NIS America has announced that Disgaea 3 is scheduled for release sometime this summer for the Playstation 3. The company has stated the game "makes a bold new step towards the next generation console with a whole new cast, story and game system."

Those that wish to visit the official site can do so here.

• Geo Panel – Is a group of stat altering elemental properties that are placed upon certain parts of the battlefields. When there are one or more colored square panels on the battle grid, it means an element can affect that area. The effect can boost or reduce your unit’s stats.
• Geo Cube – A new addition to the PSP version, Geo Cubes are magic items that add more depth to multiplayer battles. You can use the various Geo Cubes to enhance your abilities, summon monsters, or even attack your enemies with them.
• Demon Gadgets – Are randomly generated items that appear on the battlefield. By acquiring these gadgets, you can power your units up. Some demon gadgets can level your unit up by 30 levels at once.
• Transmigration – A form of reincarnation that allows you to start over from level 1, but your unit will grow stronger than before.

In the world of RPGs, games tend to be divided into two distinct camps: the overly dramatic, wherein all the good guys are out to save the world, and the humorous, wherein at least a few of the good guys are out to save the world while you’re lucky if the rest of them can put down their beer and quit cracking jokes long enough to pick up a blade and kill something with it. Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, sequel to the original Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (2003), remains true to the Nippon Ichi style that fans across the globe love – there’s a ton of adult humor, lots of quirky characters, some amusing plot twists, and all the strategy-RPG gameplay that you’d expect from the company out to rattle the genre within its super-dramatic cage.

Though Disgaea 2 does borrow characters from its predecessor, it makes use of a whole new cast, plot, and world. Gamers are quickly introduced to Adell, the sole surviving human on the planet Veldime. Overlord Zenon, also known as “The God of All Overlords” (how very modest), has cursed Veldime by turning all its people into demons/monsters, stealing their conscience and memories of the past – of what it meant to be an ethical human. Not surprisingly, given that this is a Nippon Ichi game, Disgaea 2 opens with the world’s last human waiting for his demon mother to sacrifice the rest of her family in order to summon Zenon so that Adell can defeat him and end the curse. And, of course, the summoning backfires: instead of a lordly demon kicking Adell all over the place, we get the lordly demon’s pampered daughter, Rozalin, who joins with Adell to find her father. From there the cast grows to include a French frog with a split personality, a ninja who can’t stop saying “zam”, Adell’s bratty siblings, and even a strangely powerful beauty queen, all determined to kill Zenon for one reason or another, and all constantly getting in the way of that goal.

Unlike most RPGs, which force the player into globe-trotting and backtracking to attain the final kill, Disgaea 2 makes use of a home-base for its team. Back with Adell’s family, players can go shopping at the weapon, armor, and item general stores; converse with the locals; pick up some free treasure; stop by the hospital for routine healing; and access the teleporter, a cute little weaponless archer who enables the gamer to select the next map (area). Each map usually contains anywhere from four to six stages (battles); the process is quick, eliminates all travel time, and is a great feature if story progression and slaughtering foes are you two favorite RPG aspects. Considering that Disgaea 2 is a very light-hearted game, it especially works well here.

Disgaea 2’s character design is also fitting, as Nippon Ichi again makes use of the traditional 2D sprites and colorful 3D areas. Battles utilize a block of land organized into panels, with character movement fields in red and a typical attack scheme: move your allies to a bad guy and select the attack option. To differentiate itself from other strategy-RPGs (including the famous Final Fantasy Tactics), Disgaea 2 does freshen the gameplay by offering combos; when an attacking character is adjacent to an ally, the two (or three... or four...) will team up and perform a more devastating attack, but as the sword cuts both ways it’s equally as pertinent that you avoid rushing a large group of foes as they avoid rushing you, unless, of course, you’re trying to kill each other quickly.

For more intensity, the game also offers a magic crowd along the basic elements (fire, wind, water, earth... stars?) and for the head-on type, ninja classes, magic mages, and even a sword-savvy samurai. Furthermore, battle areas are often colored into sectors by geo symbols, devices that create geo panels (colored spots). Occasionally these sections are harmless, but usually a geo symbol sports a particular effect, like “clone” or “enemy + 50” (in which case, you’d better be prepared). Other times the geo symbols offer experience bonuses for your team, and usually several geo symbols are active at a time on the same colored section. The geo panels invite you to destroy or move the geo symbols that are affecting your squad, and can significantly raise the game’s difficulty level as well as your bonus (each map in Disgaea 2 has 10 bonus awards, which can include cash, experience points, and items). Another unique feature of Disgaea 2’s is that the familiar lift/toss options are back: you can stack characters to throw them over/around obstacles (like the annoying “no entry” geo panels); toss bad guys into your gate (point of entry on the battlefield); and throw opponents at each other for kicks.

