983rd played so far
Genre: Role-Playing
Platform: Playstation 2
Year of Release: 2006
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software
Having played it some time ago, I still have fond memories of the first Disgaea game. The story was insane and a bit meta, but is what mostly stuck with me while the mechanics mostly had their twist in the field effects.
The sequel seems to mostly build on teh first game rather than going different. From what I’ve seen, that should make for a good game, so we’ll see if they can get the story right again.
Our Thoughts
The core gameplay of Disgaea 2 stays the same: a tactical RPG that relies heavily on field effects, each level having its own effects and layout. It is, basically, a great and fun tactical RPG that hits all the familiar beats, but has some really quirky monsters and some real dopamine moments like countery-counter-counter-counter-counter attacks. It works, I think it’s been refined from the first game and it is really satisfactory to play.
Then there’s the story. The idea of playing the bad guy taking over the world, your progress partially dependent on how much power you had with the dark parliament, gets outdone here. As everyone in your village including your family has been turned into monster, you travel to find the demon lord who cursed everyone while you escort that lord’s daughter after you summoned her earlier to take out the demon lord. There’s a standard betrayal being planned of course, but also a demon hunter you fight several times who keeps making appearances for his reality show. The character and writing is amazing and are what make the game just as unique.
The game becomes incredibly grindy pretty soon as you’ll struggle to beat enemies, but the systems take care of that too. When I was beaten, it turned out to lead to its own ending. You can reset the game and start a new ‘cycle’, where you replay the same levels at a higher level and you can build your power that way. It’s a good alternative, but it would have been nicer to just get to the new content a bit sooner.
Final Thoughts
Most notable for me, Disgaea 2 has an insane story with wonderful characters, but aside from that it also provides a great tactical RPG with a lot of small mechanical touches and features that make it feel unique. And you can play as penguins. Always play as penguins.