Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness

[Tomha_Domizoko]

Hello it's Tom again with a new review for the recently released game Disgaea D2. (Making this one of the first games I reviewed while still new!) But instead of going into great deep detail like I usually do I'm gonna try not to ramble too much.

Disgaea D2 is the direct sequel to the first Disgaea game of the series continuing the story of Laharl, the overlord of this Netherworld. A massive portion of his netherworld is unaware of his rulership and he sets out to re-establish his domination as well as handle a crisis growing in the Netherworld.

Gameplay wise, a fairly massive portion of the gameplay of the series has been changed and mixed to what I think is a great improvement Throw system is fixed up perfectly, characters can specialize which weapon they desire, and a new mechanic that is very nice: A Cheat Shop. The Cheat Shop allows you to change how much EXP/Mana/Hell/Skill exp/Weapon exp you earn within a controlled limit (which is increased as you advance the story) as well as immediately alter the strength of the enemies without the tedious bill passing.

Character world and Map creator seems to be gone as well as Magichange. Magichange however is replaced by mounting where human like demons can mount a monster demon for special attacks.

The majority of the monster demons you can have in your party are the same from the very first game.

A personal problem I have though is how some of the special traits are overpowered in the very beginning. The Pumpkin demon can have a 50% chance of inflicting every status ailment per attack (and it seems to be 50% for EACH ailment, meaning your bound to be infected by a very bad on everytime). Or one getting a large boost to all stats thanks to having your entire army out.

Graphics wise, it's pretty good, up to date and very colorful, the monsters artstyles are fairly simple but still fairly nice.

On the downside though is it's a sequel to the first one so a certain love freak will be a main/support character again and the best way to explain her is "Impale her before she rants about love because she wont STFU about it."

Nippon Ichi makes it's cruel return with the DLC garbage, essentially keeping the majority of Disgaea fan favorites in the DLC area to make you pay 2.99$ per character (though some may come in packs of 2 for the same price). They also tempt you into buying the game ASAP with the promise of free for limited time DLC, the twist? It's a very pathetic skin pack for the main trio that's so minor it feels like a insult.

The main character himself also seems too powerful in my opinion. I understand he IS the overlord and should be a badass but story wise this defeats the purpose of saying he needs friends and love if he can just do most of the work himself and gameplay wise he seems to tend to leave your entire party EXP starved as he steals all the kills (or at least can if your not careful in using him.) but you can make the joke be on him by having him become a busty sexy girl, the one thing he hates. (Ha!)

Anyway the game is pretty good and worth buying if your a fan of the Disgaea series and did like the first.

SUM IT UP

:Good:
Gameplay improved very nicely
Classic Demons from Disgaea 1
Good Story
Female Larharl is great xD
Cheat Shop helps grinding to level 9999 a lot easier

:Bad:
The Love Freak is gonna talk a lot...
DLC will hog majority if not all your favorite characters from previous games AGAIN!
Map Creator not implemented
A lot of special traits feel like gamebreakers
Cheat shop allows exploitation to help curbstomp the entire story mode game.

Overall: I'd give it a 8 out of 10 but would only recommend it to people who played the first game, do not mind Flonne (love freak, and probably don't get annoyed by constant DLC.  

[Tomha_Domizoko]

Hey remember when I mentioned the DLC Problem? Well this breaks it down in my case.

Each character costs about 3$. There's roughly 5 or so I did really want in the game so just to have these characters, who has no real story or element in the game whatsoever besides "You can use this character in fights in the Game+ regions." will cost me about 15$ along with the original game price of like 50$

Why would you get these characters? Their main characters from previous Nippon Ichi games and will often be your absolute favorites. Like for me, Prier(e) is my favorite and the fact they have her original and evil available just makes me desperately want them cause I'm a huge fanboy of her.

That's pretty much the majority of the DLC in a nutshell. Pricy bait for fanboys to be tempted with and as much as I hate it, it actually works often enough to keep doing it...