Cloudy with a Chance of Monotony
Dark clouds are on the horizon, but is it a awsome mind blowing level 5 hurricane... or is it just another tropical depression?
Dark Cloud 2 is an action RPG, with hours upon hours of content. There are towns in need of resurrecting. Dungeons to crawl through. Fish to catch and golf to be played. The game looks and sounds great, with production values that are through the roof. However that dosen't change the fact that this ninety-five hour and twelve minute quest of sheer epicness, isn't very fun or exciting. Making it a grueling quest in its own righ, just to get to the end.
The biggest problem with Dark Cloud 2 is the combat is very repetitive. Despite there being two playable protagonist, (Max and Monica) they play exactly the same way. You swing your sword and wrench the same way. You shoot your bullets and use magic the same way. You do everything exactly the same way for ninety-five hours. The leveling up system doesn't help to break up the monotony either. In Dark Cloud only your weapons get stronger. This is achieved by combining spheres with your weapon to build them up. The game also suggests that you level up weaker weapons so you can combine them with your stronger weapons. This is where the game comes to a screeching halt. Usually when one finds a new weapon in a game it is accompanied by a sense of wonderment, in Dark Cloud its dread. This is because you now have to put away your good arsenal and level up weaker infective weapons, so you can combine them with your good weapons. It constantly feels like your taking two steps back to move one step forward. The only character that feels like he's making any progress in the game is Steve, your trusty Ridepod. There is a real sense of accomplishment seeing your stubby wooden robot with boxing gloves become a legitimate bad ass by games end, a sense of accomplishment which is completely absent while leveling up Monica and Max.
This being a RPG a good story can often help one forgive boring, infective combat, but that is not the case here. The story starts of promisingly enough, with Max inheriting his mothers blue stone necklace. Little does he know that it holds the secret that will allow him to go on a quest through time and space. Putting him at odds with clowns and assassins, scientist and gods. Sadly the story is just one bad amine cliché after another. The characters don't help much either, many of them are just soulless cutouts whose only purpose in life is to join you out on the Oregon Trail as you try to repopulate the world that is being mysteriously erased.
Dark Cloud 2 isn't a complete catastrophe. Like all games developed by Level 5 this game looks drop dead gorgeous, the attention to detail is simply astonishing. The ability to build you own towns is also a bright spot. It is original and unlike most aspects of the game, fun. These good qualities however can't shine bright enough to break thorough the clouds, leaving you with the inevitable prospect of getting soaked by the coming storm, making one wish they had just stayed inside and avoided the dark clouds altogether.
