The Gameplay:
It's really hard to nail down the genre of Dark Cloud or to explain to someone exactly what type of game it is. The reality of the whole thing is that Sony's RPG is really a compilation of several elements of many different games. The game's creators, whether by chance or direct design, have in effect stolen elements from a lot of different great titles from year's gone by and put them together in a single game.

There's definitely an influence from Nintendo's Zelda franchise, as can be seen by the game's main character, the lock-on battles, and some of its dungeon and artistic design. Players will also see some of Vagrant Story here, as the game relies heavily on the ability to find new weapons to power-up and build according to the desires of the gamer. The random dungeon elements have been seen in hordes of games before it like Diablo II and countless other games. And while I can't comment on it directly as I have regretfully never played it, a lot of people have related the world-building elements in Dark Cloud to Act Raiser on the Super NES.

Using all of these elements, the creators of Dark Cloud have successfully crafted a highly-enjoyable and insanely addictive role-playing experience that wouldn't have been able to stand alone with just its story, just its battle system, or any single one of its gameplay elements. The game works because each element aids in the enjoyment of the other parts.

The player is put in the role of young boy named Toan who is chosen by the Fairy King (ha, ha) to help revive the world after it had been destroyed by the recently summoned "Dark Genie" or "Black Demon." You see, as the world was being annihilated by the Genie, the Fairy King managed to save buildings and people by storing them in these magical spheres called "atla." And it's Toan's job to find these pieces to restore each town he comes across using the magical gem that he was given called the "atlamillia."

To collect the atla to put his own town and others in the world back together, Toan must journey into a variety of 15-plus level dungeon featuring randomly generated layouts and items. While one won't ever confuse the battle engine or cave designs in Dark Cloud to what you'll find in the Zelda games, they serve a different purpose here. The dungeons in the game are best thought of as a simple means to an end. You venture through these dungeons to collect items, find the pieces to rebuild the town, find new and cool weapons and upgrade your characters and their equipment.

Even though this might not seem that fun to some people, and understandably so, if you're the type of gamer, like myself, that likes to waste time in RPGs doing things like leveling up like crazy or managing your weapons in great detail like in Vagrant Story, this can be a very addictive aspect of the game. There's also a nice mix of locales that you'll come across in Dark Cloud beyond just the first, almost stereotypical, dungeon. Toan's adventures will bring him to dungeons in environments like a shipwreck, a desert palace, a forest, and other out-of-this-world surroundings.

The battle system seems like a direct rip of Ocarina of Time, but a bit dumbed down for the sake of simplicity. The lock-on targeting system actually works amazingly well and offers very few annoying camera angle or control problems, but just doesn't have much to it. In the early going, things get mighty repetitive and monotonous quickly, as battles with Toan are limited to him dodging and swinging his sword, but gets remedied a bit as you progress through the adventure.

Once you start making your way through the quest, Toan begins to make friends (allies of Toan that can be switched to at any time in a dungeon once they're a part of your team) that want to help restore the world and destroy the Dark Genie. Each of these different allies offers different skills that come into play in the battles and keep things fresh. There's a character that is slower, yet offers some extra power with his hammer-based weapons, another casts spells, this cat-like girl uses a slingshot and is the only one that has the ability to jump over holes (not realtime, but press button and she jumps), and another uses a long-range staff weapon and the last makes use of these modern, gun-type weapons.

Additionally, specific characters are needed to get past certain parts of some levels and, for boss encounters, it's actually required for you to switch between two or more characters to defeat it. Even though all these different characters basically gives you the same basic abilities of a powered-up Link near the end of a Zelda game, it works out well here in Dark Cloud.

My only real problem with the battles and the whole weapon power-up and management system that goes along with it is that weapons can break and are immediately lost when they do. Weapons also break down much too quickly and one is often required to repair weapons a half-dozen or more times during a single level of a dungeon. This can be painfully annoying if you happen to break a weapon that you've essentially spent the entire game powering up.

Even though this is your own fault, it doesn't make it any less irritating when you simple forget how close your weapon is to breaking and unleash a combo on an enemy that breaks the weapon on the final hit. The weapon, the items you've placed on it, and all of your work just instantly disappears and you're back to ground zero with another weapon. This happened to me about 75% through the game and almost infuriated me to the point of quitting right then and there (my last save was about an hour prior to this, so just resetting wasn't an option to me). It's something that can be managed by keeping a good eye on the weapon hit point meter and saving often, but the game would be better suited if a completely damaged weapon just stopped doing damage instead of completely disappearing into thin air.

There's also a special dual mode, which happens only a handful of times throughout the game in either one-on-one battles or cut scenes, that is a odd mix of Dragon's Lair and Parappa the Rapper. When one of these starts, the player must accurately time the button and or directional pad movement to coincide with what's being shown on screen. If successful, Toan makes it past the event -- either killing the enemy or getting past the danger -- and if not, the player must simply try again.

What's more, even if you don't like straight dungeon hacks, Dark Cloud might still be a game worth checking into. The dungeon crawl elements are broken up really nicely, as after each and every level in a dungeon you can go back to the town and use the items and pieces that you have collected to build the town and further along the storyline of the game.

The town building aspect is quite as robust as I would've liked, but it still gives you a lot of freedom to place houses where you wish. The general order that you get the stuff seems somewhat linear and with each house you basically follow the same routine -- fill pieces that you can, talk to the person in the house to find out what other parts need to be filled, then fill those in -- but there's still a sense of creation and freedom. The inhabitants will also give you suggestions on where they want to live, such as next to a body of water or near a specific person, but you're not required to listen to them, even though it's in your best interest to follow their wishes.

And just as the dungeon crawl elements benefit you by giving you stuff for the world building aspect, putting together these towns reward you by giving you more of the story and even some special items in some cases. As you complete each particular house, an Event will be triggered that enables you to walk into the house in question and get a little in-game cut-scene that'll open up more of the story to you. And whilst, the story isn't comparable to what you'll get in an epic like Final Fantasy or Chrono Cross, it does become much more than just an excuse for the world-building elements, which it seems like in just the beginning.

You're not getting some brilliantly written masterful tale here, but the story is good enough to keep you wanting to find out more, and that's really what's most important in a game of this kind. The dialog is a bit dry on the whole, but elements such as the Pumpkin Panty Fortune Telling and the occasional modern humor will surely make you chuckle.

Dark Cloud is also a very long adventure. If you're looking to blast through it and not worry about all the extra stuff, it's conceivable that you'll be able to finish it in around 30 hours on the game clock. But, if you're that type of gamer, then you'll probably not enjoy playing this game in the first place. If you like collecting items and weapons and tinkering with the building of the different towns and want to play through every inch of the game, including the extra levels that have been added by SCEA for the game's American release.

Sound:
The sound was amazing. Between hearing the water run, or the roasters that wake you up in the mourning, the sound is perfect, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Characters:
Toan, the hero, is a very non-talkitive young man. Like Chrono, he never says anything. The people are you are quite the quiet type also, as some of people he rebuilds the towns for are quiet. Overall I don't think this would stop you from buying the game, as it will eventually be a classic.

Review by : The Neo Midgar