Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories

"'More of the same' has never been so much more..."

A few years back, Atlus published a strange little title called 'Disgaea,' produced by Nippon Ichi (N1). The game featured a hilarious plot, somewhat in-depth character customization, and unique worlds inside of each item that you could explore, ultimately making the item more powerful. A handful of other games have come from N1 since then, but many feel that, while these games were great themselves, they could capture what Disgaea had, and many fans of the game wanted more. A more diverse cast. Most customization. More secrets. More worlds to explore.

Ask, and you shall receive.

Graphics - 10/10

Nippon Ichi reverts it's graphics back to Disgaea's style, in which we had these large (but not ridiculously big) and well-detailed sprites. There are a lot of cool looking new character classes this time, area maps and backgrounds all look nice too. Infact, unlike the first game, there are several new layouts or almost 'themes' for the Item World now. Weapons and such all have unique sprites and icons again and everything looks quite good put together. Special attacks and spells are all as over-the-top as ever, including some attacks that make their return from Disgaea, that are re-done, and look even better than ever, and several other new attacks. Overall, everything looks pretty nice, and although the sprites aren't the absolute best in 2-D gaming, they certainly are about the best that N1 has offered thus far.

Story - 9/10

The story in the original game was quite episodic; it almost played out like an anime. Each episode didn't necessarily feel connected to the last. D2's plot line seems more connected from each chapter to chapter, although the game overall still doesn't yell 'large scale, epic RPG!' It almost seems like a side-story, or something of that nature.

As the game opens, we're introduced to Adel, a strong young man who's homeworld has been cursed by the nefarious Maou Zenon. Adel has decided to set out and settle the score with Zenon, along with Rosalind, who may somehow be related to Xenon...The story sets off from there, and you'll meet both new, and a few old faces, including Akutare, the game's equivalent of Disgaea's Mid-boss, and you'll also run into Etna from time to time, who seems to have her own score to settle with Xenon. (No shortage of the obligatory exploding-on-impact penguin Prinnies, of course.)

Sadly, the game itself seems quite short, as it's fairly easy to beat the main story in 10-20 hours. Each chapter has an average of 5 maps to clear, which range from incredibly easy, to somewhat annoying, but the game, as a whole, manages to stick together pretty well, all things considered.

While the main storyline is somewhat short, there are several new worlds to check out, including the return of a completely revamped item world, a 'Dark' world, featuring inverted versions of all of the maps you've cleared during the story, but with much harder enemies and obsticles to overcome, as well as possibly more worlds to discover beyond those...

The Dark assembly is back as well, but it too seems like it's been made a bit more complex this time around. You still enter the DA to petition bills, such as unlocking secret areas, certain character classes, strengthening enemies, and increasing the shop's inventory. Like in the first game, you can check each 'senetor's' afinity toward you, and see if they'll likely vote for or against you. You can bribe them with items still, and, interestingly enough, you'll sometimes come into the assembly to see various senators who are sleeping or drunk, so their votes might not count at all, or they might vote in the opposite direction you'd expect them to. There are also occasionally special DA members who will do various things like change the votes around them, or nullify the votes of other members. Of course, if all this fails, you can once again choose to beat the unholy crap out of the dark assembly for shooting your proposed bills down....

Control - 10/10

Control is just what you'd expect from an N1 game; very 'pick up and play' easy, and even moreso if you've played the first game, since the interface and menu layout are pretty much identical. N1 scrapped the 'free-range' movement of it's last two SRPGs, and brought back it's grid-based movement system of LP and the first Disgaea game. While some would consider this a downgrade, it really still works quite well, and helps the battlefields maintain a less cluttered feel and appearance.

Battles - 9/10

Battles take place much like they did in the first game; You start with a base panel, and can deploy a certain number of units, and have them all act at once. Once you end your turn, the entire enemy force then moves in. Then back to you, etc.

The battle system maintains many of the same factors of the first, yet polishes them up, to make them work better. Some of the returning features, which I will break down, include the following; The job class system, the item world, team attacks, special attacks, several weapon-types and affinities, etc.

