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Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
Flowers, Intrigue, and Further Exploding Penguins: Disgaea D2

Video- Main Title Animation

Watch


So, this gets complicated. The original Disgaea did in fact have a sequel, Disgaea 2, which did in fact follow directly after the first game (though its main characters were only tangential to that plot). This game, while set after that one, is a direct sequel to the original Disgaea, featuring its main characters (though Captain Gordon and his friends have returned to Earth). It’s also probably the second best of the series (the most recent entry, Disgaea 5, is unreasonably good). It introduces a bunch of really awesome refinements to the gameplay and just in general is amazing.

Cast:

Laharl:


The Overlord of the Netherworld, and son of the late King Krichevskoy and a human witch. In the couple of years since the original Disgaea, he has found a pair of pants. He’s otherwise still a huge jerk. Voiced by Barbara Goodson.

Etna:


Laharl’s vassal. Manages the endless squad of Prinnies that does all the actual work around the castle. While she’s constantly messing with Laharl, she does earnestly want to help him become a proper Overlord like his father. Voiced by Michelle Ruff.

Flonne:


A fallen Angel. Helped Laharl become the Overlord, and since being kicked out of Celestia has hung around the castle. Is always talking about love. Voiced by Sandy Fox.

Sicily:


An angel who shipped herself to the Netherworld. Wants to become the Overlord.

Xenolith:


A mysterious demon we met at the gates of Celestia. Enigmatic as gently caress. Sent a letter to Etna to meet him in Agul Eviland, where it seems she is originally from. No seriously he is enigmatic as all outdoors.

Barbara:


The Netherworld's Evilest Warrior, and the Krichevskoy Group's candidate for Overlord. Is unable to do anything unless ordered first, and is very precise in carrying out said orders even to her detriment.

Grosso:


We met him after he destroyed one of Laharl's statues. Claims to be a former vassal of King Krichevyskoy, and does not recognize Laharl as Overlord.

Garungun:


A big red jerk. Part of the Krichevskoy Group.

Rainier:


Some kind of slug mermaid or something. Also part of the Krichevskoy Group.

Seraph Lamington:


Celestia's leader. A really chill guy.

Virunga:


An angel the Seraph was talking with. You could probably assume he's Vulcanus' replacement, because he is.

Table of Contents:
One: Qualities of an Overlord, Lead In
Two: Mondo Grosso
Three: Statuesque
Four: Statue Showdown
Five: The Mysterious Angel Girl Sicily, Lead In
Six: Ice is Nice
Seven: Frozen Showdown
Eight: News and Sisters
Nine: The Item World
Ten: The Raid
Eleven: The Mermaid and the Djinn
Twelve: The Netherworld's Evilest Warrior
Thirteen: Changes
Fourteen: Gatecrashers
Fifteen: Manager
Sixteen: The Ultimate Idol Showdown
Seventeen: The Celestial Suspicion
Eighteen: Flowery Path
Nineteen: Stairway to Heaven
Twenty: The Mysterous Warrior, Xenolith
Twenty-one: Etna's Letter
Twenty-two: The Super Idol Appears?
Twenty-three: Welcome to the Jungle
Twenty-four: The Jungle Book
Twenty-five: Nostalgia
Twenty-six: The Truth About Angels
Twenty-seven: The Porker Protege
Twenty-eight: The Missing Angels
Twenty-nine: More Comic Misunderstandings
Thirty: The Demon Angel
Thirty-one: Unsurprising Issue
Thirty-two: These Jerks Again
Thirty-three: The New King
Thirty-four: Barbara Strikes Back
Thirty-five: Pure
Thirty-six: Prinny Land
Thirty-seven: The Search
Thirty-eight: The Search Continues
Thirty-nine: The Return of the Evilest Warrior
Forty: The Eternal Netherworld
Forty-one: The March of Magic
Forty-two: Together
Forty-three: Sibling Showdown
Forty-four: The Artifact Unleashed
Forty-five: DLC: The Princess, the Witch, and the Black Reaper
Forty-six: DLC: The Mascot, the Fallen Maiden, and a Hot-Blooded Redhead
Forty-seven: DLC: The Chroma, an Angel, and an Oracle?
Forty-eight: DLC: A Pair of Princesses and a Legendary Delinquent
Forty-nine: DLC: A Mad Scientist and a Lady Gentleman
Fifty: DLC: A Brutal Maiden, A Kindly Ghost, and A Navel Knave
Fifty-one: The Melancholy of Barbara
Fifty-two: Our Battle With Nepotism
Fifty-three: Eyebeams

