I really can't tell if games in the current age are really fucking badly written & developed or if it's just nostalgia...

I really can't tell if games in the current age are really fucking badly written & developed or if it's just nostalgia making me think games that are 10-15 years old have more content, character development and story than 99% of the shit released in the last 5 years

I played a bit of dark cloud 2 last month

the gameplay has not aged well

still looks great stylistically even if the animation is stiff

But Dark Cloud 2 was horribly written

Your sentiment is spot on, but Dark Cloud 2 was never good, nice art though.

Awww that was the next game on my list

Its probably just nostalgia for me in this case then but I'm talking generally and not using dc2 as a lone example

Pure nostalgia, OP.

It was easier to establish connections with characters when you were younger because your child brain actually cared about the story and development.

It's a little of column A, a little of column B.

The real number of good games coming out hasn't slowed down much, but the gross number of games coming out has skyrocketed. So nominally speaking, a larger proportion of games now than back then are shit, but the real number of decent games coming out hasn't changed too much. The bar's getting lower, for sure, though.

not OP but Dark Cloud was awesome:
-can invent a lot of stuff
-great World, likeable NPCs
-GOAT OST
For that time i think its great and one of the best rpgs of the pS2 era

my english sucks sorry

I want to fuck Monica so much.

There are cases to be made either way, Thief 1 & 2 are still exemplary examples of game design, writing and world building. RPG's certainly peaked a long time ago, but adventure games for the most part have come a long way, even shit like COD has come a long way on the story/character front.

I wouldn't call DC2 bad but after playing through it recently it felt a little dated but I still enjoyed it.

>the gameplay has not aged well
I played DC2 last year, it absolutely has aged well. And it's got a lot of gameplay elements that I'd like to see in games more often:
>item synthesis
>photography to make inventions
>georama
>spheda (the gameplay was sound, the levels they made you play on though...)
>steve

The only really shit part of the gameplay are Monica's monster transformations which are fucking useless.

Why was this allowed.

only game with good fishing mechanics!

It was but most JRPGs are. The best thing about JRPGs stories are fun setpieces and DC2 is full of those.

Dark Cloud 2 is the only game I can replay over and over again every few months and it never gets old. It's a classic.

That monster thing with Monica was so badly made. I'm always sad when I think how fun it should be if it was greatly made.

the old "has not aged well"

eat shit please, you're probably like 21 and think undertale is amazing

Dark Cloud two is shit, especially compared with the first Dark Cloud

nu-nu Sup Forums

Monica in Japanese version is voiced by Natsuno Koori, an eroge voice actress.