After owning it and playing it on and off for almost 20 years now, I finally dusted this game off and beat it for the first time, even did the optional 100 floor bonus dungeon. Can we please have a thread to just talk about it, post your favourite party members, although we all know it's gonna either be Ruby or Osmond. Sequel discussion is welcome too although I still have to go back and beat that one.
Dark Cloud was surprisingly dark, knowing that the forest kid literally saw his dad get eaten by giant snake is fucked up
The whole back story of the world is that half of it got blown up in an arms race abusing magic and contracts signed in witch blood with the devil. God even the story of Queens and the Shipwreck alone was super dark. It's nice that it's pretty subtle about it though, never comes across as edgy at any point.
The intro itself is pretty messed up if you step back and look at it.
>The game starts with a mass ritual sacrifice
>You then see the dark genie swallow a man whole
>Then the genie and the man that freed it go on a genocidal rampage around the world wiping out most of it in no time at all
I remember first finding out about Dark Cloud when I stayed at an uncle's house for a couple of days, I tried it out on his PS2 and I was absolutely hooked. When I got my own PS2 for Christmas sometime later, I also got Dark Cloud and Dark Cloud 2 with it. Good times.
I don't remember those guys dying...
They fade out of existence once the "ritual" finishes.
when I was a kid I got my dad to play most of it, I think he grinded the masked dudes in the backfloors of shipwreck, and fished a bunch for the mardan garyan eventually building the seventh heaven. I get the feeling we aren't alone in having parents or boomer relatives playing this game
7 year old me had nightmares about that genie eating that fat guy
>game is called DARK Cloud
>"wow this game is dark"
>Surprised pikachu face
fuck off zoomer, we're full
I just finished it the other day. Pretty much the same situation as you, funny enough, except I did beat the PS4 port couple of years ago but used the broken dagger glitch to cheat so I could finally see the ending to a game I had played for so long. It turns out that’s very unnecessary and it takes little to make this game easy. You don’t even need to go out of your way and be a tryhard or anything. It made me realize how weird the pacing for upgrading weapons is. You’d have to grind like a madman to get the final weapon for even just Toan, I think, let alone everyone - and the Japanese version didn’t even have the postgame dungeon, so it would be even more ridiculous. Doing so would just have you one-shotting enemies in the last dungeon instead of two or three, anyway.
All in all, pretty good game and first outing for Level-5. I really like it. I would have liked to see a sequel that is more in-line with it and built on this more directly, but 2/Chronicle is good for different reasons. Something about this just nails that early PS2 aesthetic and spirit and I find it incredibly charming.
The insane amount of stat bloating in the demon shaft really shocked me when I went through it, having maxed out endgame weapons that do more damage then the final bosses health pool in one hit only taking off like 10% of a common enemies health bar was a bit much. I guess it's nice that they gave a reason for those endgame weapons to exist. How did you level up your weapons? I mostly just farmed Mardans in Muska and bought a shit ton of gems on top of turning every second weapon I found into a synthsphere. Was actually pretty efficient.
Damn, is the Demon Shaft really that big of a bump? I kind of want to pick it back up now. I planned on doing so when I started the playthrough, but I ended up taking like a two month break after I hit the last dungeon for whatever reason. I got distracted by a string of other games. By the time I was done with the last boss, which I found very annoying, I was just happy to be done and have beaten the game legitimately.
>How did you level up your weapons?
I used upgrade materials on weapons each level and turned them into spheres when they hit five. I only upgraded the actual weapon I wanted to advance if it had a sphere on it. It kept me constantly leveling up weapons which feels good and gives you a constant sense of progression, while also being "efficient." I also kept a powerful synthsphere to bounce around to those weapons I was upgrading for sphere fodder, because switching weapon to allocate EXP is obnoxious and gets old quick. The axe you get for 100%ing Matataki is great for that.
About halfway through the Moon dungeon I ended up looking at the weapon trees for the first time so I didn't completely waste my time. I didn't get very far with anyone but Toan, though. He had a Bing Bang just a couple of levels before the final boss. I farmed gems mostly the same way as you.
My biggest complaint is the opposite of what I thought as a kid: I wish there was more reason to use other characters. Weaknesses don't matter enough to switch for that; Goro can't combo so fighting as him can be very annoying; Xiao can be useful early on since she'll only take a single point of durability per attack regardless of enemy; but in the end, it's not necessary outside of bosses.
As someone who used Xiao the whole game, she's useful the whole game, but you're right that it's not particularly necessary.
If she actually has a built up weapon, yeah, probably, but mine never had anything better than a double impact. Toan is just so much easier to get kitted. Goro is too, since you get handed that axe for free (and I found a last judgement in a chest, which is totally insane and made an incredible synthsphere to swap around), but again, he's not too fun to play as. I was finding petty good Ungaga weapons in the last dungeon too, but again, too little too late.
That's why you have to keep a good synthsphere around to slap on those guys.
I found no special abilities other than quench on my playthrough. Their rarity is actually another one of my complaints that I forgot. They only drops for Ruby I got were bandit rings, over and over. Osmand never got anything better than the snail gun for me, and with how late you get him I didn't care to work on him, as cool as he is.
If I play it again I'll probably self-impose a limit on using Toan, because he feels too well-rounded on top of having the most weapons. I didn't seem to find weapons all that often, and they'd usually be for him so that just reinforced using him. When he gets hit, he gets hit hard, but enemies aren't dangerous enough to be concerned with in the normal course of the game.
Maybe you just got unlucky then, my Arise Mardan had Drain, Critical, Quench, Durable and Stop on it, and my Angel Gear on Xiao had Steal, Stop, Poison, Critical, Heal, Big Bucks and Durable. Keep in mind you can buy weapons with big bucks and quench at the weapon shop in queens, and ANY weapon, including the ones you buy from him, have a chance of have either fragile or durable as special ability. Poison you can get from the spear on the fishing board, and critical and stop show up on the antique sword and 5 foot nail, both which I finished the game have about 5 spares of if I felt like adding them to my other characters.
I'd be more upset if the game was hard enough to make me miss those abilities. I should really go back and do the Demon Shaft. It'll give me the impetus to interact with more of the game's systems.
I don't think the dub is all that bad or anything, but it's certaintly not great. I like it because I played it a lot during Adult Swim's heyday when I was watching pretty much nightly, and it was funny to hear Kevin French as I hit things with a wrench.
Honestly if you do Demon Shaft, the only real abilties you might want is Durable, Quench and Poison. Poison in this game is the good kind of poison, the kind that does percentage based damage, and can kill, and never, ever goes away. So if an enemy is poisoned it's already dead. Really good for killing of those assholes that spend most of their time blocking on the later floors.
I only ever used Toan. The floors where you were forced to use anyone else were progressively more torturous as the game went on.
If you just carry a stack of bombs those forced levels become a breeze.
I never leveled up ungabunga dude at all.
I had every weapon for every character maxed out with the exception of Goro (since I don't like using him) and when I used Ruby, who has the highest burst damage by far of the cast, with her maxed out secret bracelet, I could get almost 4000 damage in a close range charge shot. That's about enough to take of maybe a third of a floor 85 monster's health bar. I agree with you only partially on the other characters not being useful by the way, it's more so that the non ranged characters are limited in there usefulness, Xiao, Ruby and Osmond all out class them in every way. Xiao is great for sustained long distance with little damage to her slingshot so she can go on and on forever in dungeons with little upkeep, especially if you slap on Durable and Quench on her angel gear. Ruby has stupid high burst elemental damage, probably the highest in the game. Osmond's late stage guns preform differently then the machine gun you might associate with him, it's more like an exetremely powerful, fast firing, and lightweight and mobile elemental bazooka. High dps, high mobility, high maintenance, very powerful. Toan's swords are strong but he gets hit too much get all up in the enemies face, and Goro and Ungaga have similar problems although they're even slower. Ungaga only slightly makes up for this in his range, making him good for shield users, and Goro's special has nice Iframes on it, but I perso ally didn't feel compelled to make use of them often, perhaps in my next playthrough however.
Last time I was playing it on the ps4 I think I got burned out somewhere around queens while trying to get on top of weapon upgrades for everyone, I remember when I was younger the fun of running into a cursed floor locking you into that party member you've been ignoring the whole time.
>post your favourite party members, although we all know it's gonna either be Ruby or Osmond.
Wouldn't the obvious guess be the catgirl not a rabbit that shows up as the game's almost over?
Cat Girls are temporary
Helicopter Bro is always here for you.
Queens, home...
I did not ask for these feels
I actually really liked the spear moron, he was based. And yes, ruby and Osmond. I loved the environments and different dungeons, but I still think queens and the shipwreck are my favorite. They have a dark tone and the music compliments it well
Have you tried Dark Chronicle anon?
It’s a long time since I played them, But I recall the sequel being even better.
Really under rated gems imo.
I'm playing the sequel right now, but I played it for the first time about 10 years ago as a teenager instead of 20 as a child, so the nostalgia and atmosphere isn't hardwired into my soul the same way the first game is, and I also never beat it back then either. It's weird to have the second game be just as soulful as the first, but it's a very different kind of soul. I do wish that the characters in Dark Cloud had as much development as the ones in 2 though. It makes me sad to have all y of these characters basically never interact or even speak after their introduction.
I think Dark Chronicle is better, but I definitely feel like Dark Cloud has a certain appeal in its atmosphere. It's much darker while Chronicle is far more whimsical and light hearted.
See that's the thing right? I'm playing Dark Cloud 2, and I'm just thinking to myself, "Man, ther improved upon the first in every way, better combat, better combat music, more robust dungeon generation, characters that actually talk and interact, prettier graphics..." but at the same time something about the "fairy tale" vibe of the first game is just etched to deep into my heart. I've been playing both on my old PS2, and I actually happened to find my old memory card as well. I didn't delete my saves back then, so I had a chance to go back and actually look at the version of Norune village that 7 year old me made back in 2005. It's fucking surreal as hell having everything be exactly as I remember in after all these years, (and also weird as hell that I apparently spent 20 hours entirely stuck in the first village on that save, never making it past Dran.) The mysteries and wonder that younger version of me had towards what the rest of the game world might look like can't ever be recaptured by anything else, and little by little, over the next two decades I would peel those mysteries back layer by layer, before finally completing it in it's totality now, as a grown as man. I'm almost sad now because of it honestly, and the sequel can only do so much.
Blessed post. I loved this game when I was a kid but didn't finish it either, I think because I got really fixated on Kingdom Hearts. I wonder what my towns look like. I remember not being able to get everyone to be happy in the Forest/2nd(?) town kek.
