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KaiTenSatsuma
09-03-2006, 06:26 PM
i figured since i reviewed the first disgaea and another NIS game i might as well follow up and do the second one, please note im not completely done with the game since i only got it yesterday, but i think ive covored enough of it to make a pretty fair review. (all considered 30 hours between friday 7pm, to 8pm saturday, and being at the end of chapter 11, AND not being bored or annoyed or anything sounds more than fair to me)

In Disgaea 2, in a world seperate from the netherworld that our friends Laharl, Etna and Flonne where left at, you take control of a young man named Adell, the only human left in his world. When you start the game you see him standing next to a 3x3 demon names "Mom" who is standing near what looks like a giant pot, with the intention of summoning an Overlord named Zennon.

and thats all im saying to keep spoilers low, its hard enough already...

The battle system is pretty much ripped from Disgaea with a few minor tweaks, my favorite among them the new "Tower Attack", remember how in Disgaea you could grab many characters and lift them together to use them to get from point A to B quickly? Well now you can do the same thing, and do massive damage using that giant tower of characters you have, this is a good way to level really low level characters since everyone gets XP for kills this way.

Also in the battle system is a slew of new weapon skills for the original 7(6) Disgaea weapons, there are no joke weapons like in Makai Kingdom, so i apologize to all who enjoyed it, on the topic of weapons, Adell is a Fist user, so heads up to all unused to fist weapons (i know i didnt, i just stuck with swords and spears with the occasional axe) Use of a weapon over a long time creates a "Lover" item innocent, but ill go into that later.

Music is composed by Sato Tenpei, the same man from the 1st Disgaea, you can tell by listening to some of the new peices, and some remixed new peices, the music is debatable depending on your taste, i enjoyed it personally.

The graphics used in battle and the map are sprites like in the old game, except higher detail and in battle many effects seem to be hand drawn, or at least are computer generated so well you cant tell the difference, unlike Disgaea most character chat takes on a map with the sprites moving, and acting along with their lines with a decent amount of full body character picture chats (if you dont know what im talking about imagine what they did in Disgaea while people talked)

ok music....graphics...battle.... ah right story.

Cant say much without spoiling anything... the story is much more connected than it was in Disgaea, but with all due respect Disgaea was modeled to be like an anime, and Disgaea 2 with more story, the least i can say is that it is fitting. The story is divided between 13 chapters, which are chock full of cameos of characters between makai kingdom and Disgaea 2, there may be more but i am uncertin.

ill go in depth more as soon as i completely finish the game, i apologize but these usually take around 45 minutes. add whatever comments you like i guess.

KaiTenSatsuma
09-04-2006, 04:51 PM
The geo system is back in full swing and certainly more applied in this game than in the last Disgaea, there are several Geo Puzzles you need to solve, one which is a maze, another practically a race against time to clear out of the panels and destroy those pesky ally damage 20% geo signs while fighting off a some fairly strong monsters, nothing to complain about here it was very well done.

New in the game is the Dark World! a hellish mirror world of maps you have beaten (actually mostly its reached certain requirements in) and unlocked for the Dark Guide to teleport you to (the dark guide is unlocked via finding 5 hidden buttons in town, dont ask me where since i just walked around clicking, i think 2 are ontop of buildings, 1 is near a tree and another behind a fallen pillar) after finding all 5 buttons you battle the dark guide (level 100 archer!) to gain access to the dark world for the rest of the game, and following cycles (be warned, as with the old Disgaea when you start another cycle all of your maps are gone, this includes these hellhole maps, ill explain why theyre so bad in a moment) not only are these maps filled with amazingly strong monsters and the new "Dark Sun"! which makes specified effects every so often, shown in the "Dark Sun Report" (example, you know that 1st beginner map you play thats so easy? now it has three level 80 monsters on it ready to eat you...that, and every 2 turns, you know those ones that are dead? like the first two? theyre back!) to cancle the dark sun effects you need to kill it, thats right, kill that giant flaming ball in the sky, this can only be done by powerful characters which will ascend into the sun and fight it, who are also, innocent of any felonies! have fun, this is why i dont suggest stacking people into Dark Court, i should also add sending people with felonies into the sun levels the monsters on the map up, kills that person and pretty much f^#&s you over hardcore, anyone sent into the sun cannot come back, so make sure you kill the big flaming grinning evil ball in one try huh? Another slightly cool thing is that your interface changes to fit the new dark world, i think it looks pretty good.

