When the Dark Genie is awakened, the only way the Fairy King can save the world is to seal all of its buildings and people inside magical orbs called Atla. With the Atla now scattered across the world, it falls to a young boy named Toan to use the magical power of the Atlamillia to restore them to their rightful place. And along the way, Toan might just be able to recruit allies to take on the Dark Genie himself.
Gameplay
A launch PS2 title, Dark Cloud is an action RPG with procedurally generated dungeon exploration and town building aspects. You take your plucky band of heroes ever deeper into the game’s dungeons to retrieve Atla spheres containing elements of the world’s main towns and villages. Once you bring those back to the surface, you can start the rebuilding process.
I first owned Dark Cloud shortly after its UK release some seventeen years ago – however, it’s taken me until early 2020 to actually finish it. And indeed, my first experience with the game wasn’t a positive one.
To explain why, I’ll start by talking about some of the more negative aspects of the game. Just to reassure you, however, there are going to be positives later on.
When you get started with Dark Cloud, you’ll experience three main frustrations. The first of these becomes apparent as you explore a dungeon – over time, your characters get thirsty, and when they reach peak thirst, their HP will start to drain. If you’ve ever played a roguelike game, you’ll recognise that it’s a similar mechanic to hunger in that genre. To be fair, later in the game it’s only a minor annoyance – by then you’ll have a larger thirst gauge, money to buy water, and will be practised at finding water sources in dungeons. Early on, however, it can feel frustrating and unnecessarily punitive.
As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, there’s another way things can wrong – weapons in Dark Cloud have HP, and can break. In this game, characters don’t level up conventionally – HP, thirst and defence are all raised by finding and using special items, while a character’s attack stats are entirely dependent on the weapon they wield. It’s the weapons that level up, through a process that involves a combination of defeating enemies, finding special powerup powders, and using stat-enhancing gems. You can even level up weapons and then turn them into stat boosting items to be attached to other weapons. Getting a killer weapon can therefore take several hours – so if you then get caught up in the heat of battle and break that weapon, you might be forgiven for uttering a few choice words at the screen.
Duly forewarned about all of the above, you resolve never to head into a dungeon without a ready supply of thirst-replenishing water bottles, and a pile of repair powder for your weapons. Add in some HP-restoring foodstuffs and a few escape powders so you can bid a swift retreat from a tough dungeon, and you might be feeling weighed down, but well prepared. However, there is one more thing to take into consideration.
As Toan progresses on his adventure, he will meet five more allies who join him in his cause. Unfortunately, each one of them joins with a weak, basic weapon that is totally unsuitable for the enemies at hand. Since the game enforces the use of every character in order to progress, you’ll have no choice but to go back and level up each newcomer.
It was all these constraints that made my first attempt at Dark Cloud less than stellar. Right from the start, I was bad at the combat, constantly getting thirsty, and I had just progressed far enough that the village chief had stopped handing out free restorative items. When the catgirl Xiao joined my team and couldn’t do more than 2 damage per hit, I gave the whole thing up as a bad job and didn’t touch the game again for a decade.
And yet, for whatever reason, I was eventually drawn back to Dark Cloud. Maybe it was other people’s positive experiences, combined with a more mature perspective and a bloody-minded desire to finish what I started. Whatever the case, I started afresh with the game, and this time, things went a lot better.
Having accepting the game and its frustrations for what it was, I found myself better able to progress and enjoy myself. Sure, I needed to keep an eye on my thirst meter and commit time to levelling up weapons, but once I got into the swing of things, the game was pretty fun. I’ve always had a soft spot for exploring procedurally generated dungeons, and adding in a town building was just the icing on the cake. Yes, I’m still not great at the melee combat, and it took me a few more years to get around to tackling the final few levels, but overall I did enjoy myself.
Given the game’s age and its status as a console launch title, it can’t be denied that it is a bit rough around the edges in places. The camera’s behaviour can often interfere with targeting, there’s the odd graphical glitch, and the interface is not as intuitive as it could be. For the most part, however, the game’s simplicity is also its charm. There aren’t a hundred different gameplay mechanisms to keep track of, or anything complex or convoluted. Instead, each level of a dungeon behaves in the same way – beat up monsters, collect Atla, and find the key that lets you into the next level. If you’re very lucky, you might even come across a special item that lets you into the level’s secret area, where tougher enemies and better rewards await.
Story
Dark Cloud’s story is a bit on the basic side, but compared to today’s plot heavy JRPGs, that can actually feel refreshing. While the first five chapters advance the story somewhat, it’s only really the final chapter that packs in the most plot development, revealing the chunk of backstory that led to the current state of the world.
The characters themselves get little in the way of development – Toan himself is a classic silent protagonist, but what little dialogue the others get doesn’t really provide them with much personality.
Audiovisual
Visually, Dark Cloud is certainly showing its age these days, although it actually holds up well for an early PS2 game. Sure, the dungeons aren’t particularly sophisticated, but they perform their function, while character and monster designs look pretty good for their age.
The music is simplistic yet functional, and even quite catchy at times – the Wise Owl Forest track in particular stands out as a pleasantly melodic piece. Of course, as with many games, the short loop times on the dungeon themes might make them seem grating after a while.
There’s no voice acting, but to be honest that’s more of a relief than a disappointment. Given the simplicity of the plot and characters, it’s not clear what voice acting would have added.
Characters
Dark Cloud provides six playable characters – three melee and three ranged attackers. As some of them join in the second half of the game, you’ll need to go back and grind in the earlier dungeons to get them up to par. Don’t think you can skip this step – right up until the end of the game, there are stages that can only be completed by particular characters.
- Toan: as the main character, Toan is predictably an average but not outstanding sword-wielder. If you favour melee attackers, then he’s a reasonable choice. He’s also the only one who can open Atla.
- Xiao: A cat who gets transformed into a catgirl so that she can assist Toan. Xiao wields a slingshot and can leap over small gaps. Although her attack strength is never particularly impressive, she’s your first ranged attacker, and can therefore be a reliable choice for the first half of the game.
- Goro: The typical oversized strong but slow warrior, Goro relies on massive hammers in battle. If deployed wisely, his charge attack can be a crowd-clearer, but his low speed often makes him a frustrating character to use. If you see a large switch on the ground, chances are you need to switch to Goro so that he can activate it.
- Ruby: A witch that Toan releases from a magical lamp. Ruby fires elemental blasts from magical rings. If there’s an elemental crystal in front a locked door, Ruby is the one to use to open it. I found her easily the strongest of the melee attackers, and my favourite character to use overall. She can easily and safely overcome almost any enemy.
- Ungaga: A desert warrior who wields staves and spears. Ungaga has a special technique where he can spin his weapon to disperse black mist. He has a longer reach than Toan, which should make him a better choice of melee attacker, but since he joins quite late in the game, it takes a lot of effort to get his weapon up to scratch.
- Osmond: The chief of the mysterious creatures who live on the Moon. Osmond uses a helipack to float above ground, and hence can traverse any game. His weapon is a laser gun, which gives him a decent range. Again, he is a potentially decent character, but because he joins late in the game you might not want to make the effort strengthening his weapons.
Final Thoughts
Dark Cloud might seem pretty basic compared to more modern titles, but if you can overcome the initial frustrations then it’s actually a pretty fun title. After a rocky start, I enjoyed the bulk of my time with the game, and look forward to seeing the improvements made in the sequel.
