with quantity. There are well over fifteen levels in every dungeon and while none of them are particularly challenging, they eat up time and are almost exactly the same regardless of which floor you're on. A feature that the Fairy King tries to emphasize in the beginning of the game is `Mind Connect' ability, in which he can instantly teleport you out of a floor and back aboveground. However, you'll have to defeat every single monster on the level to connect with him, rendering it thoroughly useless. What's the point of escaping from a dungeon with nothing in it? It makes no sense when compared with Escape Powder, which lets you get out instantaneously. Yeah, thanks a bunch, Fairy King.

VISUALS, CHARACTERS and CHARM-

Amazon.com's review listed `sub-par' graphics as a con for Dark Cloud. Well, they couldn't be more right. With a sub-par story and sub-par gameplay, I'd at least hope to have stunning visuals to make up for it. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Toan may look charming at first, but his facial expressions rarely change. The same goes for every other character in this game. The townsfolk look like wooden dolls that can't do anything but walk around and stand dumbly outside their house until the sun sets. There are no voiceovers in Dark Cloud, merely speech bubbles. Peoples' mouths appeared to be glued to their faces and in general, it looks like a sloppily designed game that could have been done much, much better. What century are we in and how can Dark Cloud's developers claim that this is a title for the PS2? You're not getting your money's worth here, folks. If the story and characters had been more engaging, I'd be willing to overlook the obviously low framerate, such as I did with Okage: Shadow King. But there's no excuse for a game filled with plot devices and unimaginative storylines as well as archaic character models. Not only that, but spelling errors and messed up text bubbles appear in the game as well. Couple that with the allies who don't do anything plus bland townsfolk who don't distinguish themselves in any way, and you've got yourself something that is sorely lacking in a variety of departments.

OVERALL-

Dark Cloud would be a decent dungeon crawler with a solid base if it weren't for the ridiculous amount of items that need to be used on Toan along with dozens of similar floors for each dungeon and weapons that threaten to break after five minutes of use. The Georama and town segments are entertaining, but unfortunately they don't make up for the long hours wasted scouring dungeons. No, this is not the second coming of Zelda. At best, it is something to rent to pass the time.

The Dark Cloud Review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Start your quest by entering your name and watching the story unfold. Continue by fighting monsters, rebuilding villages however you please, and saving the world...what else do you need? Get tired of fighting? Go fishing one afternoon to gain more items for your quest. This game is a hybrid of Zelda and SimCity, and arguably as good as both.

As far as negative issues go, the game can be tedious, that is, if you have a short-attention span and don't like to play a game that lasts beyond fifteen hours or so. Some believe the issue with replenishing your water supply and the strength of your sword is annoying, but this tends to oddly enough, spice up the game's repitition during the dungeon stages after the third or fourth level. If you find the game getting too easy, try achieving the four most powerful swords, The Seventh Heaven, The Sword of Zeus, The Chronicle Sword 1 and The Chronicle Sword 2 which can only be achieved by defeating the secret one-hundred levels after you defeat the story-portion of the game.

Every game has it's flaws but few can reach the overly satisfying enjoyment that this game can provide, unless you're the type that doesn't like to spend time on a forty dollar purchase and would rather stick to your fast-paced button smashers (a guilty pleasure for all of us). But in the end, who cares if it plays like Zelda and SimCity, those are both good games as well, and if Sony's Dark Cloud is what I need to play while Nintendo takes its sweet time with a new Zelda title, then so be it. I happened to love this game, but don't believe the hate or the hype, just give this game a chance.

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