Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories

By: CAPTAIN GORDON EDWARD
Review Date: Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness was a game that kept me playing videogames. For a long time I had slowly been removing myself from playing videogames because I did not have a lot of time for them. I was generally just buying them, and not playing them, which meant I was wasting my money. That all changed after I played this original game a few years ago, where I was delighted by the tactics system, and devoured by the fantastic storyline. I say this upfront, because I loved the original game. It was the place that I obtained the moniker Captain Gordon, as in the game there is a Captain Gordon. What I was also delighted to find out was that the character had a sidekick named Jennifer, as I have a sister with the same name. Well, that is enough of a tangent.

Bits and pieces of the Disgaea storyline continued after the game was over, and were featured in future games. These other games were Phantom Brave, and Makai Kingdom, and you could eventually unlock the main characters from the original. When you start this game you find that the story is completely different from the original. Sadly only later in the game do you find hints of the original. You start off playing as Adell, whom has watched his entire city and family slowly turn into demons because of a curse. The cure was caused by the demon Lord Zenon, whom is one badass freaking Overlord, also known as the God of Overlords because he has slain a hundred of them. Strangely enough Adell remained unchanged through this curse, and he takes that as a sign that he is destined to defeat Lord Zenon and restore his city.


With the help of his adoptive mother, he attempts a summoning ritual to gather Zenon's collective essence in hopes to battle him to the death. A small glitch in the spell ends in bringing forth Zenon's daughter Rozalin. The spell connects Adell and her together until he can defeat Zenon. Of course this colourful cast grows as you journey, and the hysterics that occur are worth the price of admission alone. One example of the storyline, later on the game, is a giant demon pimple that is obsessed with women, in their entirety, talks in depth on how it loathes being on a male body. Sadly the storyline is not as complex as the original Disgaea game. This one is does not have an angel rising up against the heavens, nor does it involve the using Earth to try and destroy the demon home world. That does not mean it is a bad storyline in the end, just not as strong.

For the regular combat, there have been additions here over the original. Now you can stack your teammates, by continuing to pick up a line of them, and then attack any nearby enemies in tandem. This sends them into the air with each successive hit, causing a mountain of pain. Comboing your attacks will also increase the future damage you will do on the map, and it is essential to do when you are outmatched. Of course there are standard ways to cheat in the game that the game encourages. One of them involves setting a character to attack, then placing characters around it for moral support, and possibly a combo, and then cancelling the character's movements. This allows you to reposition all the non-attacking characters so they can attack other targets. What is back, that has been missing in the past few games, in the grid system. Now you once again have the option of blocking enemies by surrounding them.

Of course there is also the lift and throw system that you can use. When you use it against most enemies, and you throw two different enemies together, their levels are combined along with their other stats. This also means that they are worth much more experience when you kill them. If you pick up the Prinny characters and throw them, then they explode and deal their HP in damage to the characters around them. If you lift and throw your teammates, then you can quickly navigate the map, and set up the best way to kill your opponents.

The Dark Assembly has been revamped slightly, allowing you to become more involved. For those who do not know about it, it is a place where you create your characters, and also unlock hidden worlds. There will be a group of monsters that will vote for or against your proposals. This time around you can become a senator and assist in affairs, which involves you with other people wanting a larger voice in their proposals. The Dark Assembly now involves cliques or groups of the enemy's type, which help with creating a voting block to push motions collectively wanted through. Another feature included is that higher-level creatures around lower levelled monsters will influence their votes. Luckily you do still have the option of bribing them, if they are willing to accept them. There has been an addition to the bribery system, which involves a group of enemies that do not accept any bribes.

The Dark Assembly system continues, as there are also status affects on the voters in there as well. Some are sleeping through the vote, which means while they are there they will forgo voting. Another affect involves the characters being drunk, and this mixed in with bribes offers random positive or negative affects. Now they may love or hate you for bribing them, unless you bribe them with something that cures their condition. You also have legendary senators that show up randomly, and they have the best affect of all. They can knock away opposing voters out of the forum, making it more one sided. This is in addition to them being highly levelled, and as such they have more voting power. Needless to say if you are successful in bribing them, you are on easy street for this meeting.

Something has been replaced is the influence system that your character has, which has now displays the chance of passing your bill. I think that it is great to add this in here, since it gives you a better gauge if you will have the possibility of passing your motions. They still have allowed for you to persuade by force, so if your bill does not pass, you can always enter battle with those that prevented it.

Cell phones have been introduced, which is a regular extension of items. The cell phones allow you to get an on screen delivery for your characters to keep them in the best shape. Another thing you can do is call in for battle assistance, like from some of the Defenders of Earth. They also assist you in the Dark Assembly, allowing you to sway votes in your favour. I think that this is a very innovative feature, and I am glad they added it in. It is integrated quite well if you choose to use it.

Geo symbols and squares have made a triumphant return. These symbols add status affects to certain coloured squares on the map. Some of the geo symbols are living creatures and will move to a different square at the end of combat. Destroying geo panels will also add to your bonus meter, and when you finish a level you are rewarded based on how high the bonus meter is. Mainly there is a bunch of different coloured squares, and if you destroy a blue geo symbol on a red square, all the red squares will turn to blue ones. If this causes other geo symbols to be destroyed in the process, they will all change to that new colour. This will keep you at your wits end trying to figure out the best combo to get you the most points.

The Item World is also back, expanded, and is something that is filled with these panels. For those who do not know what the item world does, it allows you to level up your items to get more stat boost from them. Now you can enter the Dark Assembly inside of these items to push for them to gain extra stats per level. You also have things like the Item World pirates showing up, and they can destroy most unprepared teams. You will also be able to enter mystery rooms while venturing down the Item World's levels, which will allow you to encounter a random creature. These creatures may act as a hospital to refresh your characters, some offer limited stores. Leaving this room does force you to start the current level over.

Another thing that has been added is felonies charges. You can accept subpoenas and enter into the Item World with them. Do complete the charge, you will need to make it towards the bailiff's level and enter the court. Once there you are not harmed in any manor, in fact you are rewarded with gifts, like money. These felony charges are a badge of honour between demons, and it is also required by the game to proceed.

If you are finding the regular levels a little too easy for your taste, and you have all ready beaten the game, you can retry levels through the Dark Gate. This Dark Gate raises the difficulty considerably, making the next venture through much more challenging. Likewise all the bonuses you get in the area are also increased substantially as well, making it worth the risk if you are below their levels.

Graphically the game takes a lot of its source material from the original game, and it improves upon it. The same can be said for the sound of the game, which is very delightful. Perhaps the best thing I heard in the game is a song dedicated to one of the returning cast members named Beauty Queen Etna. The voice acting of the characters is very well done, which keeps the game rolling quite well. I personally could listen to the Prinny character saying "Dood" for hours. Perhaps that is just my style though.

In the end this is a fantastic game, just like the original. If you are into tactics games, this one will be for you. In fact if you do not buy it, you probably hate videogames in general. Perhaps you are just stuck playing your Sega Saturn, and figure that games are never going to get any better than they are on that system. If you do not buy this game, buy the original. If you have the original, buy this. If you have this one, and the original, buy one for a friend. Simply put, this is a fantastic game that will keep you busy for hundreds of hours. This game also has a bunch of different endings. If you love RPGs or hate them, you should still enjoy this game. All and all, Captain Gordon gives Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories an A-.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? CaptainGordonEdward@Gmail.com