Dark Cloud
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| Dark Cloud | |
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| Developer(s) | Level-5 |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment |
| Designer(s) | Akihiro Hino |
| Composer(s) | Tomohito Nishiura |
| Aspect ratio | 480i (SDTV) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Release date(s) | JP December 14, 2000[1] NA May 28, 2001 EU September 21, 2001 |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA: 11+ ESRB: Teen OFLC: M15+ |
| Media | DVD |
| Input methods | DualShock 2 |
Dark Cloud (ダーククラウド Dāku Kuraudo) is role-playing video game for the PlayStation 2. It was developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The gameplay of Dark Cloud combines action role-playing with elements of city-building games. There is currently one sequel to the game, Dark Cloud 2, released two years later.
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[edit] Gameplay
Dark Cloud is a role-playing game in which the player battles through randomly-generated dungeons, defeating monsters and collecting items. Inside these dungeons, the player also has the option, providing that the correct item and transportation gate are located, of entering a "back room", which contains stronger monsters and more valuable treasure.
Unlike most RPGs, the main characters do not level up, but rather their weapons do. The player characters themselves can only grow stronger with the consumption of certain foods. Weapons level up through use. However, they also wear out over time, and it is necessary to repair them so they don't break. With the exception of the starting weapon, a broken weapon is immediately removed from the player's inventory. Weapon upgrades are achieved by obtaining absorption points, which are gained by defeating enemies. After reaching level five, a weapon can perform a "Status Break," in which it becomes an attachment that can then be equipped to other weapons for an increase in power.
Dark Cloud features six different main characters: three ranged fighters and three melee fighters. Each character uses a different class of weapon. The melee characters use a variety of blades, hammers, and staves. The ranged characters use magic rings, guns and slingshots. To navigate the dungeons, each character's unique skills must be used at some point. These include: opening 'Atla', jumping chasms, hitting door-opening switches, magically opening doors, blowing away wind barriers, and flying over chasms.
In addition, at certain points one must "Duel" an enemy. When this takes place, the player must press a certain arrangement of buttons while they are in an access point, shown along the bottom of the screen. This happens only occasionally, but is usually necessary for plot development in-game.
A 100-level hidden dungeon called Demon Shaft becomes available after beating the game. Every 20 floors, the dungeon changes the element the majority of the monsters are weak against. On the 100th floor, the not-so-secret boss, Black Knight Pendragon awaits your challenge. Upon defeating him, you receive Toan's ultimate weapon, Chronicle 2.
A fishing minigame is also available, with fishing points awarded for successful catches. These points can be traded in for various supplies and equipment.
[edit] Georama mode
A large part of Dark Cloud's gameplay involves special items called "Atla", which are used to rebuild the above-ground world[2] These items, which are present in almost every dungeon level, are large spherical objects and can only be retrieved by the main character. Once removed from the dungeon, they become pieces of the world, such as trees, houses and villagers. These pieces must be placed through Georama mode, an element similar to city-building games. After villagers have been placed, the main character must talk to them and discover what their wishes are for the rebuilding of the village. These wishes can range from the villagers wanting to have annex rooms (obtainable from Atla) built onto their houses, to wanting to be near someone else's house. As the player approaches the ideal state of affairs, his or her progress is recorded as a percentage of completion in the Georama menu. Completing additional villagers' requests gives the player new items; upon reaching 100% completion, the player's characters are granted a special reward such as a unique weapon or a powerful battle move.
[edit] Plot
[edit] Characters
Dark Cloud features several characters, many of which are playable. Each character utilizes different weapons and fighting styles as well as different abilities that aid in the exploration of dungeons. The main protagonist, a young boy named Toan, fights with daggers, knives, and swords. Toan is from Norune Village and is a silent protagonist. After the events of the prologue, he is charged with the restoration of the world by The Fairy King. The Fairy King gives Toan the "Atlamillia", a magical stone which he can use to gather and restore the scattered pieces of the world. During the course of the game, Toan meets new characters that can be chosen to explore and battle in dungeons. He normally has to accomplish certain in-game events for new characters to join. The available characters include: Xiao, a slingshot wielding 'catgirl'; Goro, an aggressive boy from Matataki Village who favors large hammers; Ruby, a beautiful magic-ring-using genie from Queens; Ungaga, a morose Muska Lacka warrior with a preference for staves; and Osmond, boss of the moon people equipped with a wide variety of guns and blasters.