In another slight twist, each character on your team belongs to a class that has rated skills, such that Adell (demon hunter) has his highest skill rating in fist fighting, and thus, does significantly more damage with his fists than with a sword or lance. The classes that you can unlock for character creation all use the same system and sport higher rated traits for specific attributes, as gunners are A-level with guns (surprised?) while skulls (male mages) are A-level with wands/staves. Each class also boasts higher basic stats for related attributes, as skulls rely on high intelligence to pull off their magical attacks while gunners need higher hit (accuracy) to do the most damage.

This moves us to the character creation system, which is housed within the Dark Assembly, where the (literally) demonic senators gather to vote on bills you suggest (read: stuff you want). Creating a character – indeed, doing anything that involves the senate – costs mana points, which are awarded to characters for each kill they achieve. Higher skilled characters require more mana because the trade off is in bonus attribute points, which you can scatter depending on the class you’re creating/your mood. Most character creation doesn’t require the senate’s approval, but the top two levels do, and it’s the same for reincarnation (returning to level 1 for another class while inheriting/remembering skills you’ve already learned – think of it as job changing). When you’re ready to build some more intense allies, it’s off to the senate floor, where demons wait on your call to vote. The demonic senators may be for (blue) or against (red) you, and this varies by levels (a “strongly for” carries a deeper blue than a “leaning yes” senator). If too many demons are preparing to ruin your day, you can always take the demonic approach and offer your opponents bribes – hey, they’re just like real senators, only with horns. And if that’s just not your style, feel free to pull out the sword and engage in a new kind of political bloodbath. The Dark Assembly can effectively be worked like a minigame on the side, and successfully scoring votes will allow you to access new jobs, expand your shops’ inventory, extort money from the senate (good luck with that one), improve a character’s counter-attack rate, and so on.

Disgaea 2 also offers two additional features that most RPGers are unfamiliar with: the item world and the mysterious Dark Court, housed within each subpoena. Characters receive subpoenas for a variety of reasons, including leveling too fast, being too strong, having a high statistic, vandalizing geo panels/symbols, and the use of “excessive” force. As Veldime is now 99% inhabited by demons, felony charges are actually badges of honor that must be earned the hard way: by fighting through so many layers of opponents in the returning, yet tweaked, item world. The item world is the world that exists within each item and even boasts its own population, which you must thoroughly defeat in order to make your item stronger. For ease of use, there are now hospitals, shops, and secrets scattered about the item world on top of scores of hard cash and experience points just for plowing through the bad guys. Cell phones, which allow you to call for outside support or arrange meetings with political parties working the senate, are also included. Assuming you obtain your felony from the court and manage to fight your way out of the item world (or use a Mr. Gency Exit – as in, EMrGency Exit, cute, yes?), you’ll score a ton of treasure, cash, and other numerous goodies along with a felon’s reward, which will make all the danger worth it.

Visually, the storyboard graphics (used for dialogues) are both cute and detailed, while the sprites are equally so; characters also sport their own unique poses (Rozalin has a huffy one, while Adell gets into his “[something bad] just isn’t my style” mode). Characters are also colored vibrantly, which is again fitting considering that the majority of them are demons (monsters) or at least appear half human, half... something else. The musical score is fun and quirky and denotes a humorous, yet important atmosphere, and several boss segments feature Japanese singing in the background.

Disgaea 2 has a lot going for it, but there are a few minor points of contention to be made. The first, and perhaps most important, is that there’s no traveling whatsoever; if you cringe at the idea of exploration (i.e., getting lost) and despise the extra hours the game tacks onto your record for merely transporting yourself from one area to the next, no doubt you’ll find this a good thing. However, if you shudder with excitement every time you encounter a new land/species and enjoy taking the scenic route as you save the world, you’ll be disappointed. The most glorious thing you’ll ever see is a grid-based battle map, so be prepared.

The same goes for the RPGer who prefers a strong life-or-death, total destruction-or-total salvation dynamic in his games, as you won’t play Disgaea 2 for its intensity. It’s a spoof RPG – it was built to be fun and waste hours of your life, but at least it’s up front about it. And as far as the hours are concerned, 30-35 is about all you’ll need to plow through, and that includes spending some time in the item world and the Dark Assembly (show those Romans how it’s done!) If you’d rather spend 80 hours in an RPG, find another RPG.

Though the presentation is quirky in a great way, the dialogue could have used some additional work, mostly because the game’s beginning sports a lot of repeated lines bounced back and forth between Adell and Rozalin; by the time you get halfway through, you’ll have had as much as you can take of Adell playing the hero and Rozalin constantly reminding him that he’s protecting the enemy. The boy’s an ethical fruitcake – we get it. Next plot point, please.

