History YMMV / DarkCloud

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** This is the first full-scale production by Creator/{{Level 5}} - and it ''barely'' resembles the style they've become known for in the late 00s and New Tens. This was before they started GrowingTheBeard, and even the sense of humour seems far more subdued.
** The gameplay itself is quite dated, and can come off as a little more annoying due to its lack of AntiFrustrationFeatures. Dungeons seem to go on forever, power-ups are ''limited'' (The game [[GuideDangIt never tells you this anyways]], meaning one or two characters will just [[CantCatchUp get all the power-ups and become the most powerful while the late-joiners lag behind]]), and the random generation of floors seems to [[RandomNumberGod eternally hate you]].

** Mess up in the first 'Duel' against the Master Jacket? [[spoiler: [[GoryDiscretionShot The screen fades to black ''just'']] [[OffWithHisHead as Toan gets decapitated.]]]]
** Mess up in the 'Duel' against the Killer Snake? [[spoiler: The screen slowly fades to red as the snake ''[[EatenAlive eats Toan.]]'' Self-censored with the camera, [[SoundOnlyDeath but it's obvious what's happening.]] [[OhCrap Toan's fearful expression]] makes it worse.]] Even worse, the game forces you to get the [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement Serpent Sword]] specifically for this encounter; marching in without the sword is an automatic failure that treats you to that scene and then boots you right back out.

** Mess up in the 'Duel' against the Killer Snake? [[spoiler: The screen slowly fades to red as the snake ''[[EatenAlive eats Toan.]]'' Self-censored with the camera, [[SoundOnlyDeath but it's obvious what's happening.]] [[OhCrap Toan's fearful expression]] makes it worse.]]

** Each character has a favorite food which they eat to increase their defense. It will increase their defensive stat by 5, 6, or 7. Obviously, to maximize their potential -- you get no more stat boosts after Moon Drops, they're just enough to keep you from being one-shotted in your current dungeon, and the monsters in the last couple of dungeons hit REALLY hard -- you want each food item to increase defense by 7. Get 5 or 6? Too bad, either live with it or reset the whole damn game and try again; there's no way to load a saved game from within the game. ''Dark Cloud 2'''s defense food items give a fixed increase, which is preferable.

** Goro doesn't share Xiao's problem of damage, health or defence, but his whole playstyle can be hurt by one simple fact; his slow attack speed. Most enemies can dodge Goro's attack before it hits, and maybe counter attack while he's still stuck in his animation. Even with a faster weapon, he can't combo, and the enemy is just as likely to dodge, so you need to really plan out how you're using him.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Time has ''NOT'' been kind to this game in the least bit:
** This is the first full-scale production by Creator/{{Level 5}} - and it ''barely'' [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness resembles the style they've become known for]] in the late 00s and New Tens. This was before they started GrowingTheBeard, and even the sense of humour seems far more subdued.
** The gameplay itself is quite dated, and can come off as a little more annoying due to its lack of AntiFrustrationFeatures. Dungeons seem to go on forever, power-ups are ''limited'' (The game [[GuideDangIt never tells you this anyways]], meaning one or two characters will just [[CantCatchUp get all the power-ups and become the most powerful while the late-joiners lag behind]]), and the random generation of floors seems to eternally hate you. The plot itself contains some of the seriousness we knew Level 5 to be, but is full of {{Narm}} due to the engrish and wanton spelling errors. Level 5's localizations have gotten way ''way'' better since then.

* LowTierLetdown: Goro and/or Xiao. They both benefit drastically when upgraded properly, which means they start very weak, and seemingly useless, causing most players to try them out, and then write them off with no second thoughts. Played with, in that the game's upgrade system can turn any character into a total badass. Ungaga and Osmond are the real worst characters overall, but avoid this due to being cool as hell.

