Regional Differences

This is a sub-page of Dark Cloud.

Dark Cloud has a few regional differences spanning from animation changes, HUD alterations, exclusive monsters, an added end game area and an improved AI enemy pathing system for international versions. Another notable difference lies within the buttons for attacking and locking on enemies were swapped when releasing the game overseas.

To do: Rip the animations related to regional differences. Once ripped, replace the gifs to reduce space. Check for dungeon patterns between regions. Rip the game music across all releases to document their differences.

Intro#

Every time you boot up the European version it’ll ask you to set a language.

Japan	International

Cutscenes#

The international versions will automatically default the protagonist and his allies to their canonical names. In the Japanese version, it starts off as blank.

While there's no graphical differences here, the size of textboxes in the international versions expanded quite a bit, blocking characters and whatnot in cutscenes.

Japan	International

After obtaining Atlamillia pieces for the first time in the European version, a bug occurs where Toan is correctly walking towards the Fairy King, but doesn’t stop even if he’s frozen in place until the script calls for a motion change. Footsteps can be heard throughout the whole scene, even when transitioning to still images. In the Atlamillia extraction section, Toan is slightly floating above ground.

In the same version, a script error related to the first duel appears where, even if you complete it perfectly, it’ll attempt to retry it, making it seem like the Skeleton Master killed Toan and not the other way around. The item reward for ranking Excellent changed from Pearl to Amethyst.

When meeting Osmond for the first time, he'll explain how to power up the broken Sun Giant in order to seal the Evil Genie. In the USA version, there's a localization oversight where he cannot decide whether the gem needed to repair the robot is called “Pez Sphere” or “Sun Sphere”, mixing up the two names multiple times in various cutscenes. In the end the georama piece is labeled “Sun Sphere”.

HUD#

The game menu changed from green blue to a blue palette and text boxes went from blue to black. The white box marker in the Japanese version is also slightly smaller. Also, in the weapon section, the character's silhouettes behind the 3D modeled weapon of choice is less opaque than the Japanese version. Stats were changed from right to left. A slight misalignment happens in the Europe version, where characters in the status section of the item menu are lower than intended.

Japan	International

Japan	International

In the Japanese version only, it is possible to highlight a weapon with the Square button in the Attribute menu. Doing so shows a text that reads “This is your equipped weapon” regardless if it’s in your hand or not. A rather redundant feature since all the information regarding weapon selection already exists. It is not possible to do this elsewhere.

Georama Menu#

Grammar was tweaked in the Config/Assembly menu for a better English-sounding structure.

Japan	International

Characters#

When attacking with Toan's starting weapon in the Japanese version, he’ll slash once before his weapon speed meter is depleted. Holding up and pressing the Circle button makes a forward attack. In all other releases it was changed to the infamous sword dance combo before said speed meter is emptied out. In the European version, his attack speed recovery was nerfed quite a bit and his third attack lacks a grunt.

Japan	International

Xiao’s idle pose is slowed down considerably.

Japan	International

For Goro, his breathing also slowed down significantly, while also having a different base attack animation. The charge attack is the same, although Goro will often miss enemies in the middle of his hammer swing. This is fixed internationally with added multihit.

Despite the change, a form of the original hitting animation can be seen in the Toan versus Goro duel.

Japan	International

Ruby has no notable differences when it comes to combat. However; her bracelets were originally much, much shinier. The elemental hues in the weapon selection menu resembled which element was needed for Ruby to open the magic infused door in the Japanese version. While the concept hasn’t been altered, slightly changing the base colors in global releases omitted a visual hint from the game.

Japan	International

Ungaga received the same treatment as Toan. There's only one basic attack, where pressing Up or Left/Right, Circlebutton performs a frontal attack. This was changed to Ungaga being able to do a swing combo of three instead.

Japan	International

NPCs#

All three versions have a shifted diorama system after obtaining Macho’s House. In the Japanese version, you are more likely to get the Pike and Odd Gaffer cutscene after completing Gaffer’s Buggy as early as before the Seda encounter, resulting in more valuable items being sold at his shop. Elsewhere, Pike’s Atla ball can be found further into the dungeon, resulting in a higher chance of the Gaffer’s injury event if not careful.

Shops#

The player can accidentally sell Fruit of Eden and Gourd. This was patched overseas. Other than Auto Repair inserted into every single shop, the following items were added or swapped:

FP Exchange

Queen's Weapon Shop

Queen's Jewelry Shop

Muska Rakka’s General Store

Yellow Drops’ General Store

Dungeons#

• Chests found in various areas used to drop far more valuable items such as Attribute Breakers, Buster types, and Stat Enhancers. Water pits are quite scarce in the first five floors, having to often rely on bottles sold in shops or found around dungeons. Treasure chests internationally drop more consumables and Amulets rather than stat boosters, instead leaving the upgrade materials to the back floors. Huge chests have an increased rate to appear. The chance to obtain Backfloor items was decreased. Magic circles that are not present in the Japanese version gives characters an advantage such as stamina pumps or disadvantages like nearly destroying a fully healed weapon, among many other effects for better or for worse.
• The upgrade system was overhauled by adding a visual cue on how to branch out weapons instead of blindly having to guess whether you're on the right path or not.
• Overseas also added treasure chests a clown can spawn from to give you an item or a weapon depending on which box you choose from their hands.
• Lastly, there’s no audio indication of when a weapon will break. This was changed to give players an audible warning with constant beeping sounds, increasing rapidly as the wHP decreases below 10.

Divine Beast Cave#

• This dragon-type enemy is only found in the Japanese version, albeit corrupted. It's unknown which floor of the Divine Beast Cave the dragon would be found in.