Finally, fans of the original may be disturbed that the game offers up just more of the same, but at least “the same” isn’t piles of crap. Those who missed the original (that’d include me) won’t mind so much, but the next game had better include a plethora of deviant twists. 

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories is a fun trip for anyone who enjoys a light-hearted RPG that utilizes a lovely dose of deviant humor. The item world (as well as its modification) is a real treat for the dungeon-master while the Dark Assembly and character creation together keep the gamer intrigued by what the title has to offer. If you’re looking for an “old school” strategy-RPG that boasts a few twists and are prepared to laugh at the game’s fantastic way of characterizing all RPGs, you’re in luck. Welcome to the amusing world of Nippon Ichi.

Enjoyable, functional, and fast. Good ole’ traditional grid-based fights. Nice humor.

Colorful sprites and interesting level (battle) design due to geo panels. 2D = nice and homey.

You’ll like the “special” music used during certain segments. Voiceacting works.

You’ll enjoy it if it fits your style. The item world and Dark Assembly are bonuses.

You’ll finish and maybe come back to the item world for dungeon mastery.

]]> Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:37:00 -0500 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_disgaea_2_cursed_memories_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_disgaea_2_cursed_memories_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_disgaea_2_cursed_memories_ps21# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

In the world of RPGs, games tend to be divided into two distinct camps: the overly dramatic, wherein all the good guys are out to save the world, and the humorous, wherein at least a few of the good guys are out to save the world while you’re lucky if the rest of them can put down their beer and quit cracking jokes long enough to pick up a blade and swipe at something with it. Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, sequel to the original Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (2003), remains true to the Nippon Ichi style that fans across the globe love – there’s a ton of adult humor, lots of quirky characters, some amusing plot twists, and all the strategy-RPG gameplay that you’d expect from the company out to rattle the genre within its super-dramatic cage. Recently we were able to sit down with the North American version and see how both the game and its localization were coming along, and I’m already impressed.

Though Disgaea 2 does borrow characters from its predecessor, it makes use of a whole new cast, plot, and world. Gamers are quickly introduced to Adell, the sole surviving human on the planet Veldime. Overlord Zenon, also known as “The God of All Overlords” (how very modest), has cursed Veldime by turning all its people into demons/monsters, stealing their conscience and memories of the past – of what it meant to be an ethical human. Not surprisingly, given that this is a Nippon Ichi game, Disgaea 2 opens with the world’s last human waiting for his demon mother to sacrifice the rest of her family in order to summon Zenon so that Adell can defeat him and end the curse. And of course, the summoning backfires: instead of a lordly demon kicking Adell all over the place, we get the lordly demon’s pampered daughter, Rozalin, who joins with Adell to find her father. From there the cast grows to include a French frog with a split personality, a ninja who can’t stop saying “zam”, Adell’s bratty siblings, and even a strangely powerful beauty queen, all determined to kill Zenon for one reason or another, and all constantly getting in the way of that goal.

Unlike most RPGs, which force the player into globe-trotting and backtracking to attain the final kill, Disgaea 2 makes use of a home-base for its team. Back with Adell’s family, players can go shopping at the weapon, armor, and item general stores; converse with the locals; pick up some free treasure; stop by the hospital for routine healing; and access the teleporter, a cute little weaponless archer who enables the gamer to select the next map (area). Each map usually contains anywhere from four to six stages (battles); the process is quick, eliminates all travel time, and is a great feature if story progression and slaughtering foes are you two favorite RPG aspects. Considering that Disgaea 2 is a very light-hearted game, it especially works well here.

Disgaea 2’s character design is also fitting, as Nippon Ichi again makes use of the traditional 2D sprites and colorful 3D areas. Battles utilize a block of land organized into panels, with character movement fields in red and a typical attack scheme: move your allies to a bad guy and select the attack option. To differentiate itself from other strategy-RPGs (including the famous Final Fantasy Tactics), Disgaea 2 does freshen the gameplay by offering combos; when an attacking character is adjacent to an ally, the two (or three... or four...) will team up and perform a more devastating attack, but as the sword cuts both ways it’s equally as pertinent that you avoid rushing a large group of foes as they avoid rushing you, unless, of course, you’re trying to kill each other quickly.

For more intensity, the game also offers a magic crowd along the basic elements (fire, wind, water, earth... stars?) and for the head-on type, ninja classes, magic mages, and even a sword-savvy samurai. Furthermore, battle areas are often colored into sectors by geo symbols, devices that create geo panels (colored spots). Occasionally these sections are harmless, but usually a geo symbol sports a particular effect, like “clone” or “enemy + 50” (in which case, you’d better be prepared). Other times the geo symbols offer experience bonuses for your team, and usually several geo symbols are active at a time on the same colored section. The geo panels invite you to destroy or move the geo symbols that are affecting your squad, and can significantly raise the game’s difficulty level as well as your bonus (each map in Disgaea 2 has 10 bonus awards, which can include cash, experience points, and items). Another unique feature of Disgaea 2’s is that the familiar lift/toss options are back: you can stack characters to throw them over/around obstacles (like the annoying “no entry” geo panels); toss bad guys into your gate (point of entry on the battlefield); and throw opponents at each other for kicks.

