Disgaea
 

I'm not going to do a huge detailed explanation on this game. It's out already, (in fact, leaked, but still out now) and it's worth it.

It's pretty much perfect minus the gigantic load time I'm getting when initializing the game. All rough edges of grids are basically gone, it's widescreen, and there's no load times during the actual game.

I've noticed a couple of things though. The select button toggles whether you want to have geo panel glowing on or off, which of course you'll want on. I'm also sure there's no "quickly bring the cursor back to base panel" command like the original.

The PSP version features the one thing which is going to make me play through it again, and that's the ability to skip battle animations. Thank god I won't be sitting through thousands of Winged Slayers any more. There's no option to speed up the geo panel chains like in Disgaea 2, though, but since you're not doing constant geo panel chaining it isn't a huge issue.

Etna and the Prinnies have changed voices, and I really have no idea why. It doesn't bother me since I'm playing through with the Japanese VA (English VA on my PS2 game) this time. Etna mode is an unlockable which you don't get until after you've completed the main story.

Main story is still a joke in terms of difficulty. I started out with using a female brawler instead of Laharl so I could transmigrate it post-game into something different and go from there, but even in it's teens it's still only doing about as equal damage as what Laharl, currently level 9, is doing.

Unlike FFT, there's no slowdown whatsoever.

Discuss.

You changed your name to katakana? What's the occasion?

He did this a while ago now, actually.

But I still think エリクシア— would sound better.

No occasion. Miles thinks it's hilarious though, and changed it. Personally I'd use エリクサー because it's mOrE KaWaIi. Or perhaps 大の complete with dinosaur avatar/signature for terrible fucking pun. (Daino means "huge", and Elixir is fat, see, plus it's pronounced as "dino", see, oh god)

I don't mind. I know kana and now it matches my DS. :eagletear:

Hilarious O'Clock.

Lix --
The JP track doesn't use the US voices for attacks anymore if that's what you mean. This port actually makes use of the JP voices when using special moves (unlike the PS2 version) =o I think that's what you're referring to, right?

I downloaded it and I am THOROUGHLY impressed. It's a perfectly running PS2 game on the PSP, and it's got extra goodies. I don't think the % completion fellow was in it in the real game, was he?... (opposite the assembly et al NPCs)

What. Etna and the prinnies have changed voices in the English version.

If the game makes use of the Japanese voice track for the battle sounds too, that would be a big selling point for me. I really didn't care for the English voice acting in Disgaea, and was kinda annoyed that it persisted in battle no matter what language I had it set to.

The only thing is that I'm not sure I want to play through the game again just to see Etna mode. The game was great as a novelty, but the brain-dead AI got old pretty fast.

I can confirm the game does indeed finally use Japanese voices all around when selected, and not just in cutscenes. It looks really nice even though the game looked a lot prettier on a regular TV. The widescreen adds absolutely nothing, but at least it's not stretched.

I'm thinking of maybe downloading a save file to get to Etna mode, but the presence of comprehensive game statistics are making me hesitant :(
It took me close to 88 hours to finish the game last time, and I'm not sure I'm up for starting all over.

Monkey King --
It does =o That's what I'm saying. Early on, Nippon Ichi only made the chosen voice track apply to storyline. In Makai Kingdom (or Disgaea 2. I forget), they changed it to where the chosen voice track affects the voices in battle. So whenever you hear/see attacks in battle, if you choose JP, the voices ARE JP. It was a wonderful little touch =O

Etna mode in itself is probably not too long at all. What is it, another chapter or two, maximum? I haven't read up on it much, but Disgaea is a pretty sizable game in itself, probably not giving much incentive to add a lot of material.

Actually, I thought Disgaea was the only game (in the series) that did that. La Pucelle and forward always used the selected language for battle sounds as well.

Etna Mode is supposed to be the entirety of Disgaea's normal story + an additional 5 chapters.

