Disgaea 2
 

"NIS America announced today at an event held in San Francisco (and intentionally kept a secret until midnight) that Disgaea 2, sequel to Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, is coming to North America for the PS2. Created by parent company Nippon Ichi, the game promises to build upon its predecessor with new modes, narrative, and a refined combat system. Fans can also expect improved visuals, including a slew of newly designed characters and environments.

NIS America announced today at an event held in San Francisco (and intentionally kept a secret until midnight) that Disgaea 2, sequel to Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, is coming to North America for the PS2. Created by parent company Nippon Ichi, the game promises to build upon its predecessor with new modes, narrative, and a refined combat system. Fans can also expect improved visuals, including a slew of newly designed characters and environments. "

tEh oLD neWZ, nooes

It's out in Japan now, due out in the states sometime in August. Anyone else excited about this? And has anyone imported it?

Here's IGN's impression of the game so far
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/687/687738p1.html

I've been playing it. Really just more of the same, which bugs me when I am reminded that they even took a step backwards and went back to grid movement.

I thought I was dead-set on getting the game when it came out in North America, but now I'm not even sure.

Eh, some people may prefer the grid system... I personally found the free movement of Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom to feel a little awkward and as such enjoyed them both far less than I did Disgaea, or even La Pucelle.

I didn't mind a similar system in Growlanser, though, which sort of baffles me.

Well, I can agree that the grid system isn't as... clunky as free movement, but I found it to be much more enjoyable than the usual squares. Seriously, grids are becoming the random encounters of Strategy-RPGs-- extremely overused, and new ways to fight need to be introduced and encouraged.

Oh, I agree... I'm sure with some tweaking somewhere down the line the system will probably be better. It's just that right now it isn't and so I don't personally prefer it. I'm rather glad they went back to the grid but I would like to see them make some improvements with the 'free movement' and try again.

I definitely see the point about it getting stale and overused as SRPGs since, well, the dawn of time have all used grid based systems and it does get tiresome at times. I barely notice it in fun games like Disgaea, though.

How's the music, by the way? The music for the Disgaea 2 trailer had a remixed version of one of the battle themes from the original...so does that mean Tenpei Sato is composing again, or are they using the trio that composed the music for Phantom/Makai Kingdom?

I honestly can't tell the difference between their composers, but I will say the music isn't that great so far. I've only heard a few battle themes and the hub world theme, but "forgettable" comes to mind.

How was the game received in Japan?Did it get good scores compared to the prequel? As for the grid, everyone's own choice I guess. The free roaming system felt awkward in Phantom Brave (haven't played any other Nippon Ichi games), but a game like Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter pulled it off pretty good.

The grid is not a convention I mind. It makes it easier to determine attack ranges and enemy movement. Not to say a free-roaming system would be a bad thing, but simplicity can be an asset as well.

Most importantly of all, how is the enemy AI? Nippon Ichi has been really, really lazy about this and I've refused to buy anything after Disgaea for that reason. I dig their combat system and class architecture, but the AI is going to make or break the game.

I still don't know what to think about the grid system coming back. On one hand, I like having maps all neat and tidey appropriately seperated in hundreds of little squares, though it's not as fun as the free roaming system. That's one of the reasons why I liked Phantom Brave so much.

Hmm, I still have to finish the original Disgaea. Such a long game.

Can someone verify if the game actually runs in hi-res, like they said it will?

I was palying Disgaea 2 the past week, just see the samething as the original disgaes with joke, battler system the same, great music, etc

Runs in hi-res? You mean High Definition? Definitely not.

The sprites are not hi-res, like they promised. Characters are now marginally more proportional, but not to the point where the felt the need to redo sprites of returning characters (Laharl, Flonne, Zetta, and everyone else have recycled sprites).

Bleh I was hoping for more improvements..doesn't sound like much has changed which really is annoying. Still, I'll probably pick it up once it comes out in the U.S. I'm actually glad they went back to grids too. The free movement system in Phantom Brave worked okay, but I felt that disgaea and la pucelle really required a lot more strategy in terms of character placement.

no, not high definition. just high resolution. you know, 640x480. Previous games were 320x240 and people appearantly complained that it looks crap on their 22nd century HDTV system or something, so they are supposed to up the resolution for Disgaea 2. There was some IGN article about it.

Doesn't it feel like we are being milked by NIS these days. After almost 3 years now the games have only made minor cosmetic changes and experimented with a half broken free movement system since La Pucelle. The same characters are recycled. More and more items added and even ridiculously higher damage can be wrecked. But still the flaw of this game along with their others is there is NO strategy. Its almost a simulation than a true strategy game they keep touting these games as since the gameplay is simply you spending 400 hours honing your perfect characters and the story and music thrown with each game being less and less relevant since Disgaea. That said there is a place for these games but i wish NIS would take more time to develop something that feels new. But i understand being a small company maybe they feel the need to rush games out to continue to profit or simply they know the PS3 looms near and trying to squeeze as much money as they can before we all move on. I don't know.

