Dark Cloud 2

under fucking rated

There was really nothing like this game when it came out in 2003. A massive action RPG, packed to the brim with unique and addicting mechanics.

At its core, Dark Cloud 2 is a dungeon crawler-action RPG, based around a gameplay loop of navigating floors of procedurally generated levels, hacking away at monsters and collecting tons and tons of loot. The combat isn't too complex, and instead, for most people, the fun relies more on the addictive material gathering that's used across the game's various interconnected mechanics.

There's an extensive weapon upgrade system for your three main playable characters: Max who's melee and gun, Monica who's melee and magic, and then your upgradeable mecha Ridepod. The other major loot sink comes from this recurring, unique puzzle-like city-builder called Georama segments, where each chapter's hub area must be populated with crafted buildings and recruited NPCs to meet certain requirements, progressing through the game by warping forward in time and reaping the benefits of your city's butterfly effect-like effects on the future. There's also just a deluge of other fun side ventures that are way too much to even explain: photography, weapon invention, hometown quests, monster recruitment, fishing and fish racing, and a fan favorite golf-like minigame Spheda that's playable after every completed floor.

The issue despite all of this, unfortunately, is that the main draw of this once-juggernaut of a game - its endless pool of addicting, interweaved RPG systems - may not have aged the best. And this is barely even to any fault of its own, but more with just how most the games' features have long since been integrated into the rest of gaming. Some 70% of contemporary action-adventures already have heavy loot and crafting systems, to the point of fatigue for many. The city builder is still neat, but it's all mostly cosmetic and limited. The combat was tolerable at the time considering there wasn't a ton of sophisticated competition in the action RPG space, but after innovation from series like Souls, Dark Cloud 2's combat might feel comparatively shallow, repetitive, and maybe grindy for modern audiences.

All this makes it a tricky game to rate and a tricky game to recommend. A cult classic for many PS2-gen RPG fans that's in some ways dated, and in other ways, quite ahead of its time - maybe even too ahead of its time. Give the first two dungeons a try, and you'll know if you're hooked or not. It's not for everyone, but even today, this is one of my all-time favorites.

Dark Cloud 2 heavily refines the approach of the original. Level-5 improves their genre-crossing dynamic to overwhelming heights, with its strengths - all mechanical, displaying a truly rare talent of JRPG gameplay ideas feeding into practically everything.

Even if its predecessor's tense dungeon crawling is virtually non-existent here, it compensates by introducing several ideas that grant degrees of replayability to each dungeon floor while avoiding monotony. New combat options, dungeon achievements and specific enemies/loot on each floor (and even a golfing minigame!) all contribute, while the revamped build-up/spectrumize system basically turns each equipped weapon into a separate party member; continuously evolving organisms, constantly mutating, building and inheriting traits freely. The new invention system demands environmental awareness from the player while providing additional value to each town, player-made or otherwise. Even outside of those, the mechanics are smartly woven together, from the crafting system to fishing, from city-building to time travel, each concept connecting to one another in various ways.

Story-wise: the revamped style, setting, better production values and cutscenes certainly helps its whimsical, intrepid adventurer attitude. However, the final dungeon succumbs to the same tired genre stereotypes, both in the more-tedious-than-tense gameplay and the predictable story sequences. The plot is hardly revolutionary, but it at least feels like an honest attempt this time around, and not a goofier, verbose Zelda clone. Regardless, the sheer value and depth in its gameplay makes Dark Cloud 2 a milestone of 6th generation dungeon-crawlers.