The main antagonist is the Dark Genie, an evil genie that was released by Colonel Flag, a military commander seeking to conquer the world. Seda made a contract with the mysterious hooded man to kill his enemies during a war. When his fiancée, Sophia, was murdered, his hatred gave birth to the Dark Genie. Dran is the guardian of Norune Village and is first met while he is under the control of the Dark Genie, in the Divine Beast Cave. He makes another appearance later in the game, when the group goes to the Dark Heaven Castle.
Toan - A young boy wearing a poncho. He lives in Norune Village, and is the current holder of the Atlamillia. While the main hero, his back story is never truly expanded upon in many ways.
Xiao - A young cat who was transformed into a girl with a ChangePotion. She has the ability to jump across chasms with a pole or stalagmite in the middle, and has an assortment of slingshots.
Goro - Goro is the son of the warrior Fudoh who was slain fighting the Killer Snake. This led to Goro becoming a selfish, brash, and angry loner, choosing to live on the outskirts of the forest. Eventually, an apparition of his father appeared to him after Toan defeated the Killer Snake. The apparition helped him come to his senses, so that Toan could save Master Utan, the forest guardian. Goro's weapons of choice are hammers and axes.
Ruby - Ruby was once a genie who was found in her lamp by King and his bodyguards in Queens. It turned out that she was more trouble to them than she was worth, and Toan was given her lamp. She talked over the events that had happened and, deciding that the Dark Genie was making a bad name for all genies, decided to join Toan in his quest. She attacks using magic rings.
Ungaga - A man who lived in the village of Muska Lacka. He was devastated when the Dark Genie erased his village and love. After Toan and his party restored the village, he joined them on their quest. He uses an assortment of staves as his weapons.
Osmond - A quirky and well respected moon person, resembling a rabbit. He is the inventor of the sun giant and head of electronics on Yellow Drops. He is the final partner to join Toan and help him thwart the Dark Genie. He uses firearms, flamethrowers, and laser beams as weapons.
Simba - The Fairy King. He chose Toan due to his good heart and strong will. He knew Seda long ago.
Seda - The king of the East 400 years prior to the game. He was in a war to protect his kingdom and was on the verge of losing, until a hooded man approached him. He made a deal with the man. Mix witch blood into his veins to achieve devastating magical powers. But when his fiancee, Sophia, died by an assassin who was meant for Seda, his anger and bitterness gave birth to the Dark Genie. When he heard about the Atlamillia forming 400 years after his time, he used the Forbidden Spell to go to the future and get it to stop the Dark Genie himself.
[edit] Story
Dark Cloud is a fairy tale, read from an ancient book found in old ruins. Once scholars had translated the story, its significance and verity became debatable. The tale is set in a world with two orbital moons and focuses on the adventures of a young boy, Toan.
The story begins in a large chamber called the Dark Shrine. A group of dancers are performing the "dance of blood" in front of a giant urn. The ceremony has been funded by Colonel Flag, who had sought the urn for many years to reawaken the legendary creature within it, the Dark Genie. As Colonel Flag watches on, the ceremony's organizer explains the legend of the Dark Genie: 400 years ago, it suddenly appeared in the east and ravaged the world with its tremendous power. When the organizer asks what his intentions are, Colonel Flag insists on keeping them to himself for now. The urn begins to billow black smoke and the Dark Genie finally materializes. Onlookers are surprised by the creature's obese appearance. The Dark Genie accepts Colonel Flag as its master for releasing it. As hunger sets in from having been trapped for 400 years, the Dark Genie eats the ceremony organizer, which visibly worries Colonel Flag.
While the common folk of Norune Village are celebrating a festival for the bountiful harvest, the Dark Genie starts a rampage to destroy the village. The Fairy King casts a protective spell around the village, as well as other locations of the world. This spell causes the buildings, objects, and people to be only scattered by the Dark Genie's attack, rather than destroyed. Toan, a resident of Norune village, is bestowed with a blue stone called the Atlamillia from the Fairy King and learns that he must travel through dungeons searching for the scattered people and objects in the form of floating orbs called Atla. Toan then goes to the Divine Beast Cave and journeys through it to collect the Norune Village Atla. In the cave, Toan meets a mysterious white-haired man called Seda, who challenges him to a duel. Toan loses, and notices a little cat on the ground, which he attempts to protect. The white-haired man throws him a changing potion and tells him that it might come in handy.
