Not stuck as in I don’t know what to do next. Stuck as in Dark Cloud 2 freezes when I try to move forward. 29 hours, chapter 5, 100% Heim Rada and the game freezes every time Galen starts to launch Paznos. I turned the game on and off three times, tried doing things in a different sequence and tried skipping the cutscene, but to no avail.

According to my Google research, this is a rare but fatal bug that can possibly be solved by:

1. Opening and closing the disk tray (didn’t work)
2. Buying a new power cable (hmm… I’m pretty sure mine is fine.)
3. Buying a brand new copy of the game (for $80+? I don’t think so.)
4. Resurfacing the disk (Hmm. I’ll think about it.)

Or I could just drop the game and forget it ever existed. 🙁 I’m sad. Most of the game I could take and leave, but I was having fun kicking enemy butt in the tremendously repetitive dungeons. Mt. Gundor was nice and long too, and I was hoping maybe I could get another colorful stage like Starlight Canyon next. Now all my hopes have been dashed.

If I write a review now, I’m sure it will be marred by my disappointment at not being able to finish this game. To be honest, I don’t have anything to write yet anyway. “Battles are fun. Everything else is *shrug* Whatever, just let me fight.” The story has more holes than Sonny Corleone’s corpse, but it might make sense once we meet Griffon and hear what his sob story is. However I’m not interested enough in the story to read a summary or watch a playthrough. If I can’t play it myself, then there’s no point. I’ll keep fiddling with the game and with my PS2 to see if I’ll get lucky, but I don’t have much hope. What a sad end to a promising game. >_<

Related posts:

Rune Factory Frontier – Progress Report 1 Rune Factory Frontier – Progress Report 2 Dark Cloud 2 & Devil Survivor 2 Dark Cloud 2 – Great, but slightly grindy