Dark Chronicle

Dark Chronicle is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. The player moves through procedurally-generated dungeons, battles monsters and collects items. Throughout most of the game, players control characters Max and Monica. Max fights with a wrench as his melee weapon and a gun as his ranged weapon. Monica uses a sword and a magical bracelet. Combat in the game uses real time hack and slash techniques. Each character also has a unique combat ability: Max can pilot a customizable, mech-like vehicle called the Ridepod, and Monica can shapeshift into monsters. Unlike most action role-playing games in which the characters level-up, weapons in Dark Chronicle instead do the leveling. Once a certain number of experience points (called "absorption points") have been gained, the weapon is automatically leveled up. As weapons level up, their number of "Synthesis Points" increases, determining how many "spectrumized" items can be attached to it. Most items in this game can be broken down, or "spectrumized", which turns the item into a "SynthSphere" that can be attached to a weapon to raise specific stats, depending on its properties. Attachments cost synthesis points; when the weapon's points are depleted, no more attachments can be made until the weapon is leveled up and more synthesis points are attained. Weapons can also be spectrumized but the resulting SynthSphere will be unstable unless the weapon is level five or higher. Weapons can be evolved into a more powerful form if certain requirements are met; some also require the player to have defeated particular types of enemies. As in Dark Cloud, weapons wear out over time and must be repaired to avoid breakage. In contrast with Dark Cloud, broken weapons do not disappear from the players' inventories but become unusable until repaired and lose some of the experience they have accrued. The player can recruit non-player characters (NPCs) onto their teams at various points in the game by performing specific tasks. These characters are never controllable and do not appear in battle, but players can access a party member's special ability through the "Characters" portion of the menu. Each character has a different ability and only one can be active at a time. Some characters can influence a battle, such as increasing item drops and adjusting enemy behavior; others can produce certain items inside or outside dungeons. The game also has an invention system with which players take photographs of various items and combine them to generate ideas for inventions, which can be created if players have the required materials. A golf minigame called "spheda" is playable on every completed floor. ==Plot==

A princess runs to her father's room in a castle in a panic. She arrives to find a man standing over her dead father's body. The man disappears in a ball of light. Elsewhere, a boy named Max from the town of Palm Brinks attends a circus. By coincidence, he overhears a conversation where ringmaster Flotsam pressures the town mayor Need to find a special stone located in the town. Max makes a loud noise and unintentionally gets Flotsam's attention - who notices Max is wearing the special stone as a pendant. Max escapes, and embarks on an adventure by leaving the town via the sewers. After leaving the town, Max is told that 15 years ago Emperor Griffon destroyed the world but spared Palm Brinks because he wanted a special stone - Max's pendant - and that Flotsam is one of Griffon's henchman. Flotsam again finds Max but is interrupted and defeated by the princess, who we learn is called Monica. Monica lives in the time 100 years after Max's present. Like Max, she has a special stone. Their two stones - called atlamillia - allow them to travel between Max's time and Monica's time. Max and Monica use their new ability to time travel, as well as the reopening of the railroad by Mayor Need to go on a mission rebuilding areas of the world that Griffon destroyed. In doing so, they fix the future - Monica's time - allowing them to get the help from the future they need to beat Griffon. During these adventures, they learn that Emperor Griffon possesses a gold atlamillia - the most powerful of the three - but desires the other two to make him all powerful. Upon the completion of Paznos, a flying fortress capable of transforming into a mech, Max and Monica use it to help defeat Griffon's army in Monica's time. During the battle, Max and Monica receive word that Ixion, a time-traveling train, has also been completed at Luna Lab. Max and Monica use Ixion to head 10,000 years into the past to face Emperor Griffon, a young moon-person who lives in Moon Flower Palace. He tricks them into thinking they had defeated him, stealing their atlamillia and revealing his real form. Griffon plans to summon the Star of Oblivion, which will destroy all life on Earth and allow a new, better world to grow in its place. He starts by moving his palace into the sky of Max's time to destroy the world. Max and Monica return to Max's time with Ixion, and travel to Kazarov Stonehenge - a place that can act as a time portal - allowing them to bring Paznos to Max's time. They activate it, and Paznos arrives in Max's time and sends the Moon Flower Palace crashing to the ground. Once again, Max and Monica face Griffon at the Palace. They instead meet a woman named Alexandra, who tells them she owns the Palace and that Griffon was once an orphan child called Sirus, whom Alexandra adopted. Sirus has forgotten his childhood because of the evil inside him. Alexandra asks them to restore the palace's garden to remind Sirus of his old life. They do so and confront Griffon. These old memories weaken Griffon and Max and Monica manage to defeat him - turning him back into Sirus, who is mortally wounded. A Dark Element rises from Sirus' body and calls the Star of Oblivion. The Element reveals it was born from Sirus' hatred of humans and plans to rule over the destroyed Earth. Max, Monica and Sirus defeat the Element. Sirus stops the Star of Oblivion, dying in the process. ==Development==