Class Discussions:
Long Live The Fighters
Fists of the North Star, and It's a Kind of Magic
The Overlord and His Posse
The Monster Mash, Part 1
The Strongest Sisters
The Monster Mash, Part 2
Healing and Stealing
Take a Bow
Knightfall
Sword and Shadow
It's High Noon
Dragon and Cat
The Slug and the Succubus
Glitter, Green Sludge, and Gig
The Netherworld's Hero and a Pair of Redheads

Feinne fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Jan 4, 2017

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Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
One: The Qualities of an Overlord, Lead In

The main theme of Disgaea D2 is Hell’s Whisper, as in the first game. Listen for more familiar tracks here coming up.

Video- “Episode 1 Lead In”

Watch


In the past, this world was ruled by an Overlord with unrivaled charisma named Krichevskoy.
After this great Overlord passed away, many demons rose to become the next Overlord, plunging the Netherworld into an age of chaos.
It was then that one demon announced his claim to become the next Overlord.
That demon was Laharl, the only son of Overlord Krichevskoy.
He crushed every demon that stood in his way and forced himself upon the title of Overlord.
He was helped by Angel Trainee Flonne, and after many twists and turns, the Netherworld and Celestia started interacting.
However, because she had harmed other angels, Angel Trainne Flonne became a Fallen Angel and moved into the Overlord’s Castle with Laharl.
A few years later—


We open on the Overlord’s Castle.





Hmm…hmm…hmmmm.
Hmm… This is strange. They should be sprouting soon…
I had them send me Yuie flower seeds all the way from Celestia… Did I plant them wrong?
No! It’s probably because I haven’t given these enough affection!
I shall nourish these plants with my overflowing love!
Here you go! Drip drip!

Enter the Overlord, Laharl.







Owww…
Oh, it’s you, Flonne.
What are you doing talking to the ground? You’re as strange as ever…
No! What are you doing, Laharl…?
Ahhhhhhhh!
Hmhmhm…surprised? I destroyed every star in sight!
Apparently the demons in the Netherworld haven’t realized that I’ve become the Overlord yet.
If I show them proof of my absolute power, they won’t be able to help but admire my greatness!
I don’t care about that!
…Huh?
You destroyed my garden that I’ve worked so hard on! How could you!?
Garden? Who cares!? The whole Netherworld belongs to me, the Overlord.
I decide what gets destroyed and what doesn’t.
You’re terrible. I wanted to show you my favorite flowers…
Prince!

Meteor-based entries are in this season.







Prince, you’re overreacting.
If that would’ve been enough to kill you, I would’ve killed you a long time ago.
You are, as always, a terrible vassal.
Anyway, Prince, most demons can destroy the stars, ya know.
You can destroy as many stars as you want, but no one’ll accept you as the Overlord just for that.
What? Are you saying that all my hard work has been a complete waste of time?
Yup. Absolutely.
Why didn’t you tell me earlier? It’s a vassal’s job to keep an eye out for stuff like that!
What’s wrong, Flonne? You’re shaking. If you gotta pee, you really shouldn’t try and hold it, ya know.
No, that’s not it! Thanks to you two, my garden is completely ruined!
Please apologize to the Celestial Flowers that were trying to hard to sprout!



