Dark Cloud 2

Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle in Europe) is the sequel to one of the first RPG's on the PlayStation 2: Dark Cloud.

Story

The game begins in a castle where you see a girl being attacked by some monsters. After a short fight she finds out that her father has been killed by the evil Emperor Griffin.
After that little sequence the story of the hero of the game begins. The circus is in town, and Max want to go there, but he has forgotten his card. At Cedric's place - where Max works inventing and repairing things - Cedric tells you you need to do some work. But when Max is busy repairing something he falls asleep. When Max awakes he found out that the circus is almost to begin. So he goes to the circus. When he shows the card to the man, some red haired boy steals your card and you have to get it back from him. After that you see that Max isn't some ordinary boy. When Max is in the circus he sees the boy again and Max goes after him. After loosing him somewhere in the back of the circus Max sees Major Need talking to Flatsem, the circus owner. Flatsem is treating the major, telling him to find a red pendant, but Max has that pendant. And so the game begins.....

Graphics

The graphics are cell-shaded and they look superb in 3D. More and more games use this technology and by this game it's working out great! The environments also looks very nice, and the movie sequences too.

Gameplay

If you want to finish this game, without getting all secrets etc. I think that will take 50 hours. With all the secrets I think more then 100 hours! There are just so many things. You can make photographs of things, that can bring you to ideas to invent something. There are also some scoops, like special moves from enemies, or special; scenes that you must capture on film. Also you can catch fish, like in Dark Cloud 1, but with an improved system.

The battle system has also improved. You can now do some combos attacks, and you have 2 weapons (one in your left hand and one in your right one); for Max a Wrench and a Gun. Just hold L1 and you can use your gun or magic. For the enemies you have defeated your sword get ABS and when that is full your weapon go level up. Also your weapon has WHP (just like in Dark Cloud 1), if it drops to 0, your weapon is broken. You can convert items into Synth Spheres and Synthese them with weapons. Your weapons abilities will get better and better. When your have all the abilities needed, you can build up your weapon. This way you can make weapons stronger and stronger.

You can recruit villagers. But by most of the villagers you must do something for them. If you did that, they will be in the train. Villagers are needed to fill the empty houses and villages that was been taken away by the evil dark force. Just like in Dark Cloud 1, the Georama is back, but it's a bit modified. In Dark Cloud 1 all the houses, rivers etc. where all in Georama's, but now only the design of the houses are in there. You need items to build them (= Georame Elements). Some buildings can only be build once. Also the villagers want to live in a house they like. so you must build some things, like a fence, a chimney or a lamp. There are special conditions you must complete. If a condition is complete, something in the future will change back to normal. The conditions are stored in the Geostones. 

Also there a difference between day and night. Each second you play the game is one minute in the game. Some villagers are not outside at night, but in there house, and some are only in the town when it's day. 

One minor about the game maybe is the dungeons. There are still so many dungeon you must make your way through. Also some stages has seals. For example by a Red Seal you can't switch to Max. Also Max has a Ridepod. With the EXP you collect when defeating enemies on your Ridepod, you can buy improvements for your Ridepod to make it stronger and faster. Also there are more things, but I don't tell it all in here, you have to see it for yourself :P.

Sound

The music fits in the game, also the voice acting is alright. Some of the voices are a bit wierd, but you can put it off if you really hate them :P.

Characters

There are only 2 main characters: Max and Monica. The main characters are looking great!

There are many villagers that you can recruit and have there own special abilities. Someone can make bombs and someone else sells Georama parts.