Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories

"Demons? Wacky humor? Exploding penguins? Sign me up, dood!"

Remember Disgaea: Hour of Darkness? You know, that game with the exploding penguins? As in penguins that explode? Well, it's back!

STORYLINE: 7.5/10

Set in the world of Veldime, you take control of a young fist fighter named Adell who has sworn to find and defeat the infamous "God of All Overlords," Overlord Zenon.....if his mother can actually summon him first. Veldime has endured a long curse cast upon the land, transforming everyone except Adell into demons. Unfortunately, when the summoning ritual goes awry, Adell and his family end up summoning Zenon's "one and only daughter", the very spoiled and very arrogant Princess Rozalin. Due to the summoning contract, Rozalin is now bound to Adell (much to her annoyance). The two of them set out to go and find Zenon, in the hope that the curse can be lifted. Of course, lots of jokes and hilarity ensues along the way. There's nothing horrible or outstanding about the plot, but the humor makes up for it somewhat.

VISUALS: 7/10

Let's be honest--most SRPGs are not really known for their graphical quality. Much like FF Tactics, the battle maps are displayed with 2D character sprites on a 3/4 isometric field. Story scenes sometimes use 2D anime-ish art. Some of the skills your characters learn are downright awesome-looking, from summoning a huge fiery dragon that incinerates your foes to generating a wave of energy with your sword and ripping the ground apart when it hits. Character sprites are very colorful (and some extremely cute, like the Thief or Felynn).

SOUND/MUSIC: 8.5/10

There's a few annoying tunes and voice-overs, but nothing that will make you reach for the mute button. Many characters have their own theme song (with lyrics to boot!) that may cause you to hum the song even if you're not playing the game. Some of the battle voice bits can get repetitive, but overall the soundtrack is solid.

GAMEPLAY: 10/10

The shining point of the game. When not in battle, you usually chill in Adell's "home base," Holt Village. Here, you can heal up, pass bills at the Dark Assembly (ranges from making enemies stronger to asking them to add more stuff to the shops), get Subpeonas from the post officer (which allows your units to get felonies, which grant several bonuses to the person or persons who gets the conviction, dive into the Item world, buy and hock stuff at the shops, ask the dimensional guide to teleport you to the next story mission, or just simply chew the fat with some of NPCs hanging around.

In battle, you can have a party of 10 members on the field at once. Lose those 10, and the game is over. You have your choice of neat job classes too, like fighters, archers, mages, ninja, etc. You can gain mastery in the following weapon types: Sword, Fist, Gun, Spear, Axe, Bow, and Staff. When characters are adjacent to each other, there's a chance they can launch a flashy little combo if the attack command was selected. Humanoid units have the incredibly useful ability to pick up allies, objects, or enemies and chuck 'em across the map, just like in the first game. This time though, humanoids can actually ATTACK nearby enemies while holding an ally member. Called "Tower Attacks", this allows your units to form a totem pole of doom, and each stacked unit will attack in combo to rack up damage. Monster units cannot lift or throw. Geo Panels, which are colored panels that grant bonuses or penalties depending on what Geo Symbol (colored crystal) has been set on them, also make a return, and some Geo Symbols have been given the ability to move (Geo monsters). Prinnies make a comeback, you can use them as a normal party member or hurl the poor saps at the enemy, causing the prinny to explode and deal splash damage to whoever was on the receiving end of the attack.

The biggest draw, is that you can eventually raise an obscenely powerful army, with stats that go over 1 million, a level cap of 9999, and the Item World, a randomly generated dungeon that enables you to craft and strengthen any weapon, item, armor, or accessory that you choose. Then there is the Dark World, which is a harder version of the Storyline stages, as well as numerous side missions to complete, superbosses to whack, and a few secret characters that you can recruit. But don't think you can forge a super destructive army 20 minutes after you pop the game in the PS2. Getting to that godly status takes much time and patience, as the story portion only accounts for 15-20% of the entire game! And yes, there are multiple endings, some good, some bad, and some pretty damn funny.

CONTROLS: 10/10

Not much to really say about this, since almost everything is menu-driven.

---Rent or Buy?---

Definitely buy it. This is one game that can keep you busy for a long, long time, dood!

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/08/07