I honestly really want to enjoy this game, but the thurst mechanic sets things back. I love a majority of Level-5 games, and I've enjoyed seeing others play Dark Cloud, but the thurst puts me, personally, on edge the entire time.
I'm going to search around to see if there's any way to, at least, decrease the stat progression.
I'm going to search around to see if there's any way to, at least, decrease the stat progression.
Underrated demais, ainda não termindi mas pretendo um dia desses
This game is still to this day one of my favorites. The different weapons and quirks of said weapons are so cool, i love rebuilding the towns, i think the story is rly cool and the atmosphere is AMAZING. The songs still are in my playlists to this day. :)
I'm rating the game 2.5/5 but I don't hate it.
Dark Cloud is a charming gaming that strikes a niche I really enjoy. It's one part dungeon crawling and one part town sim with puzzle elements. It is fun to develop weapons, fulfill requests for villagers, and roam the dungeons. The problem is that is all the of the gameplay, that loop over and over again. I finished the 5th dungeon/town in about 30 hours and I knew there was at minimum 10 more hours of this game. I really did enjoy it but by the end of the first dungeon you've experienced everything Dark Cloud has to offer.
I hope to return one day and finish it.
Dark Cloud is a charming gaming that strikes a niche I really enjoy. It's one part dungeon crawling and one part town sim with puzzle elements. It is fun to develop weapons, fulfill requests for villagers, and roam the dungeons. The problem is that is all the of the gameplay, that loop over and over again. I finished the 5th dungeon/town in about 30 hours and I knew there was at minimum 10 more hours of this game. I really did enjoy it but by the end of the first dungeon you've experienced everything Dark Cloud has to offer.
I hope to return one day and finish it.
BE CAREFUL with your weapon health. its more important than your ACTUAL HEALTH. BUT pretty fun. you gotta have patience for the grind of leveling up weapons and not almost breaking them as well as repeating dungeons
Kinda fun at the start but the dungeon crawling gets too repetitive/boring, can't bring myself to finish the second dungeon everytime rip. i feel like if they cut the number of floors in half the game would be much better. soul blazer was a much better iteration of this idea just because it had hand-crafted dungeons, even though the city building aspect is much better here. but you don't get to that when the dungeon crawling is what it is...
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Juego de mi infancia, re-jugué mil veces la demo de ps2 que tenia hasta que aprendí a piratear la ps2, y pude jugarlo completo.
Una experiencia que ojala otros muchos juegos me puedan dar porque en serio que este juego es muy simple, pero a la vez tan rico en historia, personajes, enemigos, jugabilidad, música, y puedo seguir así... aunque quizás me esta poseyendo la nostalgia pero para mi es un 10.
Una experiencia que ojala otros muchos juegos me puedan dar porque en serio que este juego es muy simple, pero a la vez tan rico en historia, personajes, enemigos, jugabilidad, música, y puedo seguir así... aunque quizás me esta poseyendo la nostalgia pero para mi es un 10.
A creative take on dungeon crawling, but sadly the combat is clunky and the overall experience is repetitious and grindy. This series is absolutely begging for a remake or reboot, as the core loop of combat, crafting, and constructing has the potential to be very satisfying.
one of my personal comfiest games
I really loved this game (and its sequel moreso) in the PS2 days. I replayed it fairly recently though, and really don't think that it has held up all that well.
Basically it's half town building sim/half dungeon crawl, with some light RPG elements. Act Raiser is the only other game that I've played that has taken these completely disparate genres and put them together.
It's super interesting and this game does have some good ideas. Finding new town components in the dungeons and subsequently placing them in town always yields a gratifying feeling.
However, for every interesting or fun idea, there exists another to detract from the experience. Breakable weapons don't add challenge to the game, it simply makes it unfun, as you constantly have to stop playing the game to fiddle with inventory minutiae. This is also the only game that I've played that has a 'thirst' meter, and probably for good reason. There's nothing fun, or even fair, about getting thirsty in a dungeon that doesn't even have a water pool (the dungeons are randomly generated, so this happens somewhat often). It just feels like playing an RPG where your character is poisoned from beginning to end.
Overall, there's enough here to make me reallllllly want a Dark Cloud 3, which we will unfortunately never see.
Basically it's half town building sim/half dungeon crawl, with some light RPG elements. Act Raiser is the only other game that I've played that has taken these completely disparate genres and put them together.
It's super interesting and this game does have some good ideas. Finding new town components in the dungeons and subsequently placing them in town always yields a gratifying feeling.
However, for every interesting or fun idea, there exists another to detract from the experience. Breakable weapons don't add challenge to the game, it simply makes it unfun, as you constantly have to stop playing the game to fiddle with inventory minutiae. This is also the only game that I've played that has a 'thirst' meter, and probably for good reason. There's nothing fun, or even fair, about getting thirsty in a dungeon that doesn't even have a water pool (the dungeons are randomly generated, so this happens somewhat often). It just feels like playing an RPG where your character is poisoned from beginning to end.
Overall, there's enough here to make me reallllllly want a Dark Cloud 3, which we will unfortunately never see.