Unironic beautiful post.
I have this relationship with so many games, Dark Cloud included until recently. I was terrible at actually finishing games, even up through high school. It's still not a given for me, but if I like a game I make a much more concerted effort to finish it these days. It's bittersweet when you finish one of these games you just wandered aimlessly around as a kid.
Learning how Monster Rancher 2 actually works when DX came out was both amazing and kind of heartbreaking.
Just finished Dark Cloud 2.
I agree that the systems are better, but the vibe in 1 is more unique.
The world is obliterated.
The biggest baddie is nothing more than a simpleminded lethargic genie who loves to eat worlds
Most of your alloes are initially hostile, because the world is fucked and they don't know if they can trust you
>Really under rated gems imo.
They really aren't. They are incredibly soulful, but there's only so far you can stretch out content via having hundreds of randomly generated dungeon floors and dance sequences.
Here are my favorite tracks
I love dioramas and clay models of video game characters and environments like you wouldn't believe.
Fuck the forest boss, I just used Xiao to be able to actually do damage.
I listen to this when working, max comfy:
This reminds me of a game that was supposed to come out where the maps were all real dioramas
For me it's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5uV00yaY1Y
>get sick weapon from loot chest
>run into buff circle
>actually a debuff circle, drops your weapons durability to zero and it breaks
20+ YEARS LATER AND IM STILL MAD
Fucking everything about those chests. Oh it's a king mimic? Hope you brought extra repair powder. Oh it's a the present clown? Big box has fishing bait, fuck you.
Oh it's actually a loot chest? Boobytrapped, hope you guess right. Finally open the loot chest? 12th steel slingshot
>Oh it's a the present clown? Big box has fishing bait, fuck you.
I'm not sure how it works in dark cloud 1 but in the sequel it doesn't actually matter which box you pick. If you save state and change your choice the items switch location so you get the same thing no matter what your choice is. Makes the whole thing pretty pointless.
>If you save state and change your choice the items switch location
not true btw, he made it up, tested it
GAY4Y
I heard it from the autist who does 100% speed runs of the game; I only ever played on console.
he was bullshitting you bro, I've tested it many times to see what the rewards were when I was emulating it
I am shocked and appalled that someone would just tell lies on the internet like that
>Stepping into one of those circles with anything but the default or an expendable weapon
You're crazy, weapon durability is one thing but it can also permanently alter the weapons stats
How was I supposed to know as a kid? I just wanted the stamina buff
The same way we all learned as a kid, the hard way.
>Get Dark Cloud 2
>Find out I missed "Scoops" entirely as a concept and would have to start over
>Also my health will be permanently lower than normal if I don't stop IMMEDIATELY and build up the village, then go to the future and do something
>Lose will to play
Just beat the game normally the first time without worrying about it, and then come back later with a guide so you can 100% if you still care. EZ
>scoops
waste of time, the ultimate rewards are monster transformation badges. monster transformation is utter dogshit as a game feature, and the only one that matters is the dragon one for the "monster transformation only" clear badges
>health ups
doesn't need to be done right away unless you're a turboshitter, just make sure you do it before you close off the future in desert stonehedge or whatever (i think there's also a couple that are bugged in the valley chapter)
Some of the scoops are for inventions but i forgot if there's any missable scoops for the strongest stuff.
oh right i think steve's strongest equipments are exclusive to inventions that need scoops from the moon flower palace but i try not to use steve in my playthroughs, he makes the game too easy
Sex with xiao
I always get filtered by the hyperrealistic rabbits. It is just so jarring that every character is anime and then boom creeper rabbits. Fucking hate those rabbits.
Had a friend who had this and talked about it all the time for months. Got the impression it was extremely long and complicated and there's no way I could even hope to finish that shit. Didn't have a PS2 though.
One of my favourite games ever. Something about the tone and atmosphere is almost perfect. I fucking hate the sequel though, the art, characters, and writing and complete trash
Level 5 just got worse and worse the longer they existed. Instead of getting better and better they went backwards.
Why don't more RPGs and other non-builder games let you build towns
It's my favourite thing in any videogame ever
it's an entire subgame that you have to program
if you haven't played ActRaiser, play it
Level 5 were at their best during 6th gen, right off the bat as a studio they were making their best games they would ever make. Dark Cloud 1 & 2, Dragon Quest VIII & Rogue Galaxy. This was peak JRPG era and nothing will convince me otherwise that any other era was better.
Why does this make me cry?
The Fairy King Simba is my favourite tutorial guide in any game ever and I feel like this ost as well as his mysterious nature has a lot to do with it. Playing through Dark Cloud 2 and hill billy Jimmy Neutron isn't doing it for me in comparison.
You guys are joking about the weapon evolutions right...right? I haven't played in years but I beat the game without anything evolving, I just kept upgrading them with stones and gems. Did I have to turn them into spheres or something?
Bro...
There is a tutorial about evolving your weapons.
Once you get them to the right level of specific stats, you can evolve it.
I think it is called "build up" in the UI.
I did that but I just ended up with like gladius+ or such, I didn't think they turned into different weapons
You just leveled it up, goof ball. Build up is the blue option. It just tells you what you need to increase until you meet the unspecified thresholds, when it then shows you the new weapon you'll get.
