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

[Zeldaman2.0]

I hope you get to the ending soon, if only for the fact that there's a certain thing that happens in the Worst Ending that I would /love/ to discuss.

So bad.

[Haar_Dragon]

I try not to get Worst Endings on my first run, though. I try to get Best Endings on my first run, which, if what I've read is true, only requires me to have less than 50 team-kills. Granted I don't know what happens therein, but hey.

Currently on Chapter 11. I think it's Map 2, but I wasn't paying that much attention. How many Chapters are in this game, out of curiosity?

The grinding, by the way...the lack of Promotion Exams makes grinding rather painful. I might not get back to this game for a while after I beat it. Even though I wouldn't really have to grind on a New Game +, it's still rather grating.

And yeah. Tier 3 Kunoichi is kinda badass. She dies quickly, but still, she does a lot of damage. And can put enemies to Sleep. Always a fan of Sleep.

[NebulaGregarZX]

Oh, that Worst Ending. Bah...

I'm going for the Best Ending, and it actually reset some of my grinding because I mis-aimed Laharl's newly-learned Meteor Impact and killed Etna, and I hadn't saved in a while because saving in the middle of grinding would take time and thinking, even if only a little, when it's all being dumped into getting EXP fast.

...Hm, yeah, the Promotion Exams were great. I used them to get my Angel up to level 20 in no time each time, letting her take on bigger foes like Blair Forest: Writhing Shadow's lone dragon to grind.

My to-do list is as follows:

-Get my Angel Transmigrated into a Crusader (4th Tier Angel class)
-Level her up to 100.
-Level up my Hero (Tier 5 Warrior) to 100, along with any other classes that unlock new tiers at 100.
-Level up Flonne, because she's lagging behind.
-Optional: Grind Kurtis, Gordon, Jennifer, and possibly even Thursday until they stop being useless.
-Transmigrate Flonne early, so she's back at normal levels when I recruit her on NG+.
-FINAL BOSS TIME!
-Transmigrate all characters (Except the Archer, ignore her).
-Go nuts.

[Haar_Dragon]

Which would be considered the Worst Ending in Disgaea 1, though? There's like four bad endings. The Normal Ending kinda sucks, too, by comparison to the Good End. There's the Kill Hoggmeiser End, the Kill Maderas End, the Item God End, the Dark Assembly End, and the Normal Ending. Which is the worst?! Oh, yeah, and the Mid-Boss Ending, but considering that's just a non-standard Game Over...yeah. I think the game is just like, "Damn, you suck...maybe if you had time to go through the levels again, you wouldn't suck so bad. Have a New Game + and get more levels before trying again."

The Mid-Boss Ending was my first... T_T He killed me in Blair Forest when I got ganged up on by his Gargoyle buddies.

That said...I still hate level-grinding. Just sayin'. And regarding Etna Mode? I started with Etna at level 73. She's now 86, for a measure of growth. The enemies started at Level 65. Twelve maps later, they're Level 150. So, in the time it takes for me to gain thirteen levels on my main character, the enemies get eighty-five. I really badly want to call horse-sh*t on that. I would be justified calling horse-sh*t, right? Etna is my strongest, and my weakest is a Level 48 Warrior named Dreck. It's just mind-numbing how over the course of twelve maps, I gain 13 levels and the enemies get 85. Eighty freaking five! Gah...

[Zeldaman2.0]

That's a secret. Although if you don't mind, once you get the best ending, I can tell you what happens. Or just link you to the video.

Pardon my ignorance, but what the heck are Promotion Exams? And back in the day, we didn't have all these neato features. All we had were SEBs and specific grinding maps. Which should be enough if you're equip grinding.

There's 13 chapters. You're close, don't falter now.

And the grinding issue is precisely why I don't crank up more units than I have to. Six at the maximum, thank you very much. Adell, a Skull, and up to four support units. In my current run, this is a Warrior, a Thief, a Kunoichi, and either a Cleric or someone else that I'm forgetting... In any case, five or six, compared to your eleven. I would also like to point out that my five are great at clearing maps, and the grinding stages are perfect for the small setups and the AoE techs that I have.

[Haar_Dragon]

Actually, after I reincarnated my Star Skull, I deleted the old Healer, so it's only 10: Adell, Rozalin, Yukimaru, Etna, Samurai, Ninja, Kunoichi, Star Mage, Healer, Thief.

The reason I use so many units is because I really like to try everything on a first run. It's easy to say I don't need Gunners, Sinners, or Heavy Knights because I don't need more than one Gun or Fist, and I don't like to bother with tanks because things generally take too long and get repetitive. The thing is, I have an inclination toward story characters, or at least Adell and Rozalin, since they're the main characters. But beyond that, I just like to try everything.

