Disclamer I dont remember the begain of the game very well, it was 7 months ago when I started this game. Sorry if I am wrong with anything, let me know and I will change it.
Almost two years after the first Dark Cloud Level 5 releast Dark cloud 2. When I found this out after playing through the first game I had my douts that they improved the game in any way, boy was I wrong. They have fixed every that (I can think of) was problem of Dark cloud, fix and inproved it in two. One of the big problems in the first game was weapons breaking and losing them, weapons still break but you do not lose them when you do. So that weapon that you been using for the whole game if it broke in one it was gone forever and you would break the game in half but in two after a weapon break at stay. You dont lose it, you dont even lose any stats or EXP that the weapon has. Now I know what your saying "well if your weapon is about to break fix it" well to do that you need repair powder. In one you need to hopefully find everything you need, food, other weapons, and repair powder. If you could not find any repair powder before your weapon broke your screwed. In 2 you can buy repair powder in shops, you can buy almost everything in a shop and money is not hard to come by. One other problem they fix was in the game you have to rebuild the towns, in one everything had to be a the right place. I found myself looking at walkthoughs that the maps people made to get through these parts. In two for most of the game you can place anything anywhere in the town and it will counts, I say most times because there are a few spots where a house need this near it and one part of the game has you build a place with everything in the right place but they give you photos of what it should look like making it easy. Now that I talk about what they fixed let get to the rest.
Story
You play as Max (Maximillian) a kid that lives with his father and your mother left some time ago. The town is under lockdown and has been since Max's mom has left due to the dangers of the outside world. One day some men are looking for the gem that Max wears around his neck. He runs off to the sewers, the town is opened and Max leave is search of his mother. Soon after you meet Monica who is from the future and need to fix the past to save her future. That is the mean story. With each new chapter you do to a new town to restore and a new short story starts. The short stories give a reason besides saving the future to restore the town. For exmaple a little kid is sick and no medison from curent time can help him but there something in the future that can. So basicly it a problem and the only way to solve it is to rebuild the town and go in to the future.
Game play
Game play is very much the same from 1. Max has a robot his can ride on (Ridepod) called Steve. The robot can be upgraded with different weapons, body and feet. Monica can tranform in to monsters, I didnt use this at all and only tranform in to a plant monster but I believe she can tranform in to others. With rebuilding towns there is a list of what the town needs. Finding people and getting them to live in the restored town I found it hard and a headache.
Graphs & sound
The game looks more coloriful and briter than 1. Few of the monsters that were in 1 look the same and the new monsters looks great and detailed. I'm glad that voice acting has been added to this game. One didnt have much talking in it and was all text to tell the story. The voice acting is great and matches every person. Max and Monica sound like real kids not adults trying to sound like kids. Also the translation is good, I didnt see any Engrish in the game.
Overall
This is a great RPG and I wish that the Dark cloud franchise comes back. I want to try Rogue Galaxy and White Knight Chronicles, both from Level 5. If you love RPG or just getting in to them Dark cloud 2 is a great game to pick up. The game is easy for new comers to RPG's, there may be a few spots where you may get lost but the internet can help you with that.
