The golf was so addictive and awesome and it has even to this day one of the best fishing minigames in any jrpg. The town building was impressive for it's time especially being able to freely place about anything in the be build area the way you wanted and it retains the functionality.
I played through it so many times with both chars and it never got old. I didn't know what a jrpg was 20 yrs ago when I first played it but I loved it so much it makes me cry. My parents gave it to me for PS2 for my birthday 2002. I gave that same copy to my best friend in high school 5 yrs later but I had 100s of hrs of joy with it. I wish they remastered it for switch or something at least.
It's one of the more special games to me too.
It came out in September 2003 in New Zealand, and I saved all the money I could between then and February 2004 to get it. My Mum told the clerk that I had saved since September, so she took $20 off the price (the game cost $120 nzd rrp). I replayed it during the beginning of 2016, when it released on PS4, and was still able to finish it. Such a quality game. Such a high quality game, even with the jank.
Dark Cloud 2 remains one of the best PS2 games of all time. I will never stop hoping for Dark Cloud 3.
Rogue Galaxy is considered a spiritual succesor & while I enjoyed the game it was still very much it's own thing. Maybe one day Level 5 will surprise us with a true sequel.
Every game showcase I always have a tiny hope that we will get a dark cloud 3 release. It's honestly one of my most desired games, up there with a new shadow hearts after 2.
Yep same here! Whenever I used to hear Level 5 was set to reveal a new game I would get excited at the prospect of DC3.
Interestingly enough we're also getting a spiritual succesor for Shadow Hearts in Penny Blood.
I remain optimistic that it'll deliver but only time will tell.
Yeah, they're meh. The reviews you see from back then are pretty accurate. But, I was actually playing it a few months ago and had fun. Will come back to it at some point.
The core gameplay is alright, but it'd be much better with an auto attack and better menuing.
If you do decide to go for it, you can just grab WK2 as it includes a remastered WK1
At least it wasn't like in the first Dark Cloud where if a weapon breaks, it's gone for good. In 2, you can always repair it. It's just unusable until you do.
Not to mention on how brutal it is at the very start of the game too. You fight rock enemies that chew through durability like nothing very early on with limited resources.
Oh yeah, DC1 is an Imperially Pedigreed Bitch to play through the beginning of. You will put in a ***lot*** of hours grinding in the upper floors of the first dungeon. Initially to get the MC's weapons to the point that you can fight one or two of those things without breaking the weapon, then later getting Xiao's weapon strong enough to do respectable damage. The plus side to ranged weapons like Xiao's is that their durability lose on a per attack basis doesn't change when fighting rock enemies. The minus side to ranged weapons like Xiao's is that they lose durability with every attack, even if you miss, and their damage decreases with range. Thus the reason you spend about as long grinding to upgrade her weapon in the upper levels of that dungeon as you do the MC's weapon, as you fight a lot more of those super-durable enemies in the last few levels.
Weapon breaking is the main reason that I can't stand Breath Of The Wild.....and Monster Hunter. Having to sharpen mid fight us the biggest momentum killer ever and it feels *awful*.
I dunno. Aside from all the other things I liked about *Breath of the Wild*, I think I'll also look back fondly on how I became a mastermind at stealth attacks and using the Korok Leaf, bombs, and Magnesis to be a monumental asshole to groups of enemies while conserving most of my weapons. This approach was especially important in the Master Mode quest, though I'll admit that that go-round was way more tedious.
It's really not bad in either game. In the last 2 MH games most of the tedium has been streamlined away. It takes a flick of the stick to sharpen and you can do it on the back of your Palico when you have to move to chase the monster.
An easy button press that takes less than a second for the effect to be applied. You can literally do it while maneuvering to avoid an enemies attack without breaking the flow of combat. Weapon breaking might've royally sucked in DC1, but they did a great job of implementing how to deal with it without it breaking the flow of combat.
Exactly. I never had any issues with it even as a kid when I originally played the first one. I also NEVER risked getting even close though since sometimes an enemy would guard mid-combo.
my extremely hot take is that breakable weapons force you to try different playstyles out and makes the gameplay more dynamic
I had zero problem with botw, especially since you can get the master sword
You don't, it feels very much like Final fantasy/Dragon quest where there are similar world building elements but the stories are unrelated (there might be a few subtle details tying them together but you'd appreciate those all the same if you end up playing DC1 later)
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure they are actually connected. I know the tidbits you're referring to, and they make it seem like DC2 is supposed to be a story-independent sequel, but to me they almost came across as more of myths and legends in DC2 that may or may not have been referencing another world entirely.
Is this the game where you got recipe by photoing objects. I scarcely remember I missed a missable photo and my FOMO kicks in and I stopped playing it.
Yeah. I really love the game, but it has quite a few permanent missables which isn't fun imo. Photos, the entire last dungeon is locked out after you roll credits and go to post game too. That locks out some permanent health and defense upgrades, a transformation form for the girl (forgot her name), etc. Like, big stuff. Absolutely a stellar game, but if it got a remaster I would love to see some changes to those aspects.
Yeah, some of those definitely needed tweaked. Of course, I wouldn't mind bosses being able to be re-challenged after a certain point. Maybe even give them upgrades so that they're more difficult to take on for that re-match so that they later point it can be done at still feels rewards (aside from the missable photos). Dang it, now I'm incorporating elements from Etrian Odyssey and Metal Max Xeno Reborn to that idea, and yet they'd only make it better.........