Promotion Exams were a thing way back in Disgaea 1. Basically, you fight monsters to unlock more things in Dark Assembly. In the first game, your options at the beginning were Senator List, Create Character, Delete Character, Change Name, and Raise Military Funds. Each Promotion Exam would unlock things like extra inventory in the shops, or hidden dungeons. I used it as a good way to level up to the point where grinding wouldn't be such a pain. You start at Rank 0, and at Rank 3, you get the Transmigrate option, which is just Reincarnating. As a result, I've done those so often that I have the first four memorized.

Only 13 this time? One less than the first game. I feel really underpowered, considering I'm at level 40-something with only two chapters to go...

[NebulaGregarZX]

Oh, we mean the infamous Worst Ending in Disgaea 2, not 1.

You... Edgar, you don't know what promotion exams are!? How completely logical that you wouldn't know everything about the features of a game you've never played! It feels just like when you said Majins were worthless: it's just different from game to game.

See, in Disgaea 1 and the remake, you had the Dark Assembly, which is how you pass bills and Transmigrate and stuff. But in order to unlock any features aside from creating/deleting/renaming units and trying to extort money from senators - never did that myself - you had to pass a Promotion Exam to increase your rank, unlocking new features. You had to be at least Rank 2 to unlock Transmigration. And each character addressing the assembly had an individual rank, which was reset upon Transmigration.

The Promotion Exams are single-map battles that the character being tested enter into with a fixed set of enemies - however, they ARE affected by Stronger Enemy bills - and they must fight alone. Win, and they get a rank up, keeping the EXP and Mana from the fight, but getting no additional prizes aside from the Rank-up. The character is fully healed following the match. Your character dies? Game over. Seriously. It's a d*ck move, but whatever. You cannot retake the earlier exams later.

They're the best way to grind up your Transmigrated characters, taking advantage of your improved equipment, increased base stats, and the stupid AI of earlier exam enemies letting themselves be led out and dealt with one-on-one. Plus, it's nice to already have the ranks needed to Transmigrate later or pass bills with your extra Mana.

In short, they're GREAT for early grinding.

Haar, you died to Mid-Boss? ...I hear a lot of people do. Mostly on the first battle with him, but I never lost to him, ever. I was always completely prepared for our matches. As for Etna Mode, the levels start out more reasonably if you aren't on New Game Plus.



EDIT: ...Dammit, Haar ninja'd me!

Oh, and Disgaea 3 only had EIGHT chapters. The fourth game made sure to make fun of that.

[Haar_Dragon]

Eight? ...I have a copy of Disgaea 3 sitting right under the case for 2. And I'm realizing that I could've beaten it twice by now. But hey.

Yeah, in Blair Forest. I actually curb-stomped him every other time I fought him, as well as when I went against him a second time in that map. Also, that plot-twist with him...I enjoy.

They start out more reasonably, yes. Question is, do they stay that way? And considering Etna mode is apparently only 3 Chapters long, I'm not sure it's really worth starting a new game to make it easier. Is it seriously only three chapters long?! Chapter 1: Super Dimensional Etna, Chapter 2: Space Detective Etna, and Finale: Chronicles of Etnarnia. Seriously...?

[NebulaGregarZX]

Well, in Disgaea 3, they increased the number of generic classes, and made even more opposite-gender versions, so that could slow you down... Plus it might just be a harsher difficulty curve. Disgaea D2 had eleven chapters, if I recall correctly. I won't spoil the number of chapters in Disgaea 4, though.

Same deal with Axel Mode in Dark Hero Days. They're basically the same, except that Etna Mode is more interesting, and non-canon.

[Haar_Dragon]

It could slow me down, but I can always Transmigrate/Reincarnate/whatever they call it in that game, and get classes that I care about more. All I know is I'll probably have one axe, one fist, one gun, maybe a bow, and everything else will be swords or monsters, because I don't like spears.

Ehhh, Etna mode really isn't that interesting, though. I do like how she plays off of Vyers when Laharl isn't present, but beyond that...ehhh.

[NebulaGregarZX]

What I saw from Axel Mode was just boring. One chapter is a reference to Asagi and Makai Wars, and you get an Angel party member, but for the most part, it wasn't very interesting. They even changed voice actors for certain characters in that mode, but not for the rest of Dark Hero Days. While this makes me like the remake as a whole better - without having played it, mind you - it makes the chapter stick out and look stupid.

[Haar_Dragon]

Isn't there that one class that you unlock by getting them as a story character in Axel Mode and then suddenly they're unlocked in the main game? I know you get a female Samurai by having an Afternoon of Darkness save file on the same memory card.