I was the same hahahaha I didn't read that shit back then and I still don't today
I got filtered in the first dungeon by the weapon durability. Building the town was reallly fun and the random dungeons were cool. The monsters and weapon durability really fucked me. Would like to give it another try, because I love the concept of building your town by defeating the local cave. Soul Blazer is my favorite SNES game
Until you get the shop open in the first dungeon, the mayor will replenish your supplies when you talk to him. You should be going back to him every floor. If you're weapon is damaged when leaving, talk to him, repair your weapon, and then talk to him again to have one for the inventory. It won't take as long as you may think to get out of that part.
>Soul Blazer is my favorite SNES game
Absolutely based.
Great game and the second one is even better. Been playing it on steam deck lately, it's so comfy.
I've never played these games but I want to. I see online there is an undub version of Dark Cloud 2, should I go for that over the original?
This is one of the few games I have genuine nostalgia for I remember playing it when I was sick, I had so much fun I could never get past the jungle kid though.
Nice blog, retard.
You're mom's a whore btw.
I never thought I'd see a dark cloud thread on Ganker. I played it off and on as a kid, but didn't really get it and didn't like it. Played it again a couple years ago and thought it was awesome, albeit kinda grindy and repetitive.
only played a bit of 1 and 2 but I like Monica.
Man it sucks that these games came out so early, internet hadn't gotten along far enough for everything under the sun to have porn for it yet. There's like nothing for DC1 and DC2 smut is... More of a Jungle Book type smut instead.
>More of a Jungle Book type smut instead.
Ah, a fellow RenaissanceofChaos enthusiast.
I'm not really honestly, more of a Dark Cloud enthusiast who stumbled upon them. Hypnotism and snakes aren't really my thing, although I find it really fucking funny that there's just a guy out there that wants to see Ka fuck.
Truth be told, I kinda wish he used the snake that's already in the game.
That snake literally only shows up in a quick time event, and also centuries before DC2, so it would be a little silly, not as silly as a fucking jungle book crossover but whatever. And degenerate that I am, I am at least glad that it is a sentient animal like Kaa he indulges in. Literal beast fucking is kind of much.
This snake is dead because toan decapitated it
kill all sn*kes.
Man, upscaled PS2 graphics look great. I really wish all this HD realism shit didn't take off so fucking hard. Most developers going for a realistic HD art style rarely want to make shit that actually captures the beauty in life and instead just makes the ugliest fucking garbage.
Gatekeeping is important.
Yeah, there is so much visual noise and clutter now devs have resorted to this shit instead of just scaling back the fidelity.
That's uh...something.
For a while it was the "witcher sense" thing.
Basically we have hit the point were there is so much shit on the screen that devs have to highlight things for you or you'll never find them.
We need to roll back the clock to late 6th gen graphics.
Or the lora croft/ass creed bullshit of paint all ledges/edges/etc a stark blinding white.
It's really awful.
Hell the graphics aren't even the issue here, it's the bland boring gay art styles that make everything look the same.
If things had more distinguished stand out aesthsetics to them you'd not need this at all.
Thats also true. Unfortunately modern devs are boneheads and will never do either of these things.
Indies are finally getting to the point of being able to make 3d, but its 5th gen not 6th atm.
5th gen graphoics are fine. All you shitters scream about muh n64/ps1 soul after all.
I remember abusing the fuck out of the Ridepod since it's so OP when you get it just one shotting everything but then by the moon dungeon it caught up with me the enemies could kill it and I was left vulnerable and under-leveled
Speaking of did anyone here use or do well with Monica's Monster transform power? I remember it took a billion exp just to get one level and it had a whole chart of shit the monster could evolve into but actually playing as them as dogshit since they all just did a basic auto attack and like no damage I remember leveling up the rat to become the rat with a scythe for a tail then saying fuck it
Tell me there was some glitch or trick to make it easier? and i dont mean killing them as the ridepod then swapping to the monster to eat the exp that was my method it still took forever
they're shit, genuine shit
All this does is remind me of the dogshit grind and crafting minigame that fucking Rogue Galaxy had. Also fuck that trashfire ending.
But I spent so much fucking time grinding THE RAT. And it still died to the basic enemies in the jungle zone
I also wanted the clown-balloon thing to turn into something cool ike the bigger clown-walker robots but....fuck it, I had enough grinding and decided to just beat the game
the only worth considering is the gemron since it has a fast ranged attack. Bomber head is good too just for the self destruct attack for item only clears.
monster transformation is unsalvageable dogshit. It just takes tons of grinding to still be weaker than your weapons.
was there even any plot? I played through the first town and nothing happened. the townspeople had one line of dialogue, there was a cutscene where you meet a girl that joins your party, but then have no interaction with her ever.
You literally are trying to save the world from Satan. To do this you need to go to the moon, go back in time, build a mech robot and then fight the devil. All so you can bone that girl you danced with at the harvest festival
The first town is pretty basic. The cat girl was literally just a cat. I'm not sure if she could even talk.
The rest of the towns have a lot more to them and the party members each have a story.
A while back I played both DC1-2
And like OP. I even did the optional stuff. Like the hundred floor bonus dungeon and 2's post main story one
I enjoyed both games. I guess if you were to ask me which one I liked more. It would be the second.
although we all know it's gonna either be Ruby or Osmond.
Well I can't lie about it at least
>that face
>that body
It has to be a trace. It has to be.
