Okay, so this game is $5 on PSN right now and I decided to buy it because I'm always looking to try out new JRPGs...

Okay, so this game is $5 on PSN right now and I decided to buy it because I'm always looking to try out new JRPGs. While it's downloading, what are your opinions on Dark Cloud 2?

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One of my favorite games back in the day. No idea how it's aged though.

I remember grinding a lot of spheda (golf minigame) to unlock Monica's panther bikini outfit.

One of my favorite games of all time. Lot's of content, lots of mini games to do, inventing, picture taking, fishing, golf minigame fishing contests, great music.

I hope you enjoy it.

Pretty much this. One of my most played childhood games but it might be too grindy and dungeon crawly by today's standards. It's definitely got a charming setting though and the town building is very enjoyable.

I rented it as a kid. Don't remember much but I mostly enjoyed it.

But it's one of those games with really overpowered treasure mimics, where if you start a battle with one you're pretty much dead and have to start the level over. That always felt like bullshit to me.

Okay I like what I'm hearing so far. Do I need to play the first Dark Cloud game at all?

only ever played DC1

Nope. Never played it myself either but I've heard it's good too.

No, but it's one of those cases where going back to play the first one will be a lot harder, because 2 fixes basically every gripe people had with the first one with its general quality-of-life changes.

You don't necessarily need to but the few nods to the first game that are in the second one will completely go over your head.

people hype its town building but its honestly as bare bones as it can get

the gameplay overall is okay but grindy as fuck

the picture taking mechanic is awful but you can ignore it and still be fine

7-8/10

You should pick up Rogue Galaxy too

How these ps1 and ps2 games looks on a tv if they are bought on psn?

I see. So it's basically like the Persona games where the games are standalone but give a few easter eggs to those who played the previous games. Thanks anons. Looks like I'm in for a good time. One more question, just how long is it?

What's it about? I'm all for expanding my JRPG tastes. I'm kinda on a JRPG binge right now

jrpg is not a genre.
Dark Cloud 2 is an excellent Action RPG or ARPG for short.

you're welcome OP.
next time you won't sound so fucking stupid.

I remember having like 80 hours on PS2 and I didn't even do the bonus dungeon

It was cool back then because it was cutting edge with the sheer number of features.

The problem is that the game is bloated as fuck because of this and doesn't offer anything terribly good while asking you to invest literally 200+ hours to get everything.

It's great for the first half of the game. Incredible really. But they keep increasing the amount of levels exponentially as you go on, making the late game dreadfully grindy and lazy.

Most people quit by the 3/4s mark.

Also the girl's monster mode is completely broken and useless. It's literally so clear they forgot to finish it as a feature.

>making the late game dreadfully grindy and lazy.
How much grindy? Like more grinding than Persona?

way more

I got the plat for this game a few monthes ago and I clocked in around 140 hours. If you try to 100% it there is a lot of shit todo

The very first area of the game is grindier than any Persona game, and it gets worse the further you go in. This is without tackling all the extra shit like golf, robot customization, the monster transformations, sidequests, etc.

>forget to take picture of a fruit one of the early bosses may or may not spawn during a boss fight
>have to start over to get 100%

fuck that shit

I don't recall. I can remember high school me being so pissed on how much worse it got late game.
My advice is this: During combat you'll get 4 options, play as the boy, the boy's robot, the girl, or the girl's monster mode.
The girl's monster mode as previously mentioned is broke. Not only is it bad, but they forgot to set the correct exp requirements, so leveling them up is nearly impossible for the sane.
The boy's robot mode is the opposite. OP as SHIT if you give it care. It will plow you through levels. BUT you can't use it all that much.
The big boss fights have to be done as the girl and boy, so you actually have to play them.
It's a huge feature that is handled incredibly badly, and makes the primary feature, dungeon crawling, all that much more tedious.
That's what I remember anyway.

I wouldn't say it's that grindy, if I had to compare it's less grindy than persona 1 but a little more than persona 2 if you want everything. When I was kid a never grinded and got to the end game level. Only grind if you want to use the girl's monsters, which are kinda useless anyway. The best way to avoid grinding is to just switch between the characters constantly

I loved the demo and bought the game. I didn't like how fruity the characters were so I never played more than a few hours.