Yes! I received some Yuie seeds. Although subtle, they bloom into very pretty white flowers!
Umm, Flonne…flowers from Celestia don’t bloom in the Netherworld, ya know.
What?
Good for you! I saved you from wasting your time. You should thank me for that.
Wh-Why didn’t you tell me earlier!?
Don’t be stupid. You never asked.
W-Well yeah, but…
Not to mention, I’m busy. I don’t have time for flowers!
That’s right. You need to hurry up and get people to treat you like an Overlord.
Hmph, just you watch. I’ll show every demon that I am a much superior Overlord than my old man was!
W-Wait for me! I wanna come, too!

If they’d stayed around slightly longer, they’d have seen something unusual happen.



Enter Episode 1.





Hold on, first things first. There are way too many demons who don’t even know that I became the Overlord.
So, I’ve decided to have monuments celebrating my ascension to Overlord set up all over the Netherworld.
Etna!
I know, I know… I ordered all my vassals to get to work on that, nonstop, without food or sleep.
Prinny Squad! Get your asses over here!



Master Etna, is this good, dood?
Wow, that is pretty good for you guys.
It’s our masterpiece, dood!



What? You’re the one who told me to make Laharl statues…
Look at the antennae. They look exactly like yours, right?
Shouldn’t you focus on the face?
This is amazing! It looks exactly like Laharl! Especially the antennae!
Can we not focus on the antennae so much?
It looks enough like you! Don’t be so picky, Prince.
Hmm…I don’t really like it, but I guess it’ll do.
Now, go erect these Laharl statues!

Next Time, Disgaea D2: Mondo Grosso. We’ll talk about game mechanics and the tutorials will show us some of the changes since last time, and perhaps we’ll make a new enemy.

megamariox
Jun 4, 2011
Wow. Nice to see this. This game is definitely one of the best in the series. It helped restore my faith in the series especially after 4. Anyway looking forward to the rest of the let's play. Good luck.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

megamariox posted:

Wow. Nice to see this. This game is definitely one of the best in the series. It helped restore my faith in the series especially after 4. Anyway looking forward to the rest of the let's play. Good luck.

Yeah I think they took a good, hard look at where things were after 4 and realized they needed to go the opposite direction on like every new mechanic they'd added in 3.

Then of course they refined the hell out of stuff for 5 and ended up with a game that's a dream to play.

Oh and on the subject of luck this has started way later than I intended originally because I'm suffering through some technical difficulties behind the scenes, the computer I record on is nearing the end of its life and sometimes decides to crash while I'm recording. Between that and my work schedule I'm currently shooting for an update every few days (I've actually got the whole first episode and about half of 2 recorded but since I'm traveling next week I can't afford to just blaze it out this week).

Feinne fucked around with this message at 20:56 on May 16, 2016

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
The original Disgaea was a revelation for me, being that it was a tactical RPG that didn't suck (as far as my personal definition of "suck" goes, mind you, and I admit to being opinionated). Disgaea 2 didn't really change much outside of the postgame, aside from a badly-needed animation-skip. Then I got out of consoles so I never played any of the others. :( I remember looking at 3 and thinking it sounded kind of dumb, though.

Looking forward to seeing what the new state of things is like!

Omobono
Feb 19, 2013

That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

Glad to see these assholes (and Flonne) are still as dysfunctional as ever.

Feinne posted:

(though Captain Gordon and his friends have returned to Earth)
:(
Come back, oh captain. He'll be back right? He's the Slayer of the Netherworld after all, he can't quit on his job.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Omobono posted:

Glad to see these assholes (and Flonne) are still as dysfunctional as ever.

:(
Come back, oh captain. He'll be back right? He's the Slayer of the Netherworld after all, he can't quit on his job.

Yeah, but Disgaea 2's postgame already established that they've hosed off home. They ARE actually in another Disgaea sequel though, the visual novel Disgaea Infinite (which is hilarious and if you have a PSP/Vita you should totally check it out).

And if they WERE still around they'd have to come up with an excuse for why they weren't in the party for a while, because they'd really break the early game (especially with some of the new mechanics).

