Every dungeon is composed of dozens of floors, and each floor has several medals that can be obtained by performing various tasks (kill all monsters in a set time limit, use only a certain weapon, etc.), and those medals can be cashed in for rare items. (I think that’s already a good fifty hours of gameplay right there.) Using a battle system similar to Ocarina of Time, pressing a button locks onto an enemy for precise attacking in a 3D environment. The enemies drop blue bubbles of experience points, and whatever weapon dealt the last blow gets all of the points.

Once a weapon levels up, not only does it get stronger, but also gets a viaticum of Synthesis Points. 99% of the items you find, regardless of what their main intended purpose is, can be "spectrumized"; that is, turned into a state of pure energy and then attached to weapons, at the cost of some Synthesis Points, increasing one of ten stats (flame, attack, exorcism, durability, and so on). Once certain statistical requirements are fulfilled, the weapon can then be transformed into something stronger. Considering that both Max and Monica are equipped with two weapons at once, not including any other weapons that may be alternatives, it does take a considerable amount of effort to fortify these.

Max and Monica each have a substitute character they can use. Max can drive the Ridepod, something that looks like a giant barrel with arms that can shoot lasers, and Monica has her monster transformations. It’s proof of Dark Cloud 2’s creativity that while some games' fulcrum (such as Brave Fencer Musashi's or Threads of Fate's) hinges entirely on the ability of monster transformation, here it’s merely another mini quest. When in monster form, Monica can talk to any creature of the same type to learn new tricks and hints, but it’s usually just to hear whatever’s on their mind at the moment. It’s hard not to build up a little sympathy for this whole new world of NPCs, a theme central to Crusader of Centy, but in this case it’s not preachy at all. In fact, it’s virtually a non-issue.

Once the dungeons are completed, Max can play Spheda, a thinly-veiled golf mini game where he knocks time distortions spheres back into swirling time holes, thus repairing schisms caused by Max, Monica, and Emperor Griffon's time traveling. At various bodies of water, Max can go fishing. Once the fish are caught, he can raise them, breed them, make them fight, or put them in contests. The player can even invite people over and race their fish (they all have individual passwords), though this isn’t a heavily advertised feature inside the game or out, and I can’t think of anything less exciting to do with your friends. The big thing to do with Max out of the dungeons is the utterly brilliant camera mini quest, wherein he takes pictures of any item, and if it’s something that the game recognizes (like a pipe, some laundry, a cup, etc.), it is stored in Max’s memory banks. Using recipes or clues from townspeople or books, Max can mix any three photos together and if it’s a valid combination, you’re given a new item. It’s true that what the game considers valid and invalid can sometimes seems completely arbitrary, but for every one time a photograph registers nothing, there are another three that do something, and the possibilities of what can be are exhilarating.

Of all that can be done in Dark Cloud 2, the Georama system is the weakest, and is a conduit to the shallow core of the story. This system is the mainstay of the series, besides random dungeons, and allows the player to assemble towns that can then explored and populated. Emperor Griffon has affected the past so much that all of the cities in the present, except for Palm Brinks, have been erased from existence, and that is why Max and Monica need to recruit townspeople to start new lives in the places they will build with Georama in hopes of correcting the future. But it's nearly depressing to put these people in these empty lands - people who never leave their homes, never interact with each other, and can’t even be bothered to walk around the town. At one point in the game, you unite a lonely artist with his wife, only later to be forced to put them in separate towns! Why is that? Could it really have been so hard to allow more than one person live in a house? How satisfying would it have been to see a town grow in number and size while Max and Monica are away clearing dungeons? In a way, there’s something meritorious in seeing all these people so willing to be displaced in a foreign land, but this kind of wistful thinking is really just filling in the blanks. For a game about human experience and triumph, it is sorely lacking in it.

This game always feels like its teetering on the edge of a breakout in story, something that would ignite a conflagration in Max and Monica that gives them higher purpose to try to win, other than the fact that they’re the protagonists of a video game. But aside from the twist of Emperor Griffon erasing the entire world (which happens about three hours into the game), nothing really happens after that, and everything saunters along on a very mellow pace. (We see a lot of reconstruction of buildings and renewal of life, but things rarely get endangered, and it’s ironic that this very reverse plot advancement sets the game apart, but also starts to bog it down.) But I guess one big twist is all is needed; after that third hour, one should be completely hooked.

Once the game gets rolling, it becomes this smorgasbord of concomitant activities, which is what makes the whole deal such a memorable experience. Something is always being done or made stronger, or there is something that can be done or made stronger, and it never looks like there’s an end in sight, like working towards an unknown definitive goal. Dark Cloud 2 is a game of so much to do but nothing particular to say in the way of relevance, so it's fortunate that when concerning video games, words are rarely ever necessary.

· · · Sqoon