Disgaea 4, Of promises and non sparkly Vampires

Name:  Disgaea 4, A Promise Unforgotten
Developer: Nippon Ichi
Year: 2011
Platform: Playstation 3
Genre: Role playing game, Strategy
Time Spent: 20/30 Hours on main game. 150+ Post game

Intro: Since I wrote about Prinnies a short while ago I decided I should also write about the latest Disgaea installment. This is the 4 Disgaea title, not counting the remakes or spin of like can I be the Hero Dood. I don't own this game yet. But my friend Belsammael was so nice to borrow it to me for a while. Thanks to him I put hours into a useless hobby instead of doing what every responsible person should do. But I think every gamer can concur with this *wink*

Story: The story starts with Valvatorez, a NON sparkly vampire. And a weak one at that. Although being one of the most powerful beings in the universe before he lost his power due to a promise. It involved him not drinking blood till a certain event has passes which unfortunately took longer then expected. Because of his weakness he is banished to the lower parts of the netherworld to be a lowly prinny instructor. The most suckiest job you can have. Valvatorez regains his energy though... due to the power of... SARDINES! Yes you read that correctly. After learning that the higher demons make a mess of the Netherworld and rule without honour he sets out on a journey to make the Netherworld right again, and teach everyone about sardines.

In his journey he is accompanied by his servant Fenrich, a werewolf in leather pants. Fenrich is quite shrewd and tries to let his master drink blood again on certain occasions to make him stronger again. Whatever he does, apparently all is for his lord. Later on this party is joined by Death Emizel, a mage and a son of the current president of the netherworld. Fuka, a human who died and got turned into a half prinny (due to a shortage on prinny skin) who denies this fact and keeps saying this is all a dream. Desco, the ultimate final boss and little sis of Fuka for some odd reason. And Vulcanus, a female angel who is keen on money and hides lots of secrets. Some characters from old instalments also return. Together they set out towards the president to set things straight.

From Left to Right: Desco, Axel, Fenrich, Valvatorez, Emizel, Fuka and Vulcanus

Gameplay: Gameplay is roughly the same as all the other Disgaea games so far. You start out with story characters with certain abilities, although you can create your own custom characters to battle for you. Every character has its forte. One being able to wield swords and axes, the other able to shoot arrows or heal. You also have monsters with their own unique attacks.
With these characters you set out and start on the next map in the story. A looks a bit like a giant chess board. Lots of squares where you can play characters on. You start in the base panel where you can summon characters to do battle and move towards the enemy. You can summon 10 characters per battle, but you can make more characters so you can adapt to every situation.
Disgaea 4 also brings back the geo blocks. These blocks give a certain effect to the area they are standing on. These might include bonuses for both parties such as attack +50%. But they can also obtain effects for ally or enemy only. There are even weird affects such as warp, clone and deathblow.
Besides these things you also have the campaign board where you can power characters up, unlock bills for stronger items or create new characters. On this board you can place buildings with have a beneficial effect to every party member adjacent to it. They might get more experience or mana. If you give it some effort you can even unlock magichange ( which changes your monster into a very strong weapon), Fusion (which fuses 2 monsters together for a huge and strong monster) or even the combined force of these things. Try to unlock everything!.
Last but not last. If you don't like giving a game a lot of effort, the main game can be played without too much trouble, although it might need more grinding than the last few games. Once you start post game content you need to start on all advanced things to even try to win a map.

Audio/Visual: A huge increase from the last installment are the graphics. For a Disgaea game this might sound strange since you work with sprites usually and the skits are mostly just moving 2d pictures. However, background, home base AND the sprites got a huge upgrade from the last game. If you want to see the difference, you can turn HD off in the settings to see how it looked before.
The music in the game hasn't changed much from the last game. You usually hear some themed music that fits a stage. The theme music for your home base once again is annoying as hell after 10 minutes but secretly it makes you laugh. It keeps fitting the Disgaea theme and that's what counts.

Verdict: I really like games that keep me busy. Even if there is not story to to keep your attention. Whatever you do, this game makes sure that you always have a new goal to work towards. It is a shame I had to give this copy back to my friend otherwise I would still be playing and optimizing my characters.
Gameplay:

Solid gameplay with new improvements, although the main game got more challenging it is still doable.
Story:

Not the best story in the Disgaea series but overall this made more sence than the last instalment.

Audio/ Visuals:

An increase from the last game, not as mindblowing as games are these days, but good enough nonetheless.


Fun Facts: Disgaea 4...
... breaks the 4th wall, constanly talking about this game and the player.
... 's Fuka gives other characters nicknames such as Valzy and Fenfen.
... returns Flonne to us. Now as a full fledged ARCHANGEL!!!
... 's Asagi didn't get the memo about being HD now, thus her sprite is always bad quality, you can fix
    this by downloading the HD sprite from PS store for free ;)
... also returns Zetta as a playable character, now as a NON book.
... 's Fuka and Desco get their own show, named (very original) The Fuka and Desco show.