Oh, there's another Disgaea Infinite thing of note, Flonne's taking correspondence courses to restore her Angel certification because apparently you can do that.

Feinne fucked around with this message at 21:55 on May 16, 2016

ConanThe3rd
Mar 27, 2009
I remember booting this up, seeing both Laharl AND Etna crash in on meteors and being brought back to Disgaea 1 and its string of insane events.

Good times, good times.

Also easily the best implantation of the Dark Assembly of the series.

Orange Fluffy Sheep
Jul 26, 2008

Bad EXP received
First I've heard of Disgaea 4 sucking.

But if D2 is still better I'll have to jump ship immediately and go play it myself.

serefin99
Apr 15, 2016

Mikoooon~
Your lovely shrine maiden fox wife, Tamamo no Mae, is here to help!

Woohoo! More Disgaea! I gotta thank you, Feinne, for getting me interested in this series. And I can already tell D2 is gonna be a sweet return to the series.

Also, is it just me, or does Etna's outfit look more... stripperiffic than usual?

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
I only played 1 and 2 before making a full transition to PC. 2016 is going to be a great help for my addiction. D1 is just too slow without skipping animations, so I was happy it got one of the better ports. How is Phantom Brave?

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Scalding Coffee posted:

I only played 1 and 2 before making a full transition to PC. 2016 is going to be a great help for my addiction. D1 is just too slow without skipping animations, so I was happy it got one of the better ports. How is Phantom Brave?

Phantom Brave is pretty great and its plot is one of the best NIS has ever done, with the caveat that the game mechanics can be quite obtuse and the plot is also one of the harshest NIS has ever done.

ModeWondershot
Dec 30, 2014

Portu-geezer
ohboyohboyohboy. I am looking forward to this LP for sure, but I'm also going to have to finish my own first playthrough before too long!

For Feinne: Will the Cheat Shop see some use to aid in off/on-screen grinding, or will this first playthrough avoid using it?

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

ModeWondershot posted:

ohboyohboyohboy. I am looking forward to this LP for sure, but I'm also going to have to finish my own first playthrough before too long!

For Feinne: Will the Cheat Shop see some use to aid in off/on-screen grinding, or will this first playthrough avoid using it?

The thing in question is a mechanic sent from Celestia itself and I will be making use of it where appropriate (which isn't really so much early on when the mins and maxes aren't that high). One of many things I'll be discussing next update (which will also include the tutorial maps).

Oh and I'll also be getting the pair of DLC characters that you can get from the assembly at any time about Chapter 3 or so, because they're super usable. Like not as good as the DLC characters Disgaea 5 lets you have from the start, but that's because one of those characters is literally like the second best character in the whole game.

Feinne fucked around with this message at 01:10 on May 17, 2016

A Pleasant Hug
Dec 30, 2007

...It's the thought that counts, right?
I really should finish this game. Don't know why I stopped, actually, it was getting good, and I was unlocking a whole bunch of fun toys around the castle.

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

First I've heard of Disgaea 4 sucking.

But if D2 is still better I'll have to jump ship immediately and go play it myself.
Ditto. I thought 4 was great, but to be fair this was directly after 3....
This one is even better, by quite a lot, and there's a lot of new quality-of-life changes. There's also a lot more :japan:

FractalSandwich
Apr 25, 2010
I don't like the characters or story in this game at all, and I predicted I'll be talking a lot of poo poo about them in the thread, so I gave Feinne a preemptive peace offering. More on that later.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
The Prinny Squad are the best characters.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

FractalSandwich posted:

I don't like the characters or story in this game at all, and I predicted I'll be talking a lot of poo poo about them in the thread, so I gave Feinne a preemptive peace offering. More on that later.

There are better disgaea casts but only one of those casts is in a better actual game than this is my position on this subject. For example disgaea 4 probably has a better cast but there are a lot of really lovely choices made in the gameplay (you mostly don't feel them until the postgame though, so if you don't actually do postgames 4's pretty okay).

