Fishing For A Sword

Im playing through Dark Cloud again for a couple reasons. I've only beaten the game once, and that was a long time ago, I think I was 13 at the time. Also, 13 years ago when I played this RPG, I didn't do everything, like getting ultimate weapons and defeating the optional tower dungeon. I consider Dark Cloud to be one of my favorite games, certainly among my favorite PS2 adventures, and now that I am an older father, I've been feeling this urge to re-experience some of my childhood games with my grown-up brain. 

There is a sword in Dark Cloud that you can only obtain by fishing, and the sword is a spectacular weapon to upgrade to other weapons with. Your weapons in Dark Cloud are constantly growing and changing, meaning that the sword you start to build with is just as important as the final product 40+ hours later. Having a starting sword with great stats is the most valuable item you can obtain, making the Mardan Twei the best weapon in the game.

Here's how you get it. You must first catch the rarest fish in the game, the Mardan Garayan. So, buy poisonous apples to use as bait, (the only kind that works with Garayans) and head to Matataki Village's waterfall pond. Catch this fucker after hours of frustration, and that will unlock a sword called the Mardan Eins on the list of items you can buy with Fishing Points. You still need 2500 Fishing Points to buy it, and the rarest fish only gives you 175-200 points. So......keep fishing.

After catching fish after fish, bankrupting yourself on expensive bait, trade in your 2500 FP for the sword, then head to a dungeon and start building it. Everytime your sword levels up, add the correct materia to it until it becomes the Mardan Twei. This isn't the most frustrating ultimate weapon that I have ever suffered for, (the 2nd Zodiac Spear comes to mind) but the Dark Cloud UW pisses me off because the method for obtaining this sword is so vaguely explained to the player. By the time you figure out how the fishing system works, you're several towns deep, forcing you to stop and grind for the sword instead of gradually working your way towards it through the course of the entire game. I got it though, so, mission accomplished.