[PS2] Dark Cloud 2 Discussion (Rate it too!)

I recently went to gamespot and saw many screenshots and even watched about 10 of their many videos for this game. I can't believe it came out in 2003. Seems like a short time ago this came out in. I've never played it before but since Level 5 did DQ8 I figured they'd have done great on Dark Cloud 2. The game looks great in those videos! The graphics of DQ8 and voice storyline and fast gameplay.

I'm thinking about getting it (and finally, too), but first I'm wondering what everyone else thinks. Is it any good?

How is the storyline?
How is the gameplay and what types of equipment can you get and how do you get it?
How is this "building towns" idea? Is it fun or just a waste of time?
Tell me about it overall. Thanks!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

The story line is pretty cool in my opinion. It's typical RPG with a little twist on it (obviously i won't reveal the story line). It's typical 'Lets save the world!' material

The gameplay is pretty damn good. Getting to bash things round the face with a huge wrench is highly amusing but can also get quite annoying because of course it's in real time so it's more like a platformer battle than an RPG battle. I think you collect money from monsters and bosses in order to purchase new equipment and build up the funky robot type thing you get.

The building towns idea is pretty fun. It's 10 times better than in the first one. It's not as annoying as the first one and you get a great sense of satisfaction when you complete a town and you can go to all the shops and it's just pretty damn cool. Just getting to move things around to you hearts content(as long as it keeps the villagers happy of course) is fab.

Over all,it's a pretty good game. It can get quite tedious however. It's not for everyone, but i think you should geta copy of it. It should be cheap as chips by now because it's been out for so long. I think it's worth you checking it out. As i said, far more fun than the original game and the story is mroe gripping.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

i waited for this game but it was a letdown, if you don't like dungeon RPGs don't get this one ^^ the dungeons are huge and a bit repetitive and they are randomly generated so they're different each time you play (not 100% sure about that though)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I really liked the feel of the game. It felt like I was actually in the unique world and I hadn't had that experience since playing Star Ocean 2. I loved the innovation of it as well (the past causing changes in the future) and while the Item Creation system wasn't that great, I still enjoyed it and found it to be pretty fun. The only thing I didn't like was the repetitiveness of combat. Yes, the dungeons were randomly generated, but that kind of made it worst. That's the only gripe I have about the game though. I thought everything else was done very well.

Like the previous poster said, if you don't like dungeon-RPGs, don't get it. I never played a dungeon RPG before this or any other afterwards. It's the only dungeon-RPG I've played so I don't know if it's a good one or not. It appealed to me because of the overall feel, which you may not experience so I'd say go with a rental or borrow from a friend first if you're unsure.

I gave it a 7 on the poll.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Does the building town stuff take too much time and slow the game down?

I was speaking idiomatically.

i gave it a 9. this game went under the radar and it's GEM!! it's very replayable, which adds to it's fun factor!

Building the towns doesn't take long at all. it's pretty easy in fact. just collect the materials and place the buildings to pass the level.

How ya doing, buddy?

I really enjoyed the game and got hugely into it, until it started crashing every time I exited out of the menu too fast.

The town building is a huge improvement on the first game and the inventing and phots ideas are pretty cool. Also it has an awesome fishing game and is a very pretty looking game. If I saw it cheap, I'd buy another copy in the hope it would work properly and I could finish it.

FELIPE NO

This game can be an epic time drain if you get into it. What I do like is how it handles combat, it's not like the Final Fantasy RPGs where killing weak mosters over and over will let uskilled players level up quickly. The oly thing I don't like about the gameplay is it doesn't take full advantage of the 3rd dimension very well (you can't even jump).
There's so many great mini-games such as spheda and fishing (which is done way better than Sonic Adventure does). The 8th Chapter also gives the more hardcore players a chance to test their skills. I hope Rouge Galaxy comes out in the US, I'll be happy to see if Level-5 can duplicate the greatness of Dark Cloud 2.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Borg1982

Does the building town stuff take too much time and slow the game down?

It can be if you want it to be. It can also be quick. That's what's awesome about the building part. Lots of stuff to unlock, but you can get by with the basics to move the story along.