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Part of the problem with this cast is that they're forced into what I like to call the Ash Ketchum Syndrome. That is, they've been through a games worth of development but said development is conveniently forgotten in their subsequent appearances so that they/others can learn the same lessons they did.

They're quirky characters but this is what, their 6th appearance? Pull more Walnut's in Soul Eater NIS! That was good stuff!

FractalSandwich
Apr 25, 2010

Feinne posted:

There are better disgaea casts but only one of those casts is in a better actual game than this is my position on this subject. For example disgaea 4 probably has a better cast but there are a lot of really lovely choices made in the gameplay (you mostly don't feel them until the postgame though, so if you don't actually do postgames 4's pretty okay).
That's also true. I dislike Laharl and co. enough that I think the Vita version of Disgaea 4 is a little better than this game overall, but Disgaea 5 is so much better than either of them that that's really just splitting hairs.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

FractalSandwich posted:

That's also true. I dislike Laharl and co. enough that I think the Vita version of Disgaea 4 is a little better than this game overall, but Disgaea 5 is so much better than either of them that that's really just splitting hairs.

Vita Disgaea 4 does incorporate some of the mechanics that make this game great and is definitely superior to the PS3 version, and if you have to play Disgaea 4 is the correct way to do it.

Should have an update tomorrow with a bunch of game mechanic talk and the tutorials, I've got enough backlog content that I'm comfortable trying to get Episode 1 done this week.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
So, has Laharl eschewed normal modes of transportation in favor of riding cataclysmic meteors everywhere?

I mean, I would.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
It does level his skill.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Scalding Coffee posted:

It does level his skill.

Yeah that intro with the laugh was one of many, many moments in this game that is straight love for fans of the original since that is of course his Meteor Impact skill faithfully recreated (It is back of course though we won't see it for a long time).

One other reference, I'm pretty sure the Yuie flowers Flonne is planting are the flower she gets briefly turned into just before the climactic battle of the original game.

This game also has the single widest range of bonus characters (counting DLC) in the series (as far as number of games they're sourced from).

Feinne fucked around with this message at 04:56 on May 18, 2016

ConanThe3rd
Mar 27, 2009
It wasn't so much that he did it, but then Etna followed suit.

ddegenha
Jan 28, 2009

What is this?!
This'll be fun to follow along with, since the first Disgaea LP here was what got me started on the series. I finished Disgaea 5 (which is in fact a prequel) just last weekend, at least as much as I'm going to play since I only have so much patience for post-game grinding, so this can be a bit of a proxy fix. I've been through this one as well, but I'll look forward to seeing what I might have missed.

I'll also throw my voice in to proclaim my love for Disgaea 4, mainly based on Valvatorez being insanely over the top and perhaps the best Disgaea protagonist because of it.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
Two: Mondo Grosso

Today we’ve got a bunch of tutorials. I’m going to include the videos of the tutorial maps, but I’m going to just summarize the actual tutorial text rather than transcribe it so I can focus more on what’s new. Our hub is the Overlord’s Castle, which has seen some improvements since the original game.



If you want to go outside the castle, talk to the Dimension Guide, Meaver.
She’ll open up the dimensional gate and send you wherever you wanna go.
Move with the directional buttons or Left Stick. Change the view by pressing L1 or R1.
Or press square+L1 or square+R1 to adjust the zoom.
Press triangle to open the Main Menu. You can Save the game or change equipment there.

We can’t really do anything around the castle right now because nothing’s open, so we’ll just head to the Dimension Guide. Disgaea D2’s tutorials are connected to the plot, so we aren’t actually allowed to skip them.

Video- Tutorial 1

Watch


It seems like not everyone’s excited that we’re putting up ugly statues of Laharl.



