Dark Cloud

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2013-08-16 09:57:39 am

2013-08-16 09:52:19 am

sda loyalist

I'm actually practising Dark Cloud right now for a single segment run, it's nice to see the game getting a little attention.

So you can recruit Xiao, then immediately skip to Matataki? Seems kinda useful. I'd tried doing that glitch before but I didn't know it specifically required a Gladius+2. Also some of the other glitches pokemonfan has uploaded don't seem to work on my copy, this may be because it's EU.

Sonickrazy

2013-08-16 11:31:13 pm

Quote from Lag.Com:

I'm actually practising Dark Cloud right now for a single segment run, it's nice to see the game getting a little attention.

So you can recruit Xiao, then immediately skip to Matataki? Seems kinda useful. I'd tried doing that glitch before but I didn't know it specifically required a Gladius+2. Also some of the other glitches pokemonfan has uploaded don't seem to work on my copy, this may be because it's EU.

Ah, nice! You should let me know if you stream, I'll come and watch when you're ready to run it. We could even do a race or something? XP

And yeah, turns out you just need a sword and two broken daggers to do it, Gladius isn't required. The steps are pretty complicated, so you might've just gotten caught up somewhere when you tried it... But idk.

Here's the next segment, where I do the glitch a bit ahead of time to get the Broken Daggers it spawns, and to make my inventory much larger.

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2013-08-17 08:53:03 am

Lag.Com: 2013-08-17 08:52:39 am

Lag.Com: 2013-08-17 08:45:03 am

2013-08-17 08:44:09 am

sda loyalist

Why do you buy so many Revive Powders? I could understand needing a few in a single segment run... is it for another glitch?

I'll have to stream it at some point, but I don't know when I'll be ready. It's a large time investment to play from the beginning, not to mention if it crashes...

Can't seem to get the Matataki thing to work at all. I follow the same movement, but when I do R+X on the Gold Bullion, I just end up with another Broken Dagger. If you don't mind, could you write down the exact steps?

Sonickrazy

2013-08-17 01:16:17 pm

Quote from Lag.Com:

Why do you buy so many Revive Powders? I could understand needing a few in a single segment run... is it for another glitch?

I'll have to stream it at some point, but I don't know when I'll be ready. It's a large time investment to play from the beginning, not to mention if it crashes...

Can't seem to get the Matataki thing to work at all. I follow the same movement, but when I do R+X on the Gold Bullion, I just end up with another Broken Dagger. If you don't mind, could you write down the exact steps?

The revival powders are just an investment, I'll need a lot of them later as the enemies' attack starts to outclass my defense and I get OHKO'd. It also helps now, since I don't want to go to the item screen and heal when I'm low on health, I'd prefer to find a spring or have a revival powder save me. But it's primarily for much later in the run.

And to do the glitch, you have to make a beeline for your attachments screen straight away, you can't go down any rows in Gaffer's inventory, as the invisible item is only there when you first enter. You need to have the broken daggers on your sword beforehand, as well. Move to the very bottom of the attachments screen, hit left, then X+Right at the same time, and grab the invisible item.

After that, hit L1 (if you don't the game will freeze) and then put it down. It's actually in row 0 now, above the attachments menu. After that, press left until you're over the bread at some crazy high price. Hit up to go into the screen above Gaffer's inventory, then press right until you're over the top left of your attachments menu, then right again until you're once again over it. Then, move to the weapons menu with L1, hit up twice, and press left. Hit down three times to hover above the checkout button, then left to make the menu wig out. Press right to enter the weapons menu again, and grab the sword with the broken daggers. Move left on the row just below the empty space you created earlier, and once in Gaffer's inventory again, press up then right to enter the empty space. Press right again to be moved above gaffer's, then right a few more times, and place the sword above the scroll bar. Exit out, and you'll have the world map with Matataki Village on it. Make sure to empty out all the broken daggers from your inventory into your attachments, or you'll run into trouble when you get the Pendant from Goro.

But anyway, I'm not sure if it's feasible to try it in a single-segment unless you've got it down 100%. There's loads of places that can just end your run by freezing your game or making it impossible to recover. It only really saves about 20-30 minutes, and you might benefit from more time to find a good slingshot for Xiao in the DBC. But if you can make it work, I'm sure it'd make your run very impressive.