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Gah, I can't believe I missed this thread. Dark Cloud 2, for me, is one of the best PS2 games ever. This is the game that, when I found out Dragon Quest 8 was done by Level 5, made my decision to purchase DQ8 final. Any game Level 5 creates I will buy.

Dark Cloud 2 has amazing visuals, first and foremost. Everything is bright, colorful, and active. The environments are beautiful (especially Veneccio) and fun to explore, which you'll be doing a lot of.

The characters are also really cool, and there's a broad range of personalities. You can recruit a good number of the NPCs to perform speciality tasks for you, and you can "take" one of them with you into a dungeon and make use of their abilities. For example, one of the NPCs, if you take her with you into a dungeon, will cure any ailments you get, such as poison. Others will sell you stuff in case you run out of items, but one of them (and the best one, IMO) reveals which treasure chests are mimcs, which enemy holds the door key for each level, and reveals the whole level's map.

Battles are fun as well. Everything's on the main field, like Zelda. Max and Monica each have one ranged attack and one melee attack. Max uses wrenches and hammers, in which he swings them slowly but causes more damage, and can charge up and use a spinning attack. He uses a variety of guns for long-range combat.

Monica uses swords which she can often swing faster and hit more often, but they're not as strong. She has a few different variants on her sword-swinging. For ranged attacks, she uses magic by equipping armbands. Whichever element she uses is dependant on the element that is most powerful on the armband which can always be changed by synthesizing it, so in truth all of her armbands can be any element.

The story's quite a charming one as well. It starts off kind of typical and ends the same way, but it's a fun ride nonetheless. You'll be taken in, treated to a few surprises and plot twists, and end spectacularly.

Speaking of endings, there's also an epilogue quest you can undertake back in the first town. Be warned -- you'll need to be powerful.

So, you'll be spending a good portion of your time (or if you enjoy it, a great portion) rebuilding the cities. It seems like a fairly mundane task at first. You're given a set of requirements to get 100% of the rebuilding completed, however it's up to you how you go about getting that 100%. It might say "Build 3 houses" but how you decorate them, etc. is usually up to you. Plus, let's say that "Build 3 Houses" is your only goal -- after that you can do pretty much whatever you want to the whole area! That's fun in itself.

Trust me, when you get to Veneccio, you'll really have a good bit of space to work with and very minimal requirements to get 100%. It's so great. I wanna look at my city again.

Anyway, along with all of the minigames (like inventing, the fishing contest and the fish race) and the amount of time you can spend building stuff, this game should last you about 100 hours. If you played the first Dark Cloud, you'll find similarities, but only about skin deep. Some of the dungeons in the first game were ridiculously long, but the ones in this game aren't so bad, at least not in comparison.

I would've given this game a 20 out of 10, but that option wasn't available. 10/10.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Shin, it's not only your copy that has that problem, I had it too. Since I've already heard numerous complaints, I fear that it's a EU-release problem.

As for DC, I loved the game, although the first few hours can be rather tedious. As for how long it'll take you, 100 hours is a bit too much, I managed to finish it with every weapon maxed, most of the medals (except some for Speda, that evil game), and almost all of the photos (ecept one I missed early in the game), and it took me just under 50 hours.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Really? That's a shame because I did enjoy the game. I find it works ok if you let each menu screen properly load before flicking to the next but that can be fucking tedious and all it takes is one lapse of concentration and the damn thing crashes, losing your progress. Maybe I'll get round to finishing it one day...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I should really get around to finishing this game some day. It's been on my shelf for years, and I've just never been able to get around to it. It's sort of a minor miracle I picked it up in the first place, as I think the first game is one of the worst pieces of crap to walk this earth since Shin.

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Originally Posted by Denicalis

I should really get around to finishing this game some day. It's been on my shelf for years, and I've just never been able to get around to it. It's sort of a minor miracle I picked it up in the first place, as I think the first game is one of the worst pieces of crap to walk this earth since Shin.

