Dark Cloud[4] is an action role-playing video game developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2.

Originally intended as a launch title for the system in March 2000,[5] the game was eventually released in Japan in December 2000, in North America in May 2001, and in Europe in September.

The main protagonist and player character is Toan, a boy who is given a magical stone called the Atlamillia by the fairy king Simba, granting him the power to rebuild the destroyed lands.

Dark Cloud is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective, in which the player moves through procedurally-generated dungeons, battling monsters and collecting items.

On random dungeon levels, the player may have the option of entering a separate "back door" area which contains stronger monsters and rarer treasure.

In this type of battle, the player must correctly press a sequence of buttons, similar to a quick time event.

To prevent the thirst meter from depleting, the player must drink water or step into one of the pools found in many dungeon levels.

[7] A major component of Dark Cloud's gameplay involves special items called "Atla" which are used to rebuild the world outside the dungeons.

To upgrade a weapon, the player can attach stat-increasing items (attack power, speed, ability to kill different types of monsters, elemental attributes, etc.

However, prior to the attack, Simba, the Fairy King, casts a protective spell around the land, sealing the buildings, objects and people inside magical orbs called "Atla".

Meanwhile, Toan, whose home village of Norune has been destroyed, although he survived the attack unhurt, encounters the Fairy King, who gives him a magical stone called the "Atlamillia",[18] and tasks him with finding the scattered Atla and transforming back into its original form.

[19] As a reward for his kindness, Seda gives Toan a "changing potion",[20] which he uses to transform the cat into a "catgirl" named Xiao, who joins him on his quest.

[23] He suggests they seek out the Moon People, telling them to visit a sentient tree called Treant in nearby Matataki Village.

[24] In Matataki, Toan and Xiao are joined by a local boy named Goro, and the trio set about rebuilding the village.

When the Sun Giant is complete, the party and a crew of Moon People travel to Dark Heaven Castle, where the Genie now resides.

[35] In the Gallery of Time, the party learn the tragic loss suffered by Seda was the death of Sophia, his fiancée, at the hands of an assassin seeking to kill him.

Toan then expends the Atlamilla's powers to revive Sophia, reuniting her with the Seda of the past, and preventing the birth of the Genie.

[2] When the PlayStation 2 was announced in March 1999, Sony president and CEO Ken Kutaragi used an early demo of Dark Cloud to show the capabilities of the platform.

[40] This version of the game was also shown at a US demonstration[41] at Las Vegas for COMDEX in November as well in a presentation done by Phil Harrison of Sony.

Georama mode was a major component of the demo, with both IGN and GameSpot comparing it to Legend of Mana's "Land Make" system.

They compared the combat system to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the duels to Shenmue, and then the graphics, water effects and transitions from day to night.

[47] IGN wrote that "without fully playing through the game, it's very hard to determine whether or not this title will prove to be revolutionary or just a gimmicky way to show off the real-time rendering powers of the new console".

A full forty-six track soundtrack was released by Sony Music Entertainment Visual Works in Japan on January 11, 2001.

[60] Gameplay was compared by several critics to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,[65] while the weapon system was likened to Vagrant Story.

[14][63] GameSpot's Shane Satterfield and IGN's Dave Zdyrko both felt the Georama mode borrowed elements from ActRaiser.

Satterfield argued "no game has blended all these compelling and unrelated ideas together into one highly addictive and surprisingly cohesive experience until now".

[14] Zdyrko called the game "a highly-enjoyable and insanely addictive role-playing experience that wouldn't have been able to stand alone with just its story, just its battle system, or any single one of its gameplay elements.

The character models actually look really good, completely with jag-free edges, lots of texture detail and really cool designs [...] What hurts Dark Cloud is its background graphics.

All six characters look great, and it's obvious that a great deal of time was taken in crafting their personalities through animation [...] Graphical tricks like real-time shadows, depth blur, and particle effects are prevalent in most settings," but also felt: "By the third stage of each dungeon, things become undeniably monotonous due to constantly reused textures and objects.

Other graphical problems include flickering textures and a camera that regularly gets stuck behind objects while your character is locked on to an enemy.