Cladun X2

For those of us who grew up in the Super Nintendo and Sega genesis era, we have a soft spot for old school games, the ones that remind us of our childhood and give us that old timey feel. Sometimes those games are still great and fun to this day, others usually are not. Cladun X2 is a game that gives us that old game feel while making us feel like it’s something new. It’s a refreshing take on top down RPG’s that shouldn’t be over looked.

Cladun X2 is the sequel to Cladun: This is an RPG, most of the elements from the first game have been carried over. Although there are some big changes between the two, the original game focused more on story and your characters where as Cladun X2 attempts to make the game more about your overall game experience. It opens the doors for lots of customization options to make you feel like this is your game, but in turn it sacrifices some of the things that make the original such a charming title.

Story

The story in the original Cladun is very simple; you and your sister go off on an adventure and end up in the land of Arcanus Cella, a world full of treasure and adventure. The great thing about the first one is that you can end the game at any time but your sister wants to dig deeper into the world to find treasure. So it was really up to you how you wanted to play. In Cladun X2 this idea was scrapped and the story was kind of shafted. There is still a story but it isn’t as good as the first one. Instead of meeting new characters and unlocking them overtime, you create your main characters and sub characters. You pick personalities for them but it doesn’t really translate well into the story. For the most part you play a silent protagonist just standing by while other characters speak. Also in Cladun X2 there is no escape, you can’t end the game whenever you wish which means you are trapped for the most part. Being trapped you would think they are locking you into a story but it doesn’t really seem like it.

I liked the fact that the original had a flexible story and I appreciate what the second game is trying to do, but I wish that the story was a little more compelling and interesting. Unfortunately the only thing that keeps your interest in the game is the game-play.

Game-play

The game play in Cladun X2 is kind of like a hybrid between the legend of Zelda, Phantasy Star Online, and Final Fantasy. You play from a top down perspective and fight monsters as you would in a Zelda game. As you complete dungeons you gain experience, weapons, armor, and gold to buy new items.

You won’t be focusing on just one character though, in Cladun you have to level multiple characters in order to buff the others ones. You do this by equipping them in a feature called the magic circle. The magic circle lets you equip other characters you’ve created to your main character at the moment. By doing this you increase the stats for your main character based on the characters you equip. While it seems complicated at first the system is actually quite intuitive and it actually forces you to try out different characters and kevel them up in order to correctly progress your character.

The dungeons are relatively short which is a good thing if you only have a little bit of time to kill. For each dungeon you beat you unlock new ones to traverse. You will be going back to older dungeons however to level up sub characters so people who dislike back tracking may be a little put off.

If you love RPG’s you’re going to love this game, it has a surprisingly deep leveling system, fun gameplay, and great visuals. If you have been waiting for a game to play on your PSP your wish has been granted.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Cladun X2 might be pixilated and old looking but trust when I say the game looks beautiful. It has a surprising amount of quality, detail, and clarity you don’t see in many games. If this game had come out ten years ago it would probably be one of the most beautiful games on the market. The colors just pop out and the textures are really good looking. The main environment you will spend most of your time in is a quaint little island. It has lots of green color and water effects surrounding it. The dungeons range from rocky areas, to forests. It’s a great example how 2D games can still be beautiful and attractive in a world filled with hyper realistic military shooters.

The great thing about the soundtrack in Cladun X2 is that there are two separate soundtracks for you to choose from. The first is called the “real” soundtrack which is a more modern and orchestral soundtrack. The other soundtrack is called “retro” and it’s just as awesome as you would expect. The retro soundtrack is basically the same thing but it has been composed like an old Nintendo game. I personally love the retro soundtrack and that is the one I chose to listen to while playing the game.

Other Features

One of the coolest things about Cladun X2 is all of the features you have access too. The main thing you will be using more than anything else is the character creator. Unfortunately the character creation feature isn’t as cool as it sounds and it does kind of take away from the story. You can’t really customize much on the characters which is a little sad, but equipping new armor and weapons reflects your characters appearance.

In your hub world there are a few buildings you can enter; in the tavern you have the ability to compose your own music and use them during the game. The feature allows you to layer tracks on top of each other, so that you can create complex and compelling music; and yes you can compose in both the real and retro style. The one drawback I feel with the composition feature is that it doesn’t look like sheet music; it uses a very strange code system that can get frustrating at times. Being a former musician I would rather have a sheet music system than feel like I am programming on a PSP. Nonetheless once you learn how to properly use the music composition code you can make some pretty cool stuff.

Another really cool feature Cladun X2 is the ability to take screen shots and save them to your memory stick whenever you want. Believe me when I say that it made this review a whole lot easier, yes every single screen shot in this review was taken via the screen shot feature. By pressing the select button at anytime you can capture your favorite Cladun moments and share them with your friends. Of course this wouldn’t be a review if I was not allowed to nit-pick everything. My one complaint, as small as it is, is that your screen shots aren’t saved in the photo folder on your PSP, instead they are saved in a folder called screenshots which means they don’t show up on your cross media bar. Also one other complaint is that all the photos are saved as PNG files instead of something a little more universal like JPG.

One thing I am a bit upset is absent is a dungeon creator. I mean you spend most of your time delving through dungeons it only makes sense that you should be able to create your own.

Overall

Cladun X2 is a great RPG, and something you don’t get very often. It has a retro feel to it while still feeling modern. While the game feels like it is lacking a few features it’s still a really addictive and fun game. If you love RPG’s and beautiful 2D graphics you should definitely pick up Cladun X2.

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