** Xiao unfortunately is the worst of the ranged attackers, and the second worst character in the game (before Goro) with her only redeeming quality that she is the first ally you recruit. Her damage output lags far behind the other ranged attackers and she has the lowest starting health and defense in the game. But worst of all, she makes the most annoying sounds in the world every time she attacks. What compounds all these flaws is that the obstacles she is able to cross - gaps with a point to jump across - can be crossed by Osmond without having to go into a cutscenes or hear her annoying yell! She does have sole access to Steve and Super Steve, a pair of unique weapons that advise the player on how to deal with enemies it targets.

** Mess up in the 'Duel' against the Killer Snake? [[spoiler: The screen slowly fades to red [[EatenAlive as the snake ''eats Toan''.]] Self-censored with the camera, [[SoundOnlyDeath but it's obvious what's happening.]] [[OhCrap Toan's fearful expression]] makes it worse.]]

** Each character has a favorite food which they eat to increase their defense. It will increase their defensive stat by 5, 6, or 7. Obviously, to maximize their potential -- you get no more stat boosts after Moon Drops, they're just enough to keep you from being one-shotted in your current dungeon, and the monsters in the last couple of dungeons hit REALLY hard -- you want each food item to increase defense by 7. Get 5 or 6? Too bad, either live with it or reset the whole damn game and try again; there's no way to load a saved game from within the game.

** Each character has a favorite food which they eat to increase their defense. It will increase their defensive stat by 5, 6, or 7. Obviously, to maximize their potential -- you get no more stat boosts after Moon Drops, they're just enough to keep you from being one-shotted in your current dungeon, and the monsters in the last couple of dungeons hit REALLY hard -- you want each food item to increase defense by 7. Get 5 or 6? Too bad, either live with it or reset the whole damn game; there's no way to load a saved game from within the game.

* TheScrappy: Read TierInducedScrappy below, and combine that with the fact that Goro acts like a total JerkAss during his only speaking roles, and you get this.

* TierInducedScrappy: Goro and/or Xiao. They both benefit drastically when upgraded properly, which means they start very weak, and seemingly useless, causing most players to try them out, and then write them off with no second thoughts. Played with, in that the game's upgrade system can turn any character into a total badass. Ungaga and Osmond are the real worst characters overall, but avoid this due to being cool as hell.

** Osmond breaks the game in half when he's introduced. As a result of when he appears, he as the smallest selection of weapons in the game, and is somewhat less likely to end up with maxed out health or thirst than anyone else (as the player has likely used the limited supply of items that do this on their other characters). However, he's the only character in the game who doesn't have to stop moving at all when attacking, and his machine gun weapons can rack up damage very quickly when buffed the right way. If you put critical hit on his machine guns, he can effortlessly kill anything in the game. But that pales in comparison to his laser cannons, which do massive elemental damage at a distance. Once you get Osmond, you never need to use Xiao again because he can fly over the obstacles you use to need her for. His ability to move and attack at the same time makes the bonus dungeon a joke.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A speculative example. The Duels in this game are battles played out through QuicktimeEvents. There are very few of them, and the final one is a big anticlimax, it's not even a fight, and it happens about 70% into the game (the third-to-last dungeon starts collapsing, and you have to Duel to cross a bridge). Some players speculate that the [[spoiler: Dark Genie vs Sun Giant]] fight was supposed to be a Duel, as it plays out like one visually, and would have an appropriately climactic use of the mechanic.

* ScrappyMechanic: Thirst. The second game did away with this mechanic and instead made it into a status ailment.

** On the other hand, if you've got retro sensibilities, or don't care for the style Level-5 eventually developed, this game is an example of [[FirstInstallmentWins the first entry in a series doing it best]] for you.
* SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer: Fishing can be very addicting. Likewise, rebuilding each city can be quite enjoyable.

* ThatOneBoss: La Saia, who has a bunch of ice attacks that can hit you from pretty much anywhere. One in particular freezes you, regardless of whether you have an anti-freeze amulet equipped, and lets her get 1-2 powerful shots in.

