The graphics in the randomly generated dungeons are clearly inspired by Ocarina Of Time. The textures are varied and the environmental effects are pleasing.

Toan will travel and fight through deserts, forests, towns and in the middle of a shipwreck; the light effects used to create dusk, morning, afternoon, evening and night are surely one of the greatest features of Dark Cloud. Like it happened in Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask or, speaking of a Ps2 game, in Eternal Ring, the light changes according to the time of the day (if you try visiting our site at different hours and take a look at the top image, you'll find out why we've loved so much this feature).

The characters are solidly built and free of aliasing issues. They are nicely designed, even though they lack something in originality. Toan seems the brother of the mighty kokiri from the Zelda series, Link, and this could be irritating to all the fans of the wonderful series from Nintendo. A good work was done with the animations; both the main characters and the enemies move always smoothly.

The only faults in the graphics of this game are many minor clipping problems in the backgrounds in the randomly generated levels and the limited use of special effects that many RPG lovers appreciate in this genre of games.

Overall, the graphics of Dark Cloud are surely good, but compared to other games like Zone Of The Enders, The Bouncer or Onimusha they simply don't shine. Yet, the developers have been able to accomplish the most important objective: to create an involving fantasy atmosphere. If you don't care about details, Dark Cloud is a fanciful good looking game.

The soundtrack of Dark Cloud has a Nintendo touch in it. For Nintendo touch I intend the overall tone of classical NES games like Faxanadu or Battle Of Olympus. Obviously, since these are 8-bit games, the sound quality is miles away from the one of a 128-bit console. Anyhow, there is the same imaginative attitude in Dark Cloud, and I have really loved it.

The sound effects are good, but they are not convincing like the music of the game. Especially during the battles the effects sound "generic", just like the ones inserted in those collections of sound effects that you can find in a music store.

For the ones who are asking themselves, Dark Cloud doesn't feature voice acting. Anyhow, I don't want to complain about that. Adding voices to a game based on a complex and not linear gameplay structure like Dark Cloud would have been a too long process.

I have appreciated the sounds in this game, even though some additional work on the sound effects would have created a richer experience for the ears of the player.

Even though you can beat it in about 35 hours, to really enjoy Dark Cloud you need at least 50 hours of gameplay. This is the longest RPG at present available on Ps2. Excellent.