Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories

"Tragedyland? The only tragedy is the continued obscurity of N1 games."

In most RPGs, the atmosphere is dark and moody. They typically have stories filled with passionate romance, evil organizations, and dramatic betrayals. Disgaea 2 does not fall into the category of “most RPGs”. It takes itself far less seriously than your everyday RPG, instead going for the more fun and comedic route. It works, and because of it, Disgaea 2 is an excellent game worthy of a purchase.

Before the story of Disgaea 2, a demon overlord known as Zenon put a curse on the people of a backwater world named Veldime, turning them into demons. The game puts you in the role of Adell, a demon hunter, and the last true human on the planet. After a failed attempt to summon Zenon to Adell's home town in an effort to break the curse, Adell finds himself bound to Zenon's daughter by the summoning ritual. The plot carries on from there, with Adell trying to defeat Zenon, and Zenon's daughter trying to be reunited with him – while fighting both alongside and against each other in the process.

Disgaea 2 is divided into thirteen chapters, each with approximately four stages. The story is given to the player piece by piece, at the beginning of each stage as well as at the beginning and end of each chapter. The voice acting is relatively solid, though there are a couple of younger characters who may get on your nerves a bit. On a similar note, the dialogue can be a little cringe-worthy at times, but it should still amuse you even if it doesn't make you laugh out loud.

Rather than using 3D cinematics to tell the story, Disgaea 2 mostly presents the plot through a combination of the graphics from the regular gameplay as well as what can best be described as a comic with voice acting. The art style is anime-esque, and it looks quite nice as a result. In fact, there are even a couple of animated scenes that look as though they came straight from the Disgaea anime, though sadly they don't occur at all during the main story.

Musically, the game is rather hit or almost hit. In general, the music is somewhat goofy, and typically lacking in lyrics. However, certain characters and bosses have their own battle themes, which are mostly done in a style known as Japanese-Pop. Admittedly, this style isn't appreciated by everybody, but the music as a whole is hard to dislike and always manages to do an excellent job of setting the mood. While you may not love the music, you'll certainly appreciate the fact that it does what it was meant to do quite well.

The basic in-battle gameplay of Disgaea 2 isn't too large of a departure from your typical Strategy RPG. You move characters around a grid-based map in a turn-based fashion, they have various classes, each with different attacks and other abilities, and the objective is to defeat all of the enemy units on the map. There are some extra mechanics, such as picking up and throwing characters, as well as combo attacks, but in general it isn't really different from whatever Strategy RPGs you may be used to. Outside of battles, you can purchase equipment and items, and you have the opportunity to petition to the Dark Assembly for various things such as stronger enemies, additional maps, new characters, and much more. The overworld is basically a central hub, used mainly for dealing with supplies, and getting you from one stage to the next.

The primary gameplay of Disgaea 2 is certainly solid, but it doesn't stand out as anything spectacular. The true drawing point of the game is its potentially overwhelming amount of additional content. For every storyline map, there is a “dark” version that can be unlocked by accomplishing certain feats, where there are more difficult enemies as well as extra factors that do not come into play on regular stages. There is also an unlockable hub world, where additional characters may be used, and enemies are much stronger.

Even beyond variations of the main story stages, there are several that can be unlocked using the Dark Assembly. These typically contain miniature stories of their own, quite often featuring cameos of characters from the original Disgaea, and having rewards of new characters, maps, and even alternate endings to the game. While they aren't nearly as fleshed out as the regular levels, they can be fun diversions from the main quest.

Amazingly enough, there is still more to the game than the many extra features mentioned above. The maximum level in the game is 9999, and you can “reincarnate” characters, starting them again at level 1, and giving them permanent stat boosts based on the total “stored” levels they have ever gained. Also, every item in the game has its own randomly generated dungeon that you have the option of entering in order to make the item even more powerful. The strongest enemy in the game has a whopping 160,000,000 hit points, so making use of this system is a must if you're the type of person who needs to conquer all of the additional content in games.

Unfortunately, the game isn't perfect. The story is decent and funny, but it isn't particularly amazing or gripping. Disgaea 2 also fails to fully teach about things such as the Item Worlds and Stored Levels, so the player may have trouble getting started with the additional content. While they are explained to a certain degree, the game leaves out the finer details, meaning that the player might be forced to resort to using an FAQ in order to get the most out of the game. It is also not the most difficult game out there, with the challenge coming more from facing higher leveled enemies than from enemies with unique abilities that make you think.

Disgaea 2 is a fun and enjoyable game, despite its unfortunate lack of difficulty. There are some aspects that not all people are fans of, but they typically don't take away from the experience of the game. Ultimately though, Disgaea 2 is a game built on its extra content, which can make for hundreds of hours of quality gaming. When it comes down to it, is there really any more that we can ask for from a video game?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/07