Get your characters out of an inn, choose view character from the menu-list, and then once you are in the bottom area next to your characters, push left on the directional pad, and while you are holding that, press both the A and C buttons at once. Then, when you see the strange characters (They are incapacitated and usually have very strange stats like 0 Intelligence etc.), only push left, if you try to go right to go back to something, it will only show your characters, and you will have to go back in the way I told you. The most powerful weapons, armor and items are in here, including the keys and
lo and behold, I even got the Earth Talon that way once.

Don't use it too much, the game will glitch and re-initialize itself. If you are fair with it- and the game sees you are having a really hard time with something, the answer to the problem may be in the cheat menu waiting for you. Example : My characters, all archers, kept getting diseased by the Killer Cadavers and Dancing Dead in the forest. I looked in the Cheat Menu when I got exasperated over it. There, I saw both a Dove's Blood and two Holy Charms. It let me take all of it,
and fighting the undead was a lot less hapless.