Later Toan gives the potion to the cat, which causes the cat to change into a half-human/half-cat named Xiao, who joins him. He eventually reaches the bottom of the Divine Beast Cave, where he meets Dran, the God of all beasts. Dran is under control of the Dark Genie and attacks Toan. Defeating Dran releases him from the genie's control. Dran tells Toan to find the Moon People, and directs him to a giant tree called the Great Treant in Brownboo Village, found deep in the Matataki forests. While entering the village Toan is challenged by a robust, hotheaded boy called Goro. After defeating Goro, he runs back up to his tree house and drops magical earrings which allows Toan to understand the creatures of the forest, including the Great Treant. Goro eventually joins Toan's party. After speaking with Treant, Toan fights his way to the final area of the forest. There he faces the giant primate called Master Utan, who was also once the guardian of the forest.
After defeating Master Utan and freeing him from the same control as Dran, Toan makes his way to Brownboo Village. The village residents are the magical Moon People tribe that he is looking for but ends up being captured by them. After learning of the Dark Genie, they release Toan and devise a plan on how to defeat the Dark Genie’s magic permanently. The Moon People plan to call the Moon Ship using the Moon Orb, which was inconveniently lost. To find the orb, Toan must travel to the seaside village of Queens. Upon arriving at Queens, Toan learns of a Shipwreck where the Moon Orb may be located. While searching the Shipwreck, he finds and restores the town, similarly to the other villages. In the process, Toan finds a lamp which kept a genie, Ruby, who joins the group. Toan finds a music box winder, and attempts to use it to get to the next floor of the Shipwreck, but instead it transfers Toan to a magical sanctuary. He comes face to face with La Saia, the ice-using ghost of a woman who fiancee abandoned her at the altar. Angered by her fiancee's betrayal she attacks Toan. After defeating La Saia, Rando comes in the sanctuary and apologizes to La Saia. He then hands Toan the moon orb, and they depart together.
Toan returns to Brownboo Village, but the Moon People are unable to summon the Moon Ship. They send Toan to the desert village of Muska Lacka to investigate. There he finds the Sun and Moon Temple and begins to collect Atla to restore the village and locate the ship. During this mission, Toan befriends a desert warrior called Ungaga, who later becomes a party member. After reaching the final floor of the temple, they face The King’s Curse. Once they defeat the King’s Curse a passage opens up that leads to the Moon Ship. With the help of the Moon People, the ship is finally able to be activated. They set their destination for the moon city of Yellow Drops. Upon reaching Yellow Drops, Toan meets Osmond, a Moon person, who asks to Toan to help collect pieces of a giant battle robot, called the Sun Giant. The Moon People who have long since lost their magical abilities believe they can destroy the Dark Genie for good by using the robot. After meeting Osmond, he too joins the group. Toan collects the scattered pieces of the robot by searching the Moon Sea. He collects the final piece by fighting a giant Minotaur in a coliseum-like battle. Once the Sun Giant is completed, Toan and his group, along with a crew of Moon people, pilot the Sun Giant towards the Dark Heaven Castle, where the Dark Genie now resides.
The group arrives at the castle and confront the Dark Genie. After defeating the genie they learn that it was actually a rat that had absorbed some of the true Dark Genie's powers while sealed away with the real genie. The true Dark Genie had possessed Colonel Flag, and it destroys the Sun Giant with a single blast. The power is too great for Flag's Body to stand and Flag dies. Toan continues to pursue the Dark Genie and enters the castle where he meets Seda again. Seda explains that 400 years ago he was the young king of the East, fighting to defend his people from the invading West. Unfortunately, the forces from the West were much more powerful than his own, and when approached by a dark cloaked figure, he was given an offer. The robed wanderer said he would become more powerful if the blood of witches was to be combined with his human body. Seda took the offer, and was able to win the war, but a later incident gave birth to the Dark Genie. After the Genie's creation, Seda searched for a way to defeat the Dark Genie and learned of the Atlamilla, which would be created 400 years later in Toan's time, and traveled to the future. He asks Toan to collect Atla which hold fragments of his memory, to discover what lead to the creation of the Dark Genie, and prevent it. Seda opens up a portal to the Gallery of Time to allow Toan to find the Atla. Suddenly, the Genie reappears, wishing to reunite with Seda's body, which would be the most appropriate host because Seda was the one to create him. Seda commits suicide to bar the Genie from his power, running himself through with his own sword. Toan goes through the years of the Gallery of Time and collects and views the fragmented memories contained in the Atla. Despite Toan's intervention, he is unable to prevent the Dark Genie's creation. Toan then faces and defeats the true form of the Dark Genie. After finally defeating the Dark Genie, Toan uses the last of the Atlamilla's powers to revive Seda's fiancée, whose death in reality caused Seda to create the Dark Genie out of the agony and hatred of losing her. Afterwards, Toan vanishes from the past and is returned to his own time and village, to live out his life in peace. (Note: You can fight the Dark Genie unlimited times after beating him the first time.
