Dark Cloud 2

Dark Cloud 2
Also known as: Dark Chronicle (JP/EU) Developer: Level-5 Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation 2 Released in JP: November 28, 2002 Released in US: February 17, 2003 Released in EU: September 12, 2003 Released in KR: 2003 This game has unused areas. This game has unused items. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences. This game has a notes page This game has a prototype article

Dark Cloud 2 is a game where you use fragments of the space time continuum to play golfing minigames.

Debug Menu

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: The debug menu allows easy access to all of Dark Cloud 2's hundreds of maps, potentially including maps meant for testing/debugging. Additionally, several debug options are in Japanese and poorly understood. This needs further investigation.

To do: The debug content has differences between US and Europe. Also, confirm this menu exists in the Japanese and Korean versions.

By using code 20376fb8 00000001 (US) / 2037D140 00000001 (EU) with CodeBreaker or an emulator cheating device, pressing R3 to bring up the debugger, and inputting R1+R2+L1+L2+Start+Select, you can access a debug menu with an enormous amount of options. Most notable are the ability to freely control the camera (even in areas where it would normally be fixed), a map selector, an inventory editor, and the (seemingly broken) option to install Dark Cloud 2 to a PlayStation 2 HDD.

The left-most option under "Item" is named "(null)" in the US version, and "Korean" in the European version. Its purpose here is unclear, but the game was released in South Korea with Korean text.

Language Select

Enabling the US version's normally-inaccessible Japanese mode also changes its title and controller layout accordingly. However, voiceovers remain in English, and it appears the option doesn't save (resetting the console returns the game to English). Additionally, it is possible to have the save file name in the console's memory card manager become Japanese.

This option's basic effects are still in the European version, but rendered unplayable by severe glitches/crashing.

Other Differences

Parts of the debug menu that were left in Japanese in the US version were translated in the European version.

USA	Europe

E3 Leftovers

A folder titled E3_event exists within Dark Cloud 2's event directory, containing:

• E3_donnie.chr
• E3_mints.chr
• tp01_16a.chr

As the events directory pertains to Dark Cloud 2's cutscenes, these are likely the remnants of a cutscene meant for an E3 trailer/demo.

Unused Audio

King Mardan

Audio File	Transcript/Note
‎	"Haha!"
	"Wa-ha!"
	"Agh!"
	"Ooough!"
	"Daaugh..."
	"A predictable result!"
	"Yes, you have failed!"

King Mardan has several unused vocalizations, but more interesting is that they're located alongside the vocalizations of other bosses... and that some of the above lines appear in the script of boss_btl_lose.txt, a script file that contains the lines boss characters say after killing the player. Seeing as King Mardan's lines follow the same conventions as the other bosses' lines (attack VO, hurt VO, death VO, taunt VO), it's likely that King Mardan was planned to be a boss early in Dark Cloud 2's development.

Unused Items

Located alongside other item sprites in Dark Cloud 2's item graphic table is this Japanese character, which translates to English as "reserved".

Unused Locations

Using the debug menu, the player can set the 'map' option to -1, which allows the player to teleport to any location in the game. This can be used to see several unused locations, however, most of them are test areas for the Channel Key items. These are the more interesting of the unused rooms.

f01_2 is an unused future result for Jurak Mall which hasn't resurrected Jurak, but has the Forest Lake, Jurak's Branch, The Bridge, and the Golden Eggs are all restored. There are no chests or NPC's, nor are there any Time Gates to escape.

i03h06 is a test room for texture clarity which features a circular platform with flat water, and a large green block with apparently greek text.

i03h06 is an almost identical area, but with a broken, rectangular platform, with the water stretching far beyond the regular platform, and the same green block.

z99 is a crazy variant of Cedric's shop, which has gross, purple lighting, moving objects, and some random fires. The chests are empty, and therefore claim that your inventory is full when they're opened. a Vacuum trash can is moving around in a circle, along with one of the chests, and the door leading to Channel Pump Room is invisible, but collision is still there

Lastly, if the player sets the 'map' option to 35, the game will load a black void, however, upon opening the menu, the game will claim the player is inside the 'Coffee Shop', which is implied that the Palm Brinks Cafe was meant to be indoors.

