Introduction

Q: What is this game?
A: Dark Cloud 2 (also known as Dark Chronicle in PAL regions) is a dungeon crawler released in 2003 for the PS2 by developer Level-5. You may know them for Rogue Galaxy, Dragon Quest VIII, or White Knight Chronicles. It's a great game that was loved by most who played it, and it's considered better in nearly every way to the previous game. In dungeons, you control either Max or Monica, who have wrenches & guns or swords & armlets, respectively. They play relatively similar with a few things that set them apart. The basic goal of each level is to kill the enemy with the Gate Key, then progress to the next level. Dark Cloud 2 has a Prologue, 7 story chapters, and a bonus 8th chapter.

Q: Why is this game good?
A: There's a lot of reasons why. The weapon upgrade system allows you to customize your weapons in quite a few ways, even branching into different weapon types (you can make your wrench into a hammer, your gun into a grenade launcher, etc). The georama system (introduced in Chapter 2), is a very interesting way of progressing the story. Essentially, you create various materials, then place them in specific ways to cause future events to occur. This will be explained in more detail when the LP gets there. The Ridepod is another reason why this game is fun, as you can create a fast-talkin', flyin', katana slashin' mech that eviscerates all in his path. Or you can make a clown.

Q: Is combat all there is to this game?
A: Nope, there's sidequests galore. You can fish, play golf, raise fish to participate in tournaments, take pictures, invent things with those pictures, and recruit a large variety of townspeople to join you on your quest (each of them requiring a sidequest of varying difficulty).

Q: Will you be getting 100%? (Photos, inventions, etc.)
A: No, simply because I don't think anyone would watch a half hour video of me taking pictures of everything in Palm Brinks. Actually, I will be going for 100% photos. I'll also be 100%ing the Georama when we get to it, which means completely restoring the future and getting the bonus item.

Q: How will the videos be laid out?
A: I'll run through the first level of the video with minimal editing, then edit the next few levels to only show 'highlights' (new enemies, interesting moments, etc). This should ensure that people get the most out of the dungeon crawling without having to watch a half hour video of nothing but that. Okay I'm actually going to ruthlessly edit all dungeons to only show new enemies and otherwise interesting occurrences, because I think by now (edited in Chapter 3) the whole dungeoning experience is understood a bit too well. I'll also have GrizzlyChemist and Swekyde here to comment over the game, as well as ScurvyKip starting in Chapter 2.

Q: What's your update schedule?
A: I hope to update about once a week, this might speed up or slow down depending on how available my co-commentators are. These videos will be fairly long, just because I don't want to have a video that consists only of dungeon without any storyline, or vice versa.

With all that out of the way, let's get going!


Intro(Youtube)(Blip)

A Night At The Circus(Youtube Part 1)(Part 2) (Blip Part 1)(Part 2)



Linda, the Invincible

Milk Can Jetpacks

This is Halloween



Into the Forest

Gone Fishin' -- ScurvyKip joins the fray

Creating A New World

Resurrecting the Great Elder

Holly



A Mall in the Forest

Death Valley

The Uncreatable Signature Dish

Lin, Awakened

The Great Sage



Obligatory Beach Episode

The Brilliant Inventor

The Glorious Sacrifice

The Mad Musician



The Desolate Village

The Manliest Voice

The Fire Squall

Gaspard



Back to the Past

The Valley Strikes Back

Water World

More Than Meets the Eye



Moon Flower Palace

Garden of Light

Progress

Sweet Wrenches and Hella Hats

Griffon



The Zelmite Mines



Photo Video Chapter 1 - After 'Milk Can Jetpacks'

Support Character Collection - After 'Resurrecting the Great Elder'

Photo Video Chapter 2 - After 'A Mall in the Forest'

Photo Video Chapter 3 - After 'Obligatory Beach Episode'

The Grand Fishing Extravaganza - After 'The Mad Musician'

Photo Video Chapter 4 - After 'The Desolate Village'

Photo Video Chapter 5 - After 'Back to the Past'

Monster Transformation Collection - After 'Moon Flower Palace'

The Last Fishing Showdown - After 'Sweet Wrenches and Hella Hats'

Photo Video Final - After 'The Last Fishing Showdown'

Fanart

Alternate boxart made by ArkDelgato,

ArkDelgato lets everyone in town know how important Max is.