First off, the jobclass system is back, as you'd expect, and is quite similar to the first game. There is a good blend of old and new here, too. Many classes return from Disgaea, but there are also several new ones for you to create and use. Unlocking them is a bit different. For new classes, you generally need to reach certain requirements such as be on a specific level, or skill level, then you have to petition the bill in the Dark Assembly to unlock the character for good. You also have to use each tier of a class to unlock the next tier. In Disgaea, you only really had to level up the base-tier to a certain point, and you'd unlock every tier in that class, including the final tier. This pretty much made everything except for the first and final tier of that 'family' of classes pretty much worthless. In D2, using one tier only unlocks the next rank up, not all of them. For example, you'll need to use the tier 1 warrior to unlock the second tier. You'll need to use the second tier to unlock the third tier, etc, etc. Each class still has it's own apptitudes and weapon growth, too. This time, classes are a lot more balanced this time around, too. Nothing is really statistically awful this time around, and there aren't any broken, over-powered classes (Like the Majins from Disgaea) this time either. There are still 'ultimate' classes, of course, but even the best class in the game is not necessarily the 'best'-just the most rounded. Other classes may have higher apptitudes, and the best class has low movement, and is slow to level up, which will make you think twice about using them this time around. Apptitudes are still there, and for those of you who might not have played the first, apptitudes basically just determine exactly what you're going to receive from an item, stat-wise. For example, if you have an item that gives you 100 points to ATK, and you equip it to a character that only has a 90% ATK apptitude, you'll only get 90 out of the 100 points for that weapon. So, it's best to equip characters with what they're innately best with, although you can technically equip characters with anything. Another good thing is that your story based characters are a lot more useful this time around, because their apptitudes and weapon proficiencies are a lot more balanced this time around, too. Transmigration is also back, as you could assume. This allows you to revert a character back to level 1, from whatever level they were originally on. Why would you want to do this? Well, it'll allow your base-stats to be higher, meaning that your stats will get all-around higher, and grow faster. It also allows you to take a character and change his or her class into a newer character.

The Geo symbols/panels are back too, and there are plenty of new ones that weren't in the first game, even. Occasionally when you're fighting you'll notice various different colored panels on the ground. These will give your characters different effects if you stand on them, which range anywhere from making your character invincible, to disabling their attack options. Sometimes throughout the story maps, geo panels, on their own, or in conjunction with the topography of the map, make it nigh-impossible to clear stages with one character alone. So, you'll often need to utilize the lifting and throwing ability of your characters (more often than in the first game, definitely) to clear some story maps that are heavy on geo panels. Another new feature is the geostone monsters that will sometimes appear on stages. Sometimes, there are small monsters underneath geostones, and when they move, they carry the stones with them, usually transferring whatever effects there were on certain panels over to other panels. This sometimes makes it an urgency to stop these monsters, as they can move effects over to you that you were trying to avoid.

Again, the item world is back, and a whole lot more complex this time time around. Well, the core idea is still the same; Enter into an item, and progress through various levels, defeating certain enemies along the way, and making your way to the gate to the next floor, and this will level up your item. Leveling up your items causes them to become more powerful, as well as add more benefits, like increase population slots, etc. However, the item world just seems like so much more this time around. Firstly, it isn't nearly as boring to look at, or traverse this time around, as there are a number of different level designs and themes, such as volcanic looking levels, regular looking ones, and levels that look like they're made out of slime (or is that frosting....?). Besides the (orange) gate that leads to the next level, you'll sometimes see green gates which lead you to areas where you can find secret shops, find treasure chests, or fight battles that can increase your item's levels beyond their maximum, if you win. Specialists (or Innocents) are still there, and they work the same way as they did in Disgaea; if you come across an innocent, you subdue it by slaying (??) it in battle, and that will double it's numerical value, and it will also allow you to move it to other equipment. These innocents can do things like raise your stats, increase the amount of mana or money you gain, as well as a plethora of other things. Items still come in three types; Regular, Rare, and Legendary, and each item will have higher base stats and population slots, depending on what type it is. Items each still have a certain rarity (anywhere from 0 rarity to 255 rarity; The lower the number, the 'more' rare it is) and equipping items of the same rarity will increase your stats even further. Once in awhile, the screen will flash red, and high-leveled enemies will suddenly appear. These enemies are item world pirates that appear from time to time. If you happen to defeat them, they'll drop map pieces, and if you collect all of them, you may unlock something completely new to explore...All in all, the basic item world remains unchanged, but it's got several new features and options for you to uncover while you play.

Another new feature to D2 is the 'convictions' system. By preforming certain actions (using a weapon too much, getting your stats to a certain point, being too high leveled) your character will get convicted of that crime. You can collect crime papers that have certain specialists on them. These specialists are actually new gates that appear in the item world (They'll be blue gates) which you can enter, and your characters will appear before a court, where they'll be judged for their crimes. Why would you want to be convicted of crimes, you ask? Well, being convicted of crimes, and doing things wrong is a GOOD thing. By being convicted, you'll receive items or money, or various other rewards from the court, and your character will also be stamped with a criminal record. The more convictions you get, the higher your recored will be. This record actually has its own little benefits, and you'll get things like more experience for defeating enemies, and well has higher Dark Assembly ratings for having more convictions.

Probably one of the most important features that this game has, that many games need is the ability to turn off skill and special attack animations. That's right, you can turn off the attack animations. It's something that has been needed in just about all of these games. This feature is critical, as many avid fans of N1s games would assume, since power-leveling in the later portions of the game tend to take 3x as long as they should, since you're watching Winged Slayer execute again and again, and while it looked great on the first 10 times you saw it, it doesn't look so cool after you've seen it for the 12,000th time. But this option does make leveling, and item world exploration much, much more enjoyable.

The battle system does have...a few slight problems. In D2, you'll sometimes see treasure chests that you can break for items or money on each level. Most of the rewards are so minimal, that you just end up not caring about them much, but for some reason, the enemies just insist on attacking the chests until they're destroyed. This means that, for at least a full round or two, most of the enemies will be completely preoccupied with this, and they pose no real threat. Also, enemies will still use large AoE attacks, to hit your characters, but they'll also hit 3 of their own allies in the process, usually doing more damage to them than they do to you. You can also still send out a weak character or two as decoys, to draw their attacks away from your main attacker. All of this combined makes you wonder just where the AI programmers were half the time. It's not always so bad, when the enemies don't have diversions like this. Infact, I've seen the AI do a lot of odd things to help themselves on purpose, too. Like, if they're standing on 'damage reverse' geopanels, they'll all attack eachother, which results in them healing themselves. I thought this was just because of my reasons above at first, but when I realized there were no diversions in the way, they were actually doing this on purpose. So, all in all, the enemy AI is really quite the mixed bag, so to speak...

Music - 9/10

The music itself was quite good, I thought. There are even some returning songs from the first game that made their way into this game, and some of the music is just quite upbeat and neat, like the voiced theme songs for Akutare and Etna.

Replay - 9/10

As you'd expect from a Nippon Ichi game, there is really no shortage of extra content here. You'll have to play through the game at least twice to get everything, and there are a handful of secret bosses and characters to fight and such, and some classes that can only be unlocked on your second playthrough. The item world and the other extra worlds really add a lot of play time, and this game houses some secret bosses that could make the ones from other N1 games hide in fear. There are many other extra things to be discovered as well, of course.

Overall - 9/10

I was a little torn. I really wanted to give this game a 10, but the fact that the main story is somewhat short, coupled with some funky AI problems, make me feel like I should take a little off. They aren't even that big of problems (especially not the story things, since there is a veritable mountain of extra things to do, find, and see) but the AI thing just makes half of the enemies you come across not that threatening. Aside from that, the game is just a lot better, in almost every respect, and I would easily say that it certainly is probably the best N1 game. If you liked Disgaea, you'll love Disgaea 2, if for no other reason than all that extra content. If you didn't like Disgaea, or just don't like grid-based tactical RPGs, then you should probably look elsewhere, because the core mechanics and gameplay are all identical, and it's just got lots of shiny newness. I certainly recommend the game if you did like the previous one though, and this game makes me look quite forward to what N1 has in store for us in their future SRPG installments...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/20/06