[quote="Lag.Com"]Why do you buy so many Revive Powders? I could understand needing a few in a single segment run... is it for another glitch?

I'll have to stream it at some point, but I don't know when I'll be ready. It's a large time investment to play from the beginning, not to mention if it crashes...

Can't seem to get the Matataki thing to work at all. I follow the same movement, but when I do R+X on the Gold Bullion, I just end up with another Broken Dagger. If you don't mind, could you write down the exact steps?[/quote]

The revival powders are just an investment, I'll need a lot of them later as the enemies' attack starts to outclass my defense and I get OHKO'd. It also helps now, since I don't want to go to the item screen and heal when I'm low on health, I'd prefer to find a spring or have a revival powder save me. But it's primarily for much later in the run.

And to do the glitch, you have to make a beeline for your attachments screen straight away, you can't go down any rows in Gaffer's inventory, as the invisible item is only there when you first enter. You need to have the broken daggers on your sword beforehand, as well. Move to the very bottom of the attachments screen, hit left, then X+Right at the same time, and grab the invisible item.

After that, hit L1 (if you don't the game will freeze) and then put it down. It's actually in row 0 now, above the attachments menu. After that, press left until you're over the bread at some crazy high price. Hit up to go into the screen above Gaffer's inventory, then press right until you're over the top left of your attachments menu, then right again until you're once again over it. Then, move to the weapons menu with L1, hit up twice, and press left. Hit down three times to hover above the checkout button, then left to make the menu wig out. Press right to enter the weapons menu again, and grab the sword with the broken daggers. Move left on the row just below the empty space you created earlier, and once in Gaffer's inventory again, press up then right to enter the empty space. Press right again to be moved above gaffer's, then right a few more times, and place the sword above the scroll bar. Exit out, and you'll have the world map with Matataki Village on it. Make sure to empty out all the broken daggers from your inventory into your attachments, or you'll run into trouble when you get the Pendant from Goro.

But anyway, I'm not sure if it's feasible to try it in a single-segment unless you've got it down 100%. There's loads of places that can just end your run by freezing your game or making it impossible to recover. It only really saves about 20-30 minutes, and you might benefit from more time to find a good slingshot for Xiao in the DBC. But if you can make it work, I'm sure it'd make your run very impressive.

Sonickrazy

Edit history:

Sonickrazy: 2013-08-17 04:02:15 pm

Sonickrazy: 2013-08-17 01:41:04 pm

Sonickrazy: 2013-08-17 01:40:38 pm

2013-08-17 01:18:17 pm

Oh, actually, yeah, if you've tried some of Pokemonfan's other glitches and they didn't work, it's likely that the PAL version fixed the Delete Item Inventory glitch, something you need to be able to do to skip to Matataki. If that's right, then a speedrun on the PAL version is going to be 20-30 minutes slower than the US version by nature. Sad

Still, as I said, you get more opportunities to pick up a good slingshot for Xiao. So it's not all bad.

Lag.Com

2013-08-18 01:51:47 pm

sda loyalist

Single-segment run of Dark Cloud I did today. Clear game save time: 07:33:35. Real time at last hit on Dark Genie: 09:23:30
http://www.twitch.tv/lagdotcom/c/2773589

Sonickrazy

2013-08-18 03:43:47 pm

A few things you can do to improve future runs:

-Flying enemies never carry the gate key, so you can avoid them without any risk. This includes Ghosts, even though they're classified as undead. Anything that levitates.

-On B1 and B2 of DBC, there's atla that are always there, and you only need the Lamp from B1 from among them. There's only 1 atla on B1 and 5 on B2 that are actually random, so once you find the Lamp and the 1 atla that isn't constant on B1, you can skip all the rest. There might be other constant atla in other dungeons, I'm working on finding them here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ajo6hs_ruIOEdFlqMjJwWU90RE9YdE1nLWdhaTRRSHc&usp=sharing&authkey=CJmv5ssL

-You should equip the first "real" weapon you get, it does way more damage than the dagger.

Might have some more when I watch more of the run, but I'm sure you'll get faster on your own. ^^ good luck

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2013-08-19 03:49:22 am

2013-08-19 03:19:56 am

sda loyalist

About the flying enemies, does that include the blocking fliers like Alexander? I could have sworn I saw one of those drop it. Worth knowing though. Oh, and those spiky things that drop from the ceiling in Wise Owl Forest?

I'm working on extracting the exact possible locations of georama from the game files. I'll let you know how that goes.

Yeah, the Dagger sucks balls, I should have swapped earlier.

Sonickrazy

2013-08-19 12:30:06 pm

Quote from Lag.Com:

About the flying enemies, does that include the blocking fliers like Alexander? I could have sworn I saw one of those drop it. Worth knowing though. Oh, and those spiky things that drop from the ceiling in Wise Owl Forest?

I'm working on extracting the exact possible locations of georama from the game files. I'll let you know how that goes.

Yeah, the Dagger sucks balls, I should have swapped earlier.

Oh, yeah, I guess there's some exceptions to the levitating rule. Those examples both drop gate keys. But the Bats and Ghosts, and even the Mages never do.

And awesome! That'll really help out with my run.

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2013-08-19 02:40:07 pm

Lag.Com: 2013-08-19 02:38:29 pm

Lag.Com: 2013-08-19 02:35:38 pm

Lag.Com: 2013-08-19 02:34:32 pm

2013-08-19 01:28:33 pm

sda loyalist

I've found the data. Looks like Atla are in three categories: they either always appear on a specific floor, a random floor before the midpoint, or a random floor after the midpoint. The midpoint is different for each dungeon, but it's either Floor 8 or 9 depending on the length. Gallery of Time technically has a midpoint at Floor 13 but it doesn't have any random Atla.

Trying to get it into a nice tabular format now.

Only Divine Beast Cave so far, but here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsTvTvAWG7lpdFhNYUYzeGx1dGdlcGp2NWJVRnlkU3c&usp=sharing

Sonickrazy

2013-08-20 01:27:05 am

Quote from Lag.Com:

I've found the data. Looks like Atla are in three categories: they either always appear on a specific floor, a random floor before the midpoint, or a random floor after the midpoint. The midpoint is different for each dungeon, but it's either Floor 8 or 9 depending on the length. Gallery of Time technically has a midpoint at Floor 13 but it doesn't have any random Atla.

Trying to get it into a nice tabular format now.

Only Divine Beast Cave so far, but here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsTvTvAWG7lpdFhNYUYzeGx1dGdlcGp2NWJVRnlkU3c&usp=sharing

Great, lines up with what I've discovered so far in the DBC. This'll save me some trouble when routing Shipwreck and Sun&Moon, I haven't done any tests on those so far beyond a single runthrough.

Also, in regards to the Matataki Glitch, I discovered two things today: The broken daggers from the glitch aren't "real" in that they don't give any boosts to your stats, and the glitch also gives you 99 defense, or possibly even makes you invincible. I did a new segment 7 with these factors in mind, replacing all the recovery items I bought with other items:

Honestly, I think the Matataki Glitch should just be banned from single-segment runs... with segmented, at least it's still interesting to see all the luck manipulation, but with single-segment the enhanced defense makes the game stupidly easy. I dunno, I just don't think it'd be interesting to watch someone run through the game completely unable to be damaged.

[quote="Lag.Com"]I've found the data. Looks like Atla are in three categories: they either always appear on a specific floor, a random floor before the midpoint, or a random floor after the midpoint. The midpoint is different for each dungeon, but it's either Floor 8 or 9 depending on the length. Gallery of Time technically has a midpoint at Floor 13 but it doesn't have any random Atla.

Trying to get it into a nice tabular format now.

Only Divine Beast Cave so far, but here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsTvTvAWG7lpdFhNYUYzeGx1dGdlcGp2NWJVRnlkU3c&usp=sharing[/quote]

Great, lines up with what I've discovered so far in the DBC. This'll save me some trouble when routing Shipwreck and Sun&Moon, I haven't done any tests on those so far beyond a single runthrough.

Also, in regards to the Matataki Glitch, I discovered two things today: The broken daggers from the glitch aren't "real" in that they don't give any boosts to your stats, and the glitch also gives you 99 defense, or possibly even makes you invincible. I did a new segment 7 with these factors in mind, replacing all the recovery items I bought with other items:

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8JcoKgTRKw[/url]

Honestly, I think the Matataki Glitch should just be banned from single-segment runs... with segmented, at least it's still interesting to see all the luck manipulation, but with single-segment the enhanced defense makes the game stupidly easy. I dunno, I just don't think it'd be interesting to watch someone run through the game completely unable to be damaged.