What's up with the music? I bought the limited edition original soundtrack (the one that comes with the limited edition boxset of Disgaea 2) without even knowing what to expect... Yes, I am a complete idiot when it comes to rare Disgaea merchandise.

I have to agree with Tyr. From the few NIS games I've played, they all just seem the same. Dated (but neat) graphics, stories that just aren't interesting anymore and characters that have been seen many times before. Their strategy games where pretty cool in the beginning, but I really think that it's time for them to be more innovative (at leaset fix your bloody AI!).

I don't know but your avatar is lovely. Where is it from?

It suppose to come out in Augest? Yeah, I can ask for it for my b-day! I liked the first one so I hope this one's good too.

No. I've made a point of not buying any of their games until they shape up. The best way to get your point across to the company is to quit giving them your money.

definitely looking forward to this one! i've seen the trailers at gamespot, but i can't really understand what's going on, so i have don't have an inkling as to what the plot is, but i'm sure it's good. ^_~

August already? yes.

I disliked the free movement system after experiencing it firsthand, since I'll oibsess about the maximum distance I can be from the enemy before having to make an attack, and then attempt to move away even if only a little bit. I prefer the confines of the grid.
I'm excited as long as there's sufficiently new eyecandy and attacks. I don't want to see just a redone Dimension Slash; I'd like something even more exaggerated, like maybe a Galaxy Bang spell or something. If they can think of such huge attacks, I want them to be even more ridiculously painful looking.

Is this one also going to be ridiculously hard to find a couple days after it is released, or will it see a wider release do you think?

Same thing will probably happen as with the last one. Not many stores will carry it to begin with, and after a week or two, pretty much no store will have it.

Pretty sure you guys are wrong, the game will be pretty easy to find as with other NIS games like Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom which I see every time I go to the store. Disgaea 1 is only hard to find because it was published by Atlus, before NIS opened an USA branch.

I do see Makai Kingdom, but haven't seen PB or Disgaea in a store around here for at least a year. In fact, about a year ago I bought a used copy of PB and that was the only one I had seen for many months before that even... This isn't a large town though - we have two Gamestops and that's about it for game shops except for chain stores like Wal-Mart etc.

Possibly. I'm hoping I'm wrong, either way. It would be nice for more people to get their hands on the game.

Well, in 5 days I will get to find out if this will be a rare game or not. I didn't pre-order so I'll be hunting for it. (In all of 2 stores lol...) Otherwise I'll just pick it up off Ebay.

I'm still getting this on the release date because I don't want it to fall into obscurity and miss my chance, even if a USA branch is now opened. I haven't sen Phantom Brave for quite a while, and luckily I saw Makai Kingdom still (as a used copy only) somewhere.

I hope the rest of the soundtrack catches my ear like Makai no Sasayaki or Mischievous Demon's Footsteps did in the first one. Out of the tracks I decided to try and get, Shinobi Dance was the only one I liked, and not even Etna Rock was excessively engaging.

Precisely. I don't mind the grid system, but I kind of feel like this game just offers more miniscule refinements to the same formula I already played and completed several times now.

Quite. I'll still be getting it, but it's not top of my shopping list anymore.

This post is made of right and wrong. You see, like everyone else said, getting Disgaea for me was actually very hard, found it after many months of hunting. Then again, Atlus is so gorgeous their games become rare pretty fast, since they make them.

My case is kinda much different, Atlus games are rarities^2 where I live, and I got one of the five copies that were sold in one store. Never saw the game again myself, and was hoping they would bring La Pucelle and Phantom Brae. Oh well. :(

I might pick this up eventually but it doesn't seem like enough has really changed to make me run out and buy it. Even though I absolutely loved Disgaea I kinda wish a few more changes in the gameplay were introduced. I never played Makai Kingdom and although I enjoyed the game the free- movement battle system in Phantom Brave was interesting but took a lot of strategy out of the gameplay. I'm glad they went back tot he grid and team turns system though.

I don't mind that they returned to grid based(to be honest, I'm not a big fan of the gridless stuff as they executed it in Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom. Maybe they need a system where depending on your weapon, class, and abilities that you block a certain radius around you from enemy units being able to move through it....unless of course they're a class with an ability that allows you to ignore the blocked radius). I don't like the sound of nothing else being changed though. Variety is important, you can't just get by on sprites and a warped sense of humor alone.

