Some of the biggest improvements in this chapter of the Dark Cloud saga have to do with the presentation and the story. Level-5 seemed to have taken all of the criticism about the last installment of Dark Cloud to heart, and went out of their way to provide PS2 owners with an enriching and gripping story. This time around you get to play as a young, inventive genius by the name of Maximillian, and a young warrior from the future named Monica. Both of the main characters have a unique and interesting connection to the main plotline in Dark Cloud 2. Maxinmillian, a young inventor that grew up in a small and peaceful mining community, clumsily discovers that there is something horribly wrong happening to the outside world and sets forth on his adventure to see and help the rest outside world. And Monica comes from the future, the time that she comes from is in grave danger, she travels back in time to put a stop to the evil that has arisen in her time. But, not only did Level-5 put together a well written and well thought-out story; but they also placed this epic tale in a fantastic world overflowing with genuine atmosphere and character, which is a huge improvement over the original backdrop of the first version of Dark Cloud. Dark Cloud 2 takes place in a world that seems to be going through an industrial revolution, similar to the 1800s; however, this is a world filled with magic, as well as, technology.

Gameplay wise, Dark Cloud 2 is an action/adventure RPG with just a hint of city building added just to keep things fresh and exciting. The manual camera, which is controlled by the right analog stick, works tremendously well and with fluid ease. Also with the push of a button you can center the camera on your character’s back, making it hard to get disorientated during combat and during your adventures. This makes it very easy and enjoyable to navigate your way through the many towns and dungeons in Dark Cloud 2.

One thing you will be doing a lot in Dark Cloud 2 is exploring dungeons and of course while you are doing this you will be combating hostile people and monsters. The combat system in Dark Cloud is a simple, yet a finely polished system. You simply attack by pushing the ‘X’ button, which will make your character swing his/her primary weapon and if you push the ‘X’ button while holding down the ‘L1’ button you can attack your enemies with your secondary ranged weapon. But there is a catch, the more you punish your enemies with your weapons, the more damaged your weapons become, until your weapons are rendered completely useless. Now the boys and girls at Level-5 are not completely without compassion, after you have damaged your weapon so much you can use something that is called “repair powder” to bring back the “health” of your weapons. Moreover, during combat you can lock onto a specific foe with a simple push of a button. This of course changes the way your character moves during the time he/she is locked onto an enemy; strafing and always facing your foe are the biggest changes to your characters movements when locked onto an enemy. Also during combat you can block to avoid damage, and you can throw certain items, all which have different effects.

In Dark Cloud 2, instead of your character leveling up, you level up your weapons. You do this by killing enough foes to gain enough experience with each specific weapon, and then extracting “essence” from different items to meld with each of your weapons. Items such as fire spheres give your weapons more fire related damage when you meld its “essence” to your weapons.

Each of the two main characters also has a different special ability. Max, being an inventor can create new items, weapons, and accessories for himself or his Ridepod; Max’s Ridepod is a small mech like vehicle with hands that he can use in combat and to travel with. In order to make new inventions Max must collect ideas with his camera. Collecting ideas is done by wandering the different areas and taking pictures of items, for example, if you take a picture of a barrel you now can use a barrel in your invention scheme; it takes three different pictures/ideas to create a new invention. After you have your invention created it takes a certain amount of material to make it. Materials used to make your inventions such as copper, scrap metal, and so on can be found throughout the game or purchased in item shops. While Monica on the other hand can collect “monster medals”, which allows her to be able to transform into different beasts, which then you can then level up to gain more powerful abilities depending on which creature you can transform into.

Of course you couldn’t call the game Dark Cloud if you didn’t have the Georama system from the first game. Rebuilding the towns in Monica’s future is done in classic “drag-and-drop” method, as you drag a building’s silhouette you simply press a button and viola, instant building! Naturally the PS2 will tell you when you cannot build something where you want to put it by making the silhouette turn red.

All in all, Dark Cloud might turn into that RPG franchise that Sony has been looking for. With a stylish look to it, Dark Cloud is one of the most impressive looking cel-shaded games on the market, ranking right up there with upcoming games like Nintendo’s Zelda and Konami’s Zone of Enders 2. Not only does this version of Dark Cloud look beautiful, but it has a little something for everyone, action and exploration, character customization and development, magic and technology, city building, and a wonderful captivating story. Not only does DC2 have all of these elements that I have mention, but it does them all exceptionally well. Every idea put into Dark Cloud was implemented extraordinarily well, almost nothing was “just thrown in”, and with that being said Dark Cloud 2 is one of the, if not the, most polished games that I have played for the PS2 to date! If you love RPGs for adventure, story, and style then buy this game as soon as you can. And who knows maybe Dark Cloud can live up to the title it was given a few years ago.