All in an alternate universe of course.

o snap. Interesting =O I'm even more impressed at how they compressed this down to a PSP game...

Q --
Was trying to recall off memory. I never tried Phantom Brave or La Pucelle, but those came out relatively close to Disgaea 1 if I recall right. I figured Makai Kingdom was the first to correct it. Guess not. O wul.

Yeah, it's amusing because Disgaea was the first game Atlus released in english, even though La Pucelle was the first in the series. But because La Pucelle was released in the US later, they probably got the technology to work and made the audio selection work like it should.

So if you wanted to play in a "logical" order, you'd start with La Pucelle, which was, release-wise, more advanced. Full jap for one game, then jap cutscenes + english battle shouts for another, then back to full jap from Phantom Brave and onward.


From a European point of view, I think Makai Kingdom was the first game in the series where Koei got their act together and stopped removing the jap audio (which they'd till then done with Disgaea, La Pucelle and Phantom Brave). I even wrote them about this back when La Pucelle was coming out in Europe and they gave me some bullshit explanation about it being Sony's decision on not supporting Japanese audio for Europe. While at the same they were releasing games like King of Fighters Maximum Impact with optional jap audio :tpg:

I was glad to see them stop the idiocy.

That command does indeed exist. You will notice that the default for the shoulder buttons is for them to perform the same functions as R1 and L1 originally did on the PS2 controller. If you hold the Square button, they will perform the same functions as the R2 and L2 buttons originally did on the PS2 controller.

Etna's American voice changed because Amanda Winn-Lee is retired from voice acting now, and can't provide additional lines of dialogue for Etna, as would be required by Etna Mode. I've heard that this new voice is by Michelle Ruff. The Prinnies are a different story though. I hear that they were originally done by Atlus staff members rather than professional voice actors. Naturally NIS America can't get the appropriate Atlus staff members to provide them additional Prinny lines for Etna mode, so they had to change too.

I wonder if Mid-Boss changed. He has additional lines in Etna Mode, so maybe... who knows?

Additional Spam:
I've played it myself, on the Japanese version of the game. It's not as long as the main game. I don't remember exactly how many chapters, but I'd guess that it might be five, because that would sort of fit in with what you've heard. I remember the last chapter is pretty long though. I also remember the difficulty level being somewhat higher than the main story. I used the code to unlock Etna Mode for my first playthrough, and it was quite hard.

So it is. Although I don't have a single idea why they wouldn't use this command in place of select. I don't find people switching the ability to have geo panels on or off to be used over something like auto base panel return.


I love how this is so easy to pick up. Turn your PSP on, start levelling, save and turn it off. Repeat whenever you want.

Hmm. I've perused some faqs but none give a straight answer; how do you access Etna's Diaries every chapter?

I've hit the switch on the skull at the shop counter, and I *thought* you were supposed to search behind the Prinny on the room with Longinus, etc in it. I didn't think about it and was in ch 3 by the time I remembered :O Is it not possible if you miss the switch in Ch 1?

If so, oh well. I don't wanna start from the beginning >_> Grinding out took me a little while. Thankfully there's a type-in button code to unlock Etna mode (see Gamefags).

It's the room right after Laharl's room, the one with the stair steps all around. You go down to the bottom floor area and check the corner at the top. When you search the right spot, Etna says she has to go to the bathroom and you can go read her diary.

Do they make you read it every chapter, or can you show up close to the end and read the works all at once?

I started reading the diaries about three chapters in when playing the PS2 version, so I dout it. There's a switch behind the throne btw, but I don't remember if that was relevant to the diaries.

Q --
Probably is. I checked the spot Monkey King recommended already =( I remember her saying "hafta go to the bathroom brb~" and stuff, but I knew I was missing something.

That's what I did. After reading the first chapter, I didn't read another one until the penultimate chapter. I got the prize just the same.

I'm grinding in Terrible Cold before I move on. My brawler's 70ish now. Going to level weapon mastery up a bit before I continue.

