History VideoGame / Disgaea2CursedMemories

Joining Adell are his two younger siblings, Taro and Hanako; Tink, Rozalin's childhood friend who has been {{Baleful Polymorph}}ed into a frog; and Yukimaru, a {{ninja}} girl who seeks revenge against Overlord Zenon for wiping out her clan, [[VerbalTic zam]].

* BalefulPolymorph:
** An area-wide version of this forms the premise for the story. In the game, the Dark Sun in the Dark World sometimes has the ability to turn a character into a monster.
** Tink is a victim of this, being turned into a demonic frog. In the good ending, he is eventually returned to normal as a bishonen butler.

* SerialEscalation: The original ''Disgaea 2'' has a way of constantly making each challenge worse than the last. Starting from the first fight with Axel culminating in the BonusBoss Baal, but every time each battle not only gets consistently harder, geo effects are played with, enemy equipment is pushed to its limits, and eventually stats are just ridiculously allocated on the enemies. It finally gets UpToEleven when Pringer X is introduced on the port "Disgaea 2 Dark Hero Days" as a boss who is just overall ridiculously difficult, but even after winning, the player is forced to refight '''8''' of him with maxed-out stats in every category, or the battle doesn't count in the dark record.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The PSP version of ''Disgaea 2'' is looking to beat ''Disgaea 3'' in this aspect. Alongside the returning playable characters, the optional bosses that were originally not playable in the original in the [=PS2=] version are now playable, many of whom became DLC in ''Disgaea 3''. Additional bosses have been added, including Mao, Raspberyl, and Mr. Champloo from ''Disgaea 3'' as well as the ''Disgaea 3'' version of Asagi, all of them playable. And if that wasn't enough, ''Disgaea 2'' is also getting DownloadableContent.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Inverted with Rozalin's father in the manga adaptation. He's still a fairly evil individual, but he's also been rounded off a little, [[spoiler:and while his game counterpart never cared about his foster daughter at all, Fake Zenon ultimately grew to love Rozalin in his own way.]]

** Etna when she loses her levels; also, a nice LaserGuidedKarma in favor of the prinnies.

* ACupAngst: Hanako wants to try hard to ''undo'' her [[BuffySpeak un-bustiness]] despite being, you know, ''9.''

[[spoiler:cue TheBigDamnKiss]]
* {{Bishonen}}: [[spoiler:Tink, before becoming a frog.]]

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The English audio of [[spoiler:the worst ending]] was heavily censored in the US version, resulting in a severely [[ThatCameOutWrong butchered]] impression. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02XfTf874YY Here's the real thing]].

* TheFettered: Adell and his many oaths.

* FridgeBrilliance: Rozalin's repeated remarks about the futility of fighting and the foolishness of Adell's wanting to solve things with his fists seems to stem from her being a spoiled princess who's never had to fight for anything in her life. [[spoiler:Then you find out that she reincarnated specifically because she was tired of all the fighting she had done. When she says fighting is futile, she's speaking from experience.]]

Unfortunately the summoning ritual ends up conjuring Rozalin, Zenon's daughter. Having accidentally kidnapped the only daughter of the most powerful Overlord in existence, it's a race for Adell to return Rozalin to Zenon before he tears the world apart looking for her. It's a shame that Rozalin is so sheltered that [[UpperClassTwit she has no idea where her father actually lives]]. Meanwhile, [[VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Etna]] has decided to strike out on her own and is gunning for the title of God of All Overlords that Zenon possesses.

* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Adell fixes the (un){{HeroicBSOD}}ing Rozalin with a quick smooch.]]