Does anyone know a site with endgame screenshots of Disgaea 2? Every pic I've seen was just low, entry level gameplay. I remember back when before Disgaea 1 came out, there were pictures of characters at level 9999, thats what got me interested the most. I have yet to see anything like that for Disgaea 2, and I'm assuming theres no catchy theme song like 'Invasion from Within.' :(

Just go download a Tsunami Bomb CD, you ponce.

I can't deal with that indie punk shit, or whatever the hell genre they'd fall under.

Plus, it replaced Battle Comrade in the english audiotrack, which was one of the funniest themes in a video game.

Endgame screenshots? I saw a gameplay video on Youtube showing of high level techniques like Tera Star and such, although it was from the Japanese game. You could look at some of the pics in advertisements, since those are always pretty as well.

I just picked this up at Gamestop - it's out. They had 2 left there (besides pre-orders) when I went to pick it up. They probably have 2 or 3 copies at the other store, which means imo this is already rare at least in my area. Box art is sweet! I also saw some strategy guides that appeared to be novel/book-sized vs. 8.5x11" but I didn't pick one up.

I also picked it up today, though I had my copy reserved (When I called asking, they asked if I had a reserve. They must've had all of the copies pre-ordered). The game definitely lives up to the standards of humor that the first game set.



The english audio track, like the other NIS games, is superb. I haven't bothered turning it to japanese yet (and if it's anything like the original Disgaea I will avoid doing so :|).

All in all a very worthwhile purchase so far, only just started episode 4.

Ahahaha, are you serious? That's fucking hilarious.

Unfortunately mine was ordered from NIS thorugh that massive preorder clusterfuck campaign from the beginning of the month. Gonna get here on Friday I assume. It was shipped PRIORITY. =o

I played a couple hours last night, so far it's just Disgaea+. Most of the jokes are pretty funny (up to Atlus' standard). The only thing is, it just doesn't feel like Disgaea. Maybe that'll change later, but right now, it just seems like a NIS game with the Disgaea name tacked onto it.

Funny, and the reason why I am getting it is because it's the same as the first, just offering more. I loved the first one, and hopefully the sequel will be just as funny and fun to play.

I don't know man, I only like Adell's English voice, the rest of the cast are just slightly above average...

Seconded. I've only played around 10 minutes (walking around town, didn't even start a battle yet), but this feels more like a sidestory like Makai Kingdom. I've said it before, and I re-enforce it now; Mr Bowtie is a pathetic replacement for Laharl. If he was in another game, he would've been passable, but all of his honor and morals make me beg that Laharl will knock his ass out of the main character spotlight. Which would be nice, but I doubt it.

It was especially lame when he claimed that he "didn't like girls" (and even lamer that no one made a joke about that). What is he, 18? He's way past cooties, here.

The references so far are amusing though, especially the Bridget one. And the anime intro and anime trailer were a real treat though (even if they both suffered from video compression).

The anime trailer in particular was fantastic, just as I always envisioned Disgaea to be as a series. So I can't help but wonder why the actual TV series is a massive failure (haven't seen it, but I haven't heard a single good thing about it). I'm also deeply disappointed that Etna is no longer voiced by Amanda Winn, but instead played by Sakura from Naruto. It's not like she's bad, but it's retarded to replace an excellent voice with a lesser one. I really don't know why companies don't want to keep their actors consistent. At least Laharl's never had a VA change. Mid-Boss didn't sound like he was played by the same guy either.

I don't like the smaller and more compressed menu interface. It's like information overload with all the numbers, a reason why I didn't like Phantom Brave as much. The graphics are very colourful so far and rather different.

I'd be tempted to say that they nerfed guns big time being only able to shoot in straight lines now, but those straight lines reach reaaaallly far to make up for it. For some reason, I'm liking bows better now, probably because of the chest drop chance, and taking over the gun's former free range role.

I really was surprised with the anime intro and trailer though. They made the anime look so much better than it actually was.

I've also noticed that guns are a lot more powerful, or at least they seem to be better than the ones offered in the first game. Rozalin is one of my main attackers and she's sticking with guns.

Also, Knights are so much BETTER in this game, holy crap. They were useless in Disgaea 1, but in 2 they're very, very nice to have.

All Of The games Seem The Same.

There are differences, refinements and such between Nippon Ichi games but at the core, yes, they are pretty much the same.

It doesn't make them any less fun though.

So does the computer actually fight back now? Or is it the same inept "Kill the weakest target within range no matter how much friendly fire we have to inflict to do it" AI we've all come to know and hate. Refinements be damned, the AI is going to make or break the game for me.

Disgaea+ is a good way of describing this. It's enjoyable in an obsessive sort of way, but I'm already getting a little frustrated with Item Worlds. It still takes me forever to get through them, although that's really my fault since I always stop to fight the enemies. I just wish Nippon-Ichi would've varied the music from stage to stage since it really gets on my nerves after awhile. Maybe I should just stick to the main story battles until I really need to start powering up my characters.

