Dark Cloud 2 // PS2
Sony's answer to Link

// The skinny: An action RPG to rival Zelda.

// Review: This game doesn't have the pedigree of Zelda, but it plays just like one. If this game only had the action RPG elements it would be very solid. You can play as Max (melee bent), Monica (magic bent), or pilot a mech made from spare parts (hell bent). The controls and camera angles are smooth and it has a nice lock on system when fighting. Even enemy grunts are challenging and it takes an amount of skill to battle and exploit creature weaknesses.

/ But then they throw in upgrading and customizations which knocks everything up another level. Your weapons get their own experience depending on how many kills they are involved in. Combining the XP with various orbs you can morph the weapon into a more powerful one. The inventing system is extremely innovative. You take photographs of various objects in the world, find blue prints for different objects, collect different materials, and then you can build sweet uber items. Some items even require you taking specific pictures of bosses during a fight.

/ To add some replayability they added golf and fishing mini- games. Each dungeon has a specific par course and different locations can have different water sources home to different kinds of fish. You can even enter a tournament.

/ The locations had a lot of variety and were very creative. The storyline takes you to the past and future and you get a sense of travelling in a truly rich world in every time period.

/The downsides are that the story was a little convoluted, which probably hurt this title the most. The voice acting was just decent and the dungeon crawling got old. You had to kill a certain creature in each dungeon to get a key to advance and often it meant a lot of back tracking to find every nook a creature may lurk.

// Wrap up: Probably the closest game in this genre that I've played to Ocarina of Time, which is may be my #1 overall game. If you love Zelda, you will heart this game.

Entertainment rating: 4.5