Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories

[Bassman]

My Japanese Disgaea 2 arrived yesterday. I played it for about 4 hours last night. I have figured out the basics. THe main gameplay being identical to the first game helps somewhat.

I have no idea what is going on, though there have been a few visual laughs along the way. The appearance of a film crew led by a Steven Spielberg lookalike was an interesting touch.

I have created a couple of new characters and I think I know where you can transmigrate characters. I even managed to gain a character after one map. It is mainly the options for the Dark Assembly that I have no clue about, though I suspect they probably match the ones in the first game to an extent.

[eastyy]

Looking forward to this but i shall wait for the english version

Do you see many of the original characters? and whats been added to the battle system

cheers

[Bassman]

I've only done a couple of chapters plus the tutorial so have not seen any of the old characters yet.

->Open Spoiler<-

I believe that at least Flonne, Laharl and Etna make appearances.

There are new character types in there and some of the visual effects of the spells seems to have changed a bit.

A good update is the size of the item bag and warehouse. These are now 24 items and 512 items respectively which is better.

The battles are pretty much identical to before, though I believe there are some new geo pyramids. The only one I can recognise at the moment is the EXP ones!!

Movement still works on the grid system. I can't remember if there were chests before but there are some now which you can attack for the contents.

On the home screen there are 8 characters for various things. You are now outside. There is one for the Weapons shop, one for the Accessory shop, one for the Armour shop, one for healing, one for the Item World, one for help (I think), one for the Assembly options and one for the gate to the next place to visit.

The options menus are pretty much identical to the first game.

I was just pointed to this page from someone on Gamefaqs:

http://akurasu.net/wiki/index.php?title=Makai_Senki_Disgaea_2

[eastyy]

It was a real brain teaser trying to work out the best ways to get a colour chain.

Has the total bar number been increased? (the number at the bottom the screen when the bar becomes full when a colour chain starts)

[Bassman]

I don't think that part of the game has changed.

At least on creating a new character you could get a few levels by going through the first few maps.

I am sure the priest/healer type gets more EXP for using healing spells (I guessed which one that was at it is all in Japanese and similarly Espoir). I did get the occasional level after doing a healing spell. The starter healer is my highest level character at the moment at Level 9 at the end of the second episode (have repeated some chapters). The Tutorial is only available initially and disappears after the first episode is complete.

[Bassman]

Apparently you can do stacked attacks now (not tried any yet) which means the enemy gets hit by all characters. I must give that a try tonight if I remember.

[Bassman]

I now got through the map that caused me grief. I "recruited" a couple from one map in Chapter 3 to boost the character count.

My preferred character (a witch) now is about Level 16 I think and due to some new characters created as her pupils now has Wind and Fire spells to go with the Ice spells and also has the spells from a healer.

Tried Item World but hadn't realised that I only needed to go to Level 4 and then leave. Will try again possibly this afternoon.

The Item World looks different to say the least, from the one item I visited anyway and apparently you have shops in there as well! Also you get pirates coming into the Item World sometimes. In the early stages it is best to exit then as they are very strong compared to your own characters. The one that appeared yesterday had over 1200 HP compared to my Witch with around 190. Good for experience points later on I suspect.

[Bassman]

Now onto Episode 8 or maybe even 9. The game caught me out when the home location changed to the interoir of a castle on Episode 6 I think it was. Episode 7 (I think) totally confued me with a change of location and no access to any earlier levels. Go to the map selection and there was only ever one choice of where to go until I completed it. Forutnately it was back to normal after that.

A couple of treasure chests appear at the home base every episode which can give you some extra goodies or money. When they appear on killing an enemy you can even have some EXP points as a prize.

My female magic character is now up to level forty something. I created a third healer type character to get my second main femail magic character some healing ability and after doing that transmigrated her to become a thief (making sure all the spells and the bow using ability came across as well). The thief has a couple of new tricks up his sleeve this time in that he can do a special move to poison or send an enemy to sleep. The thief is currently at around Level 20.

Using a magic character for healing spells is much better than the priest/healer as the range of the healing spells is same as for offensive magic which is about twice the distance the priest/healer can manage. Also it seems as if the levels of the spells goes up faster as well. A bit of a strange state of affairs I suppose but potentially very useful. Needless to say I will be transmigrating my existing priest/healer characters to magic characters in the not too distant future.

I had my first experience of one of the new Geo panels. This one transmitted spell and attack effects to other characters of your side on the same colour square, though I got the impression it was split between the characters effected. On the map in question it was the only way to kill off three of the enemy characters who were perched on rooftops.

Etna has made a few appearances now. The first familiar face I had seen in game. Pleinar gives the news at the start of each chapter.

[Bassman]

I now got the bill for the Cave of Ordeals (it seems much easier to bribe bills through than in the original game) passed. My lead witch (as usual I go for the magic characters and their good ranged combat and now equally ranging healing etc) is now over Level 1000 and has some transmigrated levels as well. I have yet to beat the fifth Cave of Ordeals map as there is somewhere with an enemy I cannot reach.

My original Witch had a conviction stamp on her stats so I temporarily migrated her to a Prinny to "serve time"! I soon revert to human after a hundred or so levels as I would insist on throwing here where I wanted her to go... with the accompanying explosion on contact with the ground!! Doh...

[Bassman]

Just something you may want to avoid... I managed to complete the game three times so far. Twice due to defeating old friends from the original game which caused the credits to roll. Mildly frustrating as you have to sit through the opening storyline for each New game+. You need some fairly strong characters to do this (my Level 1000 witches managed OK though they did have some stored levels, one had over 1000 levels stored).

[eastyy]

How many hours have you put in?

[Bassman]

Up to 110 hours now I think.

Currently levelling up the character type that is unlocked on completion of the game. Or at least I am levelling up the Rank 2 version of that type which has an "A" for all types of weapon (with the higher ranks I think S rated). Makes for a very strong character anyway. At Level 93 I think with an attack of about 5000 and Hits of over 4000 (courtesy of a set of matched rarity items... #141!). The character has about 100 stored levels from the Rank 1 type. Rank 3 is unlocked at Level 120. Rank 2 was opened at Level 60 with Rank 4 at Level 240, Rank 5 at Level 480 and Rank 6 at Level 960. I have yet to be able to do some useful power levelling.

[eastyy]

So with the amount of play you have put in would you say it was much better then the original ?

[Bassman]

To some extent it is more of the same (which is good). There are improvement over the original with the easier bribing.

Then there are the new bits such as having criminal convictions. I had my main Witch convicted of having too high levels and had to transmigrate to a Prinny temporarily to remove it. Supposedly you can get rewarded for being "bad" in the game though I have yet to gain anything. Also there are the extra bits in the item world such as shops where you can buy items not available elsewhere. Another new addition is the "Dark Sun" World which has all the levels from the story but with different more powerful enemies. These levels are unlocked when certain conditions are met in the normal story. I was playing Map 1-4 last night and was suddenly transported to the "Dark Sun" equivalent due to fulfilling the relevant condition.

Better than the original game? That is a difficult one as the original was so good. The new game has a shorter story but has more things to do. Taking into account the improvements and additions it is at least as good as the original from the content point of view. I reserve judgement on the storyline until I have played an English version.

[eastyy]

Is there much stuff to do after the main quest is completed?

Perhaps some other areas and levels to do for high level characters