It’s worse than not liking Disgaea
Of course, there’s no need to force myself to play something I don’t like, and even less need to do it three times. The only reason I gave it so many tries is because I love SRPGs, and I’m always on the lookout for new series. If Disgaea had been a success, that would have opened up the way for me to play the original plus the three sequels as well as other related games like La Pucelle (which I have also tried and failed to get into) and Phantom Brave. So it’s a bit unfortunate, to say the least, that things didn’t work out between us.
What makes this particular failure so baffling, though, is that I was certain I could do it this time. I analyzed my past two failures and concluded that I quit so soon because I got intimidated by all the game features. Item world, mentor-pupils, Mana, Dark Assembly, Ranks, Geo Symbols, Geo Panels, Transmigration, Rarity, etc etc etc. I read the in-game tutorials on all those and got turned off before I even gave the game a proper chance. This time, I determined, was going to be different. After all, multiple fans and even an in-game NPC had told me I could ignore all that stuff and just play the game ‘normally.’
So that’s what I tried to do. My plan was to play it once in a ‘normal’ way and then, if I liked it, to replay and actually master it. This is less of a lie than it sounds. While I very rarely replay RPGs and even then only after years have passed, SRPGs are a different beast. It’s not unusual for me to finish one and then click impatiently through the credits so I can start over again immediately. And that goes not just for good games like Fire Emblem and Luminous Arc 3, but also for less worthy contenders like Ragnarok Tactics and Tactical Guild. So believe me when I say I started Disgaea with the best of intentions.
As you might guess, i.e. if you’ve been reading so far, it didn’t go very well. And, to be honest, I can’t put my finger on exactly why not. When you strip away all the extra features from Disgaea, you have a very ordinary SRPG, and in theory that’s what I like best. I played through the tutorial and Episode 1 and the first battle of the Episode 2, about 10 battles altogether, but not only did the game not ‘click’ with me, but also I found myself liking it drastically less and less with every succeeding fight. When I quit, it was because I was down to a choice between either stopping for good or hurling the PS2 out the window, game and all, and throwing myself out after it. (I’m exaggerating, but only a little.)
I can list some of the elements that bothered me about the battle system:
– You can’t really ignore Geo Panels, so that element of suckiness is always going to be there.
– Apart from Laharl, no one seems to be leveling up. He was level 7 when I quit, everyone else was 3-4. It’s a lot of trouble setting things up so someone else gets the kill, and there’s no damage estimate so you can’t even tell who’s going to get what.
– Specials are a pain to use because your other party members keep getting in the way.
– The map is a pain to navigate around. The cursor keeps dropping off or falling into holes, and bits of scenery block your view no matter which way you turn.
– Geo Panels are a pain in the neck. Did I say that already?
But none of them should have been fatal flaws, especially so early in the game before I’d really had the chance to get used to anything. I can’t say there was a problem with the story or the characters either, because there wasn’t. No one was especially likeable, but there were no great problems either. And again, I quit really early before anything important happened.
In the end I have absolutely no idea where this deep-seated dislike that prevents me from playing Disgaea comes from. I know it’s a cop-out to say this, but something in me just doesn’t like that game. Even Hoshigami Remix got more hours from me, and that game has to be played to be believed (I’m kidding, don’t do that to yourself). At least I got some closure out of the deal from knowing I did my best. Right now I’ll take all the comfort I can get.
I don’t think I ever had any real problems with distributing kills.
Are you aware that you can execute character actions one at the time and freely cancel them? Like, you can move characters next to each other so they participate in combo attacks to feed someone EXP, then cancel them and move somewhere else.
Might help with the “characters get in each other’s way during specials” thing.
Also you don’t have to use all 10 slots, a lot of people just solo the game with Laharl, but there’s nothing stopping anyone from using like, a core team of just 5 characters.
Anyway, people really like D1’s characters/plot but I think the gameplay is really kind of dated. As an SRPG, it’s “Grind: The Game.” Disgaea 2 kind of adds a lot to the formula (probably more than each successive game past that).
I usually assign and execute one or two at a time instead of all at once, otherwise it gets too confusing. I didn’t know I could move people back and forth as long as they didn’t act, though. Solo the game with Laharl, huh? I was using 7 characters (3 prinnies and 4 humanoids), but that sounds very doable and stress-free, though it would somewhat defeat the purpose of playing an SRPG. I don’t think I can bring myself to touch this game for a while, though.
there is a way to triple the XP a character get,after doing that it’s really easy to power level in a jiff and solo the game with a single character but yeah by that point it’s not much of an SRPG
anyway i personaly love the game but as davzz it’s really more of a game that you play for the plot and where most of the pleasure come from seeing your character deals million’s of damage after tons of level up (did you know character go up to level 9999?) it’s not exactly something i would recomend to a fire emblem fan
also no reason to level up the prinnies,they suck,that’s the whole point
Yes, I suppose I could break the game and just blitz through the battles to see the plot and the characters develop, but if that’s all I wanted then I could just watch the anime. In fact, I might well do that and see if it motivates me to… I can’t even finish the sentence.
Hmm, how to learn to like Disgaea. How to learn to like Disgaea… I’ll give it some more thought.
The anime is garbage, if you only want the story watch an lp or such.
Though yeah, if you focus on larharl and maybe just a little backup, things go by much faster
Seriously, I second the whole “Disgaea’s anime is garbage” thing.
Anime adaptations of videogames don’t really have a great track record in general, but Disgaea’s Anime doesn’t do storytelling well, nor does it do Action eyecandy well either (in fact they seem kind of averse to actually showing fight scenes for some reason).
All right. No anime, and a *possible* retry one day with a focus on Laharl.
I’ve also heard the psp version had some quality of life changes that might help getting through it. I too never got into Disgaea myself, it just felt a bit too grindy for my taste which is kind of weird consider how much I enjoyed grinding the hell out of SN series.
It sure seems that way. I’ve never been a fan of games where level-grinding is the main attraction, and I don’t think Disgaea will make any change to that. My mission so far, which isn’t going very well, is to see if it can be played all normal-like or if it’s only for the most dedicated of fans.
If I were you I would play Makai Kingdom first anyways for the PS2. it’s my favorite NIS game and can be played through “regularly” as a typical RPG. It helps give you the basis of how the Disgaea games work (kind of, but I like the isometric field better than Disgaea’s grids) with slightly different mechanics to explore like; “Star Reincarnation” for the your expert invested players and vehicles for people who just like something different to use. Ultimately it is an NIS SRPG although it does provide a different flavor than Disgaea.
Hmm, well, I do have both Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom around somewhere… maybe… unless I threw them away. I don’t have very good experiences with NIS games, but I’ll give Makai Kingdom a try since you recommend it so strongly.