The one thing I'm pissed about is how frustrating it is to unlock the secret fights and characters. I mean, seriously, have you guys heard some of the requisites?


I liked it a hell of a lot better when it was like Disgaea and Makai Kingdom, when all you needed was to be a certain level and have a ton of mana.

I just ordered this off ebay. Sure, it was $58 US, but if the original Disgaea is anything to go by, this will be rare in about 8 month's time. (That's also including $18 insured postage.)

Is the strategy guide worth ordering? I chewed through Disgaea 1 solely on GameFAQs, but I never bothered getting the Yoshitsuna and other legendary items in the item world. I'd like to thrash this game as much as possible but I'm pretty sure GameFAQs will be coughing out guides regardless. Some of the stuff in the original game wasn't explained very well in their guide.

Depends on how long you're willing to wait for information to disseminate. It's been really slow at GameFAQs lately, and I'm still not exactly certain how some things are unlocked.

Doublejump guides are always worth the money. They are fantastic and really really beat the SNOT out of anything and everything. I'd recommend it.

and D2 here might not get that rare that fast. NIS has stepped up their production and their other games like Makai and Iris 2 are still widely available.

I like how I managed to defeat a Pirate Leader (lvl 32) with just Adel at lvl 8, using the invincible geo panels.

I also like how I ran into a certain green Prinny in Item World.

Well, I've just done some browsing.

I pretty much can't order a guide because postage to New Zealand would cost MORE than the price of the of the guide itself. I'll just wait until GameFAQs comes up with information, or something. There really isn't a lot I can do.

Is it just me, is every ten floor much larger than the others? Every once in a while, I get a break on the normal floors and the exit is in close proximity to the base or not to much of a pain to get to. Whenever I get to the item general floors, the general tends to be an innocent on the top of some elaborate structure and the map is always strewn with enemies over a huge board. I miss when every tenth level had a chance to be relatively small.

I'm liking how stack attacks are quick experience for everyone. Just take out my Adell who luckily scored a Slap Back from Friday Mk2, and pile all the level ones on top of him. I'm only at the Coliseum and Adell can solo eveything so far.

Is this one worth picking up if you haven't played the first Disgaea? I don't really want to dish out 150 bucks for both of them right now.

How do that stack attacks work? I've just finished the first couple areas but haven't had much of a chance to mess around yet.

I recommend getting both, and playing the first disgaea before the second.

I'm doing that right now and it's addictive. 2 hasn't arrived but even if it did, I'd probably want to go back to the original and max everything out first.

If you have at least one person on top of you then you can also choose "attack" which will launch an enemies skywards, where all your teammates proceed to beat the opponent upwards, ascending the stack. The character on the top will slam the enemy down and you'll have dealt gigantic damage. If you have 10 people in the tower then the last attack is indicated with a small rainbow burst. The only catch is that after you attack, you can't throw the characters off, so that'll probably be the end of your actions for that turn. You can attack enemies from a distance though.


I'm at Chapter 10 now, and am finding reincarnation much, much more friendlier than transmigration, due to the levelling up being so much easier with all the options at your disposal. Although I'll have to slow down my playing, since 10-1 is a very annoying No Entry maze which requires throws and sacrifices (not all your characters will be able to progress until you trudge through just about the entire map).

I just found out about stack attacks this morning, and I was really amused! Do you know if the experience is equally divided among the participants in the stack?

Is it just me, or are there fewer small maps in the Item World than there used to be?

I believe it is equally divided, from watching the hilarious demo where everyone levels up from a single stack attack but I don't know for sure. It could very well be that the the initiator gets a larger chunk of the experience or something, but probably not.

Everything in the item world is always more spacious and large for me and I'm also getting much less maps that are smaller than 10X10 at minimum. Every 10th level is much more of a pain than the ones Digaea ever were.

I'm loving the game so far, and the trailer for the anime series was a nice treat.

I got to chapter 6 but then got sidetracked with leveling up my characters (as is the norm witht these games). Thank god for the power-leveling trick on 4-3 (took me 3 hours to get my characters from 25 to 9999, now I have to reincarnate a few times :) ) otherwise this game would have taken forever.

Presently I'm a little disappointed about not seeing other characters from the series (Mid-boss?) but I guess once I play/slaughter the normal story that will change. Another annoyance is the fact that you must create a character of a new class to open up the next level of class. In previous games if you got a certain class to level 100 that usually opened up all the levels of that class. But now you have to either create a new character or reincarnate into the the next level before you open up following level.