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2013-08-23 11:19:39 am

Lag.Com: 2013-08-20 11:23:25 am

2013-08-20 11:22:11 am

sda loyalist

Unfortunately, interesting isn't the primary motivator for speedruns, only finishing time. There's still room for a glitchless category, but that would also ban Broken Dagger, which might make the run very long.

I've finished the Atla layouts for the dungeons that matter.

Sonickrazy

2013-08-24 01:54:28 am

Hey, nice job on the chart! I figured it'd be something like this, without too many things in constant spots... there were a few surprises though. I do have a few things I'd like to ask you, some of which might just be differences between the PAL and NTSC-U versions:

1. Why do you have the Wise Owl Shop listed as required? I can't recall anything you absolutely need from there, and you can just go back to Gaffer's if you need to restock. Plus, Rando's shop will be open the very next chapter with upgraded supplies... Is it for the Wise Owl Sword or something?

2. I could've sworn that Territory 8 of the Wise Owl Forest always had 6 River atla in it... I noticed that the very first time I played the game, back when I was 10 or something. It makes sense, since the game doesn't want you connecting the rivers and getting the Serpent Sword while it's still unbreakable.

3. You gonna be streaming another run this weekend? XP I'll come watch more than just the end.

I also finished Segment 8 of my run yesterday, and I got really really lucky with the floor setup... after 6 hours of trying. >_<

Hey, nice job on the chart! I figured it'd be something like this, without too many things in constant spots... there were a few surprises though. I do have a few things I'd like to ask you, some of which might just be differences between the PAL and NTSC-U versions:

1. Why do you have the Wise Owl Shop listed as required? I can't recall anything you absolutely need from there, and you can just go back to Gaffer's if you need to restock. Plus, Rando's shop will be open the very next chapter with upgraded supplies... Is it for the Wise Owl Sword or something?

2. I could've sworn that Territory 8 of the Wise Owl Forest always had 6 River atla in it... I noticed that the very first time I played the game, back when I was 10 or something. It makes sense, since the game doesn't want you connecting the rivers and getting the Serpent Sword while it's still unbreakable.

3. You gonna be streaming another run this weekend? XP I'll come watch more than just the end.

I also finished Segment 8 of my run yesterday, and I got really really lucky with the floor setup... after 6 hours of trying. >_<

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqN9GvgS35A[/url]

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2013-08-24 02:31:18 am

Lag.Com: 2013-08-24 02:25:00 am

Lag.Com: 2013-08-24 02:21:36 am

2013-08-24 02:12:40 am

sda loyalist

It's just because travelling back and forth between different villages for shops is kind of wasteful. None of the shops except Gaffer are really required, no. Getting the atla and constructing it takes time, but in an SS run I might just get bad luck and need to resupply more than I want to. I'll mark the optional shops in a different colour.

The rivers just seem to collect in the last possible spot because of how the game randomly assigns them, I think. I guess it's possible for them to be more evenly spread, but realistically there are always going to be a bunch in T8. The allocations are stored in a big list roughly in the order of your georama menu and it goes down them one by one, and the River x8 assignment is very low on the list, so it probably barely ever fires until all the other stuff is out of the way.

I might stream again, haha. Probably not today, maybe tomorrow.

There is something that doesn't make sense to me, though... I swear I have never picked up the 'Car' Atla in Shipwreck before. It just seems to appear in my inventory at some point. I was making a chart of pickup spots too, and it doesn't even have Car on it. Is it just called something else when you pick it up?

Edit: Hmm, seems like it's called "Watermill" when you pick it up???

It's just because travelling back and forth between different villages for shops is kind of wasteful. None of the shops except Gaffer are really required, no. Getting the atla and constructing it takes time, but in an SS run I might just get bad luck and need to resupply more than I want to. I'll mark the optional shops in a different colour.

The rivers just seem to collect in the last possible spot because of how the game randomly assigns them, I think. I guess it's possible for them to be more evenly spread, but realistically there are always going to be a bunch in T8. The allocations are stored in a big list roughly in the order of your georama menu and it goes down them one by one, and the River x8 assignment is very low on the list, so it probably barely ever fires until all the other stuff is out of the way.

