The Quarterly JRPG Club - Q4 2017! - Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle)!

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This quarter, we're doing Dark Cloud 2, or Dark Chronicle depending on what region you're in! We are going to be switching up the voting system in the next quarter, but this game had a strong wave of dedication from people leading up to here, so we're gonna finally get to it!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/RmyJA5j.jpg)

Here's what we're looking like for played time:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ahU3uvs.png)

I loved this game when I played it YEARS ago - geez, probably 12-14 years ago now? I'm hoping it holds up just as well, but it should be fun to get a bunch of people finally involved here.

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to add in here, or any questions you might have!

I think Im in on this one, been looking for an excuse to play it finally.

I'm all-in for this one! This should be good.

Is the timeframe for knocking this out through to the end of the year? I may hop onboard once I clear through P5.

It will be, yeah! and for that matter, those who are ready can start. I don't think anyone is still playing Final Fantasy XV.

I'm in, I'm pretty sure its already downloaded on ps4

I'm in. I have this on ps4. Just need to figure out how to juggle my time with this and my wife's time with Destiny 2.

I've finally gotten myself invested in Final Fantasy IX, but hopefully I'll be able to join sometime in October.

Damn, one of my favorite games ever. I'd love to play it again to see how it holds up, hmmm...

At the least. I will be lurking in this thread to see what you all think.

I'm starting back up tonight. Going with a fresh new game/save file. Had been holding out in hope of it getting picked at some point. I'm excited!

Yeah I'm thinking I might hang DOOM up on the coat rack for a day or two while I dive back into this.

Just remembered about all the picture taking and inventing, not to mention the golf type mini game. I'm pretty sure I have a note book around with everything I have to take pictures of per chapter. This is a completionists nightmare lol.

Rave wrote:

This is a completionists nightmare lol.

Sounds like typical a Level-5 game.

Dark Cloud 2 is such a great game, just watching videos brings back memories. I never did finish it though. I've got the Prima guide for it in nearly perfect condition, still has the $14.99 price tag on it. Wow, those were the good old days. I may jump in this quarter if I don't end up getting Divinity 2.

Glycerine wrote:

Dark Cloud 2 is such a great game, just watching videos brings back memories. I never did finish it though. I've got the Prima guide for it in nearly perfect condition, still has the $14.99 price tag on it. Wow, those were the good old days. I may jump in this quarter if I don't end up getting Divinity 2.

You still have the guide?! That baby's considered a bit of a rarity. Lucky find, that.

I just purchased the game from the Playstation store. I'm looking forward to this.

I played this game back when it came out and really loved it. I also bought the guide due to all the collectibles and hidden treasures in the game. However I did find a good completionist overview guide back in the day that I copied into a word document and printed for personal use. I luckily still have that overview and have posted it into a Google Doc if anyone else wants to use it. It is mostly for making sure you get all the ideas, scoops, power up items, and inventions in the game, but it does have some minor spoilers (such as place names and the ideas themselves could be considered spoilery). The formatting didn't copy over perfectly to google docs, so if people are interested I can take a few minutes and correct it all.

Here's a great web-based resource I found for ideas and inventions.

http://quest.guide/#/chapter/1

I started playing this two days ago. I was planning on not going in too much yet and finish Adventures of Mana first, but I think I might have to restart Adventures of Mana because I'm stuck and there's no way for me to backtrack, so we'll see.

Thanks for the link, Damnable Bear! I'm not exactly a completionist, but this will certainly be useful!

From what I can tell, it compartmentalizes everything so well that it takes a lot of the guesswork out of what you need. And if you have everything from the camera, then making inventions will be super easy.

Got to the second to last boss of the first chapter's dungeon. Trying to get all scoops and pictures taken with a list (but trying not to spoil how to get all of them, though the ones from certain enemies can be quite tricky and very specific in how one is supposed to acquire them).

Already enjoying it very much. In fact, I can't wait to get back home to play hahaha.

I have never really played this before except once when I got sidetracked after a couple hours and never went back. Should I be worrying about guides at all, or should I just play? I don't really want to spoil the story or try to be completionist, but are there things I just have to do or my life will be ruined?

Wembley wrote:

I have never really played this before except once when I got sidetracked after a couple hours and never went back. Should I be worrying about guides at all, or should I just play? I don't really want to spoil the story or try to be completionist, but are there things I just have to do or my life will be ruined?

Curious about this as well, feeling more intimidated the more I read about all the collection systems and other elements that seem like they might easily make this a 100+ hour endeavor.

I would say just play the game. You will need to talk to NPCs around the world to figure out some of the georama stuff most likely. A lot of the collection stuff will make the game easier but is definitely not necessary. You should get enough ideas and power ups by just playing and taking some time to explore the areas. Only thing I could see you getting stuck on is the exact requirements to complete some buildings and if you reach that point just look that individual thing up (or ask here and we can give some vague or not so vague hints).

Yeah, it is my understanding that the game can be played through without having to worry too much about getting everything. From what reviews and material is out there, if you take your time and use the systems (photographs, fishing, etc) because you enjoy them - they are much of the meat of the game, after all - then you should get plenty of the resources and items necessary to get through the game without undue difficulty.

Yeah, you can finish the game by only doing a pretty minimal collection effort - if you take the time and explore some of the stuff they give you, you'll mostly be fine. The additional stuff isn't really necessary but it's quick and completing the dungeon floors more than once usually isn't necessary.

That's good to know. That is for the feedback, all.

Can you always go back and get stuff you miss?

If you're talking about ideas and photos and such, I believe so, yeah. I think you also always have the capability to go back to older dungeons.

Damnable Bear wrote:

If you're talking about ideas and photos and such, I believe so, yeah. I think you also always have the capability to go back to older dungeons.

Great, thanks!

I downloaded the game and got off to a rough start. It took me 15 minutes to find the "Start" button. I'm new to PS4 and all.

Nah it's weird, I think on the PS2 classics they insisted on having them on the touchpad which is not something I would've expected. But I guess you'd still want to use the Share button so it would make sense that Options and Share might not be Start/Select.

Has anyone else noticed any weird technical issues when playing Dark Cloud? Stuttering / weird screen tears?

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