Jup, to contribute to the growing wapanization of the prestigious RPGCodex, an LP of this little game is in order
First, the technical specs. I'll play the DS port (fittingly called Disgaea DS), which is basically the same as the original PS2 version with some added content and boni. I'll mostly concentrate on the story and interesting fights, and by no means you'll have to watch screenshots from each and every fight
Okay, now to the game itself. It's called a "strategic RPG", which basically means it's a turn-based tactical RPG. Dunno why they call that strategic in Japan. Most of the gameplay revolves around fighting and fighting and even more fighting.
The combat itself is at first glance pretty straightforward: Select an enemy and attack until he has no HP left. But there are several elements that add a level of depth to the combat: up to 3 neighboring characters can support an attacking character by launching a powerful team attack, there are plenty of special skills to deal extra damage or to deal with multiple enemies at once and some characters have the ability to counter attacks, and those counters can be countered yet again.
Another interesting mechanic is the geo symbol mechanic. Some maps have coloured tiles that can grant special boni or mali to characters on this tile. If you manage to destroy the geo symbols in the correct order, you can create a gigantic chain attack that has the potential to kill everything on those tiles (yes, even your own characters, this is not Dragon Age 2). Furthermore, those chain attacks grants you bonus items and other things upon completion of the map. I'll explain this system more detailed later on.
As an RPG, the characters have stats which improve on levelups and weapon proficiencies which improve through use. XP is rewarded either as a bonus on the completion of a map or by killing enemies.
The plot is almost non-existant and could be summarized by this:
but as usual the Japanese manage to make it quite funny and full with pop culture references. The tongue-in-cheek humour is actually the second best thing about this game after the combat. For all the grinding lovers out there, the max character level in Disgaea is 9999 and you can import characters from one playthrough into another. We'll start with a fresh lvl. 1 character, though. And of course, I'll not go all the way till lvl. 9999
So much for general info on this game. The party will consist of a few pre-generated main chars, which can't be changed (even their names are fixed), but otherwise we can freely create additional characters from a vast pool of available classes. So if anyone here wants to participate in our rampage through the Netherworld, feel free to post your character wish in the comments. I cannot guarantee that I'll be able to create your character (because of prerequisites and the like), but I'll try it nevertheless.
Here some general info about the classes:
1. Human classes
Martial Artist (male/female) good with fists
Warrior (male/female) good with swords and axes
Healer (male/female) good with staves, can use curative magic
Skull (male only) good with staves, can use combat magic ---- there are 3 types of magic: wind, ice and fire
Mage (female only) as Skull
Thief - not very good with weapons, but can steal stats and fill the bonus gauge
Archer - good with bows
Scout - can control geo panels, good with guns
Ronin - good with swords, spears and axes
Ninja - good with fists, has a better evasion ability
Rune Knight - good with swords and staves, automatically casts a random spell on a successful hit
EDF Soldier - good with guns, soldiers from Earth
Celestial Host - good with swords, bows, spears and staves. We probably won't unlock this class in this LP
Majin - good with all weapons, we probably won't unlock this class in this LP
2. Monster classes
Faerie
Spirit
Golem
Treant
Winged
Dark Knight
Lantern
Gargoyle
Shadow
Serpent
Galactic Demon
Dragon
Undead
Nether Noble
Beast
Succubus
Kit Cat (Their cat ears have gained them many fans throughout the Netherworld... yes, it's a Japanese game
)Nosferatu
Great Wyrm
Prinny
All classes have 6 subclasses each with slightly different abilities and stats. I won't give detailed info on that since it would be way too much. For more info on the different classes, follow these links:
Human classes: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Disgaea:_Hour_of_Darkness/Human_Classes
Monster classes: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Disgaea:_Hour_of_Darkness/Monster_Classes
If you want to contribute to the cause, I'd need your preferred class and the name of your character.
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The loyal vassals:
Digital Monocle the Warrior/Ninja
Crooked Bee the Ronin
Peter the Ninja
Pariah the Healer
Spekkio the Skull
KaleKagathe the female Warrior
Mrowak the EDF Soldier (Skull)
Ghostmaster the male Healer/Savior
DamnedReg the Scout
Yeesh the Thief
lightbane the EDF soldier
Murrow the Dark Knight
Radisshu the Brawler
Crimson Angel the Kamikaze Prinny
C.Bryan the Prinny
Kuroneko the Blue Mage
Garf the Scout
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Last but not least, here's the trailer in animu form:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zokOLzDiD8
Yes, I know it's way below the KKKodex usual standards, but it's a nice introduction into the levels of
you'll see and witness in this LP.
Are you going to grind like a madman and get the best version of each side character? Or just go through the lulz of the story?
