This is probably my favorite dungeon crawler EVER.

For those of you who don't know what this game is, here's a summarized version for you:

Dark Cloud tells the story of a boy named Toan who is suddenly thrust into a perilous quest to restore the world and destroy an ancient evil brought back via satanic ritual. Cliche, no? The story starts when evil men from the East ressurect the Dark Genie, and is placed under the command of a nazi-like dictator. Toan is chosen to stop him after his home village was nearly destroyed along with half of his world in a single night by the Dark Genie's awesome power. The Fairy King, however, manages to seal the townspeople and the rest of the town in magic spheres which only Toan can recover. Not very original, but what fantasy games are these days? The way the game plays, however, is genius. Toan is given the power of the "Atlamillia." The Atlamillia is a magical stone that allows him to collect spheres throughout the many dungeons in the game called "Atla." Contained inside of the Atla are the remnants of people, buildings, and land structures of each town. By obtaining these Atla, you can rebuild the towns and construct them however you see fit. Collecting the Atla spheres won't be easy, however, due to the relentless monsters that occupy the dungeons. You are, however, granted new allies as you progress through the game, allowing you to unlock new areas and subdue your enemies in different (and sometimes more effective) ways. They consist of a cat magically transformed into a human, the overweight son of a great deceased hunter, a sexy genie summoned from a lamp, a staff wielding Indian man from the desert sands, and a lazer gun wielding midget. Quite the colorful cast of characters, huh? Probably the best part of this game though is the vast amount of options that come with upgrading your weapons. Adding attachments to your weapons give them special bonuses, such as fire element attachments that allow you to do greater damage to ice or plant enemies, or a sea killer attachment that allows you to do greater damage to enemies of the underwater variety (such as giant spear wielding sharks). Each weapon has different specs that can be upgraded, and some of them even have special powers integrated into them, such as gaining money every time you hit your enemy with that weapon. For every enemy you kill, the weapon absorbs the magical properties of those monsters, and adds onto the Abs meter. Once the Abs meter is 100% filled, you can upgrade the weapon, allowing you to permanantly absorb the attachments you equipped to the weapon, and allow you to equip more of them. Once you upgrade a weapon high enough, you have the option of doing a "Status Break" which allows you to seal 60% of the weapons power into an attachment which can be equipped to another weapon, which means you never waste time upgrading a weapon only having to gain a new one. Overusing the weapon is VERY BAD, however. Every time you attack your enemy, the Weapon HP meter decreases. If that meter hits zero, the weapon will break and disappear FOREVER. To keep the weapon from breaking, you can use Repair Powder to fill the Weapon HP meter back to 100% and lets you keep using it. You continue to go from town to town, collecting the Atla and restoring the world while beating all the dungeons one after another. Eventually, you learn the secret of defeating the Dark Genie, which then allows you to confront him and end the madness...

...and THATS about the sum of it.

So, anybody else play this amazing PS2 launch title?

I've seen it once.I was hanging out with one of my friends and he was playing it.It's pretty cool,but it sucks when your sword breaks.

Unfortunately, that's one of the learning curves of this game. It's not just a hack n' slash, because you have to pay attention to how much you're attacking. I kind of appreciate the fact that you can't just mash the X button and annihilate all with no penalty.

FUCK THE ICE BITCH.
That is all.

Have you guys played the sequel?

Nerdy Knight wrote:

Unfortunately, that's one of the learning curves of this game. It's not just a hack n' slash, because you have to pay attention to how much you're attacking. I kind of appreciate the fact that you can't just mash the X button and annihilate all with no penalty.

Well i happen to love hack and slash games such as the devil may cry series and Ninja gaiden.

@Vagrant_Samurai: That will be one of the funniest inside jokes, EVER.

@Floominoo: Unfortunately, I never got a chance to play it, but I heard it's EPIC.

@gurakai: I understand completely. I'm not bashing hack n' slash games at all. I actually enjoy the Devil May Cry games quite a lot. I do like it when games break that formula, however.

It's called Dark Chronicle... just for anyone who cares. I don't think it's as good as Dark Cloud