Dark Chronicle (2002) (VG)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Release Date:

18 February 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Tagline:

When you can do everything, the hardest part is doing anything.

Plot:

Max, a boy living in the isolated town of Palm Brinks who likes inventing, receives a mysterious red stone on his birthday...

Plot Keywords:

Future | RPG | Skeleton | Fish | Bridge

Cast

Rikako Aikawa	...	(voice)
Aki Akiha	...	(voice)
Fûrin Cha	...	(voice)
Susumu Chiba	...	(voice)
Hiroshi Iwasaki	...	(voice)
Kyoji Kobayashi	...	(voice)
Megumi Kubota	...	(voice)
Motoko Kumai	...	(voice)
Taiten Kusunoki	...	(voice)
Tadashi Miyazawa	...	(voice)
Hiroshi Naka	...	(voice)
Tomomichi Nishimura	...	(voice)
Mitsuru Ogawa	...	(voice)
Hiroe Oka	...	(voice)
Tamio Ôki	...	(voice)
Fumiko Orikasa	...	(voice)
Takahiro Sakurai	...	(voice)
Kôzô Shioya	...	(voice)
Hiroko Taguchi	...	(voice)
Shinpachi Tsuji	...	(voice)
Hideyuki Umezu	...	(voice)
Mayumi Yanagisawa	...	(voice)

Also Known As:

Dark Cloud 2 (USA)

Country:

Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:T

Company:

Level-5 Inc.

Quotes:

Max: [at the swamp] Okay, and when we're done you have to return those three to normal!
King Marden: [very camp voice] Yes, yes, you don't need to tell a man twice!
Monica: What? You're a *guy*?

Movie Connections:

Spoofs The Matrix (1999)

Soundtrack:

Time Is Changing

Long and sometimes infectious

This game promised more than 100 hours of gameplay, and if you try to complete the game in it's absolute entirety, including all the mini-games and all that stuff that comes with RPG's these days, then that is most certainly true. After 80 hours of playing I managed to get to the very last boss, but I just can't get past him (very annoying)!!

To completely explain the story would require far too much effort, seeing as there are so many twists and turns along the way - as with a lot of Japanese RPG's the basic premise explained on the box is quickly surpassed and the game goes in all sorts of directions. Let's just say that the story is very intriguing and executed with heartfelt emotion at times, although it did feel a little childish, even when some more mature ideas were being introduced! I think this has to do with the English dub of the dialogue - much like any Japanese film or anime, American dubs are almost always cheesy.

The game is broken up into various chapters, each with it's own little subplot within the greater picture. The gameplay itself comprises mostly of Sim City-style town building and exploration of randomised dungeons (ugh). Some of these dungeons were far too long and repetitive for my liking, although the town building (or "Georama") presented a neat little innovation into otherwise boring gameplay. Of course there are the mini games such as fishing and "Spheda", which is basically a golf game.

Another idea that I liked was the fact that it was not really you that levelled up, but your weapons. As your weapons level up they gain more strength and new abilities and they can transform into a seemingly endless number of weapons. The graphics were quite good, cel-animated style and very anime-esque.

Something that struck me about this game was that some characters are very well characterised, as it were. For example, some characters aren't just evil for the sake of being evil, but their evil nature is explained through backstory and the like. That said, I thought that the two leads didn't have very memorable personalities, even though they had very strong backstories and established motives for their behaviour.

Overall this is a decent game, with a truly interesting story and concept, but unfortunately goes down the random dungeon route and suffers from often bland and repetitive gameplay within these dungeons. Characterisation left a bit to be desired and the voice acting was strangely childish, even though I wouldn't class this as a game aimed directly at kids.

I think Final Fantasy X was a bit better.