Hello! Welcome to Cyan's Strange Day Out 2! 
Before you get started, there's a few things you should know.


1. Controls and Mechanics

This game uses standard RPG Maker controls. Use the Arrow Keys to move, Enter to select things, and Shift to speed up the players and cutscenes.

Alternatively, the game can be played with only a mouse. When moving, you can click where you want your characters to go, or click on things they can interact with.
In battle, you can click on whatever command you wish to use as well.

Speaking of battles, they're also your standard RPG Maker experience. Each character has an HP Bar and if it reaches 0, they die. 
If all the characters in your current party are dead, then it's Game Over, and you return to your last Save Point.

Each character also has some Magic Skills / Spells for you to use, though some have more magic than others. Every Magic spell costs some amount of MP to use.
Finally, there's Superskills. Characters will gain Superskill Points (SSP) as they deal and take damage. Once they reach 100 SSP, they can perform their Superskill.

Aside from offense, characters may also choose to Guard or use an Item. 
There are tons of different items with loads of different effects that you will find over the course of your adventure.
Lastly, you can try to Flee from a battle you don't want to fight, but if the enemies are faster than your party, your escape may not be very successful.

As you fight enemies you will recieve Experience Points (EXP), and your characters will level up. Levelling up will improve the characters' stats and they may learn a new Spell.
The maximum level is 50, and it is recommended you reach this level before the game's last few bosses.
Even if a character isn't present during a battle, they will still recieve EXP, unless they are dead.

On the course of your adventure, you will meet various colored Crystals, who serve to assist you.
The Red Crystal will heal your party's HP. The Purple Crystal will heal your party's MP. The Yellow Crystal only serves to revive fallen allies.
The White Crystal serves as a reminder to save and is placed before tough Boss Battles.
Lastly, the Cyan Crystal, also known as the Hint Crystal, is a recurring character who will give you useful tips on how to progress, or possibly point out some Easter Eggs.


2. Where's Cyan's Strange Day Out 1?

Yes, as the 2 in the title implies, this game is a sequel, however, CSDO1 has yet to be officially released. This is because, to put it simply, CSDO1 is a really bad game.

However, the fact that CSDO1 is unaccessable by the public is certainly an issue, since this game does refer back to it sometimes. While I tried my best to explain everything
that happened is CSDO1 when it becomes relevant in this game, it could still lead to some confusion, so I'll briefly explain what happens below:

Cyan wakes up in a mountainous area. He's a human, but looks a little different from his normal self, and is also equipped with a Gauntlet with sharp Claws on it.
Progressing through the mountains Cyan meets up with friends of his; Phoenix, Ottawa / Jeremy, and Froyoyo, who also woke up different from their normal selves with weapons.
Froyoyo became the master of the Skeletown, a town full of peaceful Skeletons. After leaving the town, Cyan recalls what happened before he woke up in this world.
Cyan had accidentally downloaded a virus onto his computer. This virus fused itself with a PNG image of a Crocomire crossed with a Missingno to create Evermire. Evermire's one ambition,
as a virus, was to spread, and essentially conquer the world. It seems what happened was the Evermire somehow grabbed the 4 humans and dragged them into the Digital Realm, and they
were all currently stuck in the world Evermire had created.
Advancing through a desert and a cave, the team finds the demon Christophe, a henchman of Evermire's who had a knack for changing his form. They defeated Christophe and proceeded
through a portal to a snowy area.
Trudging through the snow, the team comes across a second Skeletown. In this town they meet a Cat, who helps the team collect 4 Legendary Weapons.
After the Cold Skeletown the team travels through Land's End, an area that had been corrupted from Evermire's presence. At the end of Land's End they find Evermire's Castle.
In the Castle, the team fights Christophe again, who becomes very jealous after he loses again. They also fight a robot called a Titan before facing off against Evermire.
Evermire reveals they are stuck in an RPG Maker Game he designed to kill them, but since they're all still alive, Evermire has taken it upon himself to dispose of them, and
transforms into a monstrous Demon. However, the 4 heroes prevail, and a portal takes them home.

Cyan's Strange Day Out 2 picks up right where this game left off, with some exposition in the beginning to explain what happened.

CSDO1 will release eventually as a Director's Cut edition, making it not completely awful. In fact, if you're reading this in the future, perhaps CSDO1 has been released and everything
I just wrote is totally useless.


3. Glitches, Bugs, and other Oddities

This game isn't perfect, I'm aware, but I tried my hardest to fix all the glitches and bugs. However, a few still persist, and I'll point them out here.

-Spell Order: When you learn a new Spell, it may appear in a totally random spot in your Spell List. This is a fault of RPG Maker and would be very hard to fix, however, there may be
 a plugin that does solve this issue. When this game gets its Final Release, I will try to sort out this problem.
 A similar problem also happens with things like Items and Weapons, though it isn't quite as noticeable.