• In the international version, floor B-11, which is Xiao’s limiter zone, one extra dragon-type enemy named Opar was added while reducing the amount of Red Dragons. The cave also saw the introduction of Yammich, a paper thin demon like monster who has a different attack mechanism depending on which side is facing you.

Wise Owl Forest#

• The following monsters were added to this area:
  • Haley Holey, a Sky creature disguised as a plant.
  • King Prickly, a Plant creature hiding on trees preying on unsuspecting players.
• Werewolves gained the ability to block when detecting a physical hit.
• Fli Fli is a mushroom monster that can spew poison spores at the character. If the distance between the character and the creature is short enough it’ll perform a form of headbutt attack. If dodged in the Japanese version, Fli Fli slides far away from the protagonist if the map is spacious enough. The distance of the dive was reduced extensively to a point where it appears to be tripping rather than sliding. As for the poison spores, an error was fixed where Fli Fli would sometimes produce lingering invisible gas that harms the selected character.
• The Smiling Fairies were a lot stronger originally. Specifically, Tuesday’s bamboo pipe would blow poison darts at a rapid rate. When close enough, it’ll charge towards the character with little cooldown between attacks. The charging attack was removed internationally from Tuesday’s ability pool, but other fairies, Thursday and Hell Pockle, can still use it. It was changed to hit a character and then run away, essentially behaving the same way as Dasher.

Japan	International

• Hornet’s sky dive attack originally contains an immersive breaking visual bug where using it attaches the sting to the ground, pulling itself slightly underground into an immovable state. Another bug can occur where dodging an attack causes it to fly to the ceiling at an incredible speed. Both of these patterns were fixed overseas.
• Floor 4, which is Xiao’s limiter zone, added King Prickly while reducing the amount of Hornets and Smiling Fairies.

Shipwreck#

• Corcea, Captain, Aunt Medusa and Mask of Prajna gained the ability to guard when detecting a physical hit, while Sam can block against long range.
• Pirate’s Chariot had an attack pattern revoked where sometimes hitting it with a slingshot bullet or magic would result in firing its cannon balls immediately regardless of distance.
• The La Saia boss fight is vastly different depending on which version you’ve booted up. In the Japanese version, she’ll cover herself with icicles which can be broken when throwing fire-based objects at her. When there’s none left, she re-summons them before resuming the fight. Internationally, her attack patterns were completely revamped to have several abilities that keep the player on their toes. Icicles turned to a faint blue orb that freezes the selected character. She’ll attempt to drop a gigantic ball of ice right afterwards. When too close she’ll do a chilled whirlwind attack. Small vortexes will occasionally spawn around the area, and she’ll no longer randomly levitate when hit with magic.

Sun & Moon Temple#

• Bomber Head, Dune, and Mr. Blare gained the ability to guard against physical attacks.
• In all other versions aside from the Japanese version; Dune lost a base attack where it’d use the sand to create claws to swipe at the characters.
• Phantom had an animation mishap where dying would result in crashing into the ground instantly. This was fixed in all other versions to make it fall naturally.
• Steel Giant, Dune and Bomber Head will act as if long range is close range when hit, resulting in them trying to attack the characters even if they’re nowhere near the enemies. This is no longer the case in the USA version.

Moon Sea#

• If Vulcan and Space Gyron are hit with a magical attack, it’ll perform a physical attack. This was fixed globally.
• Witch Hellza lost an attack pattern where she could strike a character with a wand when hit by a melee weapon.
• White Fang had its attack pattern reversed. Originally, it would try to pounce the character first and then try to strike them.
• In the Japanese version, hitting a Titan’s torso with magic causes the next attack to do no damage.
• Minotaur Joe will chase after kegs to chug them down if the kegs are closer to him than the player. This was changed to prioritizing attacking the player, but will go after said kegs if they’re close by.

Gallery of Time#

• Curse Dancer, Joker, Heart, Spade, Spear and Alexander gained the ability to guard against physical and slingshot bullets.
• Hearts have a buffer ability where it can throw pink triangles of Stamina boost towards nearby enemies. Under certain circumstances, the character can catch it for a bit of powerup. This was removed internationally, making the dungeon a little less scarier.
• The Flapping Duster, a key to access the back area in the Gallery of Time, is accidentally rendered unused due to a typo that permanently disables access to the floor. A cheating device must be used to obtain the duster in the international versions. Curiously, the Prima's Official Strategy Guide for the game erroneously states the Flapping Duster is obtainable in normal gameplay; however, this isn't the case as the item has a 0% chance of spawning naturally.

• International releases insert one more battle phase to the final boss fight. During the ending where Sophia and Seda is seen talking on the castle balcony, there's sound mixing improvement in the USA version. Credit rolls in the Japanese version uses the Norune Village music that is first heard when you start the game to symbolize the end of your journey by returning home. This was changed to a rearrangement of the opening sequence.

Demon Shaft#

The Demon Shaft is a 100-floor dungeon that is unlocked after completing the main story or starting a new game with a completed game save on the same memory card. This dungeon is only present internationally. This exclusivity includes powered up versions of regular enemies, dungeon key items as well as a unique boss.

The exclusive monsters found in the Demon Shaft dungeon are as follows:

• Wind Gemron
• Holy Gemron
• Fire Gemron
• Ice Gemron
• Nikapous
• Bishop Q
• Gacious
• Silver Gear
• HornHead
• Black Knight Pendragon (Dungeon Boss)

Localization Name Changes#

ノルン村 / Norn Village#

• USA - Norune
• English / German / Italian – Nolun
• French – Nolan
• Spanish – Nolum

Attributes#

Elemental stones were slightly altered during localization:

• Flame became Fire
• Snow Flake became Ice
• Lightning Bolt became Thunder
• Vortex became Wind
• Sun became Holy