Dark Cloud Any% Speedrun Guide for Beginners (NTSC-U Only)

THIS RUN CAN ONLY BE DONE ON THE NORTH AMERICAN (NTSC-U) VERSION OF DARK CLOUD

Timestamps:

Options before the run - 0:42
Beginning, Pre-dungeon - 1:20

Technical Skills Needed
- Diagonal Running - 4:24
- Attack Canceling - 6:01

Dungeon Segment
- Floor 1 - 7:07
- Things you Need - 9:13
- Things to Avoid - 10:18
- Things to Be Aware of - 12:23
- Floor 2 through Exit - 18:18

Glitch Menu Credits Warp
- Creating a Practice Save - 19:08
- Building Gaffer's Shop - 19:45
- Gaffer's Glitch Menu (With Sword) - 20:32
- Dark Heaven Glitch Menu - 31:10
- Gaffer's Glitch Menu (Without Sword) - 39:15

This was my first time making a detailed tutorial for something like this, I apologize in advance if the organization is bad and for getting lazy with editing towards the end, I was using a program that literally used 100% of my CPU for all 14 hours i was making this and ended up switching to Movie Maker lmfao

You can watch me run this category, as well as Any% Glitchless here:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Special thanks to:

Closetowar for helping me learn and get better at the run -

WordofWind for discovering the Sword strats, as well as helping me improve -

MasonEliwood for the epic thumbnail -

[Glitchedd]

Watch me run this category, as well as any% Glitchless here:

Timestamps for Mobile Users:

Options before the run - 0:00
Beginning, Pre-dungeon - 1:20

Technical Skills Needed
- Diagonal Running - 4:24
- Attack Canceling - 6:01

Dungeon Segment
- Floor 1 - 7:07
- Things you Need - 9:13
- Things to Avoid - 10:18
- Things to Be Aware of - 12:23
- Floor 2 through Exit - 18:18

Glitch Menu Credits Warp
- Creating a Practice Save - 19:08
- Building Gaffer's Shop - 19:45
- Gaffer's Glitch Menu (With Sword) - 20:32
- Dark Heaven Glitch Menu - 31:10
- Gaffer's Glitch Menu (Without Sword) - 39:15

[FindTheFun]

When my brother and I were kids we obsessed over this game, it was the first manual for a game I ever bought. When we beat it in under 24 hours in like 2002 we were convinced we were the fastest in the world. We had no idea any of this shit existed lmao.

[grababi]

I’m not into speedruns but Dark Cloud is one of my favourite games and I just discovered some new mechanics. Great vid!

[trashkats]

39:45 "we're just gonna pretend we don't have that a h a h a" LMAO

[TRICpitator]

Glitchedd, like an anime villain, is tired of being at the top, and is looking out to train the one that will give him competition, Kappa

[DarkCloudCompendium]

Gotta bust out my notebook to write all of that down! 😂

Thank you for taking the time to make this video and share your knowlege! 😃🙏

[Shvvenny]

dude! love this! i learned so much holy shit, you a real one. the attack cancelling for some reason i never thought about lmfao

[stephenskillern]

Great video, also Bats are literally the worst.

[AceCranium]

How did somebody figure out this glitch? That’s insane someone did that and remembered what they did lol

[zenthnyaa]

Well put together video! You should think of making more videos like this for other games you run. I think this game may be a good way to dip my toes into speedrunning. Maybe take the WR in a few months :P I'm looking into unpacking the game or gathering resources on hacks/debug modes and hopefully get some research done n the meantime.

[SeEpiNIncoherentRambling]

you circled around 3 times in the menu. also do you have to use overflow power up powder or just use the ones that are already in your menu to get +5? also how do you unplug the controller for ps4? should the battery be dead?

[erin_rose]

okay so I'm trying this on PCSX2 emulator and I'm pretty sure I'm doing everything correctly but I'm only allowed to warp to matataki village? i literally have no idea what's happening. I'm doing the gladius method also, not that that should change anything

[davidmedford]

Is the mayor's house an old beat up wooden submarine?

[forgottennumber]

Strange few questions:

1. SSD, does that affect times for PS4 times?

2. PS4 Controller buffer, is it possible? Or should you just go old school PS2 unless you want this to be frame perfect? (Edit: Could a second PS4 controller be used for buffer as well?)

(Semi-Unrelated) 3. Finally, is the "Broken Dagger Glitch" frame perfect as well?

[Sashimimi]

I know this was posted a long time ago but I want to get into speedrunning this game, however I am finding it difficult to get the steel hammer. I have done everything else perfectly, 85 moneys, ten items, playing USA version, looking at the manual walking in georama, Level Up powder on the second space, dagger on second space and other weapon on the third, I have set it up perfectly. But whenever I try to get the hammer I only get the broken dagger or an invisible item with no description. my controller is bluetooth but even when I turn it off to buffer it, it never works. I will be trying to borrow a PS2 controller from my roommate and hooking it up to my PC and try to use that but who knows if it will work. I have tried with both save states and normal saves as well. Any advice?

[The_Jester_I]

My man you have flared something I've wanted to do for Dark Cloud since a child and I'm going to try to get to that world record or close. Though I do have a few questions should I at the moment don't own a capture card so can I'm on ps4 and it has a kinda timer on streams can I use that or is there anything else o could do????

[ErikJohanssondrums]

When I attempt to get the steel hammer I always end up getting the broken dagger instead. Could it be because I am playing the European version? Or maybe because I am playing on a PlayStation 5?

[wxyz.letter]

yo every time I try this using your method I can only unlock all but the final two levels, Dark Heaven Castle, and Gallery of Time

[NinjaTricksters]

Currently trynna do this on PS4. I followed everything, Closed my game on save, 9999 dungeon runs file, and everytime i try to load into it the application crashes. Any advice?

[asarand]

I just have to ask. How the heck do you guys figure these things out? How many months does it take you?