Disgaea 2 anyone?

[legendarypegasu]

I was finally able to sink my teeth into Disgaea 2 this weekend, putting up 10 hours on gameplay time in 2 days. I had high hopes for this game as Disgaea is the only strategy RPG I have ever been able to enjoy, and Disgaea 2 doesn't seem like it will let me down.

What Disgaea 2 doe so well was give you an nearly infinite amount of stuff to do, but it packaged it in such a way that for newcomers to the genre and the game, its not overwhelming. I played through the first 3 chapters fairly quickly, before spending about 5 hours messing around with the item world, then decided that go through 2 more chapters. Never once did I feel lost or burnt out.

Disgaea 2 retains the same charm as the first. The hand-drawn sprites have been cleaned up a little bit, the main characters (while right now not as memorable as Laharal and his gang) are engaging, the dialouge and plot just as ridiculous.

The main differences b/w Disgaea 1 and 2 is in the item world and Dark assembly. All reviews of the game go into detail, but basically it just gives you more options of stuff to do.

The only complaint I have so far is the pirates in the item world. At any time, a pirate might appear in the item and they range greatly in how powerful they are. The annyoing thing is that sometimes they will be much, much more powerful than you, able to kill several party members at one time. So you have to be careful (or lucky) or you might see a lot of work erased by one pirate encounter.

So is anyone else playing it? Brad, I know you must have at least tried it out.

[Nossato]

I'm finishing up Xenosaga III before I sit down and give Disgaea 2 a serious try. I skipped out on part one, but after playing a few levels of 2 and messing around in the item world, I can tell that I am going to be doomed. I have this obsession with item creation/improvement so I'm almost afraid to play it.

[Brad Gallaway]

I actually have a stack of games to get through right now (just finished the review for Prey, and starting on the review for Rule of Rose tonight) so I haven't had time to get to Disgaea 2 yet. It's on my list for sure, but I don't see it landing in my PlayStation in the very near future… keep the impressions coming though, I'm always glad to read them.

[legendarypegasu]

Nossato, you are doomed. I played the frist one on and off for about 6 motnhs just having fun leveling up characters and messing around with equipment.

One thing I forgot to mention and is actually the best improvement over the first is that your characters don't have to kill an enemy to gain experience. Experience is gained by doing anything on the battle field whether it be throwing other characters, healing, stat boosting or whatever. Its a nice change from the first where it was tedious and time consuming to level healers and stat-boosting characters. My main healer is one of my higher leveled characters and I have never once attacked with him.

[Jet Black]

Originally Posted by legendarypegasu

... the best improvement over the first is that your characters don't have to kill an enemy to gain experience. Experience is gained by doing anything on the battle field ....

I recall the love and hate I had for the older system, making sure particular characters were in on the "kill". Sad to hear about the Pirates, though. Item World is a game all unto itself and just making it to the bottom is pain enough. Adding out-of-your-league battles can really blow hours of battles.

Disgaea series remains my top RPG-strat. Beating out even Advance War series, and that's a TALL order.
But my tastes have always run amok.

[machine]

Disgaea 2 is on the top of my stack but first I have to finish Wild Arms 4 and get over my addiction to Cooking Mama. I loved Disgaea 1 and put way too much time into it, so I'll have to watch myself with #2.