(Source: pokemonfan4000)

Unused Text

Japanese

Translation

@8240030 え～静粛に。 @8240050 本日、「バース鉄道」が大陸全土に 行き渡り、新しい出発をすることになった。 @8240060 私は、これをきっかけに、世界が再び 大きな発展を遂げることを願っている。 @8240070 町長、なんか立派になったね。 @8240080 うん、言えてる。 @8240090 いつか、世界にまた危機が訪れようとも、 我々は力を合わせ、必ずやその危機を 乗り越えることができると確信している。 @8240110 なぜなら、我々パームブリンクス市民は 過去にも数多くの試練を乗り越え、 苦境に耐え、そして、この発展を勝ち得たのだから。 @8240130 この星には、闇に包まれた時代がありました。 @8240140 その時代の人たちは、 闇と戦い未来を勝ち取ったのです。 @8240150 けれど、その物語は決して未来へ 語り継がれることはありませんでした。 @8240160 本当にこんなとんでもない 冒険があったかどうか・・・ それは誰にも証明することはできません。 @8240170 だけど・・・ もし、あなたが、夜空に輝く月と話をすることができるなら、 月は、きっとこの不思議な冒険を、話してくれることでしょう・・・ @9999999

@8240030 Hmm, it's so quiet. @8240050 Today, the "Blackstone Railroad" has spread to connect and encompass the entire country, so there's a newly departing train. @8240060 That's why I'd been hoping that I could accomplish this. I wanted the world to develop and expand again. @8240070 This is really nice, isn't it Mr. Mayor. @8240080 Yeah, I guess you could say that. @8240090 If the world is ever in crisis again, I'm sure that we can combine our power and overcome whatever might happen again. @8240110 Because the citizens of Palm Brinks have overcome great struggles in the past, borne great troubles, and thus attained a high level of growth and expansion. @8240130 There was a time when this planet was engulfed in darkness. @8240140 The people living in those times were victorious over the darkness and prevented a future of war. @8240150 But, that legend wasn't passed forward to future generations. @8240160 I don't know if it means that a legend like that was nothing more than a myth... After all, there's no proof it actually happened. @8240170 However... Supposing that you— supposing that one could tell that story to the moon shining in the sky above us, do you suppose that it would whisper the same story back to you? @9999999

Located in the event files for Chapter 8 (as e824.txt) is the Japanese script for Dark Cloud 2's final cutscene. Script files such as these are normally read by the game in order to display subtitles. In all versions of Dark Cloud 2 the final cutscene is a prerendered video with no subtitling, meaning this script file goes unused. As such, Level 5 never bothered creating a localized equivalent of this file.

Regional Differences

"Presents" Message

The US and European fonts for this screen are completely different.

USA	Europe

Attract Cutscene

Several snippets of footage in Dark Cloud 2's attract cutscene were rerecorded for international releases. While most monsters in the attract cutscene have their namefields blanked (likely so Level-5 could avoid rerecording footage for localization), two monsters were overlooked. In international releases, this was corrected by rerecording footage of these monsters with their namefields properly blanked. Note that outfits, HP, and weapon choice differ significantly between the original and rerecorded excerpts.

Japan	International

Character Names

A number of names have been changed for the English release. Below is a list of names which differ between the English and Japanese versions. It does not include names which did not change or names which had their titles removed. For example アレック研究員 is Alec in the the English release with the title 研究員(researcher) removed.

English	Japanese	Romaji
Maximilian	ユリス	Yurisu
Cedric	スターブル	Sutaabaru
Gordon	グリン	Gurin
Parn	パトリ	Patori
Dr. Dell	ダック先生	Dakku Sensei
Ferdinand	ポーク	Pooku
Adel	ルネ	Rune
Erik	トム	Tomu
Sheriff Blinkhorn	パッカー保安官	Pakkaa Hoankan
Fabio	フラビン	Furabin
Rigare	リガージ研究員	Rigaaji Kenkyuuin
Dr. Nobb	Dr.チャップ	Dr. Chappu
Galen Agaris	ドナ・ホーン	Dona Hoon
Garek	グイスコン	Guisukon
Telmo	セルマ	Seruma
Estof	スコル	Sukoru
Argo	シローザ	Shirooza
Race Master	司会ふくろう	Shikai Fukurou
Leona	レナ	Rena
Narvak	ナルバ	Naruba

Miscellaneous Changes

• The theme song was re-dubbed with a different singer for the English localization of the opening and credits videos.
• In the English localization, every instance of the word ぶどう酒 (grape wine) was replaced with grape juice.
  • Most prominently seen in Chapter 2, where a sizable portion of text is dedicated to explaining the Firbits' love of the drink.