Skip to content

Geeky Sweetie

The Best Anime RPG Games For Girls

  • Home
  • Top 10
    • The Best Games for Girls
    • The Best Anime for Girls
    • Top 10 Subscription Boxes for Geek Girls
    • The Best Disney Films For Girls
  • Reviews
    • Game Review
    • Anime Review
    • Manga Reviews
    • Kdrama Review
    • Subscription Box Review
    • Boardgame Review
    • Kawaii Review
    • Toy Review
    • Tech Review
    • Book Reviews
  • News
    • Game News
    • Anime News
    • Manga News
    • Kdrama News
    • Boardgame News
    • Kawaii News
    • Movie News
    • Music News
    • Tech News
    • Book News
  • About Us
    • About Geeky Sweetie
    • The Sweetest Geek
    • Contact Me
    • Understanding Our Scoring System
    • Review VS. Preview
    • Privacy Policy
    • Link to us!
    • Advertise With Us
  • Media Kit
  • Toggle search form
Dark Cloud, Dark Cloud 2, Dark Chronicle, PS2, Playstation 2, Action RPG, JRPG, RPG, Roleplaying Game, World Building, City Building, Roguelike, Proceduraly Generated Dungeons, Randomly Generated Dungeons, Realtime Combat, Realtime, Real-Time Combat, Real-Time, Dungeon Crawling, Retro, Retro Gaming, Retro Games, Retro Gamer, Retro Gamers, Retro Game, Retro Game Review, Review, Retro Review, Game Review, Playstation 2 Review, JRPG Review, Simulation, Sim, Hack n Slash, Cat Girl, Neko Girl, Cat, Cats, Furrie, Anthro, Anthropomorphic, Furries

Dark Cloud PS2 Retro JRPG Game Review

Posted on March 14, 2016March 25, 2021 By GeekySweetie 1 Comment on Dark Cloud PS2 Retro JRPG Game Review

Reviewing one of my all time favorite games today, Dark Cloud. I will also be reviewing the very similar, but slightly better, Dark Cloud 2 later today as well.

This game is extremely similar to Legend of Zelda. Our main hero even has a green floppy hat just like Link lol. But it brings with it some unique new features such as rouge-like random proceduraly generated level design, multiple playable characters, and most notably, a world-creation and city building system.

Also, if you missed out on this awesome game back in 2001, you can play it again now if you have a PS4 via the playstation store.

You can grab Dark Cloud 1 for $14.99 at  https://store.playstation.com… and also pick up Dark Cloud 2 for $14.99 at https://store.playstation.com…

This was Level 5’s first game – and definitely a classic must-own for any JRPG collector. Interestingly enough, when the game came to North America, it was enhanced with new content and features that don’t exist in the Japanese version such as better AI control, an entire new dungeon, and dozens of new weapons.

Title: Dark Cloud

Platform: PS2

Release Date: 2001

Publisher: Level 5

Genre: Action RPG

Where to Buy: In addition to the digital versions on the Playstation Store, you can still find hard copies of the game on sites like Amazon. At time of this writing there’s about 10 copies on Amazon with prices ranging from $12 to $99 depending on the condition and quality of the disc, book, case, etc. Check out this page for more info: http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Cloud…

Geeky: 4/5 geekygeekygeekygeeky

Sweetie: 4/5 sweetiesweetiesweetiesweetie

Overall: 59/80 74% C “Good Game for Girls”

Concept: 10/10 As mentioned, this action RPG feels very Zelda-ish in design but brings with it a few surprises, namely the city and world building aspects along with procedurely generated dungeons. The dungeon crawling and city building style of gameplay reminds me a lot of Azure Dream which I reviewed here.

Gameplay: 10/10 This game combines real time combat such as that found in Zelda or Secret of Mana with Occasional Quick Time Events and of course, lots of world building and city building gameplay. The dungeons are proceduraly generated and it also features multiple playable characters each with their own abilities and fighting style. However, Atla (the items needed for city building) can only be found when playing as the main character.

In city building mode, you place the Atla retrieved from the dungeons onto your town. The atla may be something like a shop, house, or even something as simple as a tree or pond, or even a new NPC. As you continue to add Atla, and continue to talk to the NPC’s you will learn more about what they want you to build in their cities. Once you reach a certain level within that city, you can move on to create additional cities as well.

The game is also unique in how characters level up. In fact, your characters never level up at all. Only their equipment levels up as you battle your way through the dungeons. However, the weapons also break if not repaired between uses. Once a weapon breaks it is lost forever. Weapons can also be upgraded by attaching different effects to the weapon which can give it bonuses such as agility, strength, or elemental properties. Although it can be aggravating at times (to lose a really powerful weapon), I really enjoyed this weapon system and felt that it really added something to the gameplay to differentiate it from all the other Action RPGs of the 90s/early 2k.

The dungeon crawling aspects can get dull at times – but I feel it’s spiced up enough with plenty of other gameplay elements to keep it from getting overly repetitive. There’s just so many other fun things to do in this game.

