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Review:

14th October 2003:
Dark Chronicle
Remember when RPGs were complicated and inaccessible? Dark Chronoicle doesn't and it takes the genre to a whole new place. Is that place any good?
Posted by Chris Barnett - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe

When the PlayStation 2 was young it had a few great or unique games that were ignored by gamers on the whole. One of these was Dark Cloud, which was an action RPG that used the power of the PlayStation 2 to show gamers that RPGs could still be innovative. The innovation in question was the inclusion of a town building dynamic in addition to the traditional RPG traits. And it worked very well; in fact it was one of the finest games on the PlayStation 2 for the thinking man. The only down point was that it did not appeal to enough people due to the massive amount of play required to complete it. In short: it was a huge game compared to those standing alongside it at the time (by today's standards it would not be so large, but back then it was akin to a Charlie Chaplin film lasting 3 hours) and the story was not really engrossing enough to maintain interest for the entire game.

So for the sequel Sony has attempted to make a game that's more engrossing by using both an involving story and involving gameplay. And for the most part, it succeeds.

The story is very involving and is told through cut scenes using the in game graphics. Whilst this usually means limited quality cut scenes, here it means the opposite, as the in game graphics are so impressive. They are unique in style as they look like cel shading but have an old fashioned look to them (think Toy Story meets one of those old crackly Tom and Jerry cartoons), creating something that looks unique. In addition to the graphical brilliance, the cinematography of the cut scenes is also very impressive. It is not often that you see a mention of cinematography when describing a video game, but here it is the only term we can think of. As the cut scenes are shown, the camera constantly changes to give an impressive view of the events. An early example of this is shown when the main character, Maximilion, jumps on a circus trapeze and the camera swings with him, locking on him throughout his swing. Slow motion is also pretty prominent too, especially impressive due to the fact that it is used in the most unexpected times (a simple jump is often slowed down to give the camera chance to swing around a bit).

During the cut scenes you are constantly given control, be it limited. This helps overcome the complaint (faced by many cut scene heavy games) that the game is un-involving as the movements offered are actually context relevant so you can only do certain actions at certain times. This does give a feeling of being held by the hand, but it does develop the story well. And the story is quite good once it unfolds. It takes you, Maximilion, from a normal life to the leader of an underground resistance who can develop his own town. But this story does come at a hefty cost to the game; it takes around six hours before the town management features come into play in the game. So that means you will have to play the game for at least this time just to see what type of game it is. In today's world of gamers who often don't read the manual to games this is a major problem, especially as the graphical style (and the game's cover art) suggests that children could play the game in full. Put simply; an average child would not be able to complete this game without help from an adult and a dedicated gamer will also find it a challenge. This could be a good or bad point depending on the dedication you have to games (the whole game takes around 40 hours to complete on the first play, without all sub quests tackled). But on the whole, an RPG fan will obviously expect an epic, and they will get it.

So enough of the magnitude of the game, how does it play and how does it differ from the original? In short, it plays very well. It plays very much like any third person game in the exploration sections, with a camera as good as any we have seen in a game. The control is accurate and the combat is in real time (so you don't have to wait to get into the action, no matter how many people in your team) allowing fluid movements. Once the game gets into full flow (when the town planning elements come into play) it is more complex than the first game. To build a town you must find some blueprints, which must then be filled with buildings and objects that you must find throughout the game. As if that was not enough, you must then populate the new location with people from your real hometown. These people are not just tourists who will move in when you ask them though; they need to be impressed to get them to stay in your town. This is done through the completion of subquests, often involving the retrieval of items. This gives a great feeling of involvement with the town you are creating; it is you who is crafting it and it is you who decide who lives there. In fact, you even get the chance to decide where objects are placed in the town, but this is done in such a simple way that it never becomes tiresome or complex (the whole inventory system of the game is just as friendly with the equipping and unequipping of items being as easy as selecting an item in a menu). A feature that impressed us is the ability to develop weapons by using other items. This involves transforming an item (most items allow the transformation) into a synthesis item and then adding it to the weapon you want to evolve. This uses synthesis points that you must gain, but it allows all the properties of the synthesised object to be absorbed by the weapon. This allows each weapon to be customised to suit your own style of play, so no two people will play with the exact same weapons. This feature works so well that it improves the game immeasurably.

To break up the game and to give it a lighter heart at its core, there are three mini games that you can take part in. The first is a fishing game that is done well enough and the second is a golf like game (it looks like golf, it feels like golf and it plays like golf, but it sure isn't golf) that is very distracting and enjoyable. In fact, these two mini games are so well executed that they could be game modes in their own right. The third mini game is not so much a mini game though as it involves quite a lot of work (we just called it a mini game as it is mini compared to the colossal main quest). It is a photography quest where you must take pictures of things that may be turned into inventions. This is a good idea and is enjoyable to begin with, but it soon gets tedious when a pattern is established. Put simply, this pattern involves going back to an area that you have already been and taking photographs of anything that may be useful, almost in a trial and error manner. This is a great shame as the feature could have been great if it was used sparingly or if it was used to take pictures of new things.

Despite the vast scale of the game, it is never complex and there are no glitches. In fact, if it were not for the sheer scale of it, it would be playable by children. As it stands, it is certainly one of the greatest RPGs that we have played. And that is including every RPG that has ever been released. Due to the fluid controls and real time combat, it is even recommended to owners or fans of Final Fantasy game. In fact, this is probably more accessible than any RPG that we have seen. It looks so good it sets a new style of graphics that should have a term all of their own (cel shading suggests bright colours and bold lines as in Jet Set Radio and XIII).

This is RPG gaming for everyone, and everyone should take the chance to play it.

Chris Barnett

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Review Summary:

A quality title that cannot be missed by anyone with even the smallest interest in RPGs. If it was not for a few repetition issues, it would be perfect. A game to make PlayStation 2 owners proud.

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