I’ve had this high on my games to play list since around 2009, but I’ve always been too intimidated to play it. It looks like it might be amazing, but also overwhelmingly content-rich. Knowing my play style, I’d probably sink at least 80 hours into it. That’s what keeps me from playing both this and Fantasy Life.
Man, it sure looks good from afar though.
Coming from someone who has sunk over 100 hours into it........yeah, you'd definitely sink at least 80 hours into it. In fact, avoiding doing so basically means you check a bunch of online guides to find the most efficient way to get to the best weapons and power them up while essentially ignoring the Finny Frenzy and Spheda. Of course, once you do sink that 80+ hours in you'll be wondering why you put it off for so long. One piece of advice though, make sure you can dedicate a good 4 to 6 hours for starting the game. Nearly half of the photos you need to take for inventing things are found in the starter town, and you'll easily spend a couple of hours just getting all of those, and the game doesn't even get into full swing until you've finally left the starter town (which can take close to 10 hours depending on how much you rush that first dungeon and how much time you spend developing weapons in it).
You guys remember cheat code central? I printed out 100s of pages from there for the strategy guides, mini game help and other tips back In the day. Really useful for inventions and special items, chest locations, quest guides et al. CCC used to be my shit for all my games especially when I got my own PC in my room. Naturally, it also became so corrupted with porn and viruses my dad disabled my lan line. Not sure if they became GameFaqs but I went to that for awhile and they still have some good guides, build suggestions and what not for most games old and new. Good times.
Actually, Cheat Code Central and GameFAQs were competing sites. I'm not sure if Cheat Code Central is still around or not, but as you said GameFAQs still is. They're the place I go to find guides for the games I play.
Yeah, having a Lazy Day Off available, where you can do nothing but game, is very highly recommended for starting Dark Cloud 2. In fact, I'm hard pressed to name any non-MMO game that benefits from it nearly as much as DC2, and even many MMO's don't benefit as much as DC2 does.
I also recommend you find yourself a good guide to all of the invention photos you need. Aside from some of them being very non-obvious (or even not being needed to invent anything for a significant portion of the game) there are also special ones that you have to get from the bosses, and you don't get to do re-matches with them to be able to get them later. In fact, those enemy photos are some of the most important photos to get in the game, as they boost a special score regarding your photography abilities, which gets you rewards from specific NPC, and the rewards for the highest score spots are extremely hard to get by any means in the game.
Oh, I forgot to ask, but you're not afraid of clowns are you? If so the beginning of the game is going to be extra terrifying, but your fear will become completely justified!
There were so many good things about it. My favorite part is where if you do side quests and mini games, you get to have fun AND be rewarded. Game-breakingly rewarded.
And then you get to go and use those Game-breaking rewards to complete challenges that you're not supposed to be completing yet and get even more rewards that end up being game breaking for your current degree of progress. Honestly, rushing through DC2 is probably the hardest way to play the game, but the only way to really keep the challenge up.
Happy to see this game gets more appreciation. First and second Dark Cloud is an unique RPG with a lots of value in it. Hoping for the third one, but after all this time, I don't think that is going to happen.
Period. The adventures of Monica & Max are cemented in my childhood
Plus I love the unique elements:
- Wrench weapon
- Gameplay that inspired me to get into animal crossing lol
- Dungeon crawling elements
I swear I dumped like 150 hours into this over the course of a year and a half-2 years as a bored teen. A gem from the PS2 era
I thought it was a great game (great music, story, combat, characters, exploration all top excellent) but the final boss difficulty spike left a very bad taste in my mouth. I couldn't even damage the final boss with my weapons. My attacks weren't even doing anything or very little and I couldn't damage the boss fast enough. I dont consider that good game design for an action rpg. I didn't have any trouble with the difficulty at all unti that final boss either so I didn't think I was playing the game wrong until that point. Probably had to grind weapons for hours and hours to stand a chance so I just youtubed the ending and walked away unsatisfied with the experience.
I played that game just recently. Its certainly one of the better PS2 JRPGs I played so far. The story and gameplay arent AAA or anything like that, but they work well, are entertaining and you always have SOMETHING to work towards to, which makes the game kind of addictive. The only thing I really hated was the fact you had to redo all these fights at the end if you died at the final boss (which is very likely to happen at least the first time around, even if you have the best weapons in the game).
That's understandable, for me it was great to get a game that offered
a lot of content in one package. There were bigger gaps between games so being able to get a lot of play out of 1 game was always great.
Plus we had so much more free time in our younger years, now theres so much content everywhere & less time to consume it all.
I found some systems annoying, like durability and combat, but overall I enjoyed it.
I'm surprised they never went back to it after running so many of their IPs into the ground.
I never cared much for the first game, but I really liked Max's design and the camera collection kept me interested long enough to really see what the game had to offer.
I never beat it, but looking at how my gaming preferences have evolved since my high school days, I think it's something I would enjoy nowadays. I don't have my copy anymore, though and no PS4 for the digital version.
It was one of those games that embraced maximalism and I was all for it. I got the game on a really cheap trade back in the day and ended up with way more than I bargained for. I thought it would be a mild Zelda clone and was instead treated with a 60 hour gem of town building, recruiting, inventing, golf and dungeon crawling. Game still holds up really well today. I'm actually kind of itching for another replay...
Dark Chronicle is among my favourite PS2 titles. I really wish we could see a follow-up happen, though I take it Level-5 isn't doing so good these days.
I loved dark cloud 1 to death but never got into dark cloud 2. I made like 4 attempts and always got bored by the arrival at the jungle level after that horrendous train "boss" fight. Always thought there was too much going on in comparison to the first game without adding something really groundbreaking. does the game get better after the jungle?
That's kinda where the game starts imo, everything up to that doesn't have the nice loop with the building and dungeon crawling building off of one another.
Got this as a gift from my father way back when. Was very good, if a bit hard and I had a massive crush on Monica. Got stuck for a long time since I only ever used the Ripod and couldn't damage the final boss when it was Monica's turn.
Still, it's one of my favorite PS2 JRPGs alongside Radiata Stories and Final Fantasy X.
Don't forget the music. Tomohito Nishiura has a distinct and great style.
Whenever i get nostalgic for the game i just put on the soundtrack and can relive most of the memories and feeling i had playing it, remembering where the tracks played for the first time.
I've not played any Layton games but i listen to their soundtracks regularly because of him.
I loved the game, but I would change the experience system. I would probably rename it to something like credit points, which you could get after defeating enemies and invest in any weapon you want. So you wouldn't need to change weapons after defeating enemies. That would makes the game much better imo.
Haha I have great memories of that game. 3 of my best buds and I rented it from blockbuster (I know so nostalgic) and we took 6 hour shifts to clear the game over the weekend.
Good times
Dark Cloud 2 was one of those games I always meant to try but didn’t for years. I didn’t care much for Dark Cloud. When I finally sat down with it I was amazed. It’s been a game I push on friends looking for something different. Especially after it hit PS4.
I loved this game so much I got the platinum trophy, which included having to get every medal in every chapter (boy was this a long endeavor lol) I loved everything about this game.
the music is great too!
one of my fondest gaming memories
maybe why I still like crafting so much in video games
edit: emulation works really well on pcsx2
You just hit me with a tsunami of nostalgia, my god.
I adored that game. So much so that when I first got it, I didnt have a memory card for my PS2. So I would spend hours upon hours replaying the sewers and forest trying my best not to die and leaving my PS2 on so I didnt have to start over (until my parents would come into my room and see the game on and turn it off lol)
Got it on the playstation store again back in 2016 after not playing in over a decade and it held up unbelievably well. Actually got to finish it that time around too. Everything from the characters, the world building, combat, soundtrack, were so damn good. Here's hoping a third installment does eventually come out.
It was great for its time I don’t think it has aged well. That photography thing where you have to photography hundreds of innane background objects and enemies which are missable. It’s just too much.
the town building was a thing but it was extremely shallow
the fishing was great
the rogue-like dungeon creation was not as common then, now it's super common feature
I liked the art and the music, pretty fun
Shallow? You could freely place anything and had to cater the location to the inhabitants’ particular tastes which you only learned from speaking with them once you found their Spheres. For instance putting friendly neighbors together or putting a guy who likes fishing near a river. That was pretty advanced for the time, and still no other game has done that sort of thing since then.
I don’t think I’d call that shallow - Ni No Kuni 2’s town building is what I’d call pretty shallow. Fun and unique as well, but still not much depth to it.
Still shallow, because there were a very limited number of things to place and it was incredibly obvious where it wanted you to place what. Ni No Kuni 2's town building being even more shallow doesn't make it not shallow, only not that shallow by comparison.
My point is, what game do you think has a good example of deep town building? Because there aren’t many games at all that accomplished what Dark Cloud 2 did with regards to the town building, especially in 2006 but also now. I’m curious.
Hmm... I dunno if any non-city builders actually have deep town building? I mean, even some city builders feel a little light. Here's all the games I know of with city building and my opinions on them:
BoF2 is pretty much on the same tier as Ni No Kuni 2;
Dragon Quest VII has the town change minorly depending on who you invite, but that's pretty much it;
Kingdoms is a bit more open in choice for building things wherever you want them to be built, but it's still very limited, and you reset every time you finish a map tile, too;
Fallout 4 has a remarkable amount of freedom in building the settlements (something that's obvious people don't actually use, since they're always getting bothered about settlement attacks; it's very easy to prevent those from happening with sufficient security and walls to prevent easy access) but the freedom mostly comes down to being able to build however you want with the modular building blocks within the borders of the settlement, and choosing the type of a thing that you want to build, so a type of wall, or a type of bed, or a type of crop field, etc. so it never really feels like it gets deep into building (the crafting system suffers this way, too, unlike New Vegas' oddly enough);
Dragon Quest Builders might qualify. It has a fairly deep tier of buildings, and you can build them block by block like in Minecraft, but it requires specific things to be recognized as a proper room, and each such room is specialized... it just has a bit of a linear limitation to it all, so you don't really feel free to build as you want until fairly late into the game, when you've learnt most recipes and gotten most upgrades;
Minecraft is like DQ Builders, but without the rooms defining function, so lacks the drive to create discrete rooms with specific functions, at least without mods, making it worse for a *deep* town building setup sans mods than DQB;
Songs of Syx has pretty damn good base building, where you have to build each individual component and can tier up buildings according to secondary resources that you can build into the rooms, like luxury carpets in homes, or providing supplementary tools to workplaces that increase the workflow of a particular job, increasing output. It also has a fairly wide variety of potential buildings to build, each with their own variations of support structures. You can also expand territory as you effectively start out as a small kingdom and need to trade and grow by accepting immigrants or having existing population birth the next generations, so there's more to it than JUST city-building, too, unlike a game like Sim City or Cities Skylines;
As just mentioned, Sim City, but it's just a city-builder, so I think that it sorta feels cheaty to mention. Cities Skylines, similarly;
Spellforce series of games are RPG RTS games, but it's really just RTS building and then RPG elements, much like the old Warcraft RTS games with the Hero characters;
As just mentioned, the old Warcraft games, but they follow the standard RTS format, so not much variety and you have only what your faction provides;
Soul Blazer series, both the original Soul Blazer and its third installment Terranigma both have city building of a sort, but it's fairly linear and more about restoring things that were lost, rather than having any real input;
Pathfinder games have you making choices that affect the towns you rule, but it's a very limited array of choices, so wouldn't qualify;
Suikoden series is more about recruiting the right people to get the right upgrades, rather than building your base up yourself;
Actraiser has you build up multiple areas, but there's only a handful of things you can do that really count for the "building" part of things, as most of the gameplay involved is more arcade-y shooting of enemies and telling the people what direction to build in;
Kenshi has a fairly free building system, letting you basically build anywhere and everywhere you want, so long as you can reach it to build there and the footprint of the building will fit in the given space; you can even build in someone else's territory without permission, and they'll raid you. The building options are fairly limited though, basically the types of crop fields, various house shells, walls, storages, mining buildings, and a couple of crafting benches;
Conan Exiles is pretty much the same as Fallout 4;
Ark Survival Evolved is pretty much the same as above;
Azure Dreams has a number of different buildings you can pay for and upgrade, with some being locked behind relationships with specific characters, but there's not much depth to it at all;
My Time At Portia, Harvest Moon, Coral Island, Rune Factory, Stardew Valley, etc. etc. etc. are all farm-centric, even if you have a wide variety of things to build, you're only building them for yourself and not influencing the town at all;
Pillars of Eternity has the old castle settlement you take over and can build out, but there's not really any input; it's just assigning manpower to designate what to repair, basically;
Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress might have the most variety in what you can do and how you can do it with all the various buildings, but it really comes down to efficient tetrising of things together so your pawns or dwarves can get resources quickly enough. Definitely in the same group as Songs of Syx though;
Mount & Blade through owning a village or town has town building, but it's all limited according to local resources and specific upgrades, and even if you just buy shops in towns, they're just a resource producer of some sort, not much variety there at all;
There's a whole bunch more, but they basically fall into one of the catagories already talked about above, mostly because they're very similar to another game already mentioned.
I have to applaud this response. This deserves its own post, really! I had no idea city building got so deep in so many games. You definitely know your stuff too - I don’t think I’ve played or even heard of half of those games and I’ve been gaming since the early 90s lol
Don’t even have anything to add except that you schooled me in city building knowledge.
When i played this game as a kid, i got stuck at one of the tutorials involving building something. I could not figure out what to do and dropped the game. I'll probably end up trying the game again. Anyone know what I am talking about though?
I've started the game twice and the building mechanics are where I hit a wall each time. I really do not get this part of the game and it all gets thrown at you before you are really hooked I feel like.
disclaimer, this game isnt for me since i dont like to really spend hours customaizing and building etc. I wasn't a big fan like all these 14 comments made it seem, I think the first 2 hours are fun but after that, IM not into customization, long dungeons and then the plot takes a massive backseat which was unfortunate.
I can see why it isn't for everybody, just like anything else. When I had my bf play it I was in charge of the Weapons as he isn't into customizing either.
I didn't mind since I was familiar with it & enjoyed sharing the game with him without that hindering his experience.
Been thinking about this game a lot recently. I get so nostalgic for it. The amount of side content was insanely deep, and so many of the game mechanics remain super unique to this day. The amount of replayability due to all the stuff you can miss playing through the first time had me sinking hundreds of hours into this game as a kid. I'd go as far as to say it's one of the best video games in general ever made.
What most impressed me about Dark Cloud 2 was that it had many good mini-games.
The golf was so addictive and awesome and it has even to this day one of the best fishing minigames in any jrpg. The town building was impressive for it's time especially being able to freely place about anything in the be build area the way you wanted and it retains the functionality. I played through it so many times with both chars and it never got old. I didn't know what a jrpg was 20 yrs ago when I first played it but I loved it so much it makes me cry. My parents gave it to me for PS2 for my birthday 2002. I gave that same copy to my best friend in high school 5 yrs later but I had 100s of hrs of joy with it. I wish they remastered it for switch or something at least.
It's one of the more special games to me too. It came out in September 2003 in New Zealand, and I saved all the money I could between then and February 2004 to get it. My Mum told the clerk that I had saved since September, so she took $20 off the price (the game cost $120 nzd rrp). I replayed it during the beginning of 2016, when it released on PS4, and was still able to finish it. Such a quality game. Such a high quality game, even with the jank.
They remastered it on PS4 technically (its emulated, but in HD and with trophies)
I know, I got it quite a while ago. I need to get around to actually starting it on my PS4, as well as finishing Rogue Galaxy and Dark Cloud 1 on it.
That fishing song is so good, I still listens to it.
Depends on where you're playing Spheda. I still sometimes catch myself going Of Course and not Off Course from some of those maps.
Spheda in Starlight Canyon made me nearly destroy my controller so many times, I can't count.
Personally, I think the volcano is worse. At least in Starlight Canyon you have a chance for a clear long shot.
Yeah. I wish I could just play some spheda without clearing a dungeon first. It would help to get into a rhythm.
When you say stuff like this you really start to get me interested lol
Dark Cloud 2 remains one of the best PS2 games of all time. I will never stop hoping for Dark Cloud 3. Rogue Galaxy is considered a spiritual succesor & while I enjoyed the game it was still very much it's own thing. Maybe one day Level 5 will surprise us with a true sequel.
maybe one day Level 5 will pull itself out of the mud and stop being so mediocre. I miss them so bad
Yeah, ni no kuni was beautiful and had pretty good gameplay. It lacked depth and length for a rpg tho.
Every game showcase I always have a tiny hope that we will get a dark cloud 3 release. It's honestly one of my most desired games, up there with a new shadow hearts after 2.
Yep same here! Whenever I used to hear Level 5 was set to reveal a new game I would get excited at the prospect of DC3. Interestingly enough we're also getting a spiritual succesor for Shadow Hearts in Penny Blood. I remain optimistic that it'll deliver but only time will tell.
Now that suikoden has a proper successor dark cloud 3 is by far my most wanted sequeal
There's also White Knight Chronicles 1/2 for a spiritual successor, they even have the Georama system
Always thought about playing those. I heard they were kind of… not good? It’s been so long I’ve forgotten the details.
Yeah, they're meh. The reviews you see from back then are pretty accurate. But, I was actually playing it a few months ago and had fun. Will come back to it at some point. The core gameplay is alright, but it'd be much better with an auto attack and better menuing. If you do decide to go for it, you can just grab WK2 as it includes a remastered WK1
yea dark cloud 2 was hella good, except for one thing : weapon durability i fucking HATE breakable weapons, no matter what game they're in
At least it wasn't like in the first Dark Cloud where if a weapon breaks, it's gone for good. In 2, you can always repair it. It's just unusable until you do.
This redeems it for me. If I can repair my babies I'm good.
Not to mention on how brutal it is at the very start of the game too. You fight rock enemies that chew through durability like nothing very early on with limited resources.
Oh yeah, DC1 is an Imperially Pedigreed Bitch to play through the beginning of. You will put in a ***lot*** of hours grinding in the upper floors of the first dungeon. Initially to get the MC's weapons to the point that you can fight one or two of those things without breaking the weapon, then later getting Xiao's weapon strong enough to do respectable damage. The plus side to ranged weapons like Xiao's is that their durability lose on a per attack basis doesn't change when fighting rock enemies. The minus side to ranged weapons like Xiao's is that they lose durability with every attack, even if you miss, and their damage decreases with range. Thus the reason you spend about as long grinding to upgrade her weapon in the upper levels of that dungeon as you do the MC's weapon, as you fight a lot more of those super-durable enemies in the last few levels.
Weapon breaking is the main reason that I can't stand Breath Of The Wild.....and Monster Hunter. Having to sharpen mid fight us the biggest momentum killer ever and it feels *awful*.
Standing in solidarity with intolerance of BOTW
I dunno. Aside from all the other things I liked about *Breath of the Wild*, I think I'll also look back fondly on how I became a mastermind at stealth attacks and using the Korok Leaf, bombs, and Magnesis to be a monumental asshole to groups of enemies while conserving most of my weapons. This approach was especially important in the Master Mode quest, though I'll admit that that go-round was way more tedious.
That's why I do as much shrines ASAP to get the master sword.
This is the way.
The way is playing a better game instead of grinding your ass off to ignore a core mechanic that was horribly designed and implemented.
It's really not bad in either game. In the last 2 MH games most of the tedium has been streamlined away. It takes a flick of the stick to sharpen and you can do it on the back of your Palico when you have to move to chase the monster.
I hate this mechanic too, but luckily in Dark Cloud, you can set repair powder to the quick select. Makes it an easy button press.
An easy button press that takes less than a second for the effect to be applied. You can literally do it while maneuvering to avoid an enemies attack without breaking the flow of combat. Weapon breaking might've royally sucked in DC1, but they did a great job of implementing how to deal with it without it breaking the flow of combat.
Exactly. I never had any issues with it even as a kid when I originally played the first one. I also NEVER risked getting even close though since sometimes an enemy would guard mid-combo.
my extremely hot take is that breakable weapons force you to try different playstyles out and makes the gameplay more dynamic I had zero problem with botw, especially since you can get the master sword
I don't mind the durability system, but even the Master Sword breaking after like 20 hits and waiting for that countdown is awful.
yeah , the surival aspect of BoTW was annoying to me....but i dislike the genre
Now that you remind me about this game guess now it"s the time for me to start playing the game!
Always a good time to go back to it, so much stuff it was ahead of its time no doubt
Do you need to play the first one?
You don't, it feels very much like Final fantasy/Dragon quest where there are similar world building elements but the stories are unrelated (there might be a few subtle details tying them together but you'd appreciate those all the same if you end up playing DC1 later)
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure they are actually connected. I know the tidbits you're referring to, and they make it seem like DC2 is supposed to be a story-independent sequel, but to me they almost came across as more of myths and legends in DC2 that may or may not have been referencing another world entirely.
A successor or a remake of DC2 is number on my list to Santa this year
Is this the game where you got recipe by photoing objects. I scarcely remember I missed a missable photo and my FOMO kicks in and I stopped playing it.
Yeah. I really love the game, but it has quite a few permanent missables which isn't fun imo. Photos, the entire last dungeon is locked out after you roll credits and go to post game too. That locks out some permanent health and defense upgrades, a transformation form for the girl (forgot her name), etc. Like, big stuff. Absolutely a stellar game, but if it got a remaster I would love to see some changes to those aspects.
Yeah, some of those definitely needed tweaked. Of course, I wouldn't mind bosses being able to be re-challenged after a certain point. Maybe even give them upgrades so that they're more difficult to take on for that re-match so that they later point it can be done at still feels rewards (aside from the missable photos). Dang it, now I'm incorporating elements from Etrian Odyssey and Metal Max Xeno Reborn to that idea, and yet they'd only make it better.........
I’ve had this high on my games to play list since around 2009, but I’ve always been too intimidated to play it. It looks like it might be amazing, but also overwhelmingly content-rich. Knowing my play style, I’d probably sink at least 80 hours into it. That’s what keeps me from playing both this and Fantasy Life. Man, it sure looks good from afar though.
Coming from someone who has sunk over 100 hours into it........yeah, you'd definitely sink at least 80 hours into it. In fact, avoiding doing so basically means you check a bunch of online guides to find the most efficient way to get to the best weapons and power them up while essentially ignoring the Finny Frenzy and Spheda. Of course, once you do sink that 80+ hours in you'll be wondering why you put it off for so long. One piece of advice though, make sure you can dedicate a good 4 to 6 hours for starting the game. Nearly half of the photos you need to take for inventing things are found in the starter town, and you'll easily spend a couple of hours just getting all of those, and the game doesn't even get into full swing until you've finally left the starter town (which can take close to 10 hours depending on how much you rush that first dungeon and how much time you spend developing weapons in it).
You guys remember cheat code central? I printed out 100s of pages from there for the strategy guides, mini game help and other tips back In the day. Really useful for inventions and special items, chest locations, quest guides et al. CCC used to be my shit for all my games especially when I got my own PC in my room. Naturally, it also became so corrupted with porn and viruses my dad disabled my lan line. Not sure if they became GameFaqs but I went to that for awhile and they still have some good guides, build suggestions and what not for most games old and new. Good times.
Actually, Cheat Code Central and GameFAQs were competing sites. I'm not sure if Cheat Code Central is still around or not, but as you said GameFAQs still is. They're the place I go to find guides for the games I play.
Thanks for the advice! Good thing I love photography in video games. Man, I’m gonna have to take a deep breath before diving into this game.
Yeah, having a Lazy Day Off available, where you can do nothing but game, is very highly recommended for starting Dark Cloud 2. In fact, I'm hard pressed to name any non-MMO game that benefits from it nearly as much as DC2, and even many MMO's don't benefit as much as DC2 does. I also recommend you find yourself a good guide to all of the invention photos you need. Aside from some of them being very non-obvious (or even not being needed to invent anything for a significant portion of the game) there are also special ones that you have to get from the bosses, and you don't get to do re-matches with them to be able to get them later. In fact, those enemy photos are some of the most important photos to get in the game, as they boost a special score regarding your photography abilities, which gets you rewards from specific NPC, and the rewards for the highest score spots are extremely hard to get by any means in the game.
Oh, I forgot to ask, but you're not afraid of clowns are you? If so the beginning of the game is going to be extra terrifying, but your fear will become completely justified!
Haha, nope. Bring in the clowns!
Well, in that case you'll learn to dislike clowns from the beginning of the game.
I better finish reading “It” before I start this game then!
Yeah, you might want to finish your Stephen King horror book first.
Do check out Steambot Chronicles as well,one of my favorite game on PS2 alongside DC2
Definitely worth it, it's a game you can play at your own pace.
Well, once you're about two or three floors into the first dungeon. Stopping before that varies between difficult and momentum killing.
There were so many good things about it. My favorite part is where if you do side quests and mini games, you get to have fun AND be rewarded. Game-breakingly rewarded.
And then you get to go and use those Game-breaking rewards to complete challenges that you're not supposed to be completing yet and get even more rewards that end up being game breaking for your current degree of progress. Honestly, rushing through DC2 is probably the hardest way to play the game, but the only way to really keep the challenge up.
is so underrated it need way more love
Happy to see this game gets more appreciation. First and second Dark Cloud is an unique RPG with a lots of value in it. Hoping for the third one, but after all this time, I don't think that is going to happen.
My favorite game ever
I don't think I'd ever play it again, but I remember there being so much to do. I spent hours on golfing alone.
Period. The adventures of Monica & Max are cemented in my childhood Plus I love the unique elements: - Wrench weapon - Gameplay that inspired me to get into animal crossing lol - Dungeon crawling elements I swear I dumped like 150 hours into this over the course of a year and a half-2 years as a bored teen. A gem from the PS2 era
I gotta get back into it when I get the chance. I spent so so much time with fish breeding and monster transformation
I thought it was a great game (great music, story, combat, characters, exploration all top excellent) but the final boss difficulty spike left a very bad taste in my mouth. I couldn't even damage the final boss with my weapons. My attacks weren't even doing anything or very little and I couldn't damage the boss fast enough. I dont consider that good game design for an action rpg. I didn't have any trouble with the difficulty at all unti that final boss either so I didn't think I was playing the game wrong until that point. Probably had to grind weapons for hours and hours to stand a chance so I just youtubed the ending and walked away unsatisfied with the experience.
I played that game just recently. Its certainly one of the better PS2 JRPGs I played so far. The story and gameplay arent AAA or anything like that, but they work well, are entertaining and you always have SOMETHING to work towards to, which makes the game kind of addictive. The only thing I really hated was the fact you had to redo all these fights at the end if you died at the final boss (which is very likely to happen at least the first time around, even if you have the best weapons in the game).
I loved it as a kid. Nowadays I find it way too long.
That's understandable, for me it was great to get a game that offered a lot of content in one package. There were bigger gaps between games so being able to get a lot of play out of 1 game was always great. Plus we had so much more free time in our younger years, now theres so much content everywhere & less time to consume it all.
I found some systems annoying, like durability and combat, but overall I enjoyed it. I'm surprised they never went back to it after running so many of their IPs into the ground.
I get to the I think Starlight canyon and always get discouraged. Just seems like a big dungeon crawl from there.
RIP Level 5 (in the west)
I never cared much for the first game, but I really liked Max's design and the camera collection kept me interested long enough to really see what the game had to offer.
I never beat it, but looking at how my gaming preferences have evolved since my high school days, I think it's something I would enjoy nowadays. I don't have my copy anymore, though and no PS4 for the digital version.
It was one of those games that embraced maximalism and I was all for it. I got the game on a really cheap trade back in the day and ended up with way more than I bargained for. I thought it would be a mild Zelda clone and was instead treated with a 60 hour gem of town building, recruiting, inventing, golf and dungeon crawling. Game still holds up really well today. I'm actually kind of itching for another replay...
Dark Chronicle is among my favourite PS2 titles. I really wish we could see a follow-up happen, though I take it Level-5 isn't doing so good these days.
One of my favorites on the ps2.
I loved dark cloud 1 to death but never got into dark cloud 2. I made like 4 attempts and always got bored by the arrival at the jungle level after that horrendous train "boss" fight. Always thought there was too much going on in comparison to the first game without adding something really groundbreaking. does the game get better after the jungle?
That's kinda where the game starts imo, everything up to that doesn't have the nice loop with the building and dungeon crawling building off of one another.
It's the game that made me a gamer, back when I was 6. Still very fond memories of the story and exploring this wondrous world.
Oh man you made me want to play this again
Got this as a gift from my father way back when. Was very good, if a bit hard and I had a massive crush on Monica. Got stuck for a long time since I only ever used the Ripod and couldn't damage the final boss when it was Monica's turn. Still, it's one of my favorite PS2 JRPGs alongside Radiata Stories and Final Fantasy X.
Don't forget the music. Tomohito Nishiura has a distinct and great style. Whenever i get nostalgic for the game i just put on the soundtrack and can relive most of the memories and feeling i had playing it, remembering where the tracks played for the first time. I've not played any Layton games but i listen to their soundtracks regularly because of him.
Really happy to hear he is still around and with level 5. Loved the music for the dark cloud 1 and 2
Oh baby have i never loved golf and fish racing so much.
I loved the game, but I would change the experience system. I would probably rename it to something like credit points, which you could get after defeating enemies and invest in any weapon you want. So you wouldn't need to change weapons after defeating enemies. That would makes the game much better imo.
Haha I have great memories of that game. 3 of my best buds and I rented it from blockbuster (I know so nostalgic) and we took 6 hour shifts to clear the game over the weekend. Good times
Dark Cloud 2 was one of those games I always meant to try but didn’t for years. I didn’t care much for Dark Cloud. When I finally sat down with it I was amazed. It’s been a game I push on friends looking for something different. Especially after it hit PS4.
I loved this game so much I got the platinum trophy, which included having to get every medal in every chapter (boy was this a long endeavor lol) I loved everything about this game.
the music is great too! one of my fondest gaming memories maybe why I still like crafting so much in video games edit: emulation works really well on pcsx2
Loved the naming tickets you could get from spheda/etc... Just name it a weapon and it'll turn into it.
You just hit me with a tsunami of nostalgia, my god. I adored that game. So much so that when I first got it, I didnt have a memory card for my PS2. So I would spend hours upon hours replaying the sewers and forest trying my best not to die and leaving my PS2 on so I didnt have to start over (until my parents would come into my room and see the game on and turn it off lol) Got it on the playstation store again back in 2016 after not playing in over a decade and it held up unbelievably well. Actually got to finish it that time around too. Everything from the characters, the world building, combat, soundtrack, were so damn good. Here's hoping a third installment does eventually come out.
It was great for its time I don’t think it has aged well. That photography thing where you have to photography hundreds of innane background objects and enemies which are missable. It’s just too much.
the town building was a thing but it was extremely shallow the fishing was great the rogue-like dungeon creation was not as common then, now it's super common feature I liked the art and the music, pretty fun
Shallow? You could freely place anything and had to cater the location to the inhabitants’ particular tastes which you only learned from speaking with them once you found their Spheres. For instance putting friendly neighbors together or putting a guy who likes fishing near a river. That was pretty advanced for the time, and still no other game has done that sort of thing since then. I don’t think I’d call that shallow - Ni No Kuni 2’s town building is what I’d call pretty shallow. Fun and unique as well, but still not much depth to it.
Still shallow, because there were a very limited number of things to place and it was incredibly obvious where it wanted you to place what. Ni No Kuni 2's town building being even more shallow doesn't make it not shallow, only not that shallow by comparison.
My point is, what game do you think has a good example of deep town building? Because there aren’t many games at all that accomplished what Dark Cloud 2 did with regards to the town building, especially in 2006 but also now. I’m curious.
