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The fan-favorite strategy RPG comes back for round two. Disgaea established Nippon Ichi Software as one of the premier developers for strategy RPGs. Disgaea 2 has obviously been developed with the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality, but the game remains are good as ever even three years later.
Disgaea 2, for all of the hardcore gameplay, doesn’t take itself too seriously. The game stars Adell, apparently the only human live. He’s on the search for Overlord Zenon who is going around cursing people’s memories and consciences. Adell is joined on this quest by Princess Rozalin, Zenon’s daughter who also has it in for her father for different reasons. Although Adell and Rozalin begin by having an adversarial relationship, they’ll learn to like each other throughout their adventure. The story is actually quite funny despite the seemingly dreadful circumstances, a fact enhanced by the crazy characters you meet including a ninja girl, a washed-up celebrity and a flying frog.
As mentioned above, Disgaea 2 plays nearly identical to its predecessor. Basically, before each mission, you’ll have the option of buying stuff and talking with random critters. The actual fights comprise the bulk of the actual game. In these battles, you can use up to 10 of your characters to defeat the enemies that appear on the map. Your characters will gain experience, skills, and abilities as you level up. Actually, even the game’s items level up. There are a number of character classes that you will need to be aware off to have a party that includes melee fighters, ranged fighters and magic users. The game has some wrinkles to the Disgaea formula. For example, some of the map will have a certain color. If you attack from this portion of the map, you’ll have some additional benefits. The battle system is a complex system of checks and balances that experienced players will definitely enjoy. However, the game does try to be accessible for newcomers and you’re given a lot of helpful information to help you make key decisions.
The game’s graphics are very similar to those in the first game. The first game was decidedly old-school with cute 2D sprites and simple 3D environments. You’ll find much of the same graphics here with similar looking characters and environments. The characters’ spells look pretty good thanks to some fancy special effects. Unlike some games that rely on their graphical prowess, Disgaea focuses on building a cohesive and charming looking game despite its simplicity.
The audio in Disgaea is expectedly well-done. The English language voice acting sounds great with good writing that preserved the original game’s humor very well. If you’re a diehard fan, there is even an option to hear the Japanese language voice acting in the game. The soundtrack fits the game’s humor and action very well, and the same can be said of the minimal sound effects in the game.
Disgaea 2 doesn’t make huge strides forward but the game still works very well. There are some changes in here which do improve the game, but really, there was little to improve upon in the first place. The game includes a solid 40 hours of gameplay for the main story line, but you can get countless other hours building up your characters and exploring every bit of the game. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Oct 24, 2006
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