The Epic Nostalgia Trip That Is “Dark Cloud”

In recent years I have more or less quit gaming, except for when a strange mood hits me for a little while and the only way to exorcise it is to actually play the game that has been resurfaced by that wave of nostalgia of uncertain origin. I have done so with Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Fallout: New Vegas and Pokémon Emerald, all of which I have previously written down some thoughts because I figured I might as well, and I reckon because I hoped someone just might like what I had to say. This time I was slowly overwhelmed by a game that came out alongside the now very distant advent of the PlayStation 2, a game with so much character in every detail and beauty in its entire story and music that its few but dedicated fans have never forgotten it and still cherish it to this very day. That game is, of course, Dark Cloud.

Back in the day, buying games wasn't as easy as it is now. You couldn't just buy a game and, if you didn't like it, you'd just buy a new one and let the old one gather dust in your shelf. No, sir, when you bought a game you had to play it over and over until you got your parents money's worth. If something was tough you had to just carry on and figure it out, or start over on a fresh save file and try again. And to top it all off, when you'd go to the mall, you had to look around for gaming magazines that might contain articles and useful walkthroughs. In fact, it was for that reason that I was under the impression that Seda was going to be the sixth playable character, because me and my cousin happened to discover a magazine that showed a lineup of the first five characters along with Seda for some reason, so you can imagine my disappointment when instead I got a strange rabbit on a jet pack... Yep, those were the days... And better yet, when you actually got to buy a new game you had to go solely by the box art and the title, even without knowing english. So when my cousin was getting his PlayStation 2 he decided to get Dark Cloud for no good reason other than it sounded cool. If it interests you to know, I got Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, a game that has been somewhat recently immortalized by having been played in the greatest speedrun of all time... But I digress. What I'm trying to say was that, in those days, getting into a new game was serious business. We went in completely blind, dumb, and we fumbled around until things began to make sense, kinda like walking into the first level of Divine Beast Cave, wholly unsure of what you'd find there...

With this game that was both very easy and very difficult. It was very easy because the game is immediately beautiful. The first thing that hits you is its main theme, a piece of music you can probably hum right now, even if you haven't heard it in a while, just one of those tunes that never really leave you and that you occasionally find yourself whistling when you're in a good mood, an upbeat piece of music that really sets the tone for the great adventure that is to come... But it was also very difficult because being a kid and literally learning english by playing meant that discovering how the game works was a painful process of trial and error, a process of discovering the story and the mechanics by making dumb mistakes that the game wasn't at all shy of punishing – acquiring items and managing them in your scarce inventory, learning each monster's stats and individual patterns, being terrified by mimics, breaking powerful swords, and so on... But it all paid-off damn well and I can almost say I learned english from playing video games, among which this titular game ranks pretty high on my personal favorites list.

That upbeat adventure music is short-lived though, at least for now, because right after it ends we listen to the music box theme, all the while we are told that the story that will now unfold was found in an old book that has puzzled scholars for centuries. Is it all true or it is merely a fantasy our protagonist, or maybe someone else, dreamed up? And even if it is a fantasy, does the preceding adverb I used describe the situation accurately? I like to think it doesn't, I suppose I've been slowly finding more value in metaphor, imagination and fantasy, which at times do hold some kind of truth, though its value might be a little bit harder to see... And that now brings me to the story itself which, though it may at times be a bit simple, is always beautiful, possibly because of that simplicity more so than in spite of it. It is set in a world with two moons and a whole lot of magic, a world called Terra which is seemingly divided into West Terra and East Terra. Somewhere in East Terra, a power-hungry general found an urn in which an ancient people have sealed the Dark Genie, a creature who embodies a seemingly infinite power of darkness and thus feels an unceasing appetite for destruction. This general then gains control of the Dark Genie and they go around destroying western cities, looking down upon happy people as mere ants squirming on the ground, and purging them with a fiery rain.

The Dark Genie's silly but awesome design

We later learn that four cities have been destroyed but we only witness the destruction of one, an easygoing little village called Norune. And it is in that village that we meet Toan, our hero. And as far as Toan goes there's more than initially meets the eye. In some ways he's the typical silent protagonist, a mechanic that could seem a bit more silent than usual in a game that, for the most part, lacks voice acting. But it doesn't completely lack it, and the few occasions in which it does include voice acting it does so to great effect. Anyway, regarding Toan I have to say I find his design quite striking. It manages to be both a distinct look when compared to a realistic setting, and yet it's quite realistic for a fantasy game, what with the green hat which we only see him without in the very beginning of the game, and the neat orange poncho. So he's quite normal and quite extraordinary at the same time, a strange duality that a lot of characters comment on, identifying in him a kind of indescribable strength and purity of heart. And those qualities are put on display right at the start of the game... We first meet Toan when he's at home with his mom, just finishing dinner. Then a village girl named Paige runs in to call him, though she can't wait around because there's a festival going on and she has to perform her duties as a staff member. Clearly she's Toan's love interest, though sadly their bond leaves a bit to be desired.

Still, that bond is marked by one moment in particular, a moment that sets the entire story in motion – as Norune is attacked by the Genie, Toan finds Paige trapped under rubble, and as a windmill is about to crash on her, Toan jumps in to rescue her, only for both of them to be mysteriously vanished... We then get the explanation that Simba, the fairy king and Toan's Yoda, has used his power against the Genie, but being incapable of stopping the destruction, he only managed to save everyone and everything, hiding them in stones called atla, which only Toan can recover and bring out into the world through the atlamillia, the magic stone entrusted to him and embedded in his hand. It seems a bit fast-paced but I think it's quite beautiful, it's a Captain America moment whereby Toan was made worthy of the atlamillia the moment he willingly sacrificed himself to save Paige... And then after the whole craziness is done, Toan is brought back into his now deserted world, though all is not lost. In fact, after all that destruction, the thing to do now is to rebuild, which is quite a beautiful message to me. So Toan listens to the voices of the wind, the trees, the animals, the earth, and as he pauses to admire butterflies on a sunflower, the music changes into a happy upbeat whistle. Then Simba's voice warns Toan of all the people he will meet and say goodbye to, and of how along the way those people will be the strength he needs to carry on his quest.

I actually drew inspiration from this line in a certain chapter of my second book

On that note I could bring up the other characters, namely the playable ones. The great thing is that, like Toan, they all have a distinct design and personality, especially when they fight and we get to hear their voices. In line with that they each have a specific type of weapon they use, and thus a specific fighting style as well. Xiao, the first companion you meet, is a stray cat Toan turns into a human. She's very optimistic and happy, and she fights with slingshots which give her a playful tone. She's actually the character I disliked the most when I played this game as a kid, but now, in replaying it recently, I realized she's awesome and certainly your best bet for beating the Demon Shaft. Next up is Goro, the son of a hunter who was allegedly left for dead by his fellow villagers. Having fallen into isolation and hatred, Goro was almost relieved after seeing his village destroyed and everyone vanished, though that was all a facade. Goro is actually deeply emotional, as seen in the heartfelt reunion with his dad in spirit. And so it could be that he is the deepest playable character in the game, almost reminiscent of Shinji Ikari I wanna say. Ironically, his frail demeanor is contrasted by the fact that he uses hammers, the hardest hitting weapons in the game... Then we have Ruby, an extroverted genie who terrifies the stingy citizens of her seaside town, though she's benign in nature and immediately agrees to join Toan on his quest. She uses magic rings which make her a stronger ranged character than Xiao, but quite a bit slower. After her is Ungaga, a legendary desert warrior who fell into self-loathing after witnessing the destruction of his village and being absolutely unable to stop it. He uses traditional spears, making him a bit weaker than Goro but with better range. And lastly is Osmond, an inventor among the moon people, a rabbit-like creature who greatly inspires, or perhaps manipulates, his followers and co-pilots. He uses guns, making him the most versatile character, though tough to master. And he's also the only one who joins Toan in one of the game's many odd grammar and spelling mistakes.

All of those characters exist in their own cities, a bunch of different places you discover along the way. Each city you visit and rebuild has its own tone, its own music, and its own inhabitants. Toan's village is a tiny and peaceful place where everyone knows everyone else, an easygoing land in the middle of nowhere, with a cat named Xiao who wanders the nearby cave filled with dangerous monsters. Goro is from a peaceful forest city where strength is held as the highest value and the strongest hunters are thus highly revered. Ruby is from a seaside town where everyone is either a merchant, a crook or both, a city at the edge of the map and with a tragic backstory in its cathedral but with its inhabitants still happy and hopeful. Ungaga is from a desert tribe that has long been at war, a tribe that greatly values its culture and totem pole symbolism, as well as maintaining a deep reverence for their temple. And lastly, Osmond is quite literally from the moon, or at least one of the moons, a world where the dungeon level is beautifully called the Moon Sea, and described as no kind of sea we have ever seen before... And in all these different places we meet the many specific and detailed characters that inhabit it. I think it's a great accomplishment that no character in this game is a vague copy-pasted model, they are all very specific individuals that you save, bring back into the world, and meet, discovering all their quirks and little backstories as they give you gifts to help in your journey. Because while your weapons become stronger in battle, your characters become stronger when rebuilding the world... Isn't that neat? The items that increase your HP and defense are specifically only found throughout the overworld, and are thus obtained during the chill part of the game when you get to build the world and meet its people...

I really love that aspect of Dark Cloud, it's really like nothing I have ever played, before or since. It really gives the game two very distinct but somehow complimentary aspects of gameplay and storytelling. It's just a shame that the main characters never really interact with one another or even appear outside of their own village, except for Goro weirdly enough, who appears once in Brownboo... It would have been great if these characters got to hang out a bit more in a Final Fantasy style, meeting each other and bonding during their arduous journey rather than just meeting Toan and immediately joining him. And that journey culminates literally on the moon when, instead of rebuilding a city, you build and pilot a giant robot to help in your fight against the Dark Genie.