showcasing the cel shading on Max along with Level-5's "tonal rendering", which applies smooth shaded foreground characters on detailed backgrounds. Rumors about Dark Chronicle first appeared in April 2002, when Level-5 Inc. updated its website with an image of a silhouette from its newest game, although no other details were made available at the time. The game was officially announced on May 16, when Level-5 launched a full website that revealed the new game would include Dark Cloud Georama mode and had more features than its predecessor. The site also demonstrated the cel-shaded graphics and featured pictures of the two protagonists. More information was revealed at E3 later in May, when Sony Computer Entertainment announced the game would be released in Japan and Europe as Dark Chronicle and in North America as Dark Cloud 2, with a release date of late 2002 to early 2003. The invention system, which according to Sony would feature over 100 hours of gameplay, was also demonstrated for the first time. IGN and GameSpot both featured previews of the game based on the E3 demo; IGN focused on the improved Georama system and praised the cel-shaded graphics, and GameSpot looked at the dungeons, finding the combat improved from the first game. The visual style of Dark Chronicle departs from that of Dark Cloud by using cel shading. Level-5 referred to the graphic style as "tonal rendering"; the main characters have a smooth, shaded look and the backgrounds have detailed textures and lighting. An emulated version of the game for the PlayStation 4 through the PlayStation Network was released in January 2016. It features 1080p resolution, trophy support, Remote Play, and Share Play compatibility. Music The game's music was composed and produced by Tomohito Nishiura. A two-disc album, Dark Chronicle Original Sound Tracks, was released in Japan by Scitron on February 19, 2003. GameSpot's Brad Shoemaker wrote that "Dark Cloud 2 music ranges from good to excellent", and said that "generally there are enough tunes that you won't get too bored of hearing any particular one". In 2009, Level-5 manager Yoshiaki Kusuda said that although the company did not have a "specific plan for a sequel", it would "seriously consider making it" if fans asked for it often enough, leading Kotaku writer Stephen Totilo to encourage readers to request the game. Totilo reported in 2010 and again in 2012 that several people had misread the original 2009 interview, were emailing him and asking him to make it. Reporting on a 2017 interview that Hino gave to Nikkei Business Publications, Rolling Stone lamented that a Dark Cloud 3 was not among Level-5's plans for the Nintendo Switch. Hino told Polygon that Level-5 could not produce a new Dark Cloud game on its own because the license was co-owned by Sony. ==Reception==

Dark Chronicle received generally favorable reviews, with an aggregate score of 87 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on forty-one reviews. IGNs Kaiser Hwang also scored the game 9 out of 10, calling it "arguably the best looking PS2 game out there". He concluded that "Dark Cloud 2 takes the standard sequel road and gives us everything that made the original Dark Cloud great, only bigger and better... The leap in quality between the two games really is amazing. From the incredible graphics, to the great sound, to the refined gameplay, Dark Cloud 2 just oozes of quality and polish". The game won "Best PlayStation 2 Game" (2003) from GameSpot It was also nominated for "Best Adventure Game" at the 1st British Academy Games Awards, losing to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It received a "Silver Award" from Electronic Gaming Monthly and a "Bronze Award" from PSM. Dark Chronicle was named "Game of the Month" for February 2003 and given an "Editor's Choice" award by IGN, which in 2010 placed it at #31 in their "Top 100 PlayStation 2 Games". ==References==