Looks to me more just old ass amateur art, probably had to take what he could get since DC1 has NOTHING for fanart.
There's no way the body could look that decent and structured, while that face does scream early 00's fan art.
It could get pretty bad back then. I'd still go back in a heartbeat if I could, but there is no denying that every era had it's own issues with art trends.
>eats parfait
>health goes up
Is it because her ass was getting fatter?
Also what did the fish candy taste like? Swedish fish but blue?
there are three random ass NPCs I jerked off to as a kid
there was this girl, then the water merchant in the big city place, and I can't remember the third but I think it might have been an enemy type
Discount Yuffie was pretty nice to look at. Though I did like the cult dancer girl from the opening cutscene that dies to summon the Dark Genie.
The genie eating the fat guy in the opening scared me as a kid
Brother.
I also jerked off to this jungle girl.
oh hey, now I can save a second image of her
Was it the shipwreck queen? Because I jerked off to her. Please don't say the little girl in toans village
This was the first time I jerked it off to a vidya. I was about to post about that and I saw these posts.
Seems the NPC that mentioned her having legs for days was onto something.
Posting best version of Demon, whole album slaps btw
Literally all you need is Ruby and Toan.
I like how holding down Xiao's attack lifts up her skirt
Building the towns in this game and getting everything just right for the villagers was my favorite aspect of it. One of the only things that DC2 did worse.
I can barely remember any of the towns having objectives as fun as DC2 besides the seaside town, but it has been a while.
I naively hold out hope for dark cloud 3 or rogue galaxy 2
I'd rather have a DC1 remake. The game would look beautiful in updated graphics and tuning some of the minor issues like character balance and enemy ai would make playing it very different for a replay
>The game would look beautiful in updated graphics
I think what little style it has would be completely lost in the translation. It feels too rooted in those early PS2 days. Remakes just never have the talent to pull that part off.
does level-5 exist anymore?
Not that sony would contract them for dc3.
Could always bank on Nintendo hiring them to do a spiritual successor.
Just approach Sony and buy the rights to dark cloud. They'd probably sell it to you for $50. Then hire your own studios worth of 3rd world staff to remake it
>being this retarded
Sony wouldn't sell DC for less then 3mil. And they'd honestly go for ten, or try.
Keeping the IP hostage is still highly valuable.
Are they the Layton/Yokai watch guys?
>does level-5 exist anymore?
If you really don't know, give a qiuck goog as to what they've been up to for the past 15 years. Suffice to say, I don't want them anywhere near Dark Cloud now. I really haven't for more than 10 years at this point.
I did not wish to solve this bullshit riddle.
they exist and just recently did a presentation of new games coming out, nothing that makes me feel like they would do a DC3 or remasters of the first two justice anymore
Layton, Yokai Watch, Fantasy Life, Niño dicky and Inazuma Eleven
I used the girl who shot fireballs.
I had mostly speed items. Could run so fast nothing would hit me.
100 percented the game multiple times during my childhood. Good times.
First time playing through this. Only on Norune Village. Does location of the buildings matter all that much for completion or just making sure all the requisite items and characters are present?
yes
I think there's a bonus of rebuilding the town just right, but as long as you place the buildings anywhere it should be good. Item boxes will spawn on those buildings and around town, and the villagers will give you rewards so make sure you walk around
They do matter if you want 100 percent in a area. Pay attention to what NPCs say. They usually give a hint as to where they would like a building (or something else) to be at.
You get bonuses for 100% all the villager requests. Though I think Norune is the only one that gives you a technique boost.
Villagers all have their own demands on where they want to be placed and for completion you need to listen to what they say, it could be anything from I want to be near or away from someone or to have the building be facing a certain way or facing a certain thing.
You'll need to put them in relatively specific locations, but it's not usually that there's only one exact answer to get 100%. Once you get your reward you can put things anywhere.
>Are they the Layton/Yokai watch guys?
Yeah. I know those games have their fans, and I haven't really played them personally, but my problem with them is more that they focus on "media franchises" now instead of just making a good fucking game. I kind of liked Fantasy Life myself and am cautiously optimistic about the new one, and have a begrudging appreciation for the Ni no Kuni games (1 more than 2), but none of these products have that fully-fleshed out feel. Dark Cloud was rough and its design is also flawed, but there was real progression when it came to developing 2/Chronicle. I just don't see that happening now.
Never played layton or yokai either and mainly played Nintendo stuff but played dark cloud1+2 due to parents having it (also xenogears..should played that one day but oh well)...enjoyed them both quite a bit.
But going ack to them Dark Cloud1 is a massively flawed and tedious game compared to 2.
No idea how they thought UNMARKED levels made only for certain characters was okay.
Same for levels locking your weapon and STEALING your exp.
Absolute fucked design.
If they can make a third/spiritual successor good for them though.
there is, white knight chronicles for ps3
it's shit
I don't think either of those floor situations are bad design, but rather a philosophy coming from dungeon crawling games to be punishing - kind of like the thirst mechanic. And they're really only punishing if you walked into the dungeon unprepared without an escape powder. The EXP thing isn't so bad when you consider they can't level down or anything. You might just lose the progress you have going at that moment if you can't leave the dungeon and equip some spare weapon you don't care about for the level. I can understanding not liking either scenario, though.
I hate this phrase, but I wanted to like that game so bad. I wish I had played it when there was an online community.