I might stream again, haha. Probably not today, maybe tomorrow.

There is something that doesn't make sense to me, though... I swear I have never picked up the 'Car' Atla in Shipwreck before. It just seems to appear in my inventory at some point. I was making a chart of pickup spots too, and it doesn't even have Car on it. Is it just called something else when you pick it up?

Edit: Hmm, seems like it's called "Watermill" when you pick it up???

Zelkys

2013-11-16 06:40:52 pm

Hello, today with the SEGG (Skip Entire Game Glitch), i had do an 1:41:19mins RTA and 1:34:53 IG, it count like a WR? Shocked

http://www.twitch.tv/zelkystv/c/3253397
http://www.twitch.tv/zelkystv/c/3253420

Thanks for your answer^^

Lag.Com

2013-11-20 02:02:28 am

sda loyalist

What just happened? Hahaha.

I know it's possible to do a lot of crazy stuff with the Broken Inventory glitch. Do you have a list of the steps needed to carry this off? It's very involved, and the videos probably don't show off all the intricacies. Whenever I've tried to activate BI on my copy it just freezes the game.

Prevai1

2014-02-08 02:34:32 pm

Hey guys

Found this video of Pokemonfan4000 beating the game in 54:32 (49:20 Game Time)

And this video explains how he does the major skip glitch at the end of his run Smiley

Posting here as I was redirected here by Lag after resurrecting an older Dark Cloud thread (Thank you Lag for pointing me here)

Looks like the game could be beaten faster than 54:32 with either better RNG or pathing Smiley

I'd love to see more people trying to speedrun Dark Cloud after these were discovered by PokemonFan4000 Smiley

I've played this game off and on for years now and will be attempting to speedrun it soon!

Lag.Com

2014-02-10 02:33:28 am

sda loyalist

I'm in PAL-land, so I'll never be able to do this bug unless I get an NTSC copy, so I'm probably going to be doing full-game runs once I get back to it.

Prevai1

2014-02-10 03:20:26 pm

Yeah unfortunately the glitch won't work for PAL copies Sad

I wonder if a similar glitch may be able to be used for PAL copies? Something to look into at least Smiley

Love the Atla location chart for DBC Smiley

Very useful!

Lag.Com

Edit history:

Lag.Com: 2014-02-11 02:55:31 am

2014-02-11 02:54:55 am

sda loyalist

I have a feeling it's possible, as for example the Broken Dagger glitch works on PAL. The problem is that I've never managed to break the inventory, it always freezes the game instead. I know pokemonfan4000 has some videos of how to get round that, but they doesn't work for me either. The PAL version might be a later revision of the game, with more error checking.

Glad you like the chart :p I enjoy hacking into games and exploring their internals, so if there's anything else that is still a mystery, I'll have a look.

Prevai1

Edit history:

Prevai1: 2014-03-01 02:52:37 pm

Prevai1: 2014-02-17 12:47:48 pm

2014-02-17 12:11:35 pm

Well, I've been working on getting the glitch menu to work for me, and so far it keeps freezing!
Kind of frustrating...

I'm working on trying to find an alternate way of getting into the Glitch menu on my copy of the game, but I may also be buying another copy of the game anyway since my copy is pretty scratched up (surprised it still works)
I wonder if the glitch menu is dependant on the copy of the game you get? I would be interested to find out if there is a way to identify what copies of the game that the glitch menu will work and which copies of the game the glitch menu will not work (for the NTSC versions of the game) Kind of like the versions of TLoZ: OoT version-specific glitches.

Maybe I have just been executing the glitch incorrectly each time, but I have done it as it is shown in the video every time with the same result.
I have seen a few video's on other ways to get into the glitch menu but they are either inconsistent or require a power-off for approx 45 mins, neither are desired for speedrunning >.>

I did find out that I could actually complete the Hag's house as early as level 10 of the DBC, which would cut out a lot of time from the video above ^ Smiley

Edit: Also, if someone is able to complete the glitch, note if you are using a "Greatest Hits" copy or an original copy (Greatest Hits are Red)

Well, I've been working on getting the glitch menu to work for me, and so far it keeps freezing!
Kind of frustrating...

I'm working on trying to find an alternate way of getting into the Glitch menu on my copy of the game, but I may also be buying another copy of the game anyway since my copy is pretty scratched up (surprised it still works)
I wonder if the glitch menu is dependant on the copy of the game you get? I would be interested to find out if there is a way to identify what copies of the game that the glitch menu will work and which copies of the game the glitch menu will not work (for the NTSC versions of the game) Kind of like the versions of TLoZ: OoT version-specific glitches.

Maybe I have just been executing the glitch incorrectly each time, but I have done it as it is shown in the video every time with the same result.
I have seen a few video's on other ways to get into the glitch menu but they are either inconsistent or require a power-off for approx 45 mins, neither are desired for speedrunning >.>

I did find out that I could actually complete the Hag's house as early as level 10 of the DBC, which would cut out a lot of time from the video above ^ :)

Edit: Also, if someone is able to complete the glitch, note if you are using a "Greatest Hits" copy or an original copy (Greatest Hits are Red)

LxxGoatxxL

2014-07-30 05:41:37 pm

So, guys, I have done plenty of research on running this game, and here's a bit of what I learned.

1. Dark Cloud's entire game is dependent on your system hardware, and not the actual game disc itself. By this I mean that your PS2 dictates whether certain glitches will work or not, and it also decides the random values that dictate what enemy will hold the gate key on each floor, and what kind of map you'll have for each floor. Sadly, this also dictates whether or not you can access the GIM (Glitch Item Menu). I tested it on my slim PS2, with zero success, where my fat PS2 was a success every time. It also effects the BDG (Broken Dagger Glitch).

2. The Divine Beast skip does quite a few interesting things to your game. An unfortunate side effect to the glitch is that it maxes out your defenses for every party character, even if you don't have them yet. Such a pity. Sarcasm. I'm assuming you all know about the DBS, so I'll explain some of the things that happen while the game progresses forward.
-It does indeed maximize your defenses for all characters, however there are still cases where the glitch will glitch and you'll die in a single hit from any random attack.
-Shortly afterward, around the time you acquire the Odd Tone Flute, the item menu will start to become corrupted, replacing many items with a useless Broken Dagger, completely wiping the data off the item it replaces. Using the GIM, it IS possible to reclaim the lost items, but that also has a chance of crashing the game. The other remedy to this is to NOT organize your items using the Square button, as it will duplicate more useless daggers and wipe more data.
-The game becomes far more prone to crashing due to all the data being rewritten or corrupted from the glitch. Sometimes using the wrong command at the wrong time will just make it crash. There's no indication and no warning that your game is going to crash, so be careful.

3. After perusing the GIM, I located the Hook, and the Moon Orb. Sadly, however, the Hook can only be used one time, and almost always crashes the game when you add it to your item menu. And the Moon Orb event doesn't activate until after you defeat Ice Queen La Saia, which pretty much makes it a pointless item to get. If you can locate the Music Box Key, however, then that will save some time too, since you won't have to backtrack and do all the events for Queens, which would save several minutes.

4. The BDG, like I said, is hardware specific, and not related to the copy of the game at all. This is the biggest glitch in the game, and what makes it even possible to speedrun. It seems a lot of people have been misinformed on how to activate the glitch, but as it's hardware specific some ways might not work for some people. For me, I always have Gaffer with his full inventory. However, you can collect multiple daggers in one view of the shop. Simple process, really.
-Open your item menu and exit, then enter the shop.
-Scroll down in your item menu until you reach the bottom.
-In Gaffer's menu, scroll down as far as you can and execute the Right+X command as usual. This should yield a Broken Dagger.
-Now, back in Gaffer's menu, move up one row from where you did the first BDG, and repeat. Another Broken Dagger.
-Keep doing this until you hit the Ice attachment, then repeat the process from the very beginning.

I tried to run this game in a SS, but the game continued to crash due to the DBS, so I gave up. I was thinking of picking it back up, but the random factors that go into it are just insane. If any of you can learn anything about the GIM, please post it here and let's work together to finally crack this game!

So, guys, I have done plenty of research on running this game, and here's a bit of what I learned.

1. Dark Cloud's entire game is dependent on your system hardware, and not the actual game disc itself. By this I mean that your PS2 dictates whether certain glitches will work or not, and it also decides the random values that dictate what enemy will hold the gate key on each floor, and what kind of map you'll have for each floor. Sadly, this also dictates whether or not you can access the GIM (Glitch Item Menu). I tested it on my slim PS2, with zero success, where my fat PS2 was a success every time. It also effects the BDG (Broken Dagger Glitch).

2. The Divine Beast skip does quite a few interesting things to your game. An unfortunate side effect to the glitch is that it maxes out your defenses for every party character, even if you don't have them yet. Such a pity. Sarcasm. I'm assuming you all know about the DBS, so I'll explain some of the things that happen while the game progresses forward. 
-It does indeed maximize your defenses for all characters, however there are still cases where the glitch will glitch and you'll die in a single hit from any random attack. 
-Shortly afterward, around the time you acquire the Odd Tone Flute, the item menu will start to become corrupted, replacing many items with a useless Broken Dagger, completely wiping the data off the item it replaces. Using the GIM, it IS possible to reclaim the lost items, but that also has a chance of crashing the game. The other remedy to this is to NOT organize your items using the Square button, as it will duplicate more useless daggers and wipe more data.
-The game becomes far more prone to crashing due to all the data being rewritten or corrupted from the glitch. Sometimes using the wrong command at the wrong time will just make it crash. There's no indication and no warning that your game is going to crash, so be careful.

3. After perusing the GIM, I located the Hook, and the Moon Orb. Sadly, however, the Hook can only be used one time, and almost always crashes the game when you add it to your item menu. And the Moon Orb event doesn't activate until after you defeat Ice Queen La Saia, which pretty much makes it a pointless item to get. If you can locate the Music Box Key, however, then that will save some time too, since you won't have to backtrack and do all the events for Queens, which would save several minutes.

4. The BDG, like I said, is hardware specific, and not related to the copy of the game at all. This is the biggest glitch in the game, and what makes it even possible to speedrun. It seems a lot of people have been misinformed on how to activate the glitch, but as it's hardware specific some ways might not work for some people. For me, I always have Gaffer with his full inventory. However, you can collect multiple daggers in one view of the shop. Simple process, really.
-Open your item menu and exit, then enter the shop.
-Scroll down in your item menu until you reach the bottom.
-In Gaffer's menu, scroll down as far as you can and execute the Right+X command as usual. This should yield a Broken Dagger.
-Now, back in Gaffer's menu, move up one row from where you did the first BDG, and repeat. Another Broken Dagger.
-Keep doing this until you hit the Ice attachment, then repeat the process from the very beginning.

I tried to run this game in a SS, but the game continued to crash due to the DBS, so I gave up. I was thinking of picking it back up, but the random factors that go into it are just insane. If any of you can learn anything about the GIM, please post it here and let's work together to finally crack this game!

burningsoup

2014-07-30 07:50:53 pm

I don't know if I want to get into this game "seriously" but I am curious to see if I can get that SEGG skip, so I'm at least going to attempt it. I have a fat model PS2 and a Greatest Hits edition of DC, so we'll see how it goes. I'm afraid I can't be much help with a SEGG-less run, though... I just don't have the kind of time to devote to a 7+ hour run.

Lag.Com

2014-07-31 02:14:55 am

sda loyalist

I ran the game SS without skips some months ago using the BDG and didn't get a single crash as long as I didn't do certain things... which now escape me. I think it was something to do with being too fast on the menu.

Of course, I'm using the PAL-E version, which may well be different enough in other ways.

Goat

2014-07-31 06:57:23 pm

I seem to recall encountering that issue as well, except the game would randomly crash because of the DBS regardless of how slowly I did the menu work. In any case, I found that I'm more interested in doing a DC2 run instead, but that would have to be a new game+ until I can figure out a specific way to route the game. In any case, thanks to Pokemonfan, DC1 has been cracked (in my personal opinion in the worst way possible, as I hate skip to the credit glitches), so there's not really much else to do with DC1 anymore. The fastest route has been found, and it breaks the game so bad that the only way to improve it any further is to just master the minor things like menu and travel times. Unless you add certain stipulations to your run, such as no STEC, or something, it's just bleh. Lost my train of thought. Anyway, I love that Pokemonfan was able to break the game as far as he did, but I don't really find any interest to be had in the run anymore knowing that the fastest way is to just skip the game. So, for now, I am going to work on DC2! It's about time we got a run of either game on the archives in any case.