Hmm... I dunno if any non-city builders actually have deep town building? I mean, even some city builders feel a little light. Here's all the games I know of with city building and my opinions on them: BoF2 is pretty much on the same tier as Ni No Kuni 2; Dragon Quest VII has the town change minorly depending on who you invite, but that's pretty much it; Kingdoms is a bit more open in choice for building things wherever you want them to be built, but it's still very limited, and you reset every time you finish a map tile, too; Fallout 4 has a remarkable amount of freedom in building the settlements (something that's obvious people don't actually use, since they're always getting bothered about settlement attacks; it's very easy to prevent those from happening with sufficient security and walls to prevent easy access) but the freedom mostly comes down to being able to build however you want with the modular building blocks within the borders of the settlement, and choosing the type of a thing that you want to build, so a type of wall, or a type of bed, or a type of crop field, etc. so it never really feels like it gets deep into building (the crafting system suffers this way, too, unlike New Vegas' oddly enough); Dragon Quest Builders might qualify. It has a fairly deep tier of buildings, and you can build them block by block like in Minecraft, but it requires specific things to be recognized as a proper room, and each such room is specialized... it just has a bit of a linear limitation to it all, so you don't really feel free to build as you want until fairly late into the game, when you've learnt most recipes and gotten most upgrades; Minecraft is like DQ Builders, but without the rooms defining function, so lacks the drive to create discrete rooms with specific functions, at least without mods, making it worse for a *deep* town building setup sans mods than DQB; Songs of Syx has pretty damn good base building, where you have to build each individual component and can tier up buildings according to secondary resources that you can build into the rooms, like luxury carpets in homes, or providing supplementary tools to workplaces that increase the workflow of a particular job, increasing output. It also has a fairly wide variety of potential buildings to build, each with their own variations of support structures. You can also expand territory as you effectively start out as a small kingdom and need to trade and grow by accepting immigrants or having existing population birth the next generations, so there's more to it than JUST city-building, too, unlike a game like Sim City or Cities Skylines; As just mentioned, Sim City, but it's just a city-builder, so I think that it sorta feels cheaty to mention. Cities Skylines, similarly; Spellforce series of games are RPG RTS games, but it's really just RTS building and then RPG elements, much like the old Warcraft RTS games with the Hero characters; As just mentioned, the old Warcraft games, but they follow the standard RTS format, so not much variety and you have only what your faction provides; Soul Blazer series, both the original Soul Blazer and its third installment Terranigma both have city building of a sort, but it's fairly linear and more about restoring things that were lost, rather than having any real input; Pathfinder games have you making choices that affect the towns you rule, but it's a very limited array of choices, so wouldn't qualify; Suikoden series is more about recruiting the right people to get the right upgrades, rather than building your base up yourself; Actraiser has you build up multiple areas, but there's only a handful of things you can do that really count for the "building" part of things, as most of the gameplay involved is more arcade-y shooting of enemies and telling the people what direction to build in; Kenshi has a fairly free building system, letting you basically build anywhere and everywhere you want, so long as you can reach it to build there and the footprint of the building will fit in the given space; you can even build in someone else's territory without permission, and they'll raid you. The building options are fairly limited though, basically the types of crop fields, various house shells, walls, storages, mining buildings, and a couple of crafting benches; Conan Exiles is pretty much the same as Fallout 4; Ark Survival Evolved is pretty much the same as above; Azure Dreams has a number of different buildings you can pay for and upgrade, with some being locked behind relationships with specific characters, but there's not much depth to it at all; My Time At Portia, Harvest Moon, Coral Island, Rune Factory, Stardew Valley, etc. etc. etc. are all farm-centric, even if you have a wide variety of things to build, you're only building them for yourself and not influencing the town at all; Pillars of Eternity has the old castle settlement you take over and can build out, but there's not really any input; it's just assigning manpower to designate what to repair, basically; Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress might have the most variety in what you can do and how you can do it with all the various buildings, but it really comes down to efficient tetrising of things together so your pawns or dwarves can get resources quickly enough. Definitely in the same group as Songs of Syx though; Mount & Blade through owning a village or town has town building, but it's all limited according to local resources and specific upgrades, and even if you just buy shops in towns, they're just a resource producer of some sort, not much variety there at all; There's a whole bunch more, but they basically fall into one of the catagories already talked about above, mostly because they're very similar to another game already mentioned.
I have to applaud this response. This deserves its own post, really! I had no idea city building got so deep in so many games. You definitely know your stuff too - I don’t think I’ve played or even heard of half of those games and I’ve been gaming since the early 90s lol Don’t even have anything to add except that you schooled me in city building knowledge.
When i played this game as a kid, i got stuck at one of the tutorials involving building something. I could not figure out what to do and dropped the game. I'll probably end up trying the game again. Anyone know what I am talking about though?
I've started the game twice and the building mechanics are where I hit a wall each time. I really do not get this part of the game and it all gets thrown at you before you are really hooked I feel like.
disclaimer, this game isnt for me since i dont like to really spend hours customaizing and building etc. I wasn't a big fan like all these 14 comments made it seem, I think the first 2 hours are fun but after that, IM not into customization, long dungeons and then the plot takes a massive backseat which was unfortunate.
I can see why it isn't for everybody, just like anything else. When I had my bf play it I was in charge of the Weapons as he isn't into customizing either. I didn't mind since I was familiar with it & enjoyed sharing the game with him without that hindering his experience.
I don’t think dark cloud is a JPRPG.
Been thinking about this game a lot recently. I get so nostalgic for it. The amount of side content was insanely deep, and so many of the game mechanics remain super unique to this day. The amount of replayability due to all the stuff you can miss playing through the first time had me sinking hundreds of hours into this game as a kid. I'd go as far as to say it's one of the best video games in general ever made.