They are pretty fucking shit, especially as they are PERMANENT conditions for those floors.
They fucked up. Massively. And DC2 ending these conditions on first completion proves it.
Thirst was fine honestly, but exp drain and character lock needed to be tossed out after after clear.
It absolutely kills pacing of dungeons on reruns to grind exp/gems/etc.
I still argue the buff/debuff circles are the worst thing ever
Anon, don't tell me you were actually going down stairs while grinding in dungeons right? You WERE going into the back floor and respawning all the higher exp enemies by exiting and entering again right?
Doing that didn't respond item drops though. The correct move was to just pick an easy floor level with a backroom entrance and do it over and over
>Item drops
You mean like weapons and Gems? You weren't going through dungeons looking for those right anon?
You were fishing Mardans in the Oasis do buy Gems in bulk right?
>Is stuck in forest town/queens
Yuh let me uh...go fish in a place I'm not at yet.
Fuck off tard.
you need to grind in those areas?
You can also get them in the waterfall in the forest area, just a little bit rarer. Why do you need to grind in Queens anyway? For the Ice Queen?
Was my second or third playthrough I was more than aware of how weapon building/upgrading worked so I wanted a backstock of shit...plus the game never gave me fucking metal slayer shit so I had to go rng hunting for gems.
As for waterfall might have seen all of like..3 mardans while fishing.
The bastards.
Killing enemies with thrown items will often give you the upgrade material for their type. I'm not sure if I'm giving you news or not.
like what bombs and shit?
This I did not know actually.
I barely ever use those in DC1/2 frankly.
Murky water does that.
>like what bombs and shit?
Yep. One of the townsfolk tells you that. I don't remember who. They mixed some tips into the dialogue pools with people.
Bombs and other weapon items do not exist to do extra damage anon. They exist as a means of getting upgrade materials. Any monster that gets killed by an item like holy water, gems, the fruits or bombs will have VERY high chance of dropping a material that will lrovide a damage bonus to that monster, usually one of the 5 elemental stones or their anti-x slayer slab. So killing a dragon could drop an "Ice" or "Dragon Slayer". Throw a couple bombs at the Tanks in Queens and you'll have Metal Slayer in no time.
Well shit...had no idea on that one.
Good to know if I ever pick it back up.
I didn't know this either, I always just used them for annoying enemies
You had to kill the smashers in the first dungeon just to get pricklys, so yea I did want item drops. You also got xp and the chance at weapons, stones, gems, and usable items, as well as money
I remember fishing a lot as a child, but when I played it recently I couldn't figure it out.
Every time the fish would just steal my bait. Whats the trick?
Wait until your bobber is underneath the water before you hit X, not while they start to nibble at it. Timing seems to be pretty tight though, fish would still steal my bait about 10% of the time.
I'd rerun the back floor once or twice, but the chests don't respawn so gotta move up and hope to get more items.
I remember this was advertised as being a Zelda-similar game. No idea what those marketing dudes were smoking because the only similarity is the main character's green cap.
It still caused my dumb 10 year old self to buy it. I almost enjoyed the town-building more than the dungeons.
I got it because it came in a ps2 bundle. The other option was some shadow king game. My young self wanted dark cloud and I made the right choice
I emulated shadow king recently, completed it. The story is funny and the aesthetics have some soul but it plays like a janky newgrounds flashplayer game.
You talking about Okage? I loved the hell out of it, but never got around to finishing it.
Yeah. The final dungeon is a puzzle maze. I had to look up a map to complete it.
Fishing on the dock in queens was hard as shit too
Picked it up for 10 bucks at my local game xchange. Havent played it yet. What should i know going into it, mechanics wise?
Read the thread, dork.
I just arrived fag
Do you think everyone reads every comment?
No, but they should, which is why I'm suggesting you do so. We've shared a lot of what you're asking for already.
Fishing in DC2 was really comfy
I like Dark Cloud, I really do, but holy shit if it can be annoying to play, the sequel is probably one of my favorite ps2 games but goddamn, the first one is rough.
Incredible atmosphere tho, fucking amazing
>boot up DC
>get to title menu
>do nothing for a minute
>montage with the theme music plays
Soul
The first game for all the flaws it has still did A LOT of absolutely fantastic things for the year it was released in, I really miss Old Level-5, I really hope they can return to their glory days
I would absolutely love a third game or a remake of the first game with a lot of changes in the gameplay.
god i love the start screen/intro https://youtu.be/EFgk3XH_tjc
soul
I bought it used at blockbuster so my copy has a scratch on the disc that fucked me over halfway through the game and I just gave up trying to play it.
I played the shit out of dark cloud 2 though.
Buy a new copy, it's worth it. I had the exact same problem with turok:evolutions
Every time I replay the sequel I lose pretty much a whole IRL day trying to win the stupid fucking race sidequest that the Sheriff wants you to do or he won't follow you to the fucking train
I always used the cat girl because of Steve (and later Super Steve). I don't know what it is about talking weapons but I think they are the coolest shit in the world.
I'm still kind of annoyed there wasn't a Dark Cloud 3 for the Wii U or something, the tablet would have been great for it.
It would've been pretty strange, it's pretty much a PlayStation Exclusive
Yeah I realized that as I posted. When I think level-5 I think about that long stretch of 3/DS games they had before anything, my bad. A new Fantasy Life confirmed though!