But beyond that I am having a blast. If you just want to play around and not grind for hours on end, I recommend the 4-3 power leveling trick. Everything becomes so much easier when have unlimited mana, hl, and lvl 9999 characters. It is choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

When do you start getting Mr. Gency Exits in this game? I'm not talking about the first few they 'give' you but when are you able to buy them? I've been leveling up my Customer Rank and passing 'More Expensive Items' bills but they still aren't in the shops [Ch. 9, Rank 7]. I honestly don't like the Item World but it'd be nice to make use all those Subpoenas I've collected.

I have two other questions, if someone could answer them please do. I'm not using any guides and GameFAQs doesn't have much info available yet.

1. Whats the difference between 'Reincarnation' and 'Reincarnate to Atone for Sins?' The Subpoena NPC mentioned something about 'Reincarnate into a Prinny' but I don't see such a bill.
2. Whats the point/benefit to attending a Dark Assembly?

You get a Gency every time you clear the 10th level of an item in Item World.

In Disgaea 1 there wasn't any other way, so I'm just assuming it's the same for 2. Otherwise getting specialists would be way too easy.

Reincarnate as a Prinny occurs later on and isn't available at first (I don't know the requirement). Normal reincarnation lets you start anew as another class or whatever you want to reincarnate into. Prinny reincarnation erases your felony count (one reason to be to keep track past 99 felonies if you manage to get that far), but apparently the benefits of felonies remain (exp up, dark assembly easier)

NIS can lick my balls.

Much like Mr. Ireland before this, CS manages to get fucked over by someone or something he respects after buying something expensive from them over the INTERNET.

So I ordered a gamer set and a complete set of D2 from NIS back during that preorder campaign! Hurrah! Cool stuff to be included! So the store was down for 3 horus that day because of hilarious bandwidth rape. Ok, that's fine. WHO CARES. Takes long enough but BAMF, it goes through and life is good.

My credit card gets charged later on, on the 28th! Oh, ok. They are shipping it now! HURRAH. EMAIL COMES. "SUP CS, IT SHIPPED OUT. HERE IS TRACKING NUMBER! YOU ARE NOW OUT 150 BUCKS ON YOUR CREDIT CARD" Ok, I'm fine with that. So I enter the tracking number. "No record found". Ok, fine. Probably takes a day or two to get in.

SO, a DAY OR TWO LATER. Try again. Nothin. Ok. Fine. Try AGAIN EVERY DAY FOR A WEEK AND A HALF. STILL NOTHING. Ok, fine. Time to send a friendly email asking where my shit's at.

Cut to a week later. Still no tracking number, and no email response. Ok, FINE. Sending another email.

5 days later, still no response from them. To either email. Still no tracking number! OK, now I'm getting angry as it's been 3 weeks. So I send another email. This one is ANGRY, threatening, even. Saying I'm going to get Mastercard on their ass if I don't get my product. Still no response.

Ok, now I'm livid. Hey, is that their phone number? WHY YES IT IS. *Dial*.

Busy signal. Busy signal for a fucking HALF HOUR. ARG. TRYING ONE LAST TIME OUT OF DESPERATION.

Oh hay it went through.

Ring ring.

"Sup this is NISAmerica, Phoenix speaking! How can I help you?" (Yes, his name was Phoenix. AWESOME).

"Forward me to whomever is in charge of your online store."

So now he sends me to some chinese bitch I can barely understand.

"Hi, this is about order number XXXX-X. How come I haven't gotten my stuff yet? The tracking number is also invalid".
"Oh hey did you send those emails? Yeah sorry I didn't respond"

Almost killed her at this point, THROUGH THE PHONE. DEATH RAYS and such would have gotten the act done.

"So where is it?"
"Have you not gotten it yet?"
"...no. That's why I'm phoning."
"Did you check the tracking number?"
"Yeah, I just said it was invalid"
"You live in Canada right? Shipping ot Canada takes a while"
"It doesn't take 13 business days when you're using priority mail. It takes 5. 6 or 7 at MAX if there is a delay."
"Well, I dunno where it is then"
"Yeah, well, you need to find out."
"Ok, I'll phone USPS and find out where it is. Can I get back to you by the end of the day?"
"You do that. If I don't hear from you shortly I'm going to phone my credit card company."

So if that bitch doesn't phone by the end of the day, heads will roll.

I'm sorry to hear that Colonel, really. I know you're pissed, hell I'd be furious because I went through something like that with eBay. My question to you is, does Canada not have game stores? I'm not trying to be mean or sarcastic but honestly asking, because everyone I know from Canada has to import everything. What's this 'gamer set and a complete set of D2' you speak of? For 150$ I hope it wasn't just one game.

The reason I ordered it online was that you could get an exclusive art book thing if you ordered it from NIS themselves. First 1000 orders got them.

The gamerset was the game, the strategy guide, the soundtrack, and some other things, and the complete set was all that and the manga. The complete set was for me, and the gamer set was for a friend (since he didn't want the manga). So all those things together cost about 150 bucks.

