Pimp My Ridepod

[BG-57]

Anybody tried Dark Cloud 2 (aka Dark Chronicle 2)? It's a seriously fun game, like Legend of Zelda crossed with RPG Maker. It's hard to find even used, but I managed to locate one after visiting three different stores.

Part of the fun is the customizing. You can modify and upgrade weapons, and (most importantly) Steve, a rideable robot or Ridepod. He's so overpowered that you'll rarely want to fight with just the human characters (except for the few boss fights where they force you to). Naturally the best weapons/armor only becomes available near the end of the game, but you can transfer the best photographic invention ideas between saves. Kind of like New Game+.

The second fun part is the Georama, where you get a gradually expanding palette of trees, buildings, rivers to rebuild cities that you can then visit in the future. It's very well handled and fun to play with.

The last fun aspect is recruiting support characters that add special bonuses or abilities to your party. At the beginning I find Cedric's Ridepod repair and refueling services invaluable, but once I get to recruit the moon rabbit Pau I never look back. He shows a complete dungeon map (which is great in randomly generated dungeons) and can spot mimic treasure chests. If you get a special crystal on that level, he'll even show which monster to defeat to progress to the next level.

What do you think?

[Iceglow]

Dark Chronicle and Dark Cloud are hugely cool games, I loved them both the first one was slightly harder and I prefer the girl over the guy because becomming the monster allows you to rise that level too which is cool (what to say I'm a grinder) If you find a copy of either of these games it's a must buy for your old PS2 heck, it's worth servicing your PS2 to play them and that can be a hell of a job if you don't get lucky.

[Goldenboko]

Dark Cloud 2 is love. I still haven't finished it yet though.

[Momiji]

Both are excellent games, but the Georama part pissed me off on many occasions.

[Laddy]

I love the Georama and random dungeons. Dark Cloud 2 is possibly the most varied game ever.

[BG-57]

I've heard that I should steer clear from DC 1 as it's riddled with problems that DC 2 fixed, like weapons that vanish if broken for example.

[Iceglow]

Dark Cloud is still great man, you should try it sure it has bugs what game doesn't? Unfortunately being a ps2 title there is no "DLC patch" available to fix it but I'd like to say if you're clever and don't let weapons break then it's fine.

[BG-57]

I might give it a try after I finish DQ VIII. It's easy to find used.