The graphics in Dark Cloud range from beautiful to repetitive and dull, with many gradients in-between. Most of the 'good' graphics are found in the non-dungeon areas; as you rebuild the villages, they teem with people and places and things to see. The ability of the game to 'soft-focus' things in the background adds to the look; this sort of hyper-realism helps to pull you into the rather bizarre world of Dark Cloud. The dungeons, on the other hand, tend to be repetitive. The first dungeon is so generically cave-like that I can see many gamers playing it and deciding that the game is downright ugly; the repetitive browns do absolutely nothing for your eyes. But once you hit the Forest, with its sweeping branches and twisty passages through the trees, you'll realize that even dungeons can look nice.

The game makes use of engine cutscenes to portray plot scenes, and it works quite well. While the game has its share of 'jaggies', the graphics are sharp enough and detailed enough to look good. It's not the most beautiful game I've seen on the PS2, but neither is it ugly.

Music in the game ranges from the hauntingly memorable tunes in the villages--there's something about woodwinds that stick in my mind--to the sorts of stuff that you won't remember once you turn the PS2 off. Because of the depths of each dungeon, you'll be hearing a lot of the same music over and over as you play. It's fortunate that none of it is bad enough to make you want it off, and you may be humming it because it's been drilled into your mind, but it's still not particularly spectacular. The game doesn't have voice acting either, which is understandable enough, considering its size.

And while Dark Cloud breaks absolutely no new ground in gameplay--it's basically a fast-paced roguelike--it's probably the most solid RPG experience available here on the PS2. That's not saying much, of course, but there is quite a bit of fun to be had with the game. It basically nips a bit from many different games and genres, and while the whole isn't particularly tidy, it's quite enjoyable.

The game starts off with the destruction of the world. Well, your slice of the world, at least. Flag (whose name was changed from Flagg to, I assume, not get in trouble with Stephen King) summons the Dark Genie to attack the continent on which you live, and the Genie pretty much destroyes the entire thing. Fortunately, the Fairy King captured all of the people and houses and whatnot into little spheres called Atla.

You wake up the next morning, and the Fairy King tells you that it's your job to defeat the Dark Genie. Along the way, you're going to have to recover all of the Atla, rebuild the land, and gain companions who will help you on your quest. The plot of the game isn't particularly deep or enthralling, but that's mainly because it's given to you in such small doses. Most of the game is spent inside the multilevel dungeons, hacking away at beasties and picking up items to aid you on your quest. Outside of the dungeons, you have to rebuild the world, using the Atla to recreate houses and roads and rivers and satisfying everyone's desires when you build. Doing this both progresses the game and nets you goodies, which is always a good thing. To get all the Atla, though, you must delve into whatever dungeons are at hand.

This is where the whole roguelike thing comes in. Each level is randomly generated, populated with enemies and items and (usually) Atla. Toan is the only one who can activate the Atla with his Atlamillia that the Fairy King gave him, but as the game progresses you can switch back and forth between the various characters, each of which has special abilities that can help you in the levels. For example, Toan uses a sword, but Xiao has a slingshot that is useful for long-ranged attacks.

The game allows you to escape the dungeon a number of ways. If you beat a level of the dungeon, you can escape without penalty. If you have Escape Powder, you can use that as well. If you've killed all the enemies, you can ask the Fairy King to warp you out. Only beating the level lets you progress to the next one, though, so it's wise to do that when possible. Each Dungeon level requires some item to exit it, and a creature walking around carries the item. This means you'll have to fight all the nasties that walk around in the dungeons.

There are other good reasons to fight the nasties. While your characters don't gain experience and levels, your weapons do. You can plug in attachments that add abilities; adjusting your weapon for maximal efficiency is a wise thing to do as you play. If you're fighting flying enemies, putting in some Air Busters is a good idea, and so on. What's even nicer is that when you upgrade the weapon after it gains enough experience, it absorbs any attachments you have on it. This allows you to plug in even more attachments, making the weapon more and more powerful.

Unfortunately, the weapons also have a very bad habit of breaking. They lose weapon points way too fast for my own taste, and this sort of micromanagement is quite annoying. You also have to watch your characters' thirst levels, making for even more things you have to pay attention to in the game. While I appreciate the added challenge for what would otherwise be a simpler game, it's a little too 'tweaky' for my tastes. Fortunately, once you have a few characters and a few weapons for each, you can switch between them at will to make sure that the weapons don't break and your warriors don't die of thirst.

Dark Cloud is surprisingly hard. The enemies hit hard and often, causing lots of damage, even in the first dungeon. Keeping track of your weapon's health and your thirst meter only complicate matters, and you'll often find yourself running back to pools of water to heal and refill your water meter. Fighting two or three powerful enemies at once is a death wish, and even one can get in some lucky hits and kill you. Death isn't permanent, thankfully, but you lose hard-earned goods, so it's frustrating nonetheless. The game definitely gets harder as it progresses, but you have more characters and weapons to use, balancing the whole thing out. Just don't expect a complete cakewalk.

There are a number of controls in the game, but most of them are very easy to grasp--attack, defend, target, and so on. There's a 'quick belt' for items that is handy, but I didn't find myself using it much. The lock-on method could have been a little more robust, as you lose your lock a little easier than I would have liked, but it certainly does what it needs to do. I feel that weapons break too quickly and water runs out too fast as well, but the game's manageable with the current levels; I just feel they could have been tweaked a little better. I didn't encounter many glitches in the game, but there are some. The most annoying I found was a dungeon level that was uncompletable--the random map generator didn't connect the entire thing, and I couldn't find the exit or kill all of the enemies, forcing me to lose half of my money to exit. (Or, in my case, making me tap Reset on the console.)

Dark Cloud won't stun anyone with its originality--it reminded me of both Actraiser and Diablo, with a smattering of Zelda thrown in--but it's an enjoyable romp nonetheless. While those looking for a deep plot and involving characters should definitely look somewhere else, people who don't mind random levels, lots of level-raising, and the occasional cool occurence when you finish something up in a village would do well to check out Dark Cloud. Rent it first, to make sure it's to your liking, but there's a lot to do and see and re-create in the world, and somebody has to do it.