In another slight twist, each character on your team belongs to a class that has rated skills, such that Adell (demon hunter) has his highest skill rating in fist fighting, and thus, does significantly more damage with his fists than with a sword or lance. The classes that you can unlock for character creation all use the same system and sport higher rated traits for specific attributes, as gunners are A-level with guns (surprised?) while skulls (male mages) are A-level with wands/staves. Each class also boasts higher basic stats for related attributes, as skulls rely on high intelligence to pull off their magical attacks while gunners need higher hit (accuracy) to do the most damage.

This moves us to the character creation system, which is housed within the Dark Assembly, where the (literally) demonic senators gather to vote on bills you suggest (read: stuff you want). Creating a character – indeed, doing anything that involves the senate – costs mana points, which are awarded to characters for each kill they achieve. Higher skilled characters require more mana because the trade off is in bonus attribute points, which you can scatter depending on the class you’re creating/your mood. Most character creation doesn’t require the senate’s approval, but the top two levels do, and it’s the same for reincarnation (returning to level 1 for another class while inheriting/remembering skills you’ve already learned – think of it as job changing). When you’re ready to build some more intense allies, it’s off to the senate floor, where demons wait on your call to vote. The demonic senators may be for (blue) or against (red) you, and this varies by levels (a “strongly for” carries a deeper blue than a “leaning yes” senator). If too many demons are preparing to ruin your day, you can always take the demonic approach and offer your opponents bribes – hey, they’re just like real senators, only with horns. And if that’s just not your style, feel free to pull out the sword and engage in a new kind of political bloodbath. The Dark Assembly can effectively be worked like a minigame on the side, and successfully scoring votes will allow you to access new jobs, expand your shops’ inventory, extort money from the senate (good luck with that one), improve a character’s counter-attack rate, and so on.

Disgaea 2 also offers two additional features that most RPGers are unfamiliar with: the item world and the mysterious Dark Court, housed within each subpoena. Characters receive subpoenas for a variety of reasons, including leveling too fast, being too strong, having a high statistic, vandalizing geo panels/symbols, and the use of “excessive” force. As Veldime is now 99% inhabited by demons, felony charges are actually badges of honor that must be earned the hard way: by fighting through so many layers of opponents in the returning, yet tweaked, item world. The item world is the world that exists within each item and even boasts its own population, which you must thoroughly defeat in order to make your item stronger. For ease of use, there are now hospitals, shops, and secrets scattered about the item world on top of scores of hard cash and experience points just for plowing through the bad guys. Cell phones, which allow you to call for outside support or arrange meetings with political parties working the senate, are also included. Assuming you obtain your felony from the court and manage to fight your way out of the item world (or use a Mr. Gency Exit – as in, EMrGency Exit, cute, yes?), you’ll score a ton of treasure, cash, and other numerous goodies along with a felon’s reward, which will make all the danger worth it.

As I’m about 30 hours in, I’ve had the chance to sample some creative level design thanks to the geo panels and each character’s natural movement field. Visually, the storyboard graphics (used for dialogues) are both cute and detailed, while the sprites are equally so; characters also sport their own unique poses (Rozalin has a huffy one, while Adell gets into his “[something bad] just isn’t my style” mode). Characters are also colored vibrantly, which is again fitting considering that the majority of them are demons (monsters) or at least appear half human, half... something else. The musical score is fun and quirky and denotes a humorous, yet important atmosphere, and several boss segments feature Japanese singing in the background.

Disgaea 2 appears to be another strange, subtle hit for Nippon Ichi and should satisfy anyone tired of the traditional, over-dramatic “let’s save the world” scheme. In Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, characters poke fun at themselves, insult other RPGs/RPGers, laugh about the insane amount of time it takes to “master” a game, mix in some humor for anything from item descriptions to dialogue, and generally provide the gamer with a good time. If you’re looking for an “old school” strategy-RPG that boasts a few twists and are prepared to laugh at the game’s fantastic way of characterizing all RPGs, you’re in luck. Welcome to the amusing world of Nippon Ichi. ]]> Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:23:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/disgaea_2_screens_revealed http://www.gamebump.com/go/disgaea_2_screens_revealed http://www.gamebump.com/go/disgaea_2_screens_revealed# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.The original author is Evan Lahti.