Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories

Rating ESRB: Teen Genre action Publisher Atlus Software External Links Official Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories Website

Fifteen years have passed in the world of Veldime; the God of all Overlords, Zenon, has complete control of a world outside of his own Netherworld. Well, aside from Adell, the one person who did not turn into a demon upon Zenon's arrival. Adell is looking for a way to save his family from the curse of demonhood before it becomes irreversible. Adell's mother comes up with a plan to summon Overlord Zenon from his Netherworld, in order for Adell to do battle with him. Due to a miscalculation, Adell's mother accidentally summons Zenon's daughter, Rozalin. The mix-up goes a step further when the princess becomes bound to Adell's very being until she is returned to her father.

I'm still fuzzy on how exploding penguins enter into the equation smoothly.

Hailed as the sequel to the definitive strategy RPG, Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories is a true gamer's game, promising over 100 hours of entertainment. Considering a layout of thirteen chapters, over 200 character classes, and an array of items (that you can use, level up and alter), don't be surprised if it lives up to the hype. Although the game carries many of the features of its predecessor, there are several new additions to the system. You can now be served with subpoenas for the Dark Court to earn a criminal record for your demons, and you also now have the ability to perform tower attacks while picking up multiple characters on the battle grid.

Games with memorable musical scores always come out on top, no matter the genre. Disgaea 2 delivers catchy tunes and driving beats that will keep your ears tuned into your speakers. Although the soundtrack for this game is not as symphonic as most, it offers a terrific blend of rocking synthesized tracks and colorful, cartoon-style themes that one would be hard pressed to find in any other game.

Without a doubt, Disgaea 2 is one of the prettiest games on the market, with intricate attention placed into sprite detail and development. Each character, ally, and monster has its own unique look and attitude, be it a notorious non-playable character (NPC), blazing lead, or bit player. There is something innately attractive about the exaggerated weapons used by sprites, which serves to set Disgaea 2 apart from other tactics games. Swords with flaring blades, bows with wings, spears as long as Buicks, bombs the size of beach balls... the list goes on. The story scenes are very well drawn with clean graphics that are all anime, all the time. The stages themselves are not always special. They still fall into the Lego-like structure of most tactics boards, but they're certainly not generic and are dressed up pretty well in some stages.

Given the rate of progression, many of the actual chapters may seem pretty short. Most of the time will be spent visiting the Dark Assembly to pass bills, developing the classes for your perfect party, and diving into the Item World to level up characters and items. Even though story sequences are a great way to level up fresh characters in the party, most of the bulk leveling and development will take place in past stages and low-to-mid-range Item Worlds. The Item World is what brings the game its challenge factor and most of the surprises with random pirate attacks and random Mystery Rooms that offer all things both benign and blasphemous.

Now here is the challenge: unless you possess a Mr. Gency exit, players cannot exit the Item World aside from the Innocent Towns found after every tenth level. Since the bulk of Mr. Gency exits can be obtained by defeating the Item Generals on the tenth floor of each tier, players have to pick and choose their battles, as well as their items. Progressively difficult monsters, expansive GeoPanel puzzles and challenging level navigation makes the Item World the ultimate challenge for tactics lovers who grow tired of being too powerful. Since no two trips to the Item World are ever the same, and the difficulty can be modified through bills at the Dark Assembly, the outcome is an ever-escalating challenge that will not top off for a very long time.

Playing through Disgaea 2 is kind of like discovering a surprise birthday party at every turn. There is so much to be unwrapped in this game, starting with the character classes, and then working through ability development, finding rare and legendary items (and Senators for the Dark Assembly), discovering new bills, making the most of the apprenticeship system and seeing just how low an Item Dungeon can go. The game quickly becomes a quest to maximize your character selection through Reincarnation, which has the chance of passing on learned skills to the character's next form. There are also multiple endings (depending on battle outcomes and game choices), which may allow you to save your current character progress while beginning a new game. For example, losing to Axel at the end of Chapter 2 yields a humorous cinematic and one of the games many endings, allowing you to save your progress with Adell and start over from the beginning.

An instant classic and a definite contender for Game of the Year, Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories is nothing short of a perfectly executed game. It will provide the hours of enjoyment that it boasts and features an indefinite amount of replayability. Highly recommended.