Story: 5/10 Unfortunately, story is what misses the mark for me in this game. I just felt it was a little too slowly paced and that both the story and the characters felt bland and not very engaging. The story tells of a time when 2 continents existed peacefully governed by two moons. One day a Dark Cloud appeared over one of the lands (hence the title of the game). Anything touched by this cloud was destroyed (Sounds very Never Ending Story-ish with the Nothing destroying entire cities, erasing people, creatures, forests, etc – Unfortunately, Never Ending Story was actually exciting and interesting, while the same can’t really be said of Dark Cloud). To protect the people and places of the land, a benevolent fairy king sealed each of them away in a magic orb known as Atla. The Main character appears when his village is destroyed by the Dark Cloud. He encounters the fairy king who tells him how he can rebuild the world but that he must first find the orbs which have been scattered throughout the continent. While the bare bones for an interesting story are in place, it just doesn’t really captivate or connect with the audience.

Characters: 7/10  The physical design and appearance of the characters is quite cute and unique (aside from the main character who looks way too much like Link lol). But their personalities and interactions often feel like an empty shell. The characters include a cat who is stuck inside one of the dungeons that the Main Character encounters. She is rescued by the main character and taken by to the city where she is transformed into a human-like girl with cat ears and tail. Another interesting character is a robotics engineer who wears almost like a hazmat suit that’s very form fitting. He’s unique because he has large rabbit like ears and appears to have a custom suit built to take into account his large pointy ears. – So the concepts and creativity for the character design definitely gets high marks, but the dialog and interaction between them, not so much.

Graphics: 6/10 I take issue with how grainy the textures are in this game. However, I like the overall character design and game world. Dark Cloud 2 features a much cleaner (and cuter) art style.

Music: 7/10 I feel that the music just isn’t anything special overall. It’s not very memorable. Dark Cloud 2 has great music, Dark Cloud 1, on the other hand, is average to good, but falls just short of greatness. It’s also only half the size of the soundtrack in terms of number of tracks as compared to Dark Cloud 2.

Replay Value: 6/10 Although it’s a linear story, the world and city building aspects make it interesting enough to come back to.

Overall: 59/80 74% C “Good Game for Girls”

Related

Action RPG, Animals, Anime, anthromorphic, City Building, Featured, furries, Game Review, Playstation 2, Retro Game, Review, RPG, Simulation, Videogame Tags:Action RPG, Anthro, Anthropomorphic, Cat, Cat Girl, Cats, City Building, Dark Chronicle, Dark Cloud, Dark Cloud 2, Dungeon Crawling, Furrie, Furries, game review, Hack n Slash, JRPG, JRPG Review, Neko Girl, Playstation 2, Playstation 2 Review, Proceduraly Generated Dungeons, PS2, Randomly Generated Dungeons, Real-Time, real-time combat, Realtime, Realtime Combat, Retro, Retro Game, Retro Game Review, Retro Gamer, Retro Gamers, Retro Games, Retro Gaming, Retro Review, Review, Roguelike, roleplaying game, RPG, Sim, Simulation, World Building

Post navigation

Previous Post: Lovely Complex | LoveCom | Love*Com | Anime Review
Next Post: Kitten’s Super Adventure, an Insanely Cute New Cat Game Combines Spyro The Dragon with Adorable Kittens

Related Posts

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together Tactics Ogre – Let Us Cling Together Review Anime
Devil Maker Tokyo Devil Maker Tokyo Review Android Phone
Persona 4 Persona 4 Review Dating Sim
Stein's Gate Stein’s Gate Review Anime
Dandelion Wishes Brought to You Dandelion: Wishes Brought to You Review Animals
Model Doll F Melissa Baul with Default Faceup By Dollmore Dollmore Model F Melissa Baul Review Action Figures
  • Spoiler Fan Theory: Who is the Real Butcher in M Night Shymalan’s Trap Movie?
  • Geeky Sweetie Gets Airplay on VRT Radio 1 in Belgium with “Even ChatGPT Said It – Must Be True”
  • Nintendo Switch 2 Reveal – Excited? Disappointed? A Little of Both.
  • Review: Sailor Moon Super Live – North America Tour (Pittsburgh, PA)
  • AIR is Finally in English—A Dream Come True for Visual Novel Fans
  • About Geeky Sweetie
  • Advertise With Us
  • Contact Me
  • Credits
  • Link to us!
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Review VS. Preview
  • Social Stream
  • The Best Anime for Girls
  • The Best Games for Girls
  • The Sweetest Geek
  • Understanding Our Scoring System
  • Welcome to GeekySweetie.com

Android Anime Choices Matter Cute Dating Sim Decisions Matter Free Game Game game review Games games for girls Gaming JRPG Kawaii Mobile Game Multiple Endings Nintendo Nintendo Switch Otome PC PC Game PC Games Playstation Playstation 2 Playstation 4 PS2 PS4 Retro Retro Gamers Retro Games Retro Gaming Review Romance RPG Sim Simulation Slice of Life Sony Story Rich Technology Video Game Videogame Video Games Videogames Visual Novel

  • About Geeky Sweetie
  • Advertise With Us
  • Contact Me
  • Credits
  • Link to us!
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Review VS. Preview
  • Social Stream
  • The Best Anime for Girls
  • The Best Games for Girls
  • The Sweetest Geek
  • Understanding Our Scoring System
  • Welcome to GeekySweetie.com

Copyright © 2025 Geeky Sweetie.

Powered by PressBook Masonry Dark