I remembered why I never bothered to finish Disgaea 2 last night when I sat down for another round in my march to beat Soul Nomad and found the former already in my PS2. I think I was showing someone the differences between the two games (one is fast paced enough to be described fairly well as a ‘romp’, while the other I had left gathering dust for the better part of a year because it was starting to feel like ‘work.’) Out of laziness and nostalgia (more the former), I went ahead and played it anyway, and that brings me to my original point of why I never finished the game- I needed to get like 20 levels to get my hero alone to that of the weakest enemies on the second-to-last Shinra Tower level.

I spent an hour and a half last night gaining levels before it occured to me I could just trot off to the Dark Senate (using Rozalin, who either due to her pedigree or her cleavage I seem to have more luck passing bills with) and vote for Weaker Enemies (as well as More Expensive Items a few times when I realized the shops only carried the starting assortment.) With that kick in the chops, I finished off the Tower, and was treated with a duet of rigged battles (one you can’t win and one you can’t lose.) As a result, my attitude toward it’s softened a little, but I’m still going to back burnerize it so I can finish tearing through Soul Nomad. (Though I am probably about the same duration from the end in both of them…)

I’ve got a weird relationship with Disgaea 2, overall. It’s pretty fair to say it’s a polished version of its direct predecessor, but the fact it lacks some of the innovations and classes from N1’s more adventurous in-between titles. F’rinstance, the characters-from-items creation system could be paired nicely with Item World, letting you start a new character with some stat boosts and levels in the double digits rather than holding the newbies’ hand for upwards of six hours as they leech XP off your higher level men through combo attacks. The square tiles are pretty necessary for the whole Geo Panel gimmick and all, but after two ‘gridless’ games that let you move and aim freely, gunners needing to be in a perfectly straight line from their target is pretty damned annoying, especially when they don’t seem to do much more damage than archers who have the typical ‘diamond’ shaped range of targeting. And if that wasn’t enough, Adell just doesn’t work as a Makai-verse hero. After the likes of Laharl and Zetta (not so much Marona, then again I skipped Phantom Brave), a goody-two-shoes who NEVER GIVES UP! AND NEVER BREAKS A PROMISE! hot-blooded youth doesn’t seem to click quite as well in a game where you’re encouraged to break the system and oh yeah, rack up Felonies for bonuses. Even if he is on a mission of revenge to save his family. Actually, especially. Too noble and cliche. At least 3 is getting back on track with the story of a demon kid on a quest to kill his dad for erasing his Disgaea 1 save file. It’s easier to pretend Rozalin’s the heroine and bitching her way across the country to see/kill/whatever her dad.