-Twitching Graphics: When characters perform certain commands, their sprites may "twitch" to some degree. I'm not really sure what causes this, but I've done everything I can to the 
 Sprite Sheets to try and prevent this. 
 This happens most commonly when certain characters Guard or Die.

-Amalgajonan's Face: When you meet Amalgajonan, the face shown when he talks is very different from what he actually looks like. The face was a placeholder I forgot to remove, and will
 be fixed in the official release.

-Inconsistant Art Styles: This can be observed with the faces of certain Original Characters who aren't based on anything from RPG Maker, as well as the battle sprites of certain 
 late-game bosses. This is because I don't draw in the RPG Maker art style, but needed to put the characters in the game somehow. This will most likely not be changed.

-[POSSIBLE] Debug Malcolms: When testing the game, I used events that look like Buff Malcolm EX to teleport the characters where I needed them, or to give them something. I believe I
            removed all of them, but I'm not certain. If you see what appears to be a Debug Object, please tell me so I can find and remove it.
	    Not all of them look like Malcolm EX, but if they do something like teleport you somewhere strange, give you crazy powerful Weapons, have you fight an enemy called 
            "Testy Westy", or activate Walk-Through-Walls, it's most likely not intentional.

-[POSSIBLE] Christophe EX too OP: Christophe EX, fought in round 6 of the Colosseum, is a mandatory boss if the player wants the Good Ending, however he was never properly Beta-Tested
            and may be insanely difficult. If he is, then I apologize.
	    The last of this game's Bonus Bosses, who I won't reveal the name of, falls into a similar category. However, this boss can be skipped if the player already knows the hint
	    they'd recieve if they were to beat him.

-[POSSIBLE] Traversing Heck: There is an optional area in the game called Heck, however I never tested it without Walk-Through-Walls. As far as I'm aware it's perfectly funtional,
            but if it isn't I apologize.

-[POSSIBLE] Falling Apart Right at the End: I admit, I rushed the game's Endings. I'm almost certain the Good Ending works fine, but the Bad Ending may accidentally softlock.

-[POSSIBLE] Game Crashes During Large Bosses: Some larger enemies such as Abominations, Buff Malcolms, and Evermire's forms appear to be quite taxing for the game, and during testing
            the game Crashed during one of these boss fights. If this happens, I recommend not using Spells that hit multiple times and to not Speed Up with Shift.

-[POSSIBLE] Inability to Save: As far as I'm aware the Windows version does not have this problem, but the Mac version might. For the Mac version I installed a Plugin created by
            taarna23 that should fix this issue, but I don't have a Mac so I have no idea. There is NEVER a point in the game where you cannot Save, so if you find the Save Command or
            Save Crystal not working, it is a major issue.

IF YOU FIND ANY GLITCHES, OR ANYTHING YOU THINK COULD BE A GLITCH OR BUG, PLEASE CONTACT ME (CYAN CROCOMIRE) IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE SO I CAN FIX IT!!!!!


4. The Good Ending

This game features a Good and Bad Ending, however the Good Ending is quite hard to get and involves a lot of obscure secrets. Since it will be very difficult for new players to
figure out what to do, I have supplied a second Readme with the game that will guide you through all the steps to the Good Ending if you want.

Of course, if you want to try and decipher the clues yourself, feel free, but if you're ever stuck, the guide is there.

(And yes the Good Ending is the Canonical, True Ending)


5. The Future of CSDO2 and the Series in General

I've mentioned it before, but this is just the Beta of the game, not exactly the Final Version. Sometime in the future, there will be a Definitive Edition of this game that fixes Bugs,
reworks certain parts, and adds more content. I don't have a release date, but I don't think it will be for a while.

As I also mentioned earlier, I'll relase CSDO1 at some point in the near future.

Lastly, I'll bring up the possibility of CSDO3. I've thought about it, and it probably will happen at some point, but it might not be a Game. Instead, it might be Comic Series or
perhaps even a Book. Speaking of Comics, I do plan of a Cyan Crocomire-themed Comic that tells the story of Cyan against Evil Master Cylinder Arms, as a sort of Spinoff from the
Strange Day Out series.

And then, of course, there's other games I hope to make. I have plans for totally original IPs, and my dream is to become a Game Developer, so I'm not gonna stop making Video Games
any time soon, even if they don't feature Cyan and Co.


Alright, I think that's everything. If you've read all of this, I appreciate it. If you ever have any Comments, Criticisms, Concerns, or Questions regarding this game, feel free to 
contact me any way possible. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Discord, and of course YouTube. 

I hope you enjoy Cyan's Strange Day Out 2!

