It's not for everyone, but this extremely replayable and engaging game may perhaps be the best strategy game on the PS2
Status: Main story completed
Hours Played: 48 and a half hours
Difficulty: Very hard (unless grinding)
Highest LVL: Mage (LVL 84)
Adell: LVL 81
Positive
+ Incredibly entertaining combat system which will suck you in
+ Good story and a superb amount of replay value
+ Deep and endless customizations
+ Great soundtrack and solid voice acting
Negative
- The camera is almost atrocious, but it most certainly is in high blocked areas
- Not a game suited for beginners since the difficulty can be ruthless without minor grinding
Around three years ago I got hold of a little strategy game by the name of Disgaea 2. Since I had no knowledge or experience of the genre, a constant and always challenging and demanding difficulty, and complex gameplay turned me off almost too quickly not allowing me too dwelled to deep into the game. But now, over three years later I surprisingly got hold of Disgaea 2 again and now that incomprehensible difficulty had turned into a challenge and the game's complexity has become so much of a pleasure that I can affirm that this anime-inspired turned-based strategy is the best game I've ever played in its class.
Because of a curse placed by Overlord Zenon, humans have become demons and would remain that way until the curse if broken. Only one human was unaffected by this curse. He is Adell, the main protagonist who pledge his life in protecting his family and to defeat the almighty Overlord. After an unsuccessful attempt to summon the Overlord, Adell now finds himself trying to keep a promise with the Overlord's daughter Rozalin who was summoned by accident to take her back to her father. They travel together on their quest for Rozalin to return home and for Adell to defeat the Overlord. The story is all about Adell's style and justice of how he always keeps his promises and a lot of comedy and interesting story segments along the way.
The story is pretty good with a few good surprises in stock. But that's not the biggest part of the game. The story, depending on how much you can handle lasts a good couple of hours. Aside from the main quest to defeat the Overlord, there is a ton of replay value to increase your levels. It may be a strategy game but the leveling up and careful equipment management is all here. You can access levels by talking to the dimension guide which guides you to levels. You can choice the next part of the story or just replay the levels you already beaten to increase your levels. Or, you can good do something more useful. The item world is another option. This world is found in every single item, from a useless piece of candy to a gigantic hammer. There may be a limit number of areas in a single item, but considering your inventory and over 500 more that you can store in the warehouse…you should understand. These will definitely help you level up without repeating the same few levels which an item level can go so high up you'll be fighting unbelievably strong foes, and apart from that the level and value of that part item increases the more you advance. There is some serious time to kill in the item world, where the dungeon's level varies, depending the level of the item. Each level features a handful of enemies to kill (residents). There are mysterious rooms which lead to non combative areas. You can choose to progress quicker by entering a spot where you leave the level and go to the next. Occasional pesky pirates will intrude in levels and challenge you; some of which have absurd level and experience which almost forces you to leave the level but considering that they will leave behind a treasure map which when collected all leads to a special area, it may be worth the trouble. The levels keep getting harder with bosses in the way to impede your progress and some of the block filled levels render the already awful camera impossible to see a perfect view of the action. Dying in the item world without saving makes you lose all of your progress.
Leave the humorous story and the tons of replay value aside. A game without good gameplay would waste that. Fortunately Disgaea 2 has no such intention. This challenging, difficult-to-get into strategy game can be incredibly frustrating for beginners like I already mentioned in the beginning. Unless you played the original Disgaea or similar Nippon Ichi's games, Cursed Memories is a new experience which you may have never seen alike. It's a very strategic turn-based game where party management, equipment and leveling up matters as much as it does in an RPG. The battle takes play in a floating area filled with square boxes where you and the enemies will move upon. The enemies will already be placed on the battlefield when the area appears. Your characters aren't. You take out your characters from the base and move them into these boxes, but all characters have limited movements. There can be up to 10 of your characters at a time. You always get the first turn, so that allows you to do some initial damage to get rid of some of your foes.