Looks like they’re the locals.
And, it looks like they don’t want you to put up your statue. Whaddaya want us to do, Prince?
Do you really need to ask…?
I don’t care who they are, destroy anyone who gets in my way!
Enta: Well said, Prince! There wasn’t even an ounce of pity!
W-W-Wait! I’m sure we can just talk to them.
Good idea. I know sign language, so I think I’ll let my fists do all the talking.
I see! That was kinda clever… B-But that’s not what I meant!
It’s pretty courageous of them to go up against the Overlord…
I shall crush them all, and engrave my name into their bodies and fear of the Overlord into their souls!

So we get a tutorial on basics here.



For those not familiar with the series, we dispatch characters from the Base Panel (up to 10). Each character can move once per turn and act once per turn. We register actions, which don’t happen until we execute them. This allows for Combos (where multiple consecutive attacks against a target will do increased damage) and Team Attacks (where adjacent allies have a chance of joining in on a regular melee range attack). One new mechanic is the Support Attack, where allies that are in range can attack an enemy that an ally just attacked. These are part of the Combo counter, so we can get some pretty sick setups on enemies if we do it right. When we run out of actions or select End Turn the enemy gets to act, and play proceeds from there.

When we return, the store and hospital are open.



Finally… Man, what a hassle.
It’ll cost you money, but you can heal at the Netherworld Hospital. Make sure to heal after every battle.
The Rosen Queen Co. has a shop that sells weapons and equipment, as well as a shop that sells consumable items.
You can buy healing items there. Just make sure you buy enough to last for a while.
Regarding weapons and equipment, it’s always better to equip stronger items. Try to keep up on upgrading them.
You can talk to Zommie about weapons. He’s pretty informative.

The hospital is pretty self explanatory, we pay money between maps to restore the health and SP of our characters and if necessary revive them. Let’s talk weapons, though. There are now eight classes of human weapons:

Fists: Fists are melee range weapons whose skills focus on relocating enemies. They use the Attack and Speed stat to determine damage, which means that Fist users are naturally going to be very good at evading attacks. Fist damage is generally slightly below average though, because of the split stat.

Swords: Swords are the baseline melee weapon, and have a wide variety of skills with elemental properties and area of effect. You can pretty much never go wrong with swords.

Spears: Spears can attack at a range of two squares instead of one, and their skills excel at area of effect attacks and relocating the user. Spears in general have inferior attack stats but also add to your defense, which is actually a positive due to some new mechanics in the game involving defense.

Bows: Bows are one of our ranged options. They’ve got a four square range, base their damage on Attack and Hit, and their skills are usually area of effect based. Bows are amazing for Support Attacks since they cover so many squares with their range, but are generally wasted in the hands of characters besides the Archer class.

Guns: Guns are the other ranged option. They’ve got a five square range, but can only attack in a straight line from the user. Their skills have a similar restriction. Guns base their damage on Hit and Speed, and can lower the Speed stat of targets hit.

Axes: Axes are focused heavily on single target damage, and do it quite well. Hitting a target with an axe also reduces their Defense stat, which makes them good at the start of a combo to soften up enemies.

Staves: Staves are one of our two magic-based weapons. They have a range of two like a Spear, and base their damage on Intelligence instead of Attack. They don’t have any skills, though, instead wielding a staff increases the range and area of effect of your spells.

Books: Books are a new weapon type. They are Intelligence based melee weapons that provide a variety of skills that do magic damage. They’re a pretty cool option for classes that don’t get innate magical offense like Clerics.

Monsters have two classes of weapons, ones that raise Attack and Hit and ones that raise Attack and Intelligence. Casters get the latter, everyone else gets the former.

Let’s take a look at the characters we’ve got while we’re at it, starting with Laharl.



Laharl is good with Fists, Swords, and Axes. He’s got great all-around stats (though he’s not ever going to be a great caster). Let’s take a look at another returning mechanic for him now, his Evility.



Evilities are innate properties of a character, that tend to give them some kind of major special advantage. Laharl’s is Overlord’s Dignity, which gives him 10% more stats for a map each time he defeats an enemy on it. This fits well with the fact that he’s often going to be your strongest character. Now let’s move on to Etna.



