Re: Game Talk (I'm putting this extra little bit here because the original title was too short)

[Haar_Dragon]

They did. I had to turn off enemy animations when I realized how long Prinny Dance takes when every Prinny on the damn field uses it.

Yeah, funny thing, I haven't played 9-2 yet. I also just Reincarnated a bunch of my party, so I went through a few spare Subpoenas (by which I mean one) to get them back up to snuff. And then I Reincarnated another couple of members. Also, Healer. She is starting to suck really bad so I'm going to change my Star Skull into one at the first opportunity (by which I mean when he learns Giga Star). That might take a while considering he's Level 19 bordering 20. Also, Adell is still Level 24 and he's starting to lag behind...

As far as the story, I'm certainly interested, and I like how we have more of a goal (stop Zenon's curse) than we did for the first game. I really like most of the cast, and I just realized who Masked Man and Masked Woman are. I actually feel kinda dumb for taking this long. I also really want to know why Zenon's such a pr*ck. Is it just because he's an Overlord?

The only thing that's really bothering me is Etna's coloration. And the Prinnies' voices, those are kinda annoying. But Etna looks like if you took an American cartoon character and stuck them in an anime...it's just awkward. But then again, if that's the thing that's bugging me the most, I don't have much to complain about.

[NebulaGregarZX]

Yeah... yeah...

Huh? Haar, don't bother with attack spells beyond the level 1 versions. They cost much less, do about as much damage as higher-level ones do, and with fewer spells to work with, they'll level up faster, improving your AoEs. This does NOT apply to healing, though, which works differently, and you should use each tier individually as necessary.

Hm, yeah, Hour of Darkness really lacks a clear-cut goal most of the time. And then the goal becomes MORE ambiguous halfway through the game! Oh, and Zenon's a pr*ck because he's a pr*ck, I imagine. Laharl's an Overlord, he's not like that. Krichevskoy was a cool guy. Overlordship doesn't seem to make people like that.

The coloration thing is a result of the art style changing after the first game. Her hair was always red, it's just that it used to look pink. I think I might prefer the style of the first game over the others, but that's just me.

[Zeldaman2.0]

Zenon is a pr*ck because plot and I'm not spoiling it for you. And to be honest, they have a BLATANT reveal a few chapters ahead and I didn't get it until THEN my first time through. Then again, I was 13.

Gregar, they don't even have a shortened animation version? Or something like the faster Geo panel one?

Wow. I dunno about Reincarnations, I never really had the patience for constant low-level grinding. I mean yeah, it's tolerable once you have leveled equipment, but at that point I would rather just level my equipment up and farm Sins in the IW using my Quad-pillar team: Four Heavy Knights and a Tink with shoes. I had a set of people on hand as well to throw Adell or my fist-using thief to a Guardian to knock them off or kill them.

But yeah. The difficulty RAMPS after this chapter, so have fun in Alche City.

Also, if anyone cares, that fiction I mentioned? I have the entire thing, if anyone cares enough to want it or read it. Apparently another headcannon of mine was that the Base Panel was a huge tube that everyone was crammed down into.

Edit: Bugger it all. It seems I was well into doing some equipment grinding. Rank 30 or so by the looks of it.

Second Edit: Keep talking to Mom and Dad after every map. At some point they will give you a free Noble Rose (Rank Thirty something Gun) and a Rank 30 Something Fist, respectively. For free. Which, I might add, I believe have a chance to be Legendary. So good luck with that.

[Haar_Dragon]

Well, yeah, I know WHY Etna looks awkward, but the change in style seems to have been much more drastic as far as she's concerned. I noticed they did away with making everything look like the lights are only half turned up, but Etna looks really, really bright. Adell, Rozalin, Tink, nobody else is that vivid. I also think her face is way rounder...and yes, I do prefer the art style of the first game. It's weird, though, because she looks fairly normal in the opening cutscene, but then in gameplay...she reminds me of bubble-gum, just in terms of color. I don't know why.

I thought there was a difficulty spike in the LAST chapter. I had to reset once because I screwed myself by not having enough SP going into a chapter (My HP was in good shape, so I just assumed like a dumbass that I was alright).

See, my current team is Adell, Rozalin, Taro, Yukimaru, Samurai, Ninja, Kunoichi, Star Skull, Star Mage, Healer, Thief. And yes, I know that's one too many, but I alternate situationally between Healer and Star Skull.

Actually, the difference between magic spells is pretty drastic as you get higher. I believe the first-tier are 90% of your INT and each increasing tier adds 10%. Considering Healers don't have all that much INT compared to offensive Mages, I'd like to use as much as possible...but I don't have the patience to grind beyond Giga. Also, seeing how late I get it (10 levels from now), I give up. I'll just stick to Mega Star.

