Game Soundtracks We Love: Dark Chronicle

Hello to everyone! Thank you for joining us, on our cuppa filled gaming journey.

Last week had us jumping back to the days of the NES, with a  game that changed the video game industry: Super Mario Bros. If you missed it and want to check it out: Game Soundtracks We Love: Super Mario Bros

Decided to mix things up a little this week with a PS2 game – that was eventually ported to the PS4 a few years ago.

Game of Choice

Depending on the region; the game of choice this week had a different title: Dark Cloud 2 for North America; Dark Chronicle for everywhere else (I’m in the UK, so it will always be Dark Chronicle to me 😛 ).

Dark Chronicle is an action role-playing hack ‘n’ slash game with town building elements. Much like the first Dark Cloud game; Dark Chronicle had players working their way through a story, exploring dungeons, defeating enemies and bosses, upgrading weapons/gear, collecting parts of a town (in the form of geostones) and use them to rebuild the town (how ever they like), within the space available.

One of the aspects of the game that always stood out; was the soundtrack.

The track used in the trailer (after the Playstation intro) starts off sounding mysterious, then kicks into a more livelier and happier sound. It hints to the player that the game has some dark and mysterious moments, but will be mainly filled with lighthearted fun and adventure! It’s a nice mix and a good contrast I think.  🙂

‘Peace of the World’ is my favourite track in the game. When I first heard it; I actually left the game on in the same spot, just so I could listen to it longer. It’s not complicated or dramatic, but it’s cheerful and creates a brilliant sense of peace and harmony. It has such a nice sound and energy; I can’t help but love it! 😀

‘The Battle’ track, has all the energy, tension and dramatics you would expect while fighting an enemy. It ramps up the player’s focus and makes hacking ‘n’ slashing at enemies have an element of grandeur and excitement – It’s brilliant! 😀

Final Thoughts

There were a number of other tracks I was considering for Dark Chronicle (some are very different from those chosen). However, I felt ‘Peace of the World’ and ‘The Battle’ had a good contrast from one another – while also giving a good idea of the overall feeling of the game when matched with the trailer.

Not sure if Level-5 will make a third game for the series, but I sure hope they do; considering what consoles are capable of handling these days, it could be awesome! 😀

A few questions for you:

• Have you ever stopped in the middle of playing a game, just to listen to it’s music for awhile?
• What are your thoughts on Dark Chronicle’s tracks?
• Would you like a Dark Cloud 3?

Would love to read your thoughts 😀 – Thanks for reading!