[edit] Development
Dark Cloud was the first game of the Japanese developer Level-5, headed by designer Akihiro Hino.[1] Development of the game began when the company was founded in October 1998. When the PlayStation 2 was announced on March 2, 1999, Sony president and CEO Ken Kutaragi used a demo of Dark Cloud to showcase the capabilities of the platform.[1] However, many elements of the demo were not used in the release version of the game. The game was intended to be a launch title for the PlayStation 2 in Japan.[3]
The English release of Dark Cloud had more features added into gameplay, including the ability to upgrade weapons, extra duels and an extra dungeon after completing the game, the Demon Shaft; this location does not appear in the Japanese version. The English version is missing the back-floor key belonging to the Gallery of Time.
[edit] Audio
The Dark Cloud Official Soundtrack was released to the Japanese market in late 2001. The soundtrack, composed by Tomohito Nishiura, consists of 46 tracks.
| Dark Cloud Official Soundtrack | |||||||||
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| # | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Main Theme" | ||||||||
| 2. | "The Ceremony" | ||||||||
| 3. | "The Village Festival" | ||||||||
| 4. | "The Destruction of Norune Village" | ||||||||
| 5. | "The Resurrection of Norune Village" | ||||||||
| 6. | "Open Your Eyes" | ||||||||
| 7. | "Norune Village" | ||||||||
| 8. | "Divine Beast Cave" | ||||||||
| 9. | "The Spirit King" | ||||||||
| 10. | "Divine Beast Dran" | ||||||||
| 11. | "Matataki Village" | ||||||||
| 12. | "Battle!" | ||||||||
| 13. | "Reminiscence" | ||||||||
| 14. | "Brownboo" | ||||||||
| 15. | "Legend of Hunter" | ||||||||
| 16. | "Wise Owl Forest" | ||||||||
| 17. | "Forest Guardian Master Utan" | ||||||||
| 18. | "Queens" | ||||||||
| 19. | "Broken Promise (Orgel Version)" | ||||||||
| 20. | "Queens Shipwreck" | ||||||||
| 21. | "Duel" | ||||||||
| 22. | "The Ice Queen" | ||||||||
| 23. | "Broken Promise" | ||||||||
| 24. | "The Daily Life" | ||||||||
| 25. | "Stand Up!" | ||||||||
| 26. | "Muska Racka" | ||||||||
| 27. | "Departure" | ||||||||
| 28. | "If You Strain Your Ears" | ||||||||
| 29. | "Sun and Moon Palace" | ||||||||
| 30. | "Take Off" | ||||||||
| 31. | "The King's Curse" | ||||||||
| 32. | "Aero Drop" | ||||||||
| 33. | "Mission!" | ||||||||
| 34. | "Moon Sea" | ||||||||
| 35. | "Moon Factory" | ||||||||
| 36. | "The Land of Hope" | ||||||||
| 37. | "The Rowdy" | ||||||||
| 38. | "Memories" | ||||||||
| 39. | "Black Shadows" | ||||||||
| 40. | "The Gallery of Time" | ||||||||
| 41. | "Dark Heaven Castle" | ||||||||
| 42. | "Time of Destiny" | ||||||||
| 43. | "Last Battle" | ||||||||
| 44. | "Emergency" | ||||||||
| 45. | "Two Moons" | ||||||||
| 46. | "Dark Cloud Main Theme (Boss Nova Version)" | ||||||||
[edit] Reception
Dark Cloud has sold over 800,000 copies worldwide.[1] Dark Cloud has an 80% rating on review aggregator site Metacritic, and a 78% rating on Game Rankings.[4][5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Winkler, Chris (2003). "Creator's Talk Interview #2: Akihiro Hino". RPGFan.com. http://www.rpgfan.com/features/creatorstalk/index2.html. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
- ^ "Dark Cloud :: PS2 Game Review". Kidzworld. http://www.kidzworld.com/article/908-dark-cloud-ps2-game-review. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
- ^ Perry, Douglas C. (September 10, 1999). "The PS2 Launch Titles". IGN.com. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/073/073228p1.html. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
[edit] External links
- Sony's official Dark Cloud website
- RPGClassics' Dark Cloud Shrine
- Dark Cloud at MobyGames
- Dark Cloud Wikia
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