L.G.C. |Reviews| — Disgaea 2

Your intrepid heroes fight screaming penguins, disable filters, and enter a fugue state. Disgaea 2 faces the CHAIRQUISITION!

Game: Disgaea 2
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/495280/
Devel: Nippon Ichi Software
Engine: Custom
Price: 19.99 / CDN 21.99

Wazzat: When Adell and his family accidentally kidnap the Princess of the Netherworld, all hell breaks loose. Adell races to return the Princess to her home, where he hopes to defeat the Overlord and break the curse on his world.

Mandatory disclosure: They sent us keys

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Makes with the working

V-

Monitor times out.
This is annoying when you are halfway across the studio conked out on the wub sofa.

J-

P-

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

Ever play Ocarina of Time on a N64 emulator?
Yeah, it’s less jarring than this critter.
By default you get wicked hi-res menus (and art) mixed with some melted pixel graphics.
However, if you disable the pixel filter things start looking legit.
I’m not saying it prevents the characters from clashing with the 2006 3D background but it helps.
The English voice “acting” killed my houseplant.
The Dooood screaming penguins salted the earth it was planted in.
The background music is passable but it’s on a short loop.

J-

This is a PS2 game. It came out many moons ago
HD remake this is not. Those sprites look bad
They could really use with some variety on the background music. 5 hours in and I’ve just sort of learned how to tune it out
The voice acting is pure unadulterated fromage and I kind of like it for that reason, even if the main dude with the girl’s name sounds like a whiny bitch half the time

P-

I was a bit disappointed here.
The character sprites were just up scaled and they don’t look good when you’re playing at 1080p.
The background music starts to grate after a while and the voice acting, I get that were going for purposefully camp voice-acting.
But being campy on purpose is still being campy.

Total-

Control

V-

Worked OOTB with the Xclone conrolla and you can rebind all the things.

J-

My only nitpick is that the camera and square selection can eat a gigantic bag of dicks

P-

Total-

FUN

V-

2006 was a different time.
Pluto is downgraded from a planet, Borat gets released, and Googs buys the Tubes.
And as you might have guessed, Disgaea 2 arrived on the PS2.
You see, kids, 2006 was a different time.
Trigger Mc. outrage culture didn’t exist and having a teacher in a kids classroom dressed as a dominatrix wielding a flog talking about punishment was the norm… in Japan.
This is my first JRPG and surprisingly I don’t completely hate it.
Yeah, turned-based games make babby Venn cry but Disgaea 2 found a tissue… for my issue.
Seems I can grind through TBS if you attach it to a properly unhinged storyline.
I don’t find said storyline LOL funny, more like WTF funny.
Then again, WTF and Japan go together like poutine on a Canadian.
Gameplay is generic as all hell and at times a borderline spreadsheet simulator.
2+ hours in and I’m only slightly beginning to figure out what the hell is going on.
You battle, win, get points, buy armour and shite, heal the team, and replace the lost ones.
There is also some kind of warrant system that I have yet to wrap my mind-organ around.
Hell there are many sub-systems in this game that both anger and confuse old man Venn.
However, that’s not a bad thing since it allows me to put Disgaea 2 firmly in the “stuck on a desert island” category.
Meaning if I had a shite load of time to kill I would definitely pick this critter up.

J-

I’ve apparently gone into a fugue state and lost several hours playing this game without realizing it
Seriously though, this is the exact sort of micromanagey, grindy bullshit that makes my autism super happy.
Everything from managing equipment, to trying to evenly level my characters to setting up all sorts of nifty combos
It gets four chairs from me by virtue of that alone
The icing on the cake is the wonderful dialogue, which legitimately got a few belly laughs out of me
The only real gripe I have with it is the camera, but even then it’s not enough to harm the overall enjoyment of the game

P-

The only real complaint I have, is that for a remastered edition of a PS2/PSP game the graphics are a bit… meh.
But let’s face it, this is a Tactics JRPG. It’s a genre which focuses almost exclusively on Narrative and Mechanics.
Unless, it’s made by Square Enix… but that’s not the case, here.
Disgaea 2, which I keep typing as Disagea 2, the narrative is mostly optional and it gives you the chance to skip it at the start of almost every scene.
That’s the mark of someone who is well aware of the load of anime and JRPG tropes they crammed into their game and realize that some people just aren’t into that.
The casual incest implications, the unwavering confidence of the hero which inevitably gets dashed at the midpoint of the game, the female main character which acts as the love interest, audience surrogate and main driving point for the plot.
I’ll be honest, I just started skipping the story and got on with the combat.
Because that’s where the meat of this game is.
The combat may be meat, but the seasoning is in the micromanagement.
I spent a good hour just micromanaging all the party members and their equipment after I finished the little sister summoning side-quest… and I wasn’t bored.
I wanted to make sure everyone had proper equipment and was at least competent should I need them in combat.
Hell, you can even go into an item and improve it by beating its “inner dungeon”.
I like it, I like this game.