Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom marks the sequel to a franchise that started on the PS3, and fans are mixed on it.
However, a game where reception is decidedly not mixed is Dark Cloud 2 for the Playstation 2.
Released in 2003, Dark Cloud 2 was an action RPG and the sequel to the first Dark Cloud. Also called "Dark Chronicle", the game allowed the player to embark on a journey of discovery to repair the bonds of time between past and present.
In the game, you play as a young man who loves to tinker. My memory is fuzzy since I last played this game more than a decade ago, but nearest I can remember, you love to build things. You can build weapons, machines, and other things. In the game, you can walk around snapping photos of the things you see to help you tinker.
The game's main gameplay is divided into two parts: combat and georama. The combat system was a basic dungeon crawler in which you explored floors in order to defeat all the enemies or collect an item. I don't remember whether these floors were timed or if there were some other special conditions for them, but I do know the monsters tended to get tougher as you ventured further into the dungeon.
In the dungeons, you could collect items to use in the other part of the game, which was the georama system. In the georama system, you were usually tasked with rebuilding a colony from scratch. A farm, a research facility, something that had been wiped off the face of the earth by the main antagonist of the game. To do this you needed to gather resources from battles, item shops, and other places in order to restore the worlds you visited. As you placed a building, you could give it a resident. Placing buildings and residents in their ideal place earned you points which were needed to advance the story. Doing this completely was a challenge for advanced players.
There was also a game of mini-golf which I believe was called sphaeda. I can't for the life of me remember the purpose of this but I enjoyed it.
Anyway, the concepts of resource management and combat were married extremely well because you were given an incentive to collect things which made the combat easier. In turn, the combat and exploration were how you collected things. Many games create secondary gameplay types that don't necessarily serve the main quest all that well, but Dark Cloud 2 is an exception for sure.
Overall, the gameplay is not too challenging but is interesting enough to overcome the lack of challenge. You always have something to do.
The game is well presented for an early 2000s Playstation 2 game, with colorful cartoon-like graphics. It has one of my favorite soundtracks from that era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi_3dC8PU8Y&list=PL3tPDwvv7zc0uYKgRSvuwub3HtLwJLwOR&index=12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfeVEZQMFM&index=32&list=PL3tPDwvv7zc0uYKgRSvuwub3HtLwJLwOR
This game is available for multiple systems today so chances are you have a way to play it. I doubt we'll ever see a sequel to it since Sony owns the rights to the franchise and Level 5 has other plans.
For me, this game cemented Level 5 as a developer that understands how RPGs can be accessible. I had the worst trouble ever getting into JRPGs during the PS1 and PS2 because of all the reading or quirky gameplay systems. However, none of L5's games (even the not so great ones) are like that.
Dark Cloud 2 happens to be great and accessible, and for that, it's my favorite of Level 5's games, right next to Dragon Quest 8.
However, a game where reception is decidedly not mixed is Dark Cloud 2 for the Playstation 2.
Released in 2003, Dark Cloud 2 was an action RPG and the sequel to the first Dark Cloud. Also called "Dark Chronicle", the game allowed the player to embark on a journey of discovery to repair the bonds of time between past and present.
In the game, you play as a young man who loves to tinker. My memory is fuzzy since I last played this game more than a decade ago, but nearest I can remember, you love to build things. You can build weapons, machines, and other things. In the game, you can walk around snapping photos of the things you see to help you tinker.
The game's main gameplay is divided into two parts: combat and georama. The combat system was a basic dungeon crawler in which you explored floors in order to defeat all the enemies or collect an item. I don't remember whether these floors were timed or if there were some other special conditions for them, but I do know the monsters tended to get tougher as you ventured further into the dungeon.
In the dungeons, you could collect items to use in the other part of the game, which was the georama system. In the georama system, you were usually tasked with rebuilding a colony from scratch. A farm, a research facility, something that had been wiped off the face of the earth by the main antagonist of the game. To do this you needed to gather resources from battles, item shops, and other places in order to restore the worlds you visited. As you placed a building, you could give it a resident. Placing buildings and residents in their ideal place earned you points which were needed to advance the story. Doing this completely was a challenge for advanced players.
There was also a game of mini-golf which I believe was called sphaeda. I can't for the life of me remember the purpose of this but I enjoyed it.
Anyway, the concepts of resource management and combat were married extremely well because you were given an incentive to collect things which made the combat easier. In turn, the combat and exploration were how you collected things. Many games create secondary gameplay types that don't necessarily serve the main quest all that well, but Dark Cloud 2 is an exception for sure.
Overall, the gameplay is not too challenging but is interesting enough to overcome the lack of challenge. You always have something to do.
The game is well presented for an early 2000s Playstation 2 game, with colorful cartoon-like graphics. It has one of my favorite soundtracks from that era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi_3dC8PU8Y&list=PL3tPDwvv7zc0uYKgRSvuwub3HtLwJLwOR&index=12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfeVEZQMFM&index=32&list=PL3tPDwvv7zc0uYKgRSvuwub3HtLwJLwOR
This game is available for multiple systems today so chances are you have a way to play it. I doubt we'll ever see a sequel to it since Sony owns the rights to the franchise and Level 5 has other plans.
For me, this game cemented Level 5 as a developer that understands how RPGs can be accessible. I had the worst trouble ever getting into JRPGs during the PS1 and PS2 because of all the reading or quirky gameplay systems. However, none of L5's games (even the not so great ones) are like that.
Dark Cloud 2 happens to be great and accessible, and for that, it's my favorite of Level 5's games, right next to Dragon Quest 8.
