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DISGAEA 3 (PS3) AND THE DISGAEA SERIES
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Enker
1572
Enker
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CloseI've been playing tactical rpgs since Shining Force on the Sega Megadrive (Genesis for you Americans) and really enjoy them. When Disgaea on the Playstation 2 brought them back into vogue it was a really good year for the genre and sprite-based games in general (I've never enjoyed 3D renders as much as I do 2D art and sprites). I've since brought Disgaea 2 and the REbrought them both for the PSP for portable fun and enjoyed them immensly. I've just picked up a copy of Disgaea 3 for my PS3 - which I know is a little late but I've only had the console a few months and had 'Star Ocean: The Last Hope' to contend with first - and have gotten stuck in.
But . . . I'm not loving it as much. The story is great and I think the switch to good male/bad male comedy duo with the main characters over Male/Female dynamic works brilliantly, and the school setting is amusing - but the game feels a little lacking in comparison to previous titles and I think I've traced it back to one reason.
Characters do not learn skills as they level up, instead you're forced to use the games Mana feature to buy skills and 'boost' them instead. Which is fair enough but you also have to use it to buy static abilities, make new characters and do a whole range of other activities, so skills either become a major priority or fall by the wayside fast. In the onld system you'd learn a skill through levelling and it would appear as a weakened ability that you powered up through repeated use - making it feel useful when you cast Heal for the 1000th time. This would unlock wider ranges of effect and make the spells marginally more powerful whilst increasing their range. Now you level a spell and it just gets a tad more powerful with none of the other benefits. For a warrior it's not too bad, as they have a smaller skill pool based on their weapons and stats pumping is more important - but for a spellcaster this is nasty stuff.
To give an example - I'm on chapter three of the game with a level 30 fire witch. At this point she has a fully fleshed out fire spell with all nine radius of damage and a high level of attack, BUT it's her only spell. Comparativly in Disgaea 1 or 2 this witch would be casting some serious heat by now. The knock on effect for me as the player is that I'm not feeling like I've made any significant progress - and it's put me off unlocking or creating the other spell casting character types.
Has anybody else felt this way about the game or is it just me?
But . . . I'm not loving it as much. The story is great and I think the switch to good male/bad male comedy duo with the main characters over Male/Female dynamic works brilliantly, and the school setting is amusing - but the game feels a little lacking in comparison to previous titles and I think I've traced it back to one reason.
Characters do not learn skills as they level up, instead you're forced to use the games Mana feature to buy skills and 'boost' them instead. Which is fair enough but you also have to use it to buy static abilities, make new characters and do a whole range of other activities, so skills either become a major priority or fall by the wayside fast. In the onld system you'd learn a skill through levelling and it would appear as a weakened ability that you powered up through repeated use - making it feel useful when you cast Heal for the 1000th time. This would unlock wider ranges of effect and make the spells marginally more powerful whilst increasing their range. Now you level a spell and it just gets a tad more powerful with none of the other benefits. For a warrior it's not too bad, as they have a smaller skill pool based on their weapons and stats pumping is more important - but for a spellcaster this is nasty stuff.
To give an example - I'm on chapter three of the game with a level 30 fire witch. At this point she has a fully fleshed out fire spell with all nine radius of damage and a high level of attack, BUT it's her only spell. Comparativly in Disgaea 1 or 2 this witch would be casting some serious heat by now. The knock on effect for me as the player is that I'm not feeling like I've made any significant progress - and it's put me off unlocking or creating the other spell casting character types.
Has anybody else felt this way about the game or is it just me?
Jparker1984
2008
Im in love with the Disgaea series, the battle system for one is awesome. However, I love the comedy the most. It has enough of it and still maintains the serious nature and is not a joke rpg. I recently beat Disgaea 3.
Enker
1572
The localisation of the scripts are always top-notch and the dub amusing rather than cringe-worthy. They have amazing production values!
Jparker1984
2008
yeah lol, another game that was like the Disgaea games, Phantom Brave for the PS2. It was a great tactical game.
Enker
1572
I still think 'La Pucelle Tactics' is my favourite - though 'Makai Kingdoms' was fun too.
Enker
1572
I've not seen it out here in the UK anywhere yet (I still like to buy from and support shops where I can) but I'll deffinatly be buying it when I do :)
I have Disgaea 3, though I eventually stopped playing it after I got tired of endless grinding. Oh and I never had mages/skulls/whatevertheyares on my team. They were too useless so I created a crapload of fighters, brawlers and healers.
h0nk.
h0nk.
Enker
1572
I find that having a set of three mages I can whip out to wail on people from long-range before closing in with fighter classes is essential in a lot of the Disgaea missions later on.
Yeah but they die too often and they're tedious to train so, meh.
Everything should go fine if I have an army of fighters, healers and brawlers.
h0nk.
Everything should go fine if I have an army of fighters, healers and brawlers.
h0nk.
the first Disgaea is my all-time favorite strategy RPG.
2 and 3 were good too but I think a lot of the non-storyline stuff to do like item world and reverse pirating and whatnot are getting to be a little too much.
still need to play 4... it'll probably be a while before I get the chance.
2 and 3 were good too but I think a lot of the non-storyline stuff to do like item world and reverse pirating and whatnot are getting to be a little too much.
still need to play 4... it'll probably be a while before I get the chance.
Often, I had no idea what some non-storyline crap was about.
I don't think I even wanted to know.
h0nk.
I don't think I even wanted to know.
h0nk.
Playing Disgaea was like looking at the mirror and seeing myself slowly turn into a withered old man. Watching grass grow is more exciting than the grindfest that is Disgaea. When you're 12 and have absolutely nothing better to do than to rot in front of the TV then Disgaea might seem like a good pick. Past that age devoting a hundred hours to beat it is the epitome of brain dead. Compared to other tactical jRPGs this game doesn't feel like a wargame at all, more like a game about a wargame simulator with cosplayers beating each other on the head with sticks.
I can somewhat understand someone enjoying the characters and their antics, but wouldn't you be better off simply watching the anime adaptation?
And I'm not exaggerating here, this series and the company that produces these games are a phenomenon to me. All their games are IDENTICAL. Disgaea, Makai Kingdom, La Pucelle, some other shit I can't be bothered to memorize the title of... Identical style, identical stories, identical paper-cutout characters, identical items, jobs and monsters... Has anyone played any of these games, looked back and said: "Hot damn! Those were some of the most awesome 100 hours I spent playing a video game! Like, ever!" Has anyone NOT thought: "God, I've just wasted a hundred hours of my life and I'm not getting them back!" Is there any sort of payoff to these games?
I can somewhat understand someone enjoying the characters and their antics, but wouldn't you be better off simply watching the anime adaptation?
And I'm not exaggerating here, this series and the company that produces these games are a phenomenon to me. All their games are IDENTICAL. Disgaea, Makai Kingdom, La Pucelle, some other shit I can't be bothered to memorize the title of... Identical style, identical stories, identical paper-cutout characters, identical items, jobs and monsters... Has anyone played any of these games, looked back and said: "Hot damn! Those were some of the most awesome 100 hours I spent playing a video game! Like, ever!" Has anyone NOT thought: "God, I've just wasted a hundred hours of my life and I'm not getting them back!" Is there any sort of payoff to these games?
Well, playing and beating them, and liking it is a payoff. There are many people who like games like that, and many who probably would say they liked playing them and beating them.
Not to mention, you can play Disgaea games the way you want, you can only finish the main story with minimal ammounts of grinding, or you can blow a few hundred hours on it and "finish it" to the fullest....
I only played Disgaea 3 and am currently playing Disgaea 4 (when I have the time), and I love them both. I only played some of the endgame content in D3 after the main story, had lots of fun, around 80 hours total on two saves. Definitely worth the money. The characters, the story, the combat, the over-the-top skill animations... I love the kind of game Disgaea is.
And Disgaea 4 ... hell yeah! Everything I loved about D3, plus more, for the same price. What's not to like. And I just learned how to skip/show only select skill animations instead of all of them. How I ever lived without the R2 button, I do not know.
I only played Disgaea 3 and am currently playing Disgaea 4 (when I have the time), and I love them both. I only played some of the endgame content in D3 after the main story, had lots of fun, around 80 hours total on two saves. Definitely worth the money. The characters, the story, the combat, the over-the-top skill animations... I love the kind of game Disgaea is.
And Disgaea 4 ... hell yeah! Everything I loved about D3, plus more, for the same price. What's not to like. And I just learned how to skip/show only select skill animations instead of all of them. How I ever lived without the R2 button, I do not know.
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