• Publisher: SCEA
  • Release Date: May 28, 2001
Metascore
80 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 27
  2. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. A stunning visual banquet, masterfully blending all the necessary ingredients for a cracking fantasy RPG. We're not likely to see many better PS2 titles this year.
  2. Crawling through hoards of dungeons in search for more, and more pieces to your missing world never got old for me. I was always driven to go on.
  3. One of the rare games that takes the best from lots of games, adds random dungeons, and a dash of its own originality, and ends up being a really great game.
  4. Simply put, if you don’t like the genre previously known as an RPG then there is nothing here to shine you on, but what there is has been created with such a level of craft that there’s no denying its artfulness. It’s a beauty and as near (yet far) to a Zelda release as we’re going to see.
  5. 89
    While it can be tough at some points and a bit difficult to master everything in the first hour, it’s a great gaming experience and besides, that genie Ruby is kinda cute.
  6. What it does well, however is mixes them into a delicious stew of action, RPG and strategy elements that end up tasting better than if they were eaten by themselves.
  7. With the PS2 RPG release list suffering, Dark Cloud could easily be named the best offering in this genre to date.
  8. 84
    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.
  9. Dark Cloud successfully blends adventure, RPG, simulation, and strategy elements into one incredibly addictive game.
  10. Isn't for everyone. The game lacks speech and some of the Japanese-to-English translations don't read welI. What's more, the music repeats too often. But after a while depth of this RPG grows on you. That said, it's probably not for people with short attention spans.
  11. Pays homage to RPGs past while establishing its own unique identity. [Feb 2003, p.92]
  12. While the task of rebuilding the village is fantastically addictive, the repetitive gameplay is a bore.
  13. The idea of creating your own world is welcomed, and the graphics are good at times, but do falter at certain stages especially throughout the dungeon levels.
  14. Those who want more than a clone will be disappointed, those just looking for a good game will be pleasantly rewarded.
  15. The controls are simple, but the weapon system and town building program will take time to master, and this should appeal to RPG fanatics.
  16. It’s a captivating run for about the first ten hours of play, then dungeon levels become too mechanical. Still, for all its shortcomings, the game also has its share of charms.
  17. We have no problem at all with awarding Dark Cloud a Console Domain highly recommended award.
  18. 79
    There is about 30 hours of play contained within Dark Cloud, but the title does not contain the type of epic storyline needed to drive the player through those hours.
  19. The sound is fairly lackluster. But overall the game is rich and inviting, with a great storyline, lots of playable characters and an abundance of items for you to collect.
  20. Stepping in the right direction to make RPGs a bit more varying. However, it does tend to bog down at times and you'll feel like you’ve done the same thing more than twice, making it a little mundane at points.
  21. It has buried within other commonplace RPG elements the most innovative approach to game storytelling I have seen in years.
  22. An adeptly designed adventure game that effectively combines elements of several other titles into a highly entertaining - if imperfect - package.
  23. Despite its obviously derivative mechanics and gameplay, Dark Cloud offers a solid, fun experience and at least tries something interesting with its village building system.
  24. 70
    A spotty story and monotonous gameplay keep Dark Cloud from rising to new heights.
  25. 70
    Music is a mixed bag, ranging from tolerable to downright painful. Music should enhance the mood set by the game, or, at worst, should fade into the background.
  26. The game could not have survived as a dungeon crawler alone, and thankfully the many side diversions offer hours of fun by themselves.
  27. If you have the patience to endure all that dungeon crawling, and a bothersome camera, there's a very addicting game underneath. Don't expect a Final Fantasy caliber story-line, or Zelda-esque adventure gameplay.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 47 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 28
  2. Negative: 4 out of 28
  1. More repetitive than watching the tour de France. Serious collision detection issues, boring enemies, cheap attacks, no ability to buy items until portions of the village have been set down, no interesting characters, no continuity, poor camera, useless item breaking system, tedious town re-building, and many other things. You know that feeling when you've just leveled up that bad-ass sword forever and it suddenly breaks in combat? That is essentially what describes the reaction I have to most of this game. Its bland, the environments are repetitive, the combat is boring and it uses those methods to elongate a game that has essentially no story line. I thought things would change up when I was about half-way though the game- but they stayed exactly the same. Although the one positive thing that happened- they made a sequel that fixed a lot of these problems that I still haven't picked up, but I will. Since what I liked in this game I did actually like a lot- its just disappointing that they made so many mistakes the first time. Full Review »
  2. This is my favorite game of all time. I got back when i was a kid during the early 2000s. I still play it quite frequently to this day. This is one of the only games I've done that with! The plot, is great...but it only gets very interesting near the end. The combat isn't very complex but i find it enjoyable. The music can be great, but some songs are way too overused. The game has flaws, but it's still amazing. Full Review »
  3. JimC
    5
    The combat is boring and repetitive, the plot is terrible, and the soundtrack is dull. I personally find half the characters worthless, and they also add nothing to the story. The game is so empty that every main character could die a horrible death and I'd be indifferent. However, I love the weapon system and rebuilding the villages so I might just be able to finish it. Full Review »