* EarlyGameHell: A major offender of this, for a number of reasons. First of all, your only source of important items (water to prevent thirst, repair powder to stop weapons from breaking, etc) comes from the town mayor, who only supplies the bare minimum. Then when one completes the Old Gaffer's buggy, not only are the supplies quite expensive at this point, but one has to make sure Pike is brought back before the buggy, otherwise the buggy's supplies will be permanently reduced, and [[GuideDangIt no warning/explanation is given about this.]] Finally, the stats that Toan and his first ally, Xiao have at the start, both for themselves and their weapons are utterly pitiful.
* FriendlyEnemy: [[spoiler:For being the BigBad of the game, the Dark Genie sure does like to give you things to help you out. Of course, that could just be Seda doing so outside the Genie's influence.]]

** Xiao gets a lot of flack for having a weak starting weapon, but this can be remedied through grinding, and proper use of a few synthspheres. [[MagikarpPower Once this is out of the way, Xiao becomes arguably the best character in the game]], with early access to crazy-high attack, a higher firing rate than Ruby (and Osmond's non machine-gun weapons), very little delay when attacking, and the highest movement speed in the game, which all combine in a way that makes her an insane DPSer who has no trouble dodging anything at all. She also has sole access to Steve and Super Steve, a pair of unique weapons that advise the player on how to deal with enemies it targets.

** Osmond is a promising character who's added to the party too late to really shine. As a result of when he appears, he has the smallest selection of weapons in the game, and is somewhat less likely to end up with maxed out health or thirst than anyone else (as the player has likely used the limited supply of items that do this on their other characters). However, he's the only character in the game who doesn't have to stop moving at all when attacking, and his machine gun weapons can rack up damage very quickly when buffed the right way. Unfortunately, his machine guns have very poor damage-per-hit, and compensate by attacking extremely rapidly, as is appropriate for a machine gun, but that means that his weapons break far faster than any other ranged character (and even melee characters, provided that they are not hitting stone/metal monsters). His other line of weapons is a series of elemental flamethrowers, which are very strong overall, but have a limited range, which forces Osmond to forgo the "long-ranged" part of being a long-ranged attacker, which exposes him to extra damage, which combines with his likely-not-maxed-out HP in a way that brings him down.

* CharacterTiers: Overall, Toan and Xiao are the best, because they're easy to be effective with. Goro and Ruby are harder to use, [[EliteTweak but can be argued to be the best when used properly]]. Ungaga and Osmond are the worst, partially because they join so late in the game, but still have their uses. To the game's credit, all the characters can be made into complete killing machines through the upgrade system and they're all not useless even without that.

** Using the Broken Dagger Glitch can net you an endgame-level weapon before you've even completed the ''first dungeon''.[[note]] After getting Gaffer's shop, wait until you've placed Pike into the town before finishing the shop so that you have the full range of items to buy. Re-equip Toan's Dagger (even if it's already equipped, re-equip it) and enter Gaffer's shop. Scroll to the bottom of the attachments page and place the cursor over the Ice attachment. Press right and X at the same time and you'll end up dragging over a Synthsphere that looks like a broken Dagger: this Synthsphere increases your weapon's stats to that weapon's maximum, and can boost your weapon to the point of building it to the next stage immediately (though it can take a few tries to actually get the Broken Dagger).[[/note]]

** Using the Broken Dagger Glitch can net you an endgame-level weapon before you've even completed the ''first dungeon''.[[note]] After getting Gaffer's shop, wait until you've placed Pike into the town before finishing the shop so that you have the full range of items to buy. Re-equip Toan's Dagger (even if it's already equipped, re-equip it) and enter Gaffer's shop. Scroll to the bottom of the attachments and place the cursor over the Ice attachment. Press right and X at the same time and you'll end up dragging over a Synthsphere that looks like a broken Dagger: this Synthsphere increases your weapon's stats to nearly the maximum they can go, and can boost your weapon to the point of synthesis much faster (though it can take a few tries to actually get the Broken Dagger).[[/note]]

** Using the Broken Dagger Glitch can net you an endgame-level weapon before you've even completed the ''first dungeon''.