Well they pretty much started as an unofficial Sony studio but after some years they pretty much became a Nintendo studio so I understand your confusion
I'm happy fantasy life is back, but I am still hoping that them re-releasing dark cloud 2 is a sign they are testing the waters. Frankly, I thought level 5 was hitting the dumpster in the last few years, then unwound future gets a sequel, new fantasy life, and decapolice looks great. I have hope again.
>Super Steve
It took this many years and I just got the reference in a song by some band I heard years ago that named a song that.
Please spoonfeed me the reference because I always thought it was a DBZ thing (Super Steve turns blonde).
Final boss is Toan's father. Steve hints at it. Also the bonus tower changes its music if you let it loop long enough.
>sequel has the Dark Genie (Rat) from the first game as a secret final boss
Soul
God these games were so fucking good.
>Favorite party member
Wabbit (Even though you get him so late)
>Favorite Dungeon
Ironically first one
>Favorite town to build up
Queens
>Unironically first one
What why! It's literally the worst one in the game, worst music of all dungeons, and nothing but boring brown caves. Getting to the Wise Owl Forest is such ludicrous jump in quality it's not even funny, never mind the Shipwreck.
I hate wise owl. Having to get the berry, stone, and 3rd thing every floor fucking sucked. It also introduced those godawful mole enemies
I actually wish more dungeons tried to make the keys more interesting, only wise owl forest did it which kind of felt like a wasted effort. Only thing that came close was the back door key for the shipwreck which was honestly immplemented way better. And yeah moles suck eggs but that's what Xiao is for.
The Shipwreck map was so cool.
Awesome, didn't know it existed
Getting eaten by the tard fish to go to the back floor was fun. Only rivaled by being shot out of a Canon on the moon
Surprised no one brought up the expansion mod that adds tons of stuff to the game.
Also recommend the randomizer mod too, since it just gives some better loot early game.
Uhhhhh what the fuck. OP here I've never seen this before holy shit. Well now I know what I'm doing after I beat Dark Cloud 2 holy shit.
Always been wary of exes I download from the internet. Anyone have experience with this? Virustotal gives me some small red flags with the exe included.
I played it to completion and didn't notice anything strange. It could be false positive but I also don't allow exes to connect to internet if they don't need too
>susgen
amogus
Here's the actual fucking link instead of some gay on Youtube.
> Hey Guys, Pole Smoker Gaming here, today I'd lik-
Yeah nah, fuck off. Cunt doesn't even have a link in his description. I hate people like this. 'Content creators".
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NHW2EJ1-d60NSlYBDBiiXFwMyFokGU1p
I like Dark Cloud
But it honestly has too many characters and it doesn't integrate them well, like, at all.
>too many
>6
Are you retarded?
6 Characters in a game that at most calls for two isn't pleasant, yes.
Especially when it includes RPG mechanics and requires you to maintain effective weapons for each character less you get completely stomped when you run into a limited floor for a particular character.
I played DC2 first when I was younger and I loved it from beginning to end. Finally got around to playing and completing the first one last year.
Can't see how anyone could consider DC1 superior to 2.
It all just feels really underdeveloped by comparison. Similar to how some people prefer Spryo 1 over 2
>Dark Cloud Enhanced
Holy crap, I cannot believe there is enough of a community to make such a thing. I always thought this series was super niche. My catgirl waifu finally gets more love.
That surprised me too. Never met anyone irl who played it and it never gets talked about online. The fact there's a DC thread at 200 replies on a Friday is nuts
i am gen zigger, strangely enough i met a couple others my age who played it. i really liked the first one but couldn't get into the second for some reason.
DC2 is a lot more polished but it also kind of ruins some of the cool stuff from the first one. I've never really liked the way weapon upgrading worked in 2 in particular. It's a good game and I think worth checking out for anyone who likes DC1 but I've always preferred 1.
Also for you and anyone else ITT who may have missed it, make sure to check out Rogue Galaxy. It's not quite DC3 but it does feel like a bit of a spiritual successor.
2 is worse in a lots of ways, t b h
1 just had too many characters , nothing as bad as the fucking monster transformations though
1 town building was better, npcs would leave their house, nothing looked the same, each town was far more unique, it had ROADS
1 story was better
2 mini games were better
1 had a better weapon upgrade system, 2 punishing you for upgrading them too much always pissed me off, n-no you have to reach chapter 5 and kill those things first, FUCK YOU DIE moron
Me, personally, I always preferred Rogue Galaxy. There's many ways to fail in that game even if you beat it, so it tends to piss people off.
I've tried Rogue Galaxy before but something about the game couldn't keep me playing like DC1 and 2 did, and I'm not sure what it was. I think I found it monotonous.
They fucked up part two with that stupid Mech.
Got the platinum for the ps4 version recently. The game has not aged well.
I think any type of reboot would wind up going the Minecraft route for the town building. The survival mechanics in the game can get more annoying than fun especially if you get a bad layout or rng.
Whats the cheapest way to play dark cloud 1 and 2? Can you emulate them?