Ooooooohhh yeaaaaah buddy, get me to that ocean and cut me off a slice of that THICC genie. I will roleplay as the ape man with the hammer BANGing on her drum with my mallet. Consensually of course :)
There is a lot of really cool -before its time- ideas here but the gameplay kinda just feels bad
This review contains spoilers
Sorry but Goro ruined this game for me.
I abandoned it at the Gallery of Time level where you have to play as Goro.
I abandoned it at the Gallery of Time level where you have to play as Goro.
Classic RPG, a mix of Zelda, Sim City and a Rougelike, only real complaint is low HP always chimes so keep some heals on you at all times
Wish it expanded on all of the core aspects of the game. The narrative, the dungeon crawling, and the town building are all fine, but doesn't really give you much more than what's on the surface for its fairly long runtime.
Soft spot for this game...
It's definitely a good game but it has major flaws, it's incredibly clunky and the dungeon crawling kinda feels like it stunts progress, making the game harder and longer than it should be. The weapons and thirst mechanic can be added to that too, honestly.
Really wish this game got a remastered version with less booboo tier controls but that'll prolly not happen. I'll definitely pick this game up again at some point tho it's just some mechanics that annoy me a bit.
Really wish this game got a remastered version with less booboo tier controls but that'll prolly not happen. I'll definitely pick this game up again at some point tho it's just some mechanics that annoy me a bit.
Wrong kind of jank for me and maybe a little too unforgiving in its prep expectations.
The game is insanely slow and holy shit it's fucking harder than I remember but it's a nostalgia game so obligatory 3 stars.
Great music. They town building was pretty fulfilling when you'd bring a house together and get a wholesome cutscene. Progression is slow unless u know the mechanics to boost weapons quickly.
Very interesting game with some serious flaws, chief among them being the thirst meter, which they thankfully did away with in Dark Cloud 2. Town building was fun though, dope soundtrack and a great opening cinematic.
Peak PS2 gaming imo. No other game is as fun and addictive as Dark Cloud 1. Just an immaculately put together product that is super cozy while at the same time super fun and engaging.
Very fun formula with a light story. Shame most of the enemies are the most annoying things in the world.
Dark Cloud was notable for its blend of action-rpg, dungeon crawling, and light city-building. Far from merely jumbling those elements together, this game elegantly weaves parts of each that interact with one another from mode to mode, creating this addictive loop. Apart from the RPG aspects encouraging creativity and customization, the additional characters also enable strategic depth beyond their gimmick, not only providing a different combat style but also opening up new avenues to handle resource management, enemy interactions, and general dungeon crawling. The setting, characters, and graphics are for the most part uninspired, although especially Zelda-like are the enemies, delightfully irritating to fight with individual combat details that only add to the gameplay flow.
Not all of it works, unfortunately. Each unique dungeon disappointingly feels like a slight variation on the same theme with reskinned enemies, the Limited Zones mechanic makes certain floors way more tedious than it should, and the uneven boss bottles are either too easy or too frustrating. Even so, Dark Cloud remains an overall effective and sprawling work. It's impressive how Level-5 managed to fuse several styles into such a cohesive, calculated, engrossing whole.
Not all of it works, unfortunately. Each unique dungeon disappointingly feels like a slight variation on the same theme with reskinned enemies, the Limited Zones mechanic makes certain floors way more tedious than it should, and the uneven boss bottles are either too easy or too frustrating. Even so, Dark Cloud remains an overall effective and sprawling work. It's impressive how Level-5 managed to fuse several styles into such a cohesive, calculated, engrossing whole.
The randomized dungeons feel and fresh for the first few areas but the concept got real old by the end of the game.
It's still a very neat attempt at a Zelda clone with more traditional RPG elements.
It's still a very neat attempt at a Zelda clone with more traditional RPG elements.
US version
this game is pretty okay the dungeons parts can get boring because they are mostly palette swaps with new enemy's the whole game and the town building can be fun you get a choice between 6 characters that you can switch from at any time only in dungeons witch are toan,xiao,goro,ruby,ungaga and osmand but why bother choosing when xiao is literally the most overpowered character in the game with long range and a early 30+ damage weapon and by the end is like a literal god i give this game a 7/10
this game is pretty okay the dungeons parts can get boring because they are mostly palette swaps with new enemy's the whole game and the town building can be fun you get a choice between 6 characters that you can switch from at any time only in dungeons witch are toan,xiao,goro,ruby,ungaga and osmand but why bother choosing when xiao is literally the most overpowered character in the game with long range and a early 30+ damage weapon and by the end is like a literal god i give this game a 7/10
It's been a while since I've played a game that had this many systems that were intentionally supposed to frustrate you (what is even the point of thirst management?) but Dark Cloud is so insanely addicting and charming that it almost makes up for it.
An interesting dungeon crawler with a pretty bomb-ass soundtrack. Features cool town building stuff and some of the first QTEs that I'm aware of. Can be a little janky.
Hard af and kinda grindy, but hidden gem and one of my fav childhood games