Disgaea D2 Returns to the Series' Roots - Preview
by Karl Koebke , posted on 15 June 2013 / 3,226 Views
The Disgaea series is one of the most well known and loved games in the Strategy RPG genre and for good reason because it started out strong. Laharl and his crew are still probably the best cast of characters the series has ever had. This is best evidenced by the vast number of games in and out of the Disgaea series where they’ve made cameo appearances. After years of cameos the Demon Lord, Assistant, and Fallen Angel are finally starring in their own game again.
Disgaea D2 is slated as a direct sequel to the original game. It features the cast of the original Disgaea with the visuals and gameplay tweaks of later games in the series. I loved the sprite upgrade in Disgaea 4 and the engine works wonders for Disgaea D2 as well. Walking around Laharl’s castle with all the expected stores and trainers was a joy. The environment is still notably less impressive, but you can’t have everything.
Ryan from NISA showed me the general layout of Laharl’s headquarters. As expected, the Dark Assemly is back as a means to get new characters and bonuses which you can win democratically or by force. New to the series is a Dojo where characters’ stats can be directly upgraded. The demo was in Japanese so I couldn’t make up what you had to spend for these upgrades but I’m sure it’ll be some points you more than likely earn from battles.
We also talked a bit about the storyline. NIS is going for a bit of a lighter feel for this game, which is evident in the narrative as well as the general presentation. There’s a family theme that permeates Disgaea D2. Laharl’s sister even makes an appearance. I’m not sure I’m one hundred percent sold on a lighter Disgaea title but I suppose previous storylines in the series weren’t exactly the blackest of black humors. Perhaps I’m just overestimating how “light” Disgaea D2 will end up and what exactly that entails.
After the tour we went into a battle to check out some of the changes to gameplay. Magichange is out, except during special attack animations, so you can no longer have a monster on your team solely to turn it into a gun for your favorite character. In its place is a piggybacking system in which your humanoid characters can ride on the back of a monster. This opens up new attacks which are just as hilarious as you might expect. One example I saw with Laharl and a prinny sent the target into an obvious Bomberman parody arena with prinnies running around placing bombs with the enemy barely avoiding them. Eventually the prinnies got tired of this game and filled the entire screen with bombs; a tactic I wish I’d known about in my own bouts of Bomberman.
Look for more zaniness from Disgaea D2 and our full review as its Fall 2013 release approaches.