They emulate super well an have a couple fan enhancement things, but if you wanna buy them, theyre on ps4 for 8 dollars each or free to play with ps+
Can you give a link? I'm just not that familiar with emulators or what site to use,
Just google PCSX2 to go to the official website and download the latest nightly build of the emulator. Then download the PS2 Bios from the internet archive (Under download options, click ZIP). Extract it all and put all the files in the bios folder in the other bios folder in the emulators. The games ISO can be found on a lot of sites if you dont want to torrent like CoolRom but thats the gist. Messing with settings n stuff in the emulator is a little harder to explain without testing.
sexy sassy charge your fireball lady
The cat is tight, i demolished the demon tower with the cat; felt like cheesing. Osmond is also good
I've beaten it twice as an adult and played the shit out of it as a kid despite not beating it then. Never did the optional dungeon at the end, maybe I'll replay it again soon.
I've dropped this 3 or 4 times around the underwater ship. One day my tolerance for repetitiveness will be high enough
The ship can be difficult just because of the spear Fishmen, the skeletons, and the cannons. I had an undead buster holy element Gladius that carried me through it
>although we all know it's gonna either be Ruby or Osmond
I actually kind of hate Ruby for being so OP. Of course I use her a lot and she is cute but her being so over represented in every playthrough because of her sheer utility makes me really resent her.
I like them all pretty equally in terms of design and concept but Goro and Ungaga are easily the least fun to play. Xiao is probably my favorite overall but she takes a lot more effort to get going early on than Toan or Ruby.
My early teen phase wanted Max and Monica to fuck at the end.
What was up with the whole "extra dungeon boss was Toan's father" shit that flew around?
Is there also a AR or something code to restore the item for the Dark Corridor's backroom?
1. Steve the slingshot mentions that the Black Knight Pendragon might be connected to Toan's father.
2. There is a bugfox on romhacking.net that fixes the gallery of time's busted backroom (which is what I assume you were referring to)
Huh? That's cool. I didn't think Steve had any special dialogue for the bonus dungeon.
Thanks
He's got an insane amount of dialogue for pretty much every enemy.
I tried the second first and the original later. How are they tonally so different?
I liked the first one so much better. Have to finish it at some point
You didn't truly beat the game unless you 100%'d it
You guys ever fuck with the broken dagger glitch? Or find that one spot in Queens where you can get out of the map?
>thread recommends Dark Cloud Enhanced
>go to download it for PCSX2
>immediately given the option for graphical improvements, game looks less blurry
>loading times even feel faster
>all the other stuff in the readme file, including new abilities for new weapons, and new sidequests
I am so glad I stumbled upon this thread.
>TFW we will never get Dark Cloud 3
It fucking hurts so much bros
Maybe that's for the best because modern Level-5 is a giant turd.
I've played Dark Chronicle and it's quickly become one of my favourite games, did I ruin myself for the original one?
Not necessarily, but you may find some of the old gameplay mechanic somewhat archaic compared to Chronicles
I'LL TAKE MY CHANCES
RACING TIME
REWRITING THE BOOK
FOR ALLLLL TO SEE
ON MY OWN
I CAN RIDE THE WINDS OF CHANGE
TO HEAL A BROKEN TIME
A BROKEN WORLD
IN THE DARK
A CANDLE IS THE SUUUUUN
TO LIGHT OUR WAY BACK HOOOOME
IT'S A DREAM
IT'S A HOPE
THAT ONE DAY WE'LL BE FREE
GIVE ME STRENGTH TO OPEN UP THE DOOOOOOOR
ONLY THE STROOOONG ONES
CAN STAND THE TEEEST OF TIME
CAUGHT IN BETWEEN THESE TWO WOORLDS
FINDING OUR WAYYYY
THE SUN WILL RIIIIISE
TO PIERCE THE SKIIIIIES
WHEN THIS WONDERFUL WORLD STARTS TO SHIIIINE
when this wonderful world starts to shiiine
I played the demo for this over and over as a kid on my PS2, I regret not asking my parents to buy me the full game. A few years ago I considered trying to get into PS2 emulation just to replay it, but I'd probably dislike the weapon maintenance shit.
The weapon maintenance isn't as bad as you'd think. Unlike in BOTW or some other game, you can easily repair your weapons before they break.
it's also easy to accidentally break your weapon from going one swing too far because you're trying to minmax repair powder use, so you end up reloading your save
I've had a Sun Sword break on me because of that, after a few hours in the dungeon
Auto repair powders are just for you, then.
I’d rather play 2.
I really enjoy the music of this game and I find the villages very comfy. I have a lot of nostalgia for it because I first played it on a demo disc that came with my PS2 and loved it so much that it was like magic when my mum actually bought the real game for me. I can still enjoy it from beginning to end purely for the nostalgia and the lovely music, but I couldn't recommend the game to anyone now because of how dull it is. The combat is a little bit engaging on melee characters because of spacing, but there is no combat on ranged characters. There is satisfaction in upgrading and combining your weapons and then seeing the damage go up. It's very tedious switching between characters just to use their special ability to open a door or jump over a gap that only they can do, just to then switch back to Toan, because only Toan can collect the orbs, and you will have to do this a lot. Configuring the town exactly how the villagers request it is a fun challenge on paper and it is fun until the town is 99% complete but someone somewhere isn't happy, and you realize you cannot fix this with a small edit but must shift everything eveywhere. Another big annoyance is that you have three quick item slots but really you only have two because you will have dans feather equipped constantly unless you want the game to take about twice as long to complete, the kind of thing the devs should have realized everyone and their mother would do and made it into a consumable buff that lasts X minutes instead of taking a slot.