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Fulgetra's Dark Cloud (PS2)
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| [March 29, 2011 06:14:10 AM]
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Dark Cloud
Description:
Dark Cloud is a fairy tale, read from an ancient book found in old ruins. As the Narrator begins reading from the book a cut scene unfolds where it appears that a ritual is being performed to bring out the main protagonist of the game the Dark Genie. As the game begins you wake up to your village being complete destroyed, or so it appears. After a few seconds, and a talk with the village elder you decide to go into the dungeon to ask you guardian deity for help. This is how the game begins and you play through the various dungeons to build your party and try for your chance to destroy the Dark Genie. Although when you finally think you have one the game it turns out the one that you thought was the Genie was actually just a mouse that was imprison with the Genie 400 years ago and that the real Genie is still out there. So you have to go 400 years into the past when the genie was first born to be able to stop him and restore peace to your land.
Player/Game Mechanics:
The main character is teenage boy whose mission it has become to restore your world from the destruction . You do this by journeying into the various dungeons and gathering the various pieces of the villages that you come across. You are then able to use all of the various pieces of the villages and rebuild them as you see fit. This is usually how you unlock items that increase you maximum health and your maximum water. This game also has a rather unique mechanic for its time. It works on a resources system. This means that if you don’t go to the fountain that may or may not be on each level. Also the village pieces and layout of the various floors is completely random. The completion of the various houses in the village will trigger events where you can receive special items.
Graphics/ Music:
The Graphics in this game are decent and were par for the course back in 2001 when the game was release. The games Cardinality is a 3D world with 2D movement. The music in the game can really tell you a lot about what is going on with out to even look at the screen. If you aren’t in the dungeons the music fits the village you are in and if you are it is kind of just a relaxing tone until you come across a monster and then the music turns into a more combat like rock tone. Also, you your weapon is about to break or you are running low on health you will start to hear a lot of urgent beeps telling you to repair your weapon or heal respectively.
World:
The World of Dark Cloud is for the most part a world that you can design because you have to reassemble all of the villages you control how everything is placed. While, the villagers will ask for how it is arranged it is up to you for the most part. The dungeons, however, are all themed according to the type of dungeon it is associated with. An example of this is the more earthy and the various levels are called floors, where as the next dungeon is a forest and as such the various levels are called territories.
Game Session 1:
I started up the game and watched the various cut scenes listed above and then make my way to the first dungeon. It is here that I meet the Fairy King and I am given the Atlamillia, which is a stone that allows the main character to gather the pieces of the villages that are scattered on the various levels of the dungeons to return the villages to the way they once were before the attack by the Dark Genie. I then set out battling the various monsters in the game and upgrading my weapon trying to build it into a better form by reaching the required stats. I then reach about the 10th floor of this dungeon and have my first duel, which you win by hitting the correct sequence of keys as they come across the screen. This leads to a cut scene where I am given an animation potion, which will bring any animal to life in a human form. I have to leave the dungeon because of an impassable gap and I go to build my town back up and finish my house and the shop. This allow for the events for the shop and events for my house to trigger. First, the event shop isn’t necessarily a good thing because while it does let you start buying your own items up until this point you have been receiving free items from the mayor of your town. Then, when you finish your house your mom shows you a stray cat that she found in your house and it is this cat that you give the potion. This makes her human-like and she joins your party to help you as a way of saying thanks. It is here the Fairy King comes and points out to you that your allies will all have unique abilities which makes them necessary for your quest. Your new ally now allows you pass the gap because of her jump ability. You have to then go down the next few floors and on some of these you have limited zones which have special rules like you can only use your off character, which is incredibly difficult because her weapon is incredibly weak. Before you can finish the dungeon you have to go back and finish putting your village together. You get the key to fight the final boss by completing the Dran’s Windmill in your village. The first boss is beaten by using the ranged attack of the cat girl in combination with your powerful sword of the main character. After this I save and save the next dungeon for later.
Game Session 2:
The next down has suffered the same fate as your village and the goal is much the same because you are told by the village deity of your town that the Moon people are the ones that can best help you to defeat the Dark Genie. The village has been separated and scattered into the forest by the Fairy King to save it from the destruction by the Dark Genie. The river also was separated and this cut off life to Treant the “Fairy” that protects this land. As you journey through the first 15 or so territories of this dungeon they are much like the last 10 floors of the previous dungeon, but then you run into an area that you can’t pass because there is a door that you have to smash a switch to open it. You leave the dungeon and start building up the various pieces of the village and then you start hearing about the village’s hero a legendary Hunter and are awarded a special flute and given a special sword, that is unbreakable until it completes its mission for reviving the Treant. It is using these two items together that you can start and beat this forests mini boss the Killer Snake. After beating the boss in a duel sequence you have to leave the dungeon with the item it dropped and show it to a kid that lives right outside of the village. It is a final message from the Legendary Hunter to his son. This allows you to recruit the kid for your quest and it is with him and his hammer you are able to make it through the rest of the dungeon with little to no trouble, as long as you keep your weapons upgraded and repaired and maintain your health and water. Before you can access the final bosses area you have to go back and build everything up and get the special seed you need for completing Ro’s House. This boss fight like the last one requires the use of your newly acquired ally because you have to smash the boss’s feet with the hammer and then switch out an start smacking him with your sword until his is dead, which can take a while and you have to be patient. After I beat the boss I decided to call it quits for a bit and take a break.
Overall:
Overall it was really fun replaying Dark Cloud and I have always enjoyed the story, as well as, getting to rebuild the villages any way I wanted. I like the nostalgia factor that I got from it and I would recommend it to anyone who has never played the game before because it was one of my personal favorites growing up for the customization feature that it entails with the upgrading your weapons and the other options that it gives.
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Fulgetra's Dark Cloud (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 24 March, 2011
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