Also new, and most heard of i suppose, is the Dark Court! your characters can now commit "crimes" crimes include having too much hp, being too high level, and existing in one funny scenario. Dark Court takes place in the Item World, you receive an item with a bailiff innocent on it with a level, the level of the bailiff shows what level the Dark Court entrance will be on inside of the item you receive, be forewarned that if a bailiff is too high level for the item you receive you can move him to an item that can reach the level of the bailiff and entrance. In court you are judged for your crimes and given felonies, think of them as war medals (at least thats what the judge says) also the more you have the more experiance you receive from kills and the less you pay for items in shop! (this is a "highest takes proiority" thing for the shop, not cumulitive) along with the felonies you are given a gift which is usually money for your crimes.

Heads up on the dark court, whoever steps into the court gate will be judged, the court isnt too picky, i suggest sending in the wrong person, sending in the right person carrying a tower of people, and the wrong person carrying a tower of people for entertainment! other than that i suggest keeping a decent amount of innocent people around so they can kill the Dark Sun.

geo..dark sun...dark court... the dark assembly!

The dark assembly has received a pretty good overhaul since the last disgaea, no longer does each senator just do their own thing, they are now in a party! there are the ork party, the ghost party, the justice party, the mothman party, the Golem Party and i forget the last one, whatever, theyre full of lushies, youll know it when you see their names. Each party has a race of monster assigned to it and share a base view on things (gifting one senator to a lesser effect affects all of them, maybe not immediatly but theyll see things your way soon enough) the art of bribery seems easier this time through since there are less senators usually at once, there are more things they accept, and there are special senator items, my favorite among which, Hard Liquior! Along with these parties there are Legendary Senators which are said to cause major problems when they actually show up for a vote, so far i have only encountered 4 of them and i dont know if there are any more, but whatever the case is i suggest having them on your side, if you need to result to "forced negotiations" youll pretty much need to throw every senator into your highest level senator to "beat" the legendary senators, on account of their being level 1000. in addition to parties there is no longer a "Yea - Nay = Mana needed to start vote = bill pass" formula in place, majority of voice rules in this one, and each party level has a different strength voice, the Golems and the Drunks with the strongest ones. Another interesting addition to the assembly is that Adell can become a senator himself, though you need to be voted in, but once you are you can enter in sessions where each party is trying to get a stronger voice and wont mind parting with some items to get it (ie, you can "request" items from the senators trying to pass the bill, i only suggest this at lower levels since they pretty much dont carry jack most of the time, on the plus side winning them the vote makes their voices stronger in assembly makeing your time in court if youre on their good side easier) certine characters in your party can request a bill to pass also, one character asks you to "donate" all of your money to her, this reduces all of your money to 0 once you get a high enough amount for the vote to start, and good luck not getting it to pass since every senator is at "LOVE <3" or completely for the bill at the beginning. (TIP - you can take your bribes with you if you leave court to HQ after taking up whatever items you wanted)

ok rating!

Graphics - a very well made sprite set along with fitting world and hand drawn pictures used in many situations, great battle effects and since im not one of those idiots who thinks they could have done this on the ps1, since they couldn't, i know since even Castlevania: SOTN slows down majorly, i give it a 9/10!

Sound - English and Japanese voices interchangable including battle voices, some people may complain about the prinnies and etna... and probably laharl judging from the trailer, but i found them fitting, voice acting was top notch in the japanese side, i havnt even wanted to check the english side since i fear our voice actors more than half of the time. 7/10 since i cringe at the english side.

Story - Multiple endings, a Crappy Raiden to Cool Raiden switch for one character, and twists i didnt even see coming at times, but being able to guess who a mystery character was without even getting to point where i was supposed to know kinda annoyed me, a bit of confusion might ensue near the end. 7/10

Control - Easy, menuverable and the menues are well set up to use, inventory can get annoying at times but thats why we have the R2 and L2 buttons to skip 10 forward and back, very neat to say the least. 10/10

Replayability - 10/10 hands down, i dont have much to say here! multiple endings, a level barrier of 9999, side bosses, side maps, side everything, there are even item world pirates and secret rooms inside of the item world!

Moment of Truth! - 8.5/10! i only wish they included a music disk like they did with Phantom Brave, i really enjoyed Axel's Theme.

wow looking at this now you'd think i was typing a guide for the game...

oh god.. ahaha http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/09/04