But yeah, I do most of my shopping at EB. I wanted that artbook pretty bad though. And look at what it got me.

All of the art can be found online, but that fucking sucks that that happened. The internets doesn't seem to like you much, huh?

Played about ten hours of Disgaea 2 and I have a shitload of questions and things that make absolutely no sense to me.

1. What is the point of starting at level 1 with reincarnation? When *should* I do this?

2. Transfering monsters from item to item is a retarded and still hard to understand process. Everytime I try to fiddle around with it, the monsters "cannot be moved".

I believe I see a trend happening here.

This is why I don't order from places which don't have any reputation. Sure, the art book and extras would be useful, but all you really need is the strategy guide. This is the internet, after all. It's not like they haven't already scanned the art book/manga.

Try dealing with this every day when I import something. My country isn't covered by the fair trading act on international orders. If something doesn't arrive here, I'm pretty much screwed as well. Unless the person sending the product is kind enough to replace it.

In a way, my delay is a good thing. I really don't want to put the first game down at the moment. It's awesome when you really get yourself involved with Item World.

The NIS store doesn't have a bad reputation, and in my defense, Vic didn't have much (if any, IIRC) negative eBay feedback. I just keep getting FUCKED.

By the way, I totally didn't get a phone call from that whore. Tomorrow shit's gonna hit the fan.

But yeah, you know me well enough by nowto know that I am a huge sucker for collector item things. I want that artbook pretty fuckin' bad there sonny. Regardless of it's quality or size. Same goes for the manga. ANd hell, I suppose you could even say I wouldn't need the guide, since GAMEFAQS and such. But I buy that stuff because I'm a sucker. >=o

But right now I'm an ANGRY sucker with NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. So very angry, yes.

That stuff's not very... collector-y, though. A Nintendo 64 DD Drive-- now there's a collector's item.

In short, Reincarnation is a way to manipluate your stats. Level up to at least 100 (you should usually wait until the 1000s for maximum effiency), and always go for the Genius reincarnation level to retain the vast majority of your skills and whatnot. If you do the 9999 Nekomata trick and reincarnate one of them, you'll see the effect it has immediately.

The monsters have to be subdued in the Item World first (they'll then have a smiley face next to their job title instead of that angry fanged thing). Don't bother with it until you get higher-end items like Arcadia or something, since their skill levels are so low that they're worthless at this point.

Would anybody mind explaining the trick that keeps being brought up? I have the Doublejump guide but can't find anything special about stage 4-3 or Nekomatas other than that there are Nekomatas on stage 4-3.

There is a difference between a collector's item, like my signed Lunar, and having something in my collection, like my copy of Grand Theft Auto 3. Rarity or value has nothing to do with it. It has more to do with just owning it and adding it to a pile of stuff you've got on your bookshelf that you're never going to look at twice.

Isn't the point of a collector's item to have rarity/scarcity or value working for it, though?

The key is that they're standing on "Level Up +10%" panels. What you do is combine them and let them level up to about twice that of your highest-levelled character.

So, say your best character is a level 100 Adell. What you want to do is pull out a bunch of characters (most people recommend seven or more Heavy Knights, each equipped with three boots), and have them combine all of the Nekomatas and eliminate the Beastmaster. Then, pull all of your characters back towards the base panel so that they're out of range-- the Nekomata won't go after you unless it can attack you on the same turn.

Anyway, since your best character is that level 100 Adell sitting in your base panel, wait until the Nekomata levels to about 200. Then, bring your guys back in and throw it in. The general rule is that you can capture any monster that is twice your level, which is how this "trick" works.

Now that you've got that level 200 Nekomata, you can capture a level 400 one. Then 800, 1600, and so on, until you capture a 9999 Nekomata.

Uh, I don't think anyone should follow your advice.

You don't throw enemies into your base panel unless you first drain their HP to the lowest you possibly can, or drain their SP. The SP is their first attack in the base panel, so the less the monster you're trying to capture has, the better.

Also, say you're trying to capture a level 1000 Nekomata. If you have a level 500 Nekomata, you won't have much success. You need to have multiple level 500's before capturing a 1000. So the safest thing to do is, capture about 10 of the same level, pass a Stronger Enemies bill, and capture 10 of that level.

In short, stack enemies -> lower hp -> retreat allies -> bring out some weakling to throw them on your base panel -> hope for the best -> pass stronger enemy bills -> stack enemies and repeat the process as many times as you need to.

Heh, I remember capturing Surts in Disgaea 1 up to Lv.9999, fun times. I didn't know you could start doing the pokemon thing in Disgaea 2 so soon though. So I just started farming Nekos yesturday. While most people say combine them first, then let it level up, I recommend letting them level up individually. Heres how I do it in 10 easy steps.