[Zeldaman2.0]

Yeah, unless Majins in Disgaea 2 get a bunch more move speed at higher ranks, fuck that ice. I'll keep my Warrior's higher aptitudes anyway, thank you very much. And that actually sounds like an interesting DA system, but isn't one of the bad Disgaea 1 endings over-using the DA, anyway?

I remember seeing a while back that Adell's DLC character thing in Disgaea 3 was that he didn't like being a farmer and was "super low leveled, what the hell level was your final boss anyway?!" according to Mao. But he had such a good scene if you played another characters DLC unlock right before it.... Heehee.

And Haar, you're seriously using Etna? *sigh* That's a character I never used. Like ever. Her being at Level 1 was just too much for me, and a Spear/Gun user? No thank you. If the Healer was a Pupil to the Mage, you could consolidate roles, and if you forgo Etna, Yuki, and Roz that's four characters worth of exp. you don't have to share.

And like I said, 9-2 is where you'll be. Grab some grinding tunes (I can supply you with a list of nearly any genre, if you need it), level out some IW gear first if you need to, and then just plow through it over and over, cranking up the SEBs once your characters are able to sufficiently kill the enemies without a problem. You'll need to level the enemies back down, too, but eh.

And for "post-game" content, there's nothing really spectacular. Some bosses, LoC, and Dark World but that's it. Nothing super new except SEVERAL new ways to get non-standard Game Overs.

[NebulaGregarZX]

As I said, in the first game, they had the BEST movement and aptitudes. Even not having unlocked them, I associate them with being unnecessarily badass, absurdly strong, and basically better than any other class at everything.

You get that ending by using force to persuade them too much. Just using the Dark Assembly normally wouldn't do anything. Plus, using Persuade by Force is hard. Either you need to put into play an over-complicated strategy to bride the strongest monsters to your side and throw the dangerous ones you can't handle into them to merge them into one monster on your side, or you have to have levels in excess of 200. It's a New Game Plus kinda ending, like the one in Disgaea 2 that happens when you beat a certain level 2000 boss. Funny, there's nothing special if you beat the level 75 Baals in the first game, you just skip the cutscene afterwards.

[Haar_Dragon]

Actually, after using 9-2 for a while, I went to Cave of Ordeals 1 and had a much easier time of it.

Etna being Level 1 was too much? But Reincarnating would put any character back at Level 1...and besides, I don't have another effective Spear user.

Butbutbut I like using Rozalin. If I'm gonna use guns, she's my best option by far. And like I said, she's a main character. I use main characters, regardless of how good they are. Even though she is definitely underleveled. The Healer was not a pupil to the Mage. The Healer is the Fire Skull you start the game with. I gave him a couple of Pupils in the form of a Wind and Ice Skull, then made him a Star Skull when I could (and deleted the other Skulls), and decided that he'd be more useful as a Healer, plus he already knew Fire, Mega Fire, Ice, Wind, Star, and Mega Star. So now I have a Healer who can actually kill things. And I deleted the original Healer. If my Healer was a Pupil to the Mage, or vice-versa, I wouldn't bother using both of them.

It's probably unnecessary to have both a Ninja and a Kunoichi, AND Yukimaru, but y'know what? Don't care. I like my party how it is, and levels aren't really a problem any more, at least not at the moment. The only thing I really have a problem with is my Samurai. 4 Move on a frontliner? Really? It's so mismatched compared to my Thief, who has 6 Move, a Bow, and Raiden Missile, and using those can do comparable damage.

Beyond that, though, I like what I have.

[Zeldaman2.0]

Wait... 2000? He was 1200 for me. Are you talking about the Ch. 1 NG+ one that throws a fit about losing?

Wow, on the CoO1 stage already? Nicely done. I suspect haxx, but nicely done XD

That's just it. I didn't Reincarnate until my second cycle. Either that, or it was like once or /maybe/ twice midway through. I dunno. The point is I prefer Tier 1, high level characters on my initial cycle and then I go Tier grinding afterwards.

She's actually a great mage too, but I never gave her spells for whatever reason. Hell, that's actually not a bad idea: give her a staff, some pupils, and then use /that/ to let me level her up properly... GENIUS.

And it's fine to have all of those units, I just don't like having so many people to level up on a constant basis. I'll probably also be playing the Dark Hero Days version next time I get around to Disgaea 2 as well...

And it's a solid team, like I said.

[Maverick Entity]

Sigh, I really need to do something other than slug through Modern Military Shooter campaigns that flat out suck. I am sorry, but what is with the trend of killing off almost the entire squad in these games, along with always killing off the badass Russian during a prison break?

