Lost Treasures
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the cover of the PS2 game Dark Cloud has a lot of flattery for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The boy with the green hat (who’s name is Toan) looks like he could be Link’s brother. Or…he actually looks quite like he could be Link. The resemblance is uncanny.
Under the hood, however, the game is quite different. At least, mostly (when chests open up you sometimes still feel like you are playing a Zelda game). This is an action RPG game where your weapons level up instead of just you which is different and interesting – especially for this time period. The game was supposed to be a launch title on the PS2 but didn’t actually come out until 2001 in North America. It was developed by Level 5 who you might recognize from other great franchises such as Professor Layton, White Knight Chronicles and Rogue Galaxy among many others.
Dark Cloud also has an extensive village building component that allows you create a village to your specification and you get rewarded if you build things the way the townspeople want things done. It’s quite interesting to see the two-dimensional view of the village that transforms into a 3D view.
This game is also a Dungeon Crawler and since the Dungeons are procedurally generated that means that no two games are going to be alike which keeps it interesting.
A sequel called Dark Cloud 2 (known as Dark Chronicle in other parts of the world) was released in 2003 although it is more of a spiritual successor since it uses a similar combat and village building component, but has a completely different plot and cast of characters.
Either way it’s worth checking out. So the next time the clouds are dark outside give Dark Cloud a try – I think you’ll find some great Lost Treasure within.
Until next time, I’m Syd Bolton your gaming archelogist digging up the lost treasures for you, right here on OMG! Nexus and The OMG! Hour.
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