1. Move Adel or someone to the top of the map next to the Geo Symbol.
2. Put 1 character on the right side of the top bridge, outside Neko's reach.
3. Put 2 characters on the right side of the bottom bridge, outside Neko's reach.
4. End Turn x [Y] until the Nekos are at desired levels. [Ex. 7 Nekos x Lv.100]
5. Throw or Destroy the Geo Symbol. I prefer throwing it because the Nekos can kill each other if they're HP is too low.
6. Move the bridge characters to the middle of their bridge and lure 1 Neko to each.
7. Have top bridge character throw and combine his/her Neko with the one on the bottom bridge.
8. Have the two characters on the bottom bridge throw the Neko to the island under the bridge, the Neko can't attack anyone from there.
9. Move bridge characters up to lure more Nekos and combine them on the island.
10. Once you've combined them all, move Adel and any of your best characters back into the Base Panel and throw the Neko in using a few low level ones.


The Neko's HP should already be low so theres no need to attack it, and ten characters are randomly selected to battle it in the base. So if you have a bunch of weaklings in there, take them out so they won't ruin your chances. Repeat the process until you have a Lv.9999, thats what I'm doing, so far I only have a Lv.300. >_>

Also, if too many of your Nekos die from counter attacks or each other, you can put it back on the red panels and reactivate the Geo Symbol if you haven't destroid it.

Dude, they start off at level 10 and don't gain any HP from being combined or levelling up. So, regardless of what level they are, they'll only have about 100 HP, and a really low amount of SP (how much depends on how often they used special attacks while you were combining them). That's enough for your characters to knock it out in the Base Panel.

My small army of Nekomatas is proof that "my" (not really mine. Some dude on GameFAQs') method works. One character that is half the level of the monster you're capturing. No need to damage it first.

Also to add something to this "trick":

Stand around and level up all of the enemies to roughly the same level as your highest level character. Then go kill all but one of them with your high level character (usually the Nekomata at the bottom of the map stays there). You can even have your weak character pick up your high-level character and power level them with the group attack.

Put everyone back in the base and continue to wait until the remaining Nekomata is double your highest level and draw it out with a weak character (I used Taro), throw it using a Knight or two, and capture it.

The reason you want to level everything up before you kill them is because the hospital price to resurrect your new Nekomata is insanely high. Killing high level enemies helps compensate for that.

And the numbers don't have to be exact. My level 1000 captured a level 2800 which captured a level 4200 which captured a 9999. One level 9999 can catch 3 or more 9999s which you can then reincarnate as whatever you want, or run amok in the Dark Assembly and pass everything by force. This also is a quick way to gain hospital prizes as reviving a 9999 fillls up a lot of HP and SP.

Power level your other story characters at the Cave of Ordeal Battle 4 using the stacking trick mentioned above. At this point there is no reason to keep your pre-Nekomata characters as you can always reincarnate a Nekomata into any class you want.

It took me 5 hours to go from a party with a level 30 Adell as my powerhouse to a party full of reincarnated (from 9999) genius class 5 characters with the best buyable armor and weapons in the game.

And yes, this is in the official guide under "Power leveling".

Page 512, to be exact.

Well, they finally reshipped my order. I didn't get an email that evening form that lady but now it's been reshipped.

According to USPS it should be here by thrusday or so. This better be worth the trouble. =o

My copy just arrived from amerikkkkkkka.

During it's arrival I've been playing the HELL out of the first game. It's sad, but I probably won't be playing the original half as much as before. Mind you, all I had to do was beat Uber Prinny Baal and go through the rank 40 items in Item World. Which is easier said then done.

Have fun pulling your hair out looking for treasure maps in this Item World!

Are the healer/fighter/mages that you're given at the beginning considered story characters? Because I'm thinking I should work on them instead of Adell, so I can transmigrate them into better classes (assuming there's transmigration, and assuming CoO4 is what everyone's making it out to be) when I've progressed through the game more.

No, they're just generic characters in about every sense.

Transmigration is now called Reincarnation.

Yes, yes it is what everyone makes it out to be.

Yeah, except I'm sure fighters/healers have higher classes which are unlocked by levelling the first class up to a certain point, so I'm going to do that.

Lix: If you have a first class fighter, even if you max it's level out, you'll only unlock the 2nd class. To unlock the 3rd class, you need to level up the 2nd class to a certain point. This goes for leveling 3rd for 4th class and so forth. Unlike D1 where you level one class to the max, and the other classes are unlocked.

But the levels will still be stored levels like in the first game with transmigration, giving you blue points, right?

Yes, levels are still stored and add onto your base stats.

I really should have bought the strategy guide. I have a ton of questions.