And then, at the origin of it all, at the center of the story's entire conflict stands the character I always dreamed would be a playable one... Seda is arguably the most important character, one we first notice when he's sneaking around the Dark Genie urn, and then we strangely encounter him around the first dungeon. You fight him in the game's simplistic but fun dueling system after he apparently turns evil, a strange shift that is revealed when his eyes go red and he becomes possessed by a dark entity. And it is only way later on, in Seda's dark foreboding castle in the clouds, the last or next to last area of the game, that we discover the pink chubby monster isn't the real Dark Genie at all, he's just a rat that absorbed residual dark energy from the ritual, and so he has been having fun causing destruction. So the real Dark Genie is a being who is, not only endowed with the powers of darkness, but he's an entity that embodies darkness itself... You may have found the Fake Genie's demise disappointing since you were hoping for a real battle, or at least a duel, at least I know I was when I was a kid, but the cutscene is amazing, reviving the game's main theme and proving that, after your long journey the Genie is no longer omnipotent. In fact, he's weak... And then seeing the general possessed by the real Genie destroying the sun giant was much scarier, it showed the full extent of his powers. So the game is not over yet, you now have to grind through twenty-four tough levels to discover the Genie's true form, if there even is one.

And all that is fully revealed through the player's own actions by going back in time and gathering fragments of Seda's memory, which are lost throughout his old abandoned castle that actually becomes newer and less decrepit as you advance through the ages. Moreover, as you near the end you will have to face five consecutive limited zones in which you are only allowed to play as one of your companions, even in the order that you met them, almost like giving each one a chance to shine for one last time... So in this level you don't really rebuild a city, you rebuild a man, opening atla that contain his tragic past, fragments with titles made ominous by plain, and yet somehow cryptic, expressions. Because in this last dungeon you don't travel through levels per say, you travel through the years until you reach four hundred years ago, to the very birth of the Dark Genie.

What you unveil is a story of tragedy, and when it's simple it's simple to a great effect. Seda was once the young prince of East Terra, who had to become king after his father's death, but he sadly inherited a kingdom at war. At first, fighting was painful and arduous, and he lacked strength to carry on, but after meeting his beloved Sophia, as if through destiny, he gained a new lease of life, a newfound and powerful motivation to win and to protect the one he loves. However, it was a constant tug of war, with heavy looses on either side, regardless of who won each individual battle. After one of those miserable battles, Seda was approached by a mysterious man clad in a black robe, a man about whom we don't know anything more, a wandering master of the dark arts who offered Seda a faustian bargain – he gave him the power to win the war, seemingly at no cost, but of course, nothing in this world is ever free... So the dark powers began to fester within Seda, he won the war but it took a heavy toll on his own people who began to turn on him... One night, when Seda was meant to celebrate with Sophia, an assassin snuck in disguised as her and killed her. And from that all sorrow, all that loss, Seda allowed the true Dark Genie to be born, its true nature being a shadow, a disembodied voice that is darkness itself, a voice that now echoes throughout Seda's lost castle, a voice that mocks and dares Toan to enter therein. For as long as darkness exists, the Dark Genie exists there too...

The Dark Genie's voice echoing throughout Seda's castle

The truest form of the Dark Genie, somewhat reminiscent of Pennywise

And so it's up to Toan to travel back in time and prevent its birth... Now, I have to say I'm not a big fan of time travel in stories but I do make an exception for this one. The magic that explains its possibility is vague and leaves a lot to the imagination, as most magic systems should in my opinion. So like the entire message of the game, you don't truly win by being more powerful and destroying, you win, much like those yellow powders you buy all throughout the game, by repairing and healing the brokenhearted... Toan, unable to prevent Sophia's death at the hands of the assassin, witnesses the Dark Genie's birth, then has to fight and defeats him, only to gravely wound and weaken him, but never to kill because he cannot be killed. So the only choice is to the sacrifice the atlamillia stone and revive Sophia, making the whole thing seem like a bad dream, and thus giving Seda a new chance to be a good king... And so a game with the word “dark” all over the place ends with Seda and Sophia looking up at the two moons in the night sky, somewhat unsure of what happened but confident that they can move forward and repair the kingdom to build a new and happier future... That makes me wonder if the book that puzzled scholars, the book that contained a strange story lost for centuries, was actually written by Sophia as she drew inspiration from the courageous boy who called her name out of the darkness.

There you have it... That's enough from me. I could go on and on though, I planned to take way more screenshots and to give a more detailed story, but I ended up deciding it wasn't expedient. I figured that whoever might one day take the time to read this already knows and loves the game, and nowadays it isn't all that difficult to rediscover old games from our childhood. So if you at first feel nostalgic for the music of Dark Cloud, as if I often do and even write quite a bit while listening to it, and then you feel nostalgic for the dungeons, and then you feel nostalgic for the peaceful rebuilding, and then you feel nostalgic for the pretty colorful icons that fill your inventory, and then you feel nostalgic for the creative monsters and fun combat, and then you feel nostalgic for that weird to describe feeling you get when remembering the good old days, then I hope this little post helped you decide to play the game again, or at least I hope it helped you recover some long lost memories. Because replaying an old video game isn't that different from opening a music box, much like the one with which Dark Cloud begins.