>This is without tackling all the extra shit like golf, robot customization, the monster transformations, sidequests, etc

>side features
>grindy

one of the best rpgs on ps2

the photography/crafting system was ahead of its time. dont use a guide and try to find all the photographs in palm brinks on your own, youll enjoy exploring it a lot more and get the full experience

also the weapon fusion system was awesome

The PSN version is broken

I never got any of the HP increasing items to drop when they were supposed to. Dont try farming everything in a dungeon or youre going to have a really hard time with this game

no its pretty much a completely different game, might as well be in a different universe

just has similar systems and nods such as weapon names etc.

>Grinding for drops, money, materials and literally waiting in place just so you can do specific things at specific times of day because the game is stickler for details.
>Not "grindy"

Whatever you say, fucker.

>first area
>grindy
????????

I plowed through the first three dungeons without going back once, and the only reason I did after was to fish

I got paranoid about that as well since there are boss specific photos and made multiple saves. Saved my ass multiple times

It's a masterclass in everything wrong with games designed around "doing everything." It could have been great, but it's just average with a shitload of content.

>tfw struggling to beat the time requirements
>give up
>later i upgrade the robot with hover movement and gun arms
>easily roll through every dungeon floor with time to spare
>easily level guns/wrenches by killing enemies and then switching to max to collect the experience

i would ignore it, and then use it for grinding purposes, such as beating dungeon time limits or leveling weak weapons to get the OP ones

all the grinding things are optional, you could easily just go through the storyline without grinding

Ah I do remember that also, but I also recall being annoyed to have to constantly do that.

I never said otherwise.
In fact, I specifically said to put those aside because I was calling the game itself without the side content grindy, but acknowledging that shit is also full of grind.

>Also the girl's monster mode is completely broken and useless. It's literally so clear they forgot to finish it as a feature.

>he doesn't know

Intro is too long, drops you into the sewers straight away, and the combat is slow and boring. Left a bad impression on me and I don't think it is a good game.

It's a pretty addicting game and one certainly worth giving a shot. I played it for the first time last year and absolutely loved all of the grinding. The game is the pure definition of quantity over quality, though. Like many anons said, so much of the content is entirely useless. I never even bothered with the monster leveling or the golf nonsense, but I'm sure it appealed to a lot of people. Everything else was a blast though.

So much fucking content it's absurd and most of it is pretty good. Give it a shot, user.

Most charming universe
I loved taking photos for the recipe system
Nice music and comfy towns
And grind

Know what?

In the sea of shit that is the monster badge system, the gemron is god. It trivializes a lot of difficult fights and can lay the smackdown as far as chapter 7 before the leveling requirements go full retard. It's mobility is FAST too.

youtube.com/watch?v=GqctVWYy_5w

It's a game that you really want to play again after you beat it -- not because you actually would have fun slogging through the slow parts -- but because you'd know how to avoid the pitfalls of raising your weapons wrong and getting most/all of the abilities on your weapons AS you go through the game instead of having to spend a few hours grinding to high heavens.

I love the game though, and I'm not sure it will hold up to today's standards, but it was AMAZING when it came out a million years ago. Graphics are pretty good too.

What the fuck it stunlocks Gaspard like that?

Jesus.

>Spheda in Starlight Canyon

What about Spheda in Gundor?

spheda in every dungeon

holy shit it's on psn? I haven't played it in ages. it's one of the best games ever.

An honest contender for best game of the PS2, also I think it was the first JRPG that heavily relied on cel shading, which most JRPGs use now.

This. I have tried starting it about 3 times, made it past the sewers once but never felt the need to play at all.

Whereas I think Dark Cloud 1 is fantastic.

Do you build anything as cool as a mech with the townbuilding in 2?

It's my favorite RPG of all time

You basically need a guide to not miss out on a ton of shit permanently though and to do the city building parts right.

Dark cloud 2 isn't even actually a sequel in the traditional sense (in fact in japane and europe it's just called Dark Chronicle), so no

Spheda in Griffon's palace is EZ mode

> I think it was the first JRPG that heavily relied on cel shading
it was, it still holds up even 15 years later, especially the models.

I couldn't make it past the valley city reconstruction because it has to be assymetrical to be considered completed and that just flared my fucking ocd like nothing else.

You guys too? Fuck, and I was really looking forward to playing through DC2, but goddamn, they make you go through the sewers fucking twice from what I remember.

Rogue Galaxy is literally anime Star wars.

I played it for the astoundingly hammy characters and the knot

You guys DO know that the game allows you to transfer those photos to your old save file, right? You don't have to lose your old save.

Just the first 3 if you don't take the shortcut. Otherwise you never have to go through multiple floors twice