Quoted for truth. Sorry, after playing like the first few dungeons and fighting the boss, (I think I got up to the 2nd boss - the ape/monkey dude) I just couldn't stand it anymore. Repetition and useless weapons, anyone? It's just not my game.

I've gotten not very far for the second game though, it has slight improvements over the first, but I still can't bring myself to play it "diligently".

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Denicalis

I should really get around to finishing this game some day. It's been on my shelf for years, and I've just never been able to get around to it. It's sort of a minor miracle I picked it up in the first place, as I think the first game is one of the worst pieces of crap to walk this earth since Shin.

What do you know about decent games you fucking midget?

I kinda liked the overly cuteness of the game, the fact that it's all pretty chilled out and it is very nice looking. I know, that's a little out of character for me but you can't be pumping bullets into screaming Triads all the time now can you?

FELIPE NO

Wait... isn't this for PS2? Because I remember beating this game with all inventions, upgrades (wrench and robot and sword i think?). Yea it was the shit, I wish a MMORPG had this aspect.(Holybeat doesn't count or DoMo)

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I beat this game over a single summer holiday, and spent over 100 hours on it as well. It may be a little simplistic, but it was loads fun and addictive.

The game also featured the greatest mini-games ever: Spheda and Fishing (with racing and contests).

I gave the game 10, it deserves it in my eyes.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I didn't realize it at first, but Spheda (on certain levels) has got to be one of the coolest minigames ever conceived, just beneath Blitzball. And yes, the fishing aspect was extremely addicting, although you wouldn't believe it until you actually play it. I was really into making a racing fish. By the time I actually entered him into the race, he could lap the other fish!

How ya doing, buddy?

Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle is a pretty decent game, a nice step forward from the original Dark Cloud in terms of the action sequences and what you could do in battle. They did strip down the Georama sequences a little bit and made them almost to where it forced you to build a town a certain way instead of being able to do whatever you wanted. The addition of the mini-games at the end of stages though made up for that, with Spheda being both stressful and fun at the same time. Whenever you made a difficult shot in Spheda, especially in the canyon/cliff areas, you were always fairly proud of yourself.

The VA and Soundtrack are both excellent, something you never usually find together in a game, which is a rarity. This game gets down what a lot of VA jobs tend to fail on, and that's getting the female voices sounding maturely and not too high pitched. High pitched works for Japanese voices, but NOT for English voices, and Monica's voice proved to break the mold and sound incredibly mature.

I'd probably have to rate the game an 8.8/10 overall, because the Georama system was one of the core foundations for Dark Cloud and to see it gimped like it was seemed a little disheartening. Building super weapons was also made too easy, and having to load the menu every time you wanted to open it separately was a little annoying, but tolerable.

It's a shame they went with the Rogue Galaxy concept instead of Dark Cloud 3/Dark Chronicle 2, but Level 5 went on to make the Dragon Quest VIII masterpiece so I can't really complain.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Kostaki

Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle is a pretty decent game, a nice step forward from the original Dark Cloud in terms of the action sequences and what you could do in battle. They did strip down the Georama sequences a little bit and made them almost to where it forced you to build a town a certain way instead of being able to do whatever you wanted.

I gotta disagree with you, because after I got 100% in Veneccio, I went on to make additions and played around with a lot of stuff. I did the same in the Rainbow Woods town as well, since both had enough of those creation points left over. Balance Valley and Heim Rada were the exceptions, since they left little room for improvements. Still, minor things could be added to deviate from the 100% completion minimum.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Once you got 100% you could easily do whatever you want, this is true. This is however if and only if you wanted to go back and do whatever you wanted, as opposed to being able to do what you wanted from the get go. The original Dark Cloud gave you a lot more leniency there, whereas this one does not. You literally have to go back and play around with it later on to get the full extent of what it can do. I did forget to add the points of there not being a "straightening" system in Dark Cloud 2 to where you could make a horribly misproportioned looking town if you didn't look where you were putting things at all angles. That's kinda minor, though.

I suppose you have to do that with Spheda and Fishing too, but then those only become accessible at certain points.

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geez i'm stressed out because of spheda... T_T

so difficult to play spheda, especially at the sewer...

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?