Must prepare for CoO3, you know how it is.

Six chapters into Etna mode, and I finally managed to find a place to grind it out.

Which prepared me for something awesome.

Which allowed me to get this.



Of course now it makes me want to see if there's anything else hidden about. Some people have apparently had it end after 2 chapters...

EDIT: Forgot to mention. CoO3 sucks for shit now that the 33 new maps are about. It's all about Demonhall Mirror 7. It looks and feels exactly like CoO3 except all the monsters start at Lv 350 (1750 if you max the stronger enemies), and are in XP + 100% grids.

You will have to work hard to get DM 7 (it is the only DM stage you will be allowed to replay and it must be unlocked) but it is so worth it.

Where is this? I unlocked a Demonhall which came after CoO5, but it had recovery panels. I went back to CoO3 since it was faster.

I've been getting teachers and reincarnating so far. I have a melee cleric, who can take out CoO3 in a single hit (Big Bang) with about 240 fist mastery. It was a female brawler, but I figured this would be a better way of going through item world to get more specialists since I can heal myself with omega heal.

Yes, that would be the place.

You have to go through all the stages. After the sixth stage, seven will unlock and you can grind until you pass out or something. It'll appear right after CoO5.

Did I hear about a place that is better than CoO3 at grinding? Definitely going to check that out, since the best thing about Disgaea was transmigrating, in my opinion. Nothing beats being so ridiculously strong that the enemies basically die by looking at you. :3:

But all it has is recovery panels and a bunch of monsters. CoO3 is better for levelling.

Are you sure it's the right one?

Demonhall Mirror 7 has only 3x3 Lv 350 monsters on a grid that is XP + 100%

It's literally an exact copy of CoO3 with improvements.

Only one Demonhall is listed in the CoO.

Yeah. The first six times you clear that map, the layout changes completely. After that, it takes on the look of CoO3 on steroids, and remains that way. I thought the same as you when I first got there. I was confused why people were happy about this map. I eventually beat the six battles that awaited me there, and finally I found the best training spot in the game.

oic.

Well, I don't think I can take it right now. My cleric is level 1400ish at the moment, but sucks for damage. I think I'll grind to 2000 and give it a go.

Yeah, that's what I meant by beat all the stages =(

Also it's even better in Etna Mode, assuming you didn't activate Etna Mode via the code.

Quick question, how do I enable Etna mode?

Enjoy.

Additional Spam:
The last couple of battles are actually pretty hard. I'd say that you need to be able to take Priere and Marjoly out at a minimum before you can face the Demonhall Mirror. I'm not at that point in my American save at all.

Hey Soluzar:

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Hm, okay yeah I can't take Adell. I managed to get up to him while being around level 2000, but my cleric only does 20~30k damage to enemies. Hmm.. I guess I'll reincarnate as a mage now.

@ Soluzar:

That's okay. Yah I guess there is nothing special about those. Especially considering we have bugged Foresights and Tainted Staffs, so if you were really desperate about the Hands and their super steal you could just grab one (for like 2m Hell) and swap the Marksmen over to a Bandit Hand.

I hope you still plan to complete the collection anyway. It's damn good fun, and it keeps me playing when I'm otherwise kinda bored of the game. I spend a fair amount of time on trains and such, so it's great for me to just trawl the item world for stuff in that time. Especially if I'm on one of those trains that has a power outlet by every seat.

Oh yes, I intend to eventually entirely complete this game.

Not sure how long it will take me, but it will get done eventually.

Cool. Well if you find any reliable ways of pursuing rare and legendary versions of consumable items or Demon Emblems, I'd really (really, really) appreciate hearing from you, because that's pretty much where I get stuck. Well, that and rare/legendary stealing hands. Pretty much anything else is easy to find.

Weapons and armor appear equipped on enemies in the Item World. So do orbs, belts, shoes and muscles. If you keep hunting for long enough you'll find rare and a legendary Gency. It's not going to be easy to do this 100%. We insane gamers need to share tips and stick together.

I've already done 63% but it would appear that was the easy 63% unfortunately.

I have a feeling it's going to be one of those Bonus Items Only type of things... which means you better get really lucky or just cry.

Excuse me for a bit, I'm gonna go fap and listen to "Etna Boogie" from the disgaea soundtrack cd all night.

Anybody has that picture wallpaper sized? It's pure love.

This game is so underrated.

Man I find Etna mode hard as fux.

OK, super stupid question time, is it possible to transfer my PS2 save to the PSP version of disgaea?

Nope. There's no official way to transfer any kind of save. Even if there was, this game has significant differences from the PS2 version. I dare say that with the expertise you've gained you would be able to recreate your progress in a much smaller amount of time though. That has certainly been true for me.

Expertise doesn't really help with grinding. Other then being able to get all that stat bonus item residents earlier. Oh well, one day I'll just have to replay the whole thing, shame cause I had bitching stats on the ps2 (enough to kill Baal with Laharl alone, with all harder enemy bills passed).

When's a good level to head to CoO3. I unlocked it, but at level 100 my characters aren't holding up too well. I feel underpowered ;_;

I'm thinking of continuing to level against the monsters at 13-1 because it's easy and quick, but at the same time it'd be nice to level even faster. Prinny Land 3 isn't too bad because of stealing from the Prinny God, but it's not as fast.

Terrible Cold (5-3 maybe, the level where everything is an invincible geo panel) is nice, merge all enemies into one via throwing and work them up to the one panel they can be hurt, then gangbang them. I think the enemy will be something like level 500+ and you can hack slash at it as long as you like, so eventually she'll die no matter what. Takes a while, but its a decent level boost for one character. More importantly, you can get a lot of weapon tech points there (bring out your mages, have them magic eachother, etc).

Just make sure you get Nekomatas to be on top. Succubi will just heal themselves. Also, Nekomatas have awesome counters, with a high level brawler they'll be countering each other tonsa times, which is very handy for getting Big Bang (godly 3x3 attack).

Theres another level with 3x3 enemies but it gives a lot less exp, I think its in the swamp somewhere.

Either way, just make sure you have a ton of 3x3 attacks, and combo all of them on CoO3. You'll get a nice combo attack power boost, and theres the benefits of the bonus bar filling up as well.

Is it me of this games uber easy after awhile... (even after doing harde enemy to the max.) Baal too ez pl0x.

I've levelled a bunch of characters to the 1400 range on CoO3 without a maxed stronger enemies bill, so things are going well. This game is far too addictive.

How did you all level a Rogue? I have one at level 120, but with such crappy weapon mastery and stats it's hard to level one to a point where it'd be useful at stealing in the item world. I'm thinking about levelling it some more and then transmigrating to a Space Pirate, but that doesn't seem much better either.

Rogues are a pain in the ass to level. For the time it takes you to get one to level 5150 (99% steal, all items), you could've hit 9999 on another character plus more. Although, I did it, because using monsters is lame.

I also wound up maxing out my main character's transmigration (185,000 stored levels) last week, and put the game down. I haven't even touched etna mode, which I'm saving until I get the best weapons for my Paladin.

The bugged Foresights, Demonhall and animation skipping help so much.

I just overpowered my thief for levelling back in the ps2 version. A fighter class would have 2x the stats with the stuff I gave him. Plus the statisticans. He is actually stronger then my normal fighters though, but he still levels fucking slow, I think he is stuck on level 2000 and the only way I can get him above is grinding in CoO3. Which sucks cause I really want to steal some of the level 42 weapons - the lightsaber thing and Glorius are the ones I'm closest to, but theres now way in hell I can steal them from the level 9999 item god. Unless I level down everything in the assembly, but even thats a long shot.