Etna’s good with Spears, Axes, and Guns. She’s also very solid, with her greatest strength being defense. Her Evility is Sadistic, which increases the damage she does to an enemy at full health by 50%. This is actually super strong as long as you remember to take advantage of it, since our goal is to be killing things in a single hit if possible.



Flonne’s good with Bows and Books and great with Staves. She also gets healing magic innately. Her Evility, Heart of Affection, increases her stats by 10% every time she heals an ally to max HP, which is a pretty significant upgrades on the Evilities she usually has as a bonus character (which are generally just bonuses to how much she heals).



We also start with a pair of Private Prinnies. They’re monsters, so they use their own weapon types. Prinny evilities are all about how they explode when thrown, and both of the ones we start with are The Usual Prinnies with the standard Explosive Body. This makes them do 50% of their remaining HP in a 2 square range when thrown (it also detonates any Prinnies in the radius). There are actually two other evilities a Prinny can start with, but we’ll talk about that when we can actually create characters.

Our next tutorial is on Lift and Throw.

Video- Tutorial 2

Watch


We can lift characters and throw them to move around the map more quickly. It works like it has since the beginning for the most part, though Tower Attacks are still in. Tower Attacks let a bunch of characters lifting each other all attack together. Characters who are lifting can’t move, so do watch for that. This map also mentions something really important, Defending. Defend has always been in the game, but it’s now super useful because a Defending character can Cover adjacent allies and take hits for them. This is absolutely amazing for protecting squishy characters and there is a class largely based around Covering that we’ll get later.

The third tutorial map is on Geo Effects.

Video- Tutorial 3

Watch


We’re back to original Disgaea style Geo Symbols and Geo Panels. The colored panels on the ground are Geo Panels and they provide effects to anything standing on them depending on the Geo Symbols. We can throw Symbols around to change where they’re having their effect, and we can destroy them to end the effect entirely. Symbols have a color as well as an effect, and if we kill a symbol on a panel of a different color it will change those panels to that color and damage everyone standing on one. This can chain, and the larger the chain the more damage is dealt. If we clear all the panels, all enemies take heavy damage in addition to the normal damage. We also get a lot of Bonus from this. The Bonus Meter fills as we kill enemies and clear Panels, and we get extra loot from it at the end of the map. As an exercise for the reader, consider what you would have to do with the symbols on the map in the screenshot in order to Clear the map.

We get a story scene at the end of the last tutorial.

Video- Grosso

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Well, we won so all’s well, right?
The statue is up, and I’m getting hungry, so let’s go back to the Overlord’s Castle.

Then this rear end in a top hat shows up.



Wh-What!? My majestic statue has been…!?
I can’t allow you to do this, Prince Laharl.
The fact that you are the Overlord’s son does not grant you permission to erect these statues…
Who the hell are you…!?

Meet Grosso the gargoyle. He’s probably not as important as he thinks he is, or he’d have shown up in Disgaea 1.



Advisor? Grosso? Hey Etna, do you remember him?
I don’t know… King Krichevskoy had a lot of vassals. I can’t remember every single one of them.
* ahem * Anyway, you, youngster, are not cut out to be Overlord, the ruler of the Netherworld.
With that being said, I shall rid the Netherworld of all these eyesores. I hope you understand.
What!? I’m already the Overlord. You can’t talk to me like that!
Destroying my statues is a felony! Are you ready to receive your punishment!?
Still so full of energy… You haven’t changed at all.
I’m sorry to say this, but I can’t afford to waste any time with you.
You children should just go home. Don’t interfere with our business.

At this point Grosso pisses off.



Looks like that guy’s gonna be a real pain.
Do you think he’s trying to become the Overlord, too?
If he was, instead of destroying the statue, he would’ve just fought us.
I’m also curious about what he meant by “our” business.
Hmph! I don’t know what he’s up to, but I won’t let him destroy my statues. Quick, after him!

That about covers it for this time, next time we’ll get some more mechanics opened up and move into the episode proper.

Next Time, Disgaea D2: Statuesque.

Wanderer
Nov 5, 2006

our every move is the new tradition
I wrote the Prima guide to this game, and in many ways, I have not yet recovered.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Wanderer posted:

I wrote the Prima guide to this game, and in many ways, I have not yet recovered.

I mean there are probably worse video game related jobs, you could be a guy who gets mauled by animals so they can record more accurate sounds maybe or DarksydePhil.

Wanderer
Nov 5, 2006

our every move is the new tradition
...so... much... algebra

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Wanderer posted:

...so... much... algebra

It could have been Phantom Brave and you'd have to understand and explain poo poo like Failure Fusion and Random Failure Dungeons to the sorts of people who buy strategy guides. I'd imagine whoever wrote that one is in a coma from their Excel-related alcoholism.

EDIT: Honestly not wanting to do more loving around with failure titles in various ways is a big reason why I haven't LP'd Phantom Brave.

Feinne fucked around with this message at 23:09 on May 18, 2016

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Ouch, you actually had to learn about all those internal formulas and figure out how to explain them to the players?

Unoriginal One
Aug 5, 2008
Huh, Netherworld's looking rather... pastoral these days. Laharl and co must have had to sell off all of their levels to pay the landscaping bill.

Just goes to show the lengths some people will go to just to have a nice lawn.


(And Failure title shenanigans aren't that bad)

Wanderer
Nov 5, 2006

our every move is the new tradition

Feinne posted:

It could have been Phantom Brave and you'd have to understand and explain poo poo like Failure Fusion and Random Failure Dungeons to the sorts of people who buy strategy guides. I'd imagine whoever wrote that one is in a coma from their Excel-related alcoholism.

Thankfully, I just did the introduction and basics chapter on Phantom Brave, and a walkthrough for the extra scenario when it was rereleased. We had an actual doctoral candidate in mathematics to do up the formulas.

Dr. Fetus posted:

Ouch, you actually had to learn about all those internal formulas and figure out how to explain them to the players?

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyep.

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

Wanderer posted:


Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyep.

Man that sounds horrible.

Bruceski
Aug 21, 2007

The tools of a hero mean nothing without a solid core.

How does strategy guide writing work, anyway? Does the company give you a textdump of info to sift through or do you get to dig thropugh the code and figure things out yourself?

Wanderer
Nov 5, 2006

our every move is the new tradition
Depends on the company, the time frame, the publisher, and the game. Sometimes I got flat zero help; sometimes I got quite a bit, usually from some long-suffering associate producer. D2 was closer to the latter.

Japanese games are often harder, since the American localization team often has no idea about anything in the game save the script, so you have to write your questions down, have them translated, then send them overseas.

FractalSandwich
Apr 25, 2010

Wanderer posted:

Japanese games are often harder, since the American localization team often has no idea about anything in the game save the script, so you have to write your questions down, have them translated, then send them overseas.
It often shows, too. There are some places in the Disgaea games where it's pretty clear they wrote the descriptions for Evilities and other things without knowing what they actually do.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

FractalSandwich posted:

It often shows, too. There are some places in the Disgaea games where it's pretty clear they wrote the descriptions for Evilities and other things without knowing what they actually do.

There's definitely at least one in Disgaea 5 where the description has very little to do with what the evility actually does.

So on Evilities, this game is a lot more restrictive on that front. You basically will not have a second Evility on a character until the postgame, and you can't have more than two at all. On the other hand, a character can have almost any Evility that exists as their second if you pull some bullshit, even one that's a special character's.

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habituallyred
Feb 6, 2015
Too bad about Captain Gordon and his very classic SF sidekicks going back home. I loved how you could trace their looks to specific SF magazine covers.

Did they really get a future PHD to do the mechanics for the Phantom Brave guide?

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