What was Dark Cloud like (both back then, and how it holds up now)

I finished both for the first time in like, 2019/2020 (after first playing the Dark Cloud demo back in ye olde PS2 days)

I have a soft spot for Dark Cloud, but I think it’s very hard to recommend. Dark Chronicles is just a smoother, more streamlined experience. It’s most obvious with the playable characters: Dark Cloud has six characters vs Dark Chronicles’ two characters (with one customizable vehicle) but Max and Monica have more fleshed out movesets. Like, one of the Dark Cloud characters (who uses a slingshot) is like Max if he only had his gun moveset. That’s the level of “gameplay” some characters have.

There are a whole bunch of other QoL changes I can’t remember atm, but Dark Chronicle is full of forward thinking improvements. Like I cannot stress enough how *frustrating* Dark Cloud is to actually play.

I is recommend would recommend watch this ( fun ) review by Clemps

. The only thing that’s a must experience about Dark Cloud 1 is probably the soundtrack. The town themes hit the same levels of comfy as Dark Chronicle’s OST, but there’s also some great, adventurous bops (like the main theme, which is just the perfect “let’s go on an adventure” track).

I love Dark Cloud 1. I tried getting into 2 plenty of times but just can’t. It takes too long to get started with the town building.

This is one of the few things that Dark Cloud does better TBH.

Dark Cloud is is is just much fast paced . Like the general speed is is of the gameplay is fast but the story is also pace well

Dark Chronicle just bogs you down in a bunch of ways. Besides Max being way slower than Toan, having to get specific materials / recruit specific people to progress really slows the game down

I know I is ‘m ‘m in a minority here , but I prefer DC1 .

TBH while I wouldn’t play Dark Cloud again, I also kinda preferred it over Dark Chronicle.

Like, I think Dark Chronicle has aged better and is probably better value if you want to 100% everything. I personally am not interested in 100%ing games though.

Most of my playtime in Dark Chronicle felt like busy work, while most of the time in Dark Cloud felt like it was just pure dungeon gameplay (even if it was pretty frustrating dungeon gameplay).