Prinny, Explosion slaves DOOD

Name:  Prinny, Slaves, Vassal
Game: Disgaea series, Makai Kingdom
First appeared: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Alignment: Differs per prinny, but normally it is chaotic neutral
Powers: Explosive power when thrown, bag of holding which stores knives bombs and other stuff
Age: None, they are reborn souls


Intro: A couple weeks ago I roughly finished Disgaea 4, meaning I finished the storyline and obtained most of the strongest items (Trapezohedron lvl 300 et all) and finished most bosses. What surprised me is that prinnies have a greater role in this game than the last few games (excluding the psp titles). After that I got reminded of how important these little fellows are and Uniflame urged me to review these fellah's


Background: So, what exactly is a prinny? Prinnies are disformed penguin's as you might see. Although they resemble a pinguin they are blue instead of black. They have no feet but walk on wooden legs instead, much like a pirate. They always carry a small hip bag where they store several weapons. Although the bag is small, it can fit large items so it seems their bags are hammerspace. Prinnies are also know for their trademark of saying DOOD (pronounced, dude) in every sentene. This is a rule apparently but it is never explained WHY they need to say that. You might also noticed that they have several stitches. That's because prinnies are actually souls, mostly of humans, who commited crimes. Thus they are sent to Hades to pay for their crimes. They are put into these prinny suits and have to work in heaven or hell to pay of their sins. Once done, they rise out of their suits to go to heaven.

Powers: Prinnies are a monster class, and unfortunately they are the weakest monsters in the game. However they have several abilities that might make them into a powerfull ally anyways. First of all, prinny suits contain human souls. This is very compressed so the energy is unstable. If you throw them... they explode. Everything that is in a radius of 2 squares gets damage equal to the HP of the prinny. If there is a prinny in that radius... he explodes too, regardless of his HP. This can lead to a huge chain reaction. Prinnies carry several weapons in the bag of holding. They usually attack with 2 small daggers for fast staggering attacks, even capable of creating wind slashes due to the speed. They usually also carry small to huge bombs for obvious reasons. Next to that they get to keep 1 personally item from their past life which is usually portraited as a weird formed skull. This item keeps energy stored from which a prinny can fire a laser around him. Several unique prinnies such as Kurtis have their own attacks due to them being superhuman in their past life. Tyrant overlord baal even becomes stronger once he turned into a prinny due to the fact that the energy is compressed into a smaller form.


Personality: Prinnies are vassals, or slaves. And thus do their masters bidding. If a demon has a prinny slaves it has to do evil stuff, or laundry. If an angel has a prinny slave it has to do good deeds... or more laundry. Prinnies seldom keep the personality of their past life, except if they were extreme such as kurtis or Baal. Or, if they run out of suits, something else is created which defeats the means of really becoming a prinny like Fuka from Disgaea 4. Although they are considered neutral, they are by all means chaotic and do everything to accomplish their goals, thus the chaotic part.

Fun Facts: Prinnies...
... explode... I said it several times. But it is just so fun to watch these little buggers blow
... are usually cowards, since they know their weaknesses well. They rather not fight.
... can become quite strong. They are the leaders of the infamous Land of Carnage.
... can reject their fate if strong enough and rebel. They will stay a prinny this way though.
... come in all sorts of colours. Kurtis is green, momma prinny is pink and prinny gods are yellow

The Dark Adonis... VYERS!.. or just Midboss

BE WARNED FOR SPOILERS!

Name: Vyers, Dark Adonis, Midboss, King Krichevskoy
Game: Disgaea
First appeared: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Alignment: Evil/proud/chaotic
Powers: Awesome looks, speaking french, reincarnation
Age: Unknown, way too old

Last weeks character review gave me some nice comments on Twitter and Facebook. The first request for a character is non other than our favourite Midboss... Midboss! This character is ridiculed in practically every Disgaea game, but carries a huge secret. And he is quite strong too.

Vyers, or Midboss is first seen in Disgaea 1 in his own Castle, Vyers Castle. It is overrun by Laharl, the protagonist who needs more money to become the new overlord. Upon meeting Vyers, the Dark Adonis (self proclaimed), Laharl gets bored by his long French tainted speech and just names him Midboss. Offended, he attacks, but even after battle the name sticks. It even carries over to the other Disgaea games. For some odd reason people keep calling him Midboss, even if they don't know the background story.

Although he doesn't always show it, Midboss is quite strong. Kicks are his forte, and he gives them in style, posing before he attacks. Midboss is also quite faste, begin able to create multiple copies of himself with his speed. He uses this to launch several attacks such as Adonic Buster or Super Adonis.
Even though he packs quite a punch, he adjusts his level to that of the opponent, giving them a fair chance. If he starts to lose though, he usually leaves with an excuse such as severe stomach aches. Sounds like Hercule to me.

Midboss is a strange rival nonetheless. He always shows up right before an important part of the story, challenging the main character to test their resolve. If they start to win... he leaves again with an excuse. However, right before he leaves, he always seems to help you with something. Strange rival if you ask me.
He also shows up in the strangest of places, knowing where you are. Stalker -_-. Places, though impossible to reach for demons are his to explore. How he does it is still a mystery.

The biggest mystery he hid is revealed though. It is implied that Midboss is actually Laharls dad, reincarnated. The story that has been told in the netherworld is that the king died, choking on a pretzel. He actually died while protecting his netherworld from Uber overlord Baal. The archangel allowed him to reincarnate though. In his new form, as Vyers, he watches over Laharl. He also works together with the Archangel several times to make sure the story unfolds.

Fun Facts! Midboss...
... is thus, in fact. Laharl's reincarnated Father.
... Although a demon, is good at hearth. He was able to wear Flonne's necklace without feeling pain or       anything related
... Should be somewhat around lvl 4000, being able to seal Overlord BAAL. Yet a Laharl from lvl 4 can       beat him.
... Magichanges into a sword in Disgaea 3!