Dark Cloud/Yellow Drops

Yellow Drops
The moon ship lands in a crater near Yellow Drops, a city of Moon People. There is a welcoming committee waiting for you since the chief of Brownboo has gotten word to them. Your tour guide is to be Samba, but at the last minute his girlfriend calls to remind him they had a date, which obviously takes priority. So you're left to explore Yellow Drops

This area needs an in-game map, but since there isn't one it's a good idea to take a few minutes to orient yourself. The area is in a larger crater with a yellow lake. There is a large round building in the center with four entrances, a ledge going around it, and a number of paths over the lake to smaller areas at the rim of the crater. The paths look very similar so you need to pay attention to the locations of the Moon People scattered around. You start on the path with Marnia (aka Mahnia). The gate to the moon ship is closed but you can now use the map to get to the moon and back.

The first path clockwise from Marnia leads to a house with Samba and his girlfriend. Samba manages storage in this area. The second path leads to an empty room but there will be a shop there soon. The third path, with Aily and marked with a bright green circle, leads to the Moon Sea, but the gate is closed for now. There are two more paths which lead to living areas, keep checking these occasionally for treasure.

Start by entering the central building which is actually a factory; this starts a cutscene with Ledan, the manager, who offers to take over for Samba as guide. Ledan says if you need to find out about sealing the Dark Genie you need to talk to the leader of the Moon People, but he's not there since he's in a contest at the Coliseum. You need to cross the Moon Sea (aka the dungeon for this area) to get there though. Ledan opens the gate to the Moon Sea then leaves to open his shop.

The next time you enter the factory it will be added to you map.

Moon Sea
Enter the gate to the Moon Sea, then check the cannon to be shot to the first area. From now on you can skip this and use the map to enter the dungeon. The monsters here are, of course, tougher than in previous areas, so keep your stronger weapons equipped and plenty of Repair Power and healing items on hand. If a certain character is having trouble or you just want to build up a weaker weapon then you may want to go back to one of the previous dungeons. Level 4 is Ruby only, but Ruby does pretty well here so unless you've been neglecting her weapons there should be no problem.

When you reach level 8 there is cutscene where you find one of the Moon People lying on the ground. It's their leader who is also an inventor. He was testing his latest invention, a giant robot, when it was turned into Atla and scattered around the Moon Sea. He quickly recovers and takes you back to Yellow Drops where you discuss what's been happening on Earth, or Blue Terra as the Moon People call it. He doesn't believe the Dark Genie poses that much of a threat, and anyway the sealing magic you need was lost ages ago. But he thinks the robot he's made will be able to defeat it easily, if only you can get the Pez Sphere to power it. The Pez Sphere is being offered as a prize in the Coliseum which is, recall, on the other side of the Moon Sea. He offers to join your team and you can change his name from the default, Osmond, here.

When you return to level 8 you'll find a gap that can only be crossed by Osmond in his personal helicopter. From this point on these gaps will appear randomly in dungeons. Note, Osmond can hover over the gaps that were formerly ones you needed to use Xiao to cross.

Level 11 is an Osmond only level and we face the usual problem of the new guy's default weapon being under powered. There are weapons available for sale in Yellow Drops if you don't find a weapon for him on level 9 or 10, but you should be able to get by if you upgrade it a few times and bring extra Repair Powders if you find the shop too pricey. When fighting with Osmond, keep an extra close watch on your WHp since it deplete rapidly when you attack in long bursts. With level 11 done, continue through level 14. (This dungeon actually has fewer levels than the one before.)

To get to the boss for this dungeon, you need to complete the Parts HD structure and watch its event to get the Admission Ticket. Then prepare for a boss battle, go back to the dungeon, and enter level 15. Give the Pockle at the gate your ticket and he lets you in. You are now a contender for the title of Champion of the Moon and must defeat the current champion to get the Sun Sphere (aka Pez Sphere) needed to power the robot.

When the battle is over you get the Sun Sphere and return to the Moon Factory. Osmond lets you get on with finishing the robot. When you're done, check underneath for any treasure since this will disappear when the robot takes off. In the cutscene after you finish the robot it's implied that there will be another boss battle when you launch it, but this doesn't happen. But you do get a long and eventful cutscen so you may want to make a new save file.

Parts completion events
There are no houses in this area, only parts of the robot. Only four of these have people inside, but you do get completion events for these four as well as the head which is apparently inhabited by Osmond.

Georama completion
Before starting the assembly, complete all the parts, place the ones where an event occurs and watch the event. For this georama there are no optional bits so you might as well get these scenes out of the way. When the head done you can do the boss and you will need to do that before you can complete the chest. There are 13 parts which means you have to make 12 connections correctly and these are counted as "requests" in the georama analysis. In most cases you can tell that two parts are joined the right way because a grey surface appears that fills in the gap. Completing the chest, for which you need to fight the boss battle, also counts as a request making 13.

First, adjust the camera so that the blue pattern on the floor makes an 'M' or a 'W', that will avoid confusion about what is top, bottom, left or right. Start with the head (Parts HD) and place it at the top, halfway between the sides, with the neck facing down; the robot is the same size as the space you're working in so there's no extra room at the edges. Place the chest (Parts CT) below the head and the waste (Parts WT) below it. Now put the shoulders (Parts HGR and Parts HGL) on either side of the chest. Keep in mind that the R and L refer to the robot's right and left, not yours, so the R parts go on your left and the L parts go on your right. If you've got it right then the eagles should be facing up. Place the arms (Parts HGR2 and Parts HGL2) below the shoulders so that the wide end is at the top. Now place the hands (Parts AMR, and Parts AML) below arms to complete the upper half. Place the thighs (Parts TIR and Parts TIL) below the waste, again so the wide end is at the top. Finally, place the feet (Parts FTR and Parts FTL) below the thighs to complete the robot. The only optional part is the lookout tower and this can only go next to the feet.

Change back to Walking mode to start a dialog with Osmond. With the robot done, he calls all four pilots together to announce the mission. They will use the robot to fight the Dark Genie and save the Earth. Osmond shows everyone a picture of Dark Heaven Castle where, as we know, the genie is lurking. Then there is a picture of Flag who we know from the start of the game. There is a dark cloud protecting the castle so the first job for the robot will be to get through it. The pilots are still a bit worried but Osmond gets them back in line and ready to go.