* AnotherSideAnotherStory: Much like Etna Mode in the handheld ports of the first ''Disgaea'' and the downloadable Raspberyl chapters in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 3| Absence of Justice}}'', Axel gets his own story.
** While Etna Mode was an AlternateUniverse, Axel's Dark Hero Days actually tell of what he did just before the plot. (In the post-game, the people who joined him can join Adell)

** ''Disgaea 2'' was the first Creator/NipponIchi game to introduce the option turn off skill animations. All prior games lacked this option. Naturally, this was great for grinding or when going through the skill animations tiring.
** ''Disgaea 2'' was also one of the first few Nippon Ichi games to introduce a proper dual language option, allowing players who prefer Japanese or English voices to stick with their preferred option. In previous Nippon Ichi games[note]Minus ''VideoGame/LaPucelle''[/note], while players could switch between Japanese or English tracks for the cut scenes, they were stuck with only the English track when they went into battle. Since then, all other Nippon Ichi games included both language tracks in their entirety, if available.

** While there were plenty of optional fights against returning characters, only five of those characters were recruitable in the original game and three of them could only be used in the Land of Carnage (Axel, Fubuki, and Kurtis). ''Dark Hero Days'' allows the player to recruit the rest of those returning characters on top of adding new playable characters and even more could be recruited via DLC.
** While Cave of Ordeals 4 was the best PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling in the game, it was hampered by the weird enemy placement that no skill in the game was capable of covering. Even the best AreaOfEffect skills would leave at least two enemies standing. That is until players discovered in ''Dark Hero Days'' that the now playable Zetta's Zetta Beam could actually hit every enemy. The best part was that thanks to Magichange 2[note]a new type of magichange added to ''Dark Hero Days'' that fuses a monster with an already magichanged monster. This grants the humanoid character access to the unique skills of the monster being fused[/note], any humanoid character can temporarily use Zetta Beam and the monster Zetta was magichanged to also gains the same amount of EXP and Mana from enemies killed with the attack. Needless to say, this made grinding Cave of Ordeals 4 significantly easier.

** While ''Dark Hero Days'' had DLC, it was plagued with bugs upon it's intial release. While they were eventually fixed, the characters no longer had battle voices and three of them (Gig, Dark Eclair, and Miabelle) were cut. ''Disgaea 2 PC'' fixed that, restoring the voices and the cut characters.

** ''Disgaea 2'' was the first NipponIchi game to introduce the option turn off skill animations. All prior games lacked this option. Naturally, this was great for grinding or when going through the skill animations tiring.
** ''Disgaea 2'' was also the first game to introduce a proper dual language option, allowing players who prefer Japanese or English voices to stick with their preferred option. In previous Nippon Ichi games, while players could switch between Japanese or English tracks for the cut scenes, they were stuck with only the English track when they went into battle.
** In the PS2 version, while characters could obtain a maximum felony count of 300, only 99 of them were shown. This meant that players had to memorize or take notes on all felonies obtained after the initial 99. In ''Dark Hero Days'', character menus now include a maximum felony counter, removing that hassle.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: The PSP UpdatedRerelease, ''Dark Hero Days'', ended up fixing most of the issues from the original PS2 game.
** In the PS2 version, while characters could obtain maximum felony count of 300, only 99 of them were shown. This meant that players had to memorize or take notes on all felonies obtained after the initial 99. In ''Dark Hero Days'', character menus now include a maximum felony counter, removing that hassle.
** While there were plenty of optional fights against returning characters, only five of those characters were recruitable in the original game and three of them could only be used in the Land of Carnage (Axel, Fubuki, and Kurtis). ''Dark Hero Days'' allows the player to recruit the rest of those returning characters on top of adding new playable characters and even more recruitables via DLC.
** While Cave of Ordeals 4 was the best PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling in the game, it was hampered by the weird enemy placement that no skill in the game was capable of covering. Even the best AreaOfEffect skills would leave two enemies standing. That is until players discovered in ''Dark Hero Days'' that the now playable Zetta's Zetta Beam could actually hit every enemy. The best part was that thanks to Magichange 2, any humanoid character can temporarily Zetta Beam and the monster Zetta was magichanged also gains the same amount of EXP from enemies killed with the attack. Needless to say, this made grinding Cave of Ordeals 4 significantly easier.
* AshFace: near the beginning, when Rozalin is plotting about how to get rid of Adell, a prinny sneaks up behind her a blows her up with a bomb.

* EarnYourBadEnding: The worst ending, which is... infamous, to say the least.

* HeadