8.4 out of 10
IGN.COM

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It's really hard to nail down the genre of Dark Cloud or to explain to someone exactly what type of game it is. The reality of the whole thing is that Sony's RPG is really a compilation of several elements of many different games. The game's creators, whether by chance or direct design, have in effect stolen elements from a lot of different great titles from year's gone by and put them together in a single game.

There's definitely an influence from Nintendo's Zelda franchise, as can be seen by the game's main character, the lock-on battles, and some of its dungeon and artistic design. Players will also see some of Vagrant Story here, as the game relies heavily on the ability to find new weapons to power-up and build according to the desires of the gamer. The random dungeon elements have been seen in hordes of games before it like Diablo II and countless other games. And while I can't comment on it directly as I have regretfully never played it, a lot of people have related the world-building elements in Dark Cloud to Act Raiser on the Super NES.

Using all of these elements, the creators of Dark Cloud have successfully crafted a highly-enjoyable and insanely addictive role-playing experience that wouldn't have been able to stand alone with just its story, just its battle system, or any single one of its gameplay elements. The game works because each element aids in the enjoyment of the other parts.

The player is put in the role of young boy named Toan who is chosen by the Fairy King (ha, ha) to help revive the world after it had been destroyed by the recently summoned "Dark Genie" or "Black Demon." You see, as the world was being annihilated by the Genie, the Fairy King managed to save buildings and people by storing them in these magical spheres called "atla." And it's Toan's job to find these pieces to restore each town he comes across using the magical gem that he was given called the "atlamillia."

[INFO PROVIDED BY IGN.COM]

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Elfpack User Reviews:

Addicting
hahaha I remember this game the first time I saw it was when my brother bought it we spent many hours where he'd play and I'd watch I fell in love with it and bought my own copy shortly after I remember skipping school to stay home and play this game it's incredible the gameplay is highly addictive and fun [sorry I suck at reviews] all I can say is YOU NEED THIS GAME so go forth and buy it you won't be disapointed :D
~[wolvie]

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Internet Reviews:

Maybe it was because I was going into it with low expectations because of the modest hype it received after its import release, but Dark Cloud has turned out to be one of this year's biggest surprises for me. As has been suggested throughout this review, the whole of the game is definitely much greater than its parts.
If you go out and look, you'll be able to find other games out there with better randomly created dungeons. The game's story doesn't reach the epic scale of Square's Final Fantasy VII or Chrono Cross. Zelda's realtime battles are much more advanced than what you'll find here in Dark Cloud and the game's weapon and item management system pales in comparison to Vagrant Story. Furthermore, if you're looking for a game where you can create worlds, you'll find much deeper stuff on the PC.

What Dark Cloud offers is a splendid mix of several existing genres and game ideas that when merged together brings forth a delightful and extremely addictive adventure role-playing game that's easily one of the best we've yet seen on PlayStation 2.

But is it for all fans of role-playing games? No. If you're one of those people that found the weapon management and building in Vagrant Story to be a bit overdone or find leveling up in traditional role-playing games to be a pain without a true reward, then you'll likely be turned off by Dark Cloud.

However, if you're like me and enjoy things like leveling up characters, finding lots of secret items and weapons, and managing a world that you have the ability to layout, then Dark Cloud is definitely your cup of tea.

~IGN.COM

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