...I think you mean rank 40 items. I assume by "lightsaber thing" you mean the Yoshitsuna, not the actual lightsaber sword (it's like, rank 32 or something(oh, actually rank 20)). I've been meaning to go through a legendary Galactic Staff which I found, for an Omniscent Staff myself. I'm not sure whether I'll bother levelling down the assembly first, though.

I did go through all 100 levels of a legendary item previously (Super Robo Suit) and the Item God 2 was level 6600ish with no bills passed. He had roughly around 1,130k HP. Thankfully, the level also included invincibility panels and Attack +1 panels, so I did about 250k to him per turn. He couldn't attack me due to the situation set up.

Hmm.. I think I'll take some screenshots.

This is game terrible. It's like crack for the obsessive. I'm playing through for the first time and only on chapter 2. Should I start grinding in Item World for levels or wait for a map further on?

Maybe it's just me. I think its early <__>

Elixir: yea, I meant Yoshitsuna. But I have to admit, the lvl98 Cosmic Blade is also pretty effective, and I also have a galactic muscle, an Exodus (or arcadia, forgot which), and a Cosmic Belt all on legendary and at levels between 50-70, all with tons of inhabitants.

My Laharl is kind of overpowered.

And while we are talking about screenshots:
http://www.gamingforce.org/forums/at...disgaeawtf.png

WHAT

Haha, I've had a few worlds that have been like that. I mean, exactly like that. And I even saw one with 3 squares, the third square was an invincibility geopanel, so the level was impossible to complete.


This took yesterday afternoon, all night, all morning, and half of today to complete:

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ne/snap022.jpg

Maxed transmigration for Shamgi (Paladin), who now has 210 bonus points. This required me to get to above level 700, promotion rank 3 times, transmigrate, and repeat. Instead of stopping at level 700 each time I just continuously grinded while watching tv, then transmigrated. I boosted INT fully (240 max) and the rest into HP.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ne/snap023.jpg

And this is the result. I had to grind to 9999 twice - once so I could transmigrate at 9999 for the full yellow bar boost - and once to reach 9999 and stay like that forever.

I don't plan on doing this for any other character. Period. Although Shamgi no longer needs levels, I'm not done yet. I still need to get the best items and more Teachers.

Actually I might take a break from Disgaea for a few days. This was overkill.

Woah, that's freaking insane. (My new hero!)

And I thought my brother had a kick ass character. (He didn't bother after lvl 4000, however, using his satanical luck he managed 1 yoshitsuna and 3 super robot suits of the same rarity)

Teachers still give boost after 300pts? News to me. (don't even remember what they boost though, is it exp? cause then I can understand the insane levels).
And how the fuck did you get so many legendary max level items.

Teachers boost INT. Once you've maxed levels and transmigration like I have, the only way to add damage is by item specialists (and better weapons, but mostly specialsits). Statisticians add EXP, but they stop at level 300. Armsmasters add EXP, and stop at 1900.

I basically stole every legendary item I saw, and I also found a rarity 0 legendary Artemis (bow). I don't really care for my legendaries, to be honest, as they're pretty much just eye candy.

A couple of days ago I went through a legendary Galactic Staff (rank 39). Surprisingly, my main character is now capable of taking out an Item God 2 in 2-3 hits, with maximum enemy bills passed.

So here's that staff:

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2.../snap023-1.jpg

And 100 levels of Item World later:

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ne/snap027.jpg

As you can see, there's a nice upgrade in stats here, but that's mostly because it's rarity 0, much like my two Super Robo Suits and one Prinny Costume. The Omniscient Staff is the best staff in the game, at the best rarity (0), so you can't get anything better in terms of this weapon class.


Also, I'm rich:

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ne/snap025.jpg

I still need to grab another rarity 0 Super Robo Suit off Baal, go through that and my second Super Robo Suit to 100, and then fill everything with Teachers.

Interesting. I may just get a PSP or save up for the PS3. And try Disgaea 3 (whenever NIS America picks up the game).