Still alive

Yeah, I haven't forgotten about this place, just lacked the time to write in it. So let's try this again with something else. Still about games, don't worry.

Today I wanted to talk about one of my favorite games, not necessarily the best ever, but the kind that you should play at least once. It's always a matter of taste when it comes to games after all.

My review for today will be : Dark Cloud 2.

My first experience with Dark Cloud was from a friend, let me try his copy of Dark Cloud (the first). While there was some interesting Action RPG aspects, plus some amount of simulation, the game didn't keep my interest due to various factors, mostly the weapon creation system and the thirst system in the dungeons. Those really annoyed me. But I'll explain those in more details later.

Dark Cloud 2 was a gift from a friend that didn't like it, and I must say that it blew me away. Most of the issues I hated with the first game were gone, and replaced by a very good storyline that kept my attention enough to do two different playthroughs of near 80 hours each, and that's a feat in itself.

Story
The story is somewhat about time traveling. There's an evil demolishing cities in the present, which makes them disappear in the future. Monica, a princess from the future, sets for goal to rebuild or save the towns again to fix the future ones.

The story is a tad Disney-ish when it comes to the bad guys, most of them ending up being 'misunderstood' or 'controller' rather than evil, but it all fits well in the storyline. The voice acting was on the notch, and very fitting with the action.

Gameplay
Obviously, the bulk of the game doesn't come from the story though, the gameplay is rock solid. There's so many things that makes this game, it's hard to pick what to talk about first. So let's go for battles.

Battles are either carried on by Max or Monica, a typical ActionRPG with autotargetting and HP, but no experience points come to build your levels. Instead monsters defeated add points to the weapon used to kill the monster, and in turn allows them to be turned into crystals to fused into other weapons, or get other items turned into crystals to fuse unto weapons. The weapon need to gain levels to allow more fuses to be done with it. There's several weapon types to take account of :

-Max uses a Hammer and a Gun. Each of them level up separately depending on which you used to defeat each mob.
-Monica uses a sword and a magic armband.
-Max and Monica both have an alternate 'summon' to use, which also requires separate experience points. Max rides a robot armor, that can be outfitted with different kinds of weapons, bodies, defense, batteries and such.
-Monica morphs into one of 12 different monster types that all have different exp and levels.

Weapons and summons have a duration to them, a certain amount of attacks they can perform before they 'break', but fortunatly breaking only limits to being unusable until repaired, dealing no damage, unlike the first Dark Cloud where a broken weapon was permanently lost. Certain monsters take more durability out of your weapons because of their defense, and all monsters can be more weak to a certain kind of weapon as well.

Weapon upgrades require that your possess a weapon that has high enough attributes, which creates a huge tree of possible results. Fusing more materials to them increase their attack power and stats, and once they reach certain levels of each stat they can be morphed into stronger versions with higher maximum stats. Also fusing them allow to carry certain abilities, like increased resistance to breaking, elemental damage or knock backs.

The levels carry out by random mazes that are automatically mapped for you as you explore it. Each level usually require that you find the monster that carries the key that opens the exit. But once all monsters are defeated in a maze, that's where the fun part is :

You can collect medals as rewards in every stage, which are used to buy new outfits for Monica and Max, it's more for the amusement factor than usefulness though. Each stage has various conditions for those medals as well. There's a 'clear within X amount of time' on every stage, but also 'kill with a specific weapon' only. Plus you can get an extra medal by completing the mini-game, Spheda, on each stage.

Spheda is available when you clear the stage, and you only get one game of it per stage clear. Each stage will have a reward for completing Spheda as well, as materials and items. Spheda is a sort of Golf game, with different rules as the ball and goal change from Red to Blue. The ball changes color by hitting obstacles or walls, and will be attracted by the opposite color, repulsed by the same color. You have a set amount of hits allowed to reach the goal, so you need to reach it on the opposite ball color within that limit. Certain stages are near impossible so you may have to repeat the stage often to clear it. But all in all, Spheda was my favorite part of this game.

Also you can get into Fishing on most stages, which allows you for some Fish races back in the hometown. I haven't dwelled into that one much though.

Lastly, another interesting part of this game is Scoops. Scoops are basically taking pictures of objects or specific events, like a certain monster attack. Scoops are then used to create recipes, that will allow you to create more items, weapons and parts for your robot. But you don't get a clue about recipies, you mostly take random items you photographed and mix them up until you get results. Following a guide is almost required to find all recepies and scoops as a result.

I could probably talk alot more about this, but I'd say, go try it instead. It's a PS2 game, if you find it at bargains or rentals, take it for a spin!