You will gain more characters throughout the story. Adell's siblings, Taro and Hanako will eventually join, Rozalin's best friend Tink joins the party shortly after the first chapter and others which you can't toss out. There are other slots where you can create characters to assist you in battle. With mana you can create a character from the ones available, which will eventually increase as you defeat more new enemies. These characters start at level one everytime but with extra paying mana you can increase their states slightly. These can be deleted or reincarnated at anytime. Each character varies in skills, attack power, and just about everything. For example Adell's default weapons are his fist. His normal attack range is that he has to be on the box next to his target so strike. Rozalin's gun always her to attack from distance. Special attacks are a different story. Adell's Tiger Charge needs him to be several boxes away from the enemy in order to use, otherwise it would be out of the question. Mages have a wide range when it comes to magic. Everyone unlocks new skills, depending on the class and most importantly on the weapon. Each character can equip one weapon, but three pieces of armor. In later levels, inventory management and equipment is extremely critical for you need the very best to win. New weapons and armor can be obtained as bonuses from beating a level, the item world or just buying them.
Besides being a deep strategic game, at heart Disgaea 2 is also an RPG. There is a ton of grinding, not always optional. Each level in the story mode has a rank which increases as you play further, promoting stronger enemies, trickier levels and more. The strongest none optional boss in the game is Level 90, but you will encounter two none optional bosses that you'll lose to in your first cycle whose level exceeds level 500. In one play through story may take priority over grinding and extra stages but there is so much more than the story mode that it seems that the game's story is so low in comparison. The AI isn't incredibly bright, mostly because they have a weird tendency to take priority to destroy treasure chests rather than you, but their attacks sure hurt. Combos may be the most efficient way to deal damage. Standing near or behind your ally who will do physical damage to the enemy in front of him can promote combos. These combos have a repetitive pattern but they can deal more damage as a result. On the other hand the enemy can also pull off combos which will deal sheer damage.
The course of action doesn't play like a typical turn-based strategy RPG. You know, the usual you attack, the enemy attacks and repeat. Disgaea 2 lets your entire party to move, perform actions and whatsoever before giving the hand to the enemy to move, attack individually and whatsoever. This way you can virtually wipe out half of the enemy's part if they stand close. This is a great disadvantage and a waste if not taken an advantage of. Firstly you give your commands to your characters but your characters will not take action unless you press the triangle button and click on the EXECUTE button. With this, your characters which you assigned to do an action will do the promoted action and their turn is over. They can still move if they hadn't in that round. In a way this helps since you can see what remains. Characters who were suppose to target a now dead enemy can still target a different enemy. But it's still your turn. Until you repress triangle and click the option below EXECUTE, the END turn button, you can still move and attack until there is someone left to attack. This concept allows preemptive attacks which is almost a blessing seeing that the game can turn out to be brutally difficult. But the enemies aren't the only thing you should be wary of.
Yes, the enemy can be the least of your troubles. The GEO Panels which are basically found on each stage can be your worst enemy if not dealt with properly. Basically these are the colorful boxes on the ground. Each box can have one color, but in each stage chances are you'll find more than a single color. These colored panels can increase and decrease attributes only when standing on them, such as ATK -50% or DEF +100%. Do mischievous things such as Warp, Silence, No Range Attacks or No Close Combat. Others are just there to annoy you such as No Entry zones and Ally Damage 20% and such which play to your disadvantage. Luckily you can use these at your advantage. But if you don't want that you can always get rid of them. If you search around the battlefield there will be colored pyramids the same colors as the colored box. Destroying it may free the box from its color, thus making it without any effect or just nullify the effect completely and leaves the color there. Efficiently destroying a particular one can destroy the whole battlefield's GEO. This will damage the characters and enemies standing on them. Major trouble may arise because of this. It's not lethal but it may become your worst enemy in tough battles.
