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SONY'S LATEST HOME-GROWN VENTURE into RPG territory, Dark Cloud, is the kind of game that just doesn't make the best of first impressions. There are a few hours there at the beginning where you can't help but feel that something has gone terribly wrong here, and the desire to put down that controller and find something else to play is undeniably strong. Then, suddenly - as despair seems inevitable - something falls into place, you find the rhythm of the game, as it were - all the little bothers and eccentricities that seemed unbearable before fade into the background, and… enjoyment may begin. It's a bit like meeting someone for the first time and loathing them, only to find out later that it was all an awful misunderstanding - and you've really got a lot in common after all … so maybe friendly relations aren't entirely out of the question. That's a nice analogy, isn't it ? All right then - we'll run with that.
Impression # 1: "We've met before somewhere, haven't we ?"
We'll need to get this out of the way first. Every other review you're likely to read will make a point of this, so we must too ~ no amount of sugar-coating can hide the fact that Dark Cloud is heavily and very blatantly derivative of certain other games that can be found in the Action RPG field. The one game that's been singled out in particular for the position of role-model is, of course, Nintendos' Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - the tomb of which has been plundered mercilessly. So many elements of that fine game find themselves in Dark Cloud … it seems almost an outrage. From storybook motif and graphic style, to combat system and dungeon mapping, to owl and talking tree… hey, it's all here ! Snippets from numerous other titles are easily discernible as well - most notable contributor being Squares' Vagrant Story, from which has been borrowed a weapons development system… while the true trainspotter will also notice the subtle influence of Shenmue and Azure Dreams. Now, after last years' Legend of Dragoon (which was itself indebted to such turn-based games as Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire) the fact that Sony has no shame should come as no surprise - but this takes the cake. You can just imagine the Suits meeting up with the Level 5 development team, showing them the coveted 'perfect' scores that Zelda and VS rated in Famitsu, and politely requesting that they turn out a mix of the two for the new system, please.
It's easy to immediately assume that Dark Cloud is merely a second rate clone then, if you've played those games - but that's not (entirely) the case. Some good use has actually been made of the pilfered features, and soon you'll run across the apparently fresh and inventive 'Georama' feature - which goes a long way toward saving the day. Could be that we just missed the game they lifted that from though…
Let's not dwell on unoriginality though - to the game on it's own merits. So…what's it all about, then? Well, it seems that a vaguely military-looking guy has summoned up a nasty, hungry blue genie for some nefarious purpose, which immediately presents itself as the destruction of various villages and their harmless inhabitants. Luckily though… the, ermm… Fairy King has managed to seal up all of the villages' important bits in bubbles , which for some reason or other - have wound up in various monster-infested spots. We'll call them dungeons for convenience. Now, It's up to you, Link - No ! - Toan, and maybe a friend or two... to go find them, bring them back and re-install them in their rightful place.
Impression #2: "I kinda get what he's on about, but… he's not too clear…"
This premise established, the gameplay divides itself into two distinct departments: the dungeon crawling and the village reconstruction. The first basically involves wandering through randomly generated areas to find the atla bubbles, fighting yer monsters in real-time. To do so, you'll have your trusty Zelda 'lock-on' feature, which enables you to focus on the monster at hand, and that works out quite nicely. Along the way you'll need to find the key to the next level door - randomly inserted into a monster - and pick up as many items as you can carry... before you fall down. See, the focus here isn't on exploration or puzzle-solving in any way, but is a plain test of survival - as not only must you worry about your standard HP - but also about your weapons' HP and then... how thirsty you are. At first this all seems like a needless complication, and results in many instances of being kicked out of the level, and forced to restart it merely due to a lack of a single item - and, early on - when your weapons are barely able to kill one monster before threatening to break, this can lead to much frustration. However, in time the strategies necessary to succeed do become clear and the challenge of overcoming a particular level does become something to appreciate instead. Still, one can't help thinking that if the whole thirst business had been omitted, the game would surely have had a faster, more even flow.
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