What's the secret to 4-3? I just arrived there. I have a level 25 Fighter, and a level 18 Adell. I expected MAD CRAZY LEVELING but I don't suppose that happens until Cave of Ordeals. I also noticed that the enemies who level up in this map increase their stats, but their hp remains the same (unlike the first game)

Is there a way to pick them off and leave one remaining which won't attack you? That way you could make it level up even more and then rush in by throwing. Of course I don't really want to exploit this map with capturing, because I've heard it basically ruins the game.

Some people have suggested that you could use the stage to level up characters decently well (leave the Nekomatas alone for a while, then bring in a few people to chip away at that 100 HP), but it seems way too impractical.

The way to do it would be to kill all but one like you surmised, retreat back to the other side of the bridge (if the Nekomata tries to follow, throw it back and use that character as a sacrifice), then wait for it to level to the right point. Personally, I'd just do it for the Mana to open up the Cave of Ordeals. CoO1 is good for leveling weak characters because of the Geo Panels' very favorable placement.

Has anyone else played Zetta yet? Did they get a different voice actor for him, he sounded... odd.

Yes, he has a diiferent VA here. Same for Etna and even the prinnies.

I finally beat the game for a "normal" ending after powering up enough to beat Zetta. Was anyone else just completely let down by the ending? There was no explanation, just a picture on the screen that fades out and then the credits. No reactions from the characters. No conclusion to the story. Nothing. After all that I was at least hoping for an anime sequence, even Laharl had one of those in this game. Sure, there was a "letter" after the credits but it showed nothing and still didn't explain anything about the *main* characters.

Is there a "better" ending to the main storyline? All the other ones seem to be bad or just abruptly end like this.

If not, talk about a let down.

I'm fairly certain there's a better ending that reveals who Adell's parents are and why he wasn't affected by the curse and all that. I haven't tried for any specific ending, though. Still levelling the Land of Carnage secret characters.

There is no better ending than that one... It is pretty lame, I admit. Even just a small scene afterwards showing how Adell and Rozalin were dealing with things would have been appreciated. Oh well, the meat of both games always was in the gameplay anyway. I really wouldn't be surprised to find out the storyline was tacked on last after every other aspect of the game was finished. ;)

Yeah, I just finished the game. The ending was piss weak. I'd really like to know about what Adell's parents remembered, or what Adell's REAL parents had to do with Zenon's curse. We didn't even get to see what Taro and Hanako looked like in their human forms.

It was pretty disappointing, really. I don't suppose the other endings give more information on them? If that's the "best" ending, well, I must say it was pretty shitty, especially in comparison to the first Disgaea which was so much better.

Yes, it was the best. Honestly, IMO the "worst" ending (which requires the most effort to get, actually) is probably the only one of the three actual endings which seems to have had any thought put behind it at all. It wasn't happy, and I wouldn't like to think it's what really happened, but it beats the other shitty endings out in raw amusement factor at least.

Every other ending is just a spoof ending also. Like, beating certain bosses when you aren't supposed to or passing the bill in chapter 1 to "fight an overlord" (midboss). None of them hold anymore information than what was already given. It's sad, because the storyline could have actually been decent had they put any effort into it ... but oh well.

Aw that sucks! I thought the endings from D1 were minimalistic and was sort of let down with each one, but if they don't give a solid conclusion in D2, I'm going to be left with an itch for a while. I'm only on the chapter with the maze of Basilicrows still, but so far I have the strong impression that although that's just my conjecture and I'd have to actually play farther to see what happens.

May I ask some question?
1. Any good way to level up in early game
2. Which one is better between waiting for numerous mana and reincarnation or reincarnation while you can into better class and then become genius skill in the last reincarnation
3. Which level when you start to fight in dark court ( I'm sick of bribing them :) )

Good questions. I remember two decent stages for levelling but I don't recall their names.

One of them has two 2x2 block of enemies on 50% exp panels on the two sides of your base panel, a good place for getting the initial 100 levels or so.

The other is small block surrounded by a ring with reverse damage panels. Reverse Damage panels are awesome because your healers can do tons of damage there. I think my most levelled up characters in the game are my healers, in fact, due to this level.

Other then that, you can farm lvl 9999 nekomatas for early powerful chars.

For reincarnation, I dunno, I always try to get at least 85% stats kept, which is usually the amount of mana my fighters have by the time I unlock their next class.

Thanks. Actually I found that Dallos river also great too (In Axel's scheme, stage 1) I'll use Adell throw gunner and destroy "no range attack" before other action.:)

Ummnn....I still've many question about this great game..:p
Anyone would kindly tell me about other source than gamefaqs?

Well, another source you can have is your guidebook. That is if you still have it around. Other than that. It's best to look up GameFaqs.com.