Truly there is a lot to the gameplay. I can wholeheartedly say this is the best strategy game (not counted as RPG) that I have ever played. It was one of my earliest strategy games I've played so it turned off the first time. But it's challenging gameplay now appeals and I've dug more than 30 hours in about a week, including school days. But of course I can't deny a game's problems no matter how much I like it. The game is extremely difficult to get into. The gameplay is complex enough to put newcomers off unless they have the patience to stick around. The difficulty is savagely difficult and unreasonable so some grinding becomes obligatory at some point in the game unless you want to barely come out alive from each battle. And then there is that camera. I've seen lots of bad camera positions in the hundreds of games I've played, and Disgaea 2's camera may crack the top five. In the item world especially, tall blocks and gaps will prevent you from seeing well. In occasions you can't even see who is in front of one of your characters or who you will attack. The camera can be slightly zoomed out and angled a bit upwards for a slightly better view but that doesn't help. The camera turned using the R1 and L1 and not the much needed right analog stick. When performing attacks after EXECUTE, the camera doesn't even bother to turn around to give you the best angle to admire your attack. Unless the camera needs to turn for that particular attack, it stays the same angle that you last left it and so large blocks will totally obscure the action. I personally can't stand it at times. There is also something else. At approximately level 50 you'll have powerful magic and healing spells but surprisingly enough there is no revival skill. This is unconfirmed information but it really sucks that there is no revival spell to reawaken your fallen allies. Although it does make sense since you can have a huge cast of characters to replace fallen allies but that doesn't work. Allies fallen in battle can't be replaced by others from the beginning point. Therefore if an ally falls, you'll be stuck with a man or more like demon less.
There are a few things that bog down Disgaea 2. First of all, one of them is the overall visual quality. It's an anime inspired game, with animated and colorful characters. The sprites are in 2D and look relatively awkward when standing on the ground, particularly when the camera is automatically turned during a cutscenes not to mention they appear pixilated. Also, there is very little motion in cutscenes. Only gestures and minor movements which don't look particularly well. Some cutscenes take place in the usual Japanese dialogue face-to-face 2D cutscenes with no movement or emotions (mouthful name) and that part looks great. There are no cinematics except for a trailer of Makai Senki Disgaea. The maps float in empty space always and the area's environments aren't "wow" but it's a fine looking game.
The sound is done better. The soundtrack is mostly generally good despite all its looping and repetition. The English voice acting is well done with a few exceptions when it comes to certain characters. You may grow tired of Rozy's proud, princess-like accent and Tink's French accent. Other than that there is little wrong. The humor is quite strong and funny which enliven the story even in dread moments when it seems that it's going to go wrong. There is something else. The Prinnies (cute looking demon penguins) continuously use the suffix –dood, while Yukimaru uses a –zam suffix. It's quite funny and you may grow to like it.
Disgaea 2 is not lacking in replay value. It may take 40 to 45 hours to play through the main storyline, but there is so much more than that it makes you feel that you are not getting your money's worth. Hardcore players will most definitely enjoy the sheer amount of extra hours, bosses and dungeons laid out for the most adventurous and strongest. Do not let the difficulty intimidate you though. Camera and inaccessibility problems aside; a great story filled with humor, fantastically strategic and addictive gameplay and a ton of replay value ensures that any player up for a challenge will dig deep for quite some time.
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Graphics = 7.8
It looks ok for most part. Stages float in space, character's 2D sprites could have used some minor modifications but it's a colorful anime inspired title.
Sound = 8.8
The English voice acting is surprisingly good and features a lot of humor. Repetitive but excellent music.
Presentation = 8.5
The cutscenes needed more tuning and the menu some better quality. Production values are solid though. The camera is just plain awful in some parts.
Gameplay = 9.4
The second time I got hold of this game I can't stop playing it. The combat system may not be perfect, but the depth, variety and strategic value found in the game are awesome. Tougher difficulty and difficult to get used to gameplay limit the appeal, but this is a seriously awesome strategy game.
Story = 8.9
Approximately 40-45 hours campaign filled with interesting characters and humor. There is a ton of replay value, extra optional dungeons, bosses and leveling up. If you plan to beat the game completely, get ready to dig more than 200 hours at best.
OVERALL = 88 / 100
Disgaea 2 is a fantastic strategy game that makes use of its compelling gameplay to offer dozens of hours of fun and brutal challenge.