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And now our journey begins! First thing we do is head over to the mayor's house, the one thing besides Toan that has survived.

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The convenient thing is that the Mayor gives you items for free before you get your shop. The inconvenient thing is he really gives you only 1 of everything and it is very easy in the early stages to run out.

This is one of those games that is harder in the beginning than for the rest of it. Like I said, you have limited supplies. The game also throws stuff at you like "thirst". You have 3 little water drops to start off with that drain as you walk through the dungeon. 3 doesn't last you long. After they drain, your health starts to drain. There are waterfalls on certain levels that heal your health and water, but it isn't a guarantee. Some lower level monsters cause poison and you pretty much only have 1 antidote to use on each floor, unless you find another one in a chest.

Another thing is your weapons in this game have WHP. If the WHP reaches 0, your weapon breaks and you can never use it again. This is especially annoying if you've invested a lot in to it and transformed it in to a stronger weapon. In the lower levels, you have very little repair powders to restore WHP, so you have to be careful. Your starter weapons cannot break, but if their WHP reaches 0, they will do about 1 damage, making it a painful floor.

So the first levels can be a bit nerve-wracking, especially if you aren't used to the game, but it gets eis you gain more health and water drops and repair powders and such.

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The Divine Beast Cave is the first dungeon. There are different floors. How the dungeons work in Dark Cloud is pretty simple. There is a monster on each level (randomized) that holds the Gate Key. The Gate Key is what you need to proceed to the next level of the dungeon. You can leave a floor after all monsters are defeated, by using the Gate Key and unlocking the next floor, or by using an escape powder.

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The balls show the number of Atla on the floor. Each Atla contains something used to restore the world (house, person, item, tree, etc).

The Fairy King returns to explain to me basically the things I already explained. He shows up a lot in the beginning, but after Norune Village, you hardly see him anymore.

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I complete the first floor and head back to Norune where the Fairy King tells me how to use Atla.

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This is something they improved a good bit in Dark Cloud 2, but it's still fun here. You have a list of the things you found in the dungeon. That pic is an example I'm being given, I don't have that much stuff yet :P. Then you have areas to fill with items. To learn what goes in the ? spaces, you must speak to the people who live in those homes.

The first house I got is the Macho Brother house. I actually had a picture of Macho, but it doesn't seem to have taken. I remember that they like to be near the Divine Beast Cave, so I go ahead and place their house over there.

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I go in and do another dungeon floor, but it is mostly uneventful, except for:

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A cat!

I get a few more items, including the older Macho brother, Kumacho. So I talk to him and ask about his requests and stuff.

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After giving him his fence and lamp, I get:

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An event! A note about this, you only need to get everything restored in their house to get an event. Placing them where they all want to be is usually optional (except for the ones that trigger story events) and only needs to be done if you want extra prizes.

So head back to the Macho Brothers house. So, if they're the Macho Brothers, does that mean their family name is Macho? So are they Macho Macho and Kumacho Macho? I hope so. I hope they had parents like that.

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They decide to settle this event like men, with a battle, which I sadly don't get to see