[NebulaGregarZX]

See, Edgar, you may know how to grind efficiently... but I have the patience to grind all I need to. I would've taken Etna and made sure she was up to speed, and made her a major fighter, for the same reasons as Haar: I like to use main characters. Though giving her an axe creates a nice blend between her specials and the weapon's specials, I give her a spear. Because that's her weapon of choice, and it's not bad on her. I would use Rozalin, and she would shoot the hell out of my enemies.

I don't recall, and that's not who I mean. I mean an EARLIER boss, but very much related to him. In this ending, the game stops just because Adell gets fed up with a title he inherits. In less than a minute. Also in the case of the boss you're referring to, they kinda dropped the ball on dubbing...

As for Maverick... well, I dunno. I guess they're trying to be shocking. Seeing your team get slaughtered at the end is supposed to be shocking. But my guess is that somebody did it, got everybody talking about how shocking and awesome it was that they had the guts to do that, then EVERYBODY decided to do the same for their campaigns. And the badass Russians are too cool to live, I guess. If they live too long, they'll become the most popular, and they'll have a breakout character on their hands that they'll include as DLC in the next game or something for the extra money, then people will complain when they fail to do 'em justice...

[Haar_Dragon]

Cave of Ordeals 1 isn't hard at all. It's 8 Level 60 Archers on Geo Panels. Get rid of two of them, get rid of the Geo Symbol, and all you're left dealing with is Archers. And Archers suck. No hax involved, this time. I did lose Adell and my Mage on the first run, though...it was sad. I made sure to only lose Rozalin the second time around. 

[Maverick Entity]

Finished the game before midnight, and I decided that rather than choose either of my two squadmates to go off and die (They placed only one charge on a ship and brought one detonator?), I would just watch the US aircraft carrier get blown up.

One part that struck me as ARRGH! is when you are supposed to be fighting Russians, but all DICE did was put Russian Accents over the Chinese soldier voices. I mean, every single body I checked had PLA patches on, even when I was in an area covered with Russian flags. That is Call of Duty-level lazy...

That is 2 for 3 games I have for my ps4. Not even going to touch multiplayer.

[NebulaGregarZX]

Hang in there: remember, you've got KHIII to look forward to. And it's not an 'in maybe five to eight years' thing anymore, I give it three years max before development finishes or we at least get more significant information.

...It's kinda funny, huh? The PS2 has an extensive library, and is actually kinda better than the PS3 because of it. And the PS3, while not as impressive as PS2 in that regard, still has many more titles than the PS4, partially because of the ability to purchase emulated PS2 games and HD remakes - also both Tales of Symphonia games, from the GC and Wii respectively - and partially because the PS4 is still new enough that people develop games for the PS3 instead half of the time.

I might, given the choice, just get a PS3 instead of a PS4. I'll be late to the party for KHIII, but that's nothing new; I've been late from day one. The only games I got immediately upon release were Re:coded and 3D. I'd rather be able to enjoy the updated ReMIX versions of the other games, and all the other cool stuff that can be played on a PS3.

[Zeldaman2.0]

OH. /That/ boss. Ahahaha. Yeah. Funny thing is. He actually IS the title he receives. :3 I mean, it kind of makes sense, given this and that, but I'm sure you've already figured that out by now, right?

And really? Only level 60, eh? Hmmmm... I didn't realize they were that low of a level. And... wait, you're blowing up the geo panels?! Those boost Exp, man! By kind of a lot! I'm fairly certain they do anyway...

[khfreak358]

I'll be honest, Nebula, given the fact that KH3 is going to be multi platform, there's a very strong chance I'll be getting an XBox One before a PS4 if only for one reason: Killer Instinct. I need that game in my life. Badly.

[Haar_Dragon]

*shakes head at khfreak* Dude...when someone takes an Xbox One over a PS4, it's a sad day...however little the PS4 might have, that other thing will have even less. Microsoft isn't exactly well-known for version exclusive content. Even the exclusive Metal Gear Solid V mission for that version is confirmed to be nothing more than a non-canon "crack fiction" (not my words).

No, the EXP ones aren't on the panels. The ones that are include ATK +50%, DEF +50%, Attacks +1, and I think the last one is Recovery 20%. The two EXP symbols are just sitting beside the panels. It is 50% apiece, but to be perfectly honest, I didn't use them anyway.

[Zeldaman2.0]

Huh... For some reason I thought that you meant you blew up the EXP panels. Whoops. In any case though, I'll probably play Dark Hero Days next time I get around to playing this game, if only for Axel Mode.

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