[NebulaGregarZX]

They have NOTHING to speed up the process. My frantic searching would have turned something up by now. And I've SEEN where they put the option in the PSP version; it's not there in the PS2 version. DAMMIT.

Edgar, I literally spent the last ten hours of the game doing just that: doing grinding to get two useless muppets and a powerful mage up to level 100. And now I'm training the resulting Angel to unlock the new varieties of it, Transmigrating/Reincarnating her as each new class unlocks. I'll finish when she's at level 100, not change her into a Paladin yet, but instead, making all last-minute preparations. And then...

I.

WILL.

CRUSH.

EVERYTHING.

...As in, just the final boss. But that was the only non-spoiler way to say it without sounding completely lame. Or I'm too tired to think completely straight right now.

I'd like to read that.

Oh, and they do something similar in the first game. Read all of Etna's diary entries to get an Emblem accessory, which also happens to be worn by the final boss himself. And one guy hands you the Diabolic Sword in the final chapter.

[Haar_Dragon]

Was it really only in the final chapter that you get that? Huh. No wonder some parts of Chapter 13 were such a pain. I didn't have a broken sword.

You say you'll crush the final boss...but what about bonus dungeons? Like the Cave of Ordeals, primarily. Or Prinny Land. I mean, my Prinny God kinda crushes everything. Also, I have really low-tier Armor. Like, always. I'm just constantly afraid that I'm gonna come across Armor that I can't afford and I'll see the need to grind cash until everyone has it.

Yeah, Etna's diary unlocks Etna mode and gets you an item called Testament, which increases stats by (if I'm not mistaken) 800. That's probably the main reason Laharl was pretty much invincible, except when he was surrounded by Axe users.

[Zeldaman2.0]

Wow. Neat to know how the Magic levels worked. I knew there had to be some difference but I couldn't for the life of me ever figure out what.

And yeah, having more than 10 units is fairly common, especially considering the plethora of lame story characters that you get. Again, I may be a little opinionated on this, but after grinding up Rozalin and Yukimaru to level 500 or so only to have them plateau and find out that GENERICS could outstrip them at higher ranks? It was kind of aggravating. Though I will say their affinities for the story will suit you just fine.

Never really used a healer, I always made a pupil for a mage, leveled them up until I got the best healing spell and then killed them off.

I have a Testament and an Exodus in my possession, which I will be grinding later. And by later, I mean after the backlog. I think I stole the Exodus off of the Final Boss, actually.

And Gregar, that's exactly it: you're spending TEN HOURS doing grinding and grinding, when I could spend two and have relatively comparable, if not better overall, stat gains. I might also snag a few levels in some grind pit, and while you're farther along in Reincarnations, sure, I'd have equipment to last a while.

Oh, you thought the escape was hard? Pffff. Pfffffffff. Pff I say. You'll get fucked over in Chapter 12 because of certain enemy abilities if you aren't prepared. Save like it's an Atlus game, man XD

[NebulaGregarZX]

The Testament wasn't THAT powerful... not for me. It was great, the best of all my Emblems by a lot, but not 800 to all stats!

I only spent those ten hours because I needed to level up two very stupid and ineffective classes to level 100 to unlock a class that's the second best in the game. It won't take a tenth as long to get this more-powerful character up to speed, and then I'll have two healers, one magic-cannon, three masters of dealing out physical pain, and several backups to fight with. I mostly just want to end the game with a bang, then Transmigrate everybody so that the next run will still be satisfying. Because slaying a bunch of level 1 enemies with an ungodly powerful level 95 Laharl just doesn't do it for me. It gets old fast. Slaying my way through them and slowly crawling back up to absurd power while technically remaining at similar levels to my enemies will feel much more gratifying.

And I had to spend two of those hours Transmigrating between several classes so I could get all the elemental magic on a Cleric so she could deal decent damage and not have to use a bow. If my ONLY desire were to crush the final boss, it would be easy. But I sprung for the Angel class, because the irony was too much to pass up.

NOW I could probably do nearly equal level grinding to you, maybe. I don't know as much about the game, so perhaps you are more familiar with ways to grind, but in the end, I'm satisfied with the normal story mode and maybe some alternative stuff, like... wait, would this be a spoiler? I guess so. Ah, well.

...Fun fact: Hour of Darkness was backed by ATLUS.

[Haar_Dragon]

As I said, I feel really underleveled, mostly with Adell. And most of the escape wasn't actually that bad, once I got past...I think the second map? But the first one killed like three of my people because the enemies were like level 32 with Adell sitting at 24 or so. It only got easier from there. And I save after every chapter.

Yeah, I kinda ditched Tink as soon as I had enough units to do so. Hanako was on my team for about one chapter, until I got Taro. Then I realized he was much better at living. Though I seriously wonder why Taro, Hanako, and Succubae are classified as Monster units. They all look like people, game. They all have thumbs. Is that not enough?! Yes, it makes me angry, because I can't effectively tower-grind them because I can't have them both in the same tower. Stupid illogical monster mechanics. I should mention the only monster I'm using is Taro. Because he's actually pretty awesome. I might replace him later if I get someone better, though. I also had serious trouble deciding what class to make each character, because there aren't enough good Axe users, and I want one Axe user. Only one, but I really wanted a powerhouse unit, just so I could destroy things. Also, Lion's Roar seems to have been buffed, and King of Beasts has been nerfed. Which is sad, I loved abusing King of Beasts. Got an SP-cost boost of about 50.

[NebulaGregarZX]

In later games, Adell got an ability that gave him a stat boost when fighting higher-leveled enemies than himself. It's a shame you didn't have the benefit of that here.

Why not save after every map when it gets rough?

...Tower-grinding? Is that a mechanic introduced in the second game? I know you can pull off crazy attacks with a group of characters standing on each others' shoulders in the fourth game, but in the first game, that's not the case. Is it like Team Attacks, and every participant gets a gut of the EXP?

Dammit! I liked King of Beasts, too! Lion's Roar was never really my favorite. It was pretty expensive, and considering how I used my Ninja, there were few situations where it was useful.

[Zeldaman2.0]

In order of relevance:

Testaments don't, actually. At least, not in Disgaea 2 at base level at normal rarity. >__>

Point noted, I Reincarnate at 1-1 and plow through for levels.

Well, depends on the game. Any Disgaea other than 2? I'd probably screw up and use poor leveling spots.

You've mentioned it before. Like twice at least XD

Given the amount of Reincarnating you've been doing, you aren't doing TERRIBLY. But they go from forties to fifties and upwards really, really quickly relative to the number of maps. Also, save more or you'll get really, REALLY upset when you lose all your chapter 12 progress.

Axe user? Get a Male Warrior, throw him two armors and a pair of really good glasses so he can HIT something for a few levels. Wood Golems I've considered getting for tanking purposes. Because 50 PERCENT HEALTH REGEN. PER. /TURN/.

He has that in the original Disgaea 2, Gregar.

Towers were introduced in 2, but the new mechanics were in 3 and 4. I dunno about Exp., but it was a lot safer if you had a couple tanks on the bottom.

And I'll send you the text Gregar. Be warned, it's... kinda doofy and bad. Sorry, kinda got away from me XD

[Haar_Dragon]

He has that ability. It's just that he doesn't have the defense in order to make use of it. Enemy Boost panels aren't helping me. But then again, that's what I get for still having an Old Cloth (the weakest defensive equip short of nothing at all) in Chapter 9. As you may have guessed, I don't tend to buy a ton of equipment. The game is really nice about dropping up-to-snuff weapons in the Bonus Gauge. Not so much with armor.

Yeah, I was wayyyyyy off. 400 HP, 200 everything else. I couldn't have been more wrong if I'd tried. At least I had the right number of digits...

Tower Attacks were introduced in Disgaea 2. You no longer take damage for holding a person or a stack of people at the end of your turn. Instead, you get the option to Attack, which has either three range, or range depending on the number of units in the tower. If the enemy is killed, the EXP (and I believe Mana as well) is divided evenly among all the units in the tower. Also, only the bottom unit takes damage.

Really? I find myself using Lion's Roar a fair bit now. Like I said, it got buffed. Costs about half as much for the same (maybe even more) damage. And what way do you use your Ninja? I'd say the best way is just to send them into the middle of nowhere, let them get surrounded, and have him counter the hell out of them. Lion's Roar isn't bad for that.

Also, got a Tier 4 Ninja last night. Base Movement of 7, with 4 Counters. The word "broken" comes to mind.

[Zeldaman2.0]

If you haven't spent your money on anything, you COULD always just... you know. Go buy the lower-ranked gear. I'd say a set of Rank 10's or higher for everyone after a little IW leveling would go a looooooong way. Actually, just checked their stats on GFAQs, and if the prices are a little high for you, there's some good armors in the 9-1 area, Black Outfits and Protectors, which are about R13. You could easily steal them using a halfway decent Hand: Plunder Hand or a Cha Ching (Cha Ching you might have to pass better item bills for though) and still be keeping a huge margin on your HL expenditures. You would actually probably need a Thief for it to work, but she'd be well worth the Mana expenditure.

[Haar_Dragon]

I've been using a Thief in this game. She's awesome with a Bow. I also have about 5 Stealing Hands, but those are the crappy kind and I'm turning up no more than 20% success rates when I try to use them. Anyway, I just went with a More Expensive Stuff bill and bought everyone Light Armors and Jijo Outfits. I'm not dying as much.

[Zeldaman2.0]

I dunno if it'd ever be worth it, but with later gear you can find high-leveled residents. I was wondering if I ever got the chance, how worth it would shoving 5 19998 Gladiators onto a Yoshitsune would be?

And good to hear you've got some good equipment. Though with Thief it's more about having high HIT on your hands, and thief level. So it would actually be counter-intuitive to be constantly reincarnating unless you had good gear for doing so.

[Haar_Dragon]

Well, I only really Reincarnate in order to get the next Tier of that class. So she's a Rogue now, not a Thief, if we're gonna be technical about it.

The Specialists don't go above their level cap. So 5 maxed-out Gladiators would only have the same effect as 1 maxed-out Gladiator, as far as I know. And I imagine it wouldn't be worth the time anyway, considering the fact that a weapon like that would one-shot just about everything, considering the level you'd need to be at to even get a Yoshitsune, let alone after grinding for that many Gladiators.

[Zeldaman2.0]

Huh. So I guess all the rest are for defensive purposes or elemental affinities. Which reminds me. I'm hoping to, on my next Disgaea playthrough, or whenever I pick up my current file, make my Skull into a Magic Knight so I can prey upon all the elemental weaknesses. All of them. And then make 100 Aeronaut, Firefighter, and Cryophiles just to pack on even more poundings. It feels good to exploit multipliers.

That said, I remembered another thing about aptitudes: apparently they're somewhat level-based as well, or at least I assume so: I remember that armors were really ineffective early on because of the low level.

And something else: I hope that if any of your armors had Lovers you didn't sell them with the Lovers still on them. That'd be very, very bad. .__.

[Haar_Dragon]

I don't think I've come across any Lovers yet, actually. If I have, I didn't notice. That aside, ha! You think I sell things? My bag-o'-useless-crap all goes to the Dark Assembly! My personal Headcanon for that is that when the character hands the Senator something, the character says, "You want this? Sure, have it, I sure don't need it."

I don't think Aptitudes are level-based, except in a really loose way. As your level goes up, so does your Defense, and thus 70% is added to a bigger number. Because I'm pretty sure the 70% (or whatever other value) applies to the equipment. They are Tier-based, though. A Tier 3 Warrior will have better aptitudes than a Tier 1 Warrior.

[Zeldaman2.0]

Considering you had them from the beginning, one of them is almost guaranteed to have at least one Lover on them.

And yes, while old gear is very good for the DA, if ANY of them had Lovers on them you really cheated yourself out of some stellar boosts. Also, don't bother bribing/raising up parties that aren't the Wood Golems or the Mothmen. Holy Dragons you can't anyway, and the Baciels are ALWAYS drunk and therefore it's extremely hard to get reliable votes from them. And in any case the higher-tiered votes tend to be swamped in your favor if the Wood Golems love you and have more voice, even on votes that are typically far and away against you.

[Haar_Dragon]

I have noticed that, and that was actually my strategy. Orcs have low levels, and thus their votes are irrelevant for the most part. Ghosts are asleep half the time. Rifle Demons are always drunk, so it's probably better to use Chloroform than try to get them to side with you, Holy Dragons can't be bribed, and Mothmen...are just Mothmen, and are completely average, so why not.

So, is there a reason Holy Dragons have a weird extreme hatred toward you? Because I've noticed that they very rarely actually want to pass my stuff. Also, what's the purpose of the "Etna wants to be MC" bill?

[Zeldaman2.0]

The thing is, whenever the game starts, whatever you get for each of the Holy Dragons is, of course, what you get: they are justice-loving and law-abiding, and you being a Sin-full badass isn't exactly smiled upon for them. The only way to crank up their affections towards you is to buy a couple of Holy Dragon party cell phones and then call them before a bill in which they might appear, after which the boost is left. So, they don't really /hate/ you, but then again, they don't give much of a shit /for/ you.

DON'T. Do that bill. Unless you save beforehand and have bribed the Wood Golems well into Love<3 status (the game has a point system for affections, and you can create a LOT of cushion in the Love<3 status) and have plenty of items to bribe the Golems with. Otherwise, if Etna passes the bill, she Game Overs you. If you WIN, however, you get a fairly decent Ranking spear. Two other characters will try this once their in your party, but you have to get to the end of Chapter 11 to find out.

[Haar_Dragon]

The other wouldn't happen to be a certain friend of Etna's, would it?

[Zeldaman2.0]

You'll have to make that discovery yourself, man. It could be a friend of Etna's, it could be Axel, or even Zenon.

[Haar_Dragon]

Considering Axel is essentially Mid-Boss and Zenon seems to be our final target, both of those seem highly unlikely...

[Zeldaman2.0]

Heeheeheeheeheeheehee.

[Sponsored content]