La Pucelle Tactics

[Prof Frink]

I've also been playing this a lot recently and I would agree with dremylittledream on all his points, leveling up in this does take longer than disgaea but I do prefer the dark portals in this to disgaea's geo panels as you can get some insane miracle chains going.

[Balou]

So, which game - Disgaea or La Pucelle - would you suggest for someone who is new to these kind of games?

-From what I read La Pucelle is significantly shorter than Disgaea. (I prefer long games)
-Disgaea seems to me very much focused on gameplay and generally darker than La Pucelle. (I like involving stories and fresh, colourful game worlds)
.... etc..

(Also, does the Pal version of Disgaea - Hour of Darkness run in 60hz?)



By the way, is there any "modern" game that?s similar to "Ogre Battle" on the SNES?
(with all that troop management, character development and light/dark alignment)

[E. Randy Dupre]

(Also, does the Pal version of Disgaea - Hour of Darkness run in 60hz?)

No, it's bordered 50Hz, although the borders are barely noticable and don't appear to distort the image at all.

[dreamylittledream]

So, which game - Disgaea or La Pucelle - would you suggest for someone who is new to these kind of games?

-From what I read La Pucelle is significantly shorter than Disgaea. (I prefer long games)
-Disgaea seems to me very much focused on gameplay and generally darker than La Pucelle. (I like involving stories and fresh, colourful game worlds)
.... etc..

(Also, does the Pal version of Disgaea - Hour of Darkness run in 60hz?)



By the way, is there any "modern" game that?s similar to "Ogre Battle" on the SNES?
(with all that troop management, character development and light/dark alignment)

If your new to SRPGs I'd recommend La Pucelle as an introduction - its less fussy then Disgaea and far easier to pick up. The difficulty curve is much better judged too (once you realise you can renew hp/sp and save between each skirmish by returning to the world map). The trade off is the combat and potential levelling is no where near as deep.

As for length - as far as the story side of the games go they are both similar
in time to complete. The difference is there is loads more side stuff to mess about with Disgaea and levelling is better executed and a hell of a lot quicker and easier. There is side quest stuff to be done in Pucelle (the dark world and final training caves) but it needs a lot of effort to get only a little reward. Disgaea has the longer life span if you wanna fiddle with char and item stats and make the uber ninja squad certainly.

Plot wise La Pucelle is far more assured and sweeping then Disgaea, although it lacks Disgaea's wicked and frequently ridiculous sense of humour. Having said that both games made me laugh out loud more then once.

Personally I prefered La Pucelle as I'm more a story then a techie RPG player -the character design in Pucelle is also notably better (Croix and Dark Eclair rock in particular). The translation is better handled then in Disgaea too.

As for modern equivilents of Ogre Battle - both Disgaea and La Pucelle have elements of that classic- spiritual successors if you like - as do FFTA, the Advance Wars games and Fire Emblem on GBA (the last two arguably being closer to Ogre Battle). And of course there are the Tactic Ogre games which are the direct sequels (the latest being on GBA).

[MartyG]

As an introduction I'd recommend La Pucelle too, but only because if you played Disgaea first you'd not enjoy La Pucelle as much because it's by far a shallower game (that doesn't mean it's bad). Disgaea has loads more depth, and the reason I'm lagging on my review of La Pucelle is due to this. I promise to get it sorted soon though.

Regards
Marty

[Balou]

Thank you very much!
I think I will now go with La Pucelle first. (really looking forward to experience a new genre of video games)


Unfortunately, I don?t have an GBA (or Gamecube) to play one of those strategy titles you mentioned.
(GBA apparently the ideal 2D strategy platform)
Instead, I will try Front Mission 4 as soon as it comes available. (played a bit of the SNES Front Mission recently as well)

[SunLolly]

Which game to play next

I have finished this game now and thought it was pretty good. At first I thought it was bloody awful but the battle's started to open up in chapter 2 (or it might be because I got Croix lol ). I never used the panels because they were so anoying and just not worth the time and effort.
The game is very easy (after finishing Vandal Hearts 2 this is a walk in the park) and it took me about 25 hours to finish.

A solid 7 overall

[MartyG]

I've nearly finished this game now. It certainly opened up a bit after the first couple of chapters, it's a slow burner but it's definitely not for those that want to power level.

There are a couple of annoying chapters however, depending on whether or not you level all characters. There are certain points in the game where you have to defeat a high level boss with only one or two characters - if you haven't levelled these characters you die in only a couple of rounds. The problem with this is you have to go play the same levels over and over to get them up to a level good enough to beat the map, and as you can't power level this takes sometime.

My highest character level not given to me via the storyline is 44, that's after 38 hours odd, compared to Disgaea's 5000 odd that's quite wee. It's definitely more of a tactical game due to the fact you are lower levels making battles less of a stat fest. You can use dark portals to great effect and party positioning is a skill you have to acquire.

An enjoyable game, just don't play Disgaea first and it spoils you.

Regards
Marty

[Bassman]

Mine arrived from VG+ yesterday. Only managed 45 minutes. So far I like it. Very much a case of deja vu after playing Disgaea. Admittedly this was the first of the two games. Is there going to be a PAL release I wonder?

[E. Randy Dupre]

Aiming to get the PAL version of this later on in the week. Anybody here played it yet? Anyone who's played both the US NTSC and PAL versions care to comment on how the changes in the latter affect things? I know it's got extra levels and the like, but I'm wondering how the New Game+ option works - is it Disgaea style, with your character levels and items carrying over to subsequent runs through the story?