Dark Cloud 2 is easily regarded as one of, if not, the best Playstation 2 adventure RPG ever made. Some people have even called it Sony’s Ocarina of Time with liberal 9s and 10s across every reputable review source. Those people are wrong. I should preface that I’m not an Ocarina of Time fan boy, but I even recognize the impact that it had on this genre of gaming and it was a technical and creative marvel. Dark Cloud 2 is nothing like OoT, both in form and function. Between the broken animation, ugly, fake cell shaded art style, unresponsive and sluggish controls, the awful, AWFUL voice acting, and the rapid fire back and forth between drawn out cut scenes, Dark Cloud was only marvelous to me in that it was so bad, yet was rated so high.
I had the fortune of playing this title outside of the hype around its release and could only see a broken mess and after an hour of what looked like first time indie grade developed exposition, I was thoroughly over the whole experience and quit during the first actual level of the game.
I wanted to love this game, but it was clear to me that there was little to no love and care in the development of Dark Cloud 2 and every creative and technical aspect suffered for it.
It is possible that I might not be the target audience for this game, but games can easily transcend personal preference with an engaging story and polished, fun mechanics. So I honestly don’t think I’m to blame. I was so let down by my experience with what has been proclaimed as a pinnacle of Playstation 2 gaming. Definitely a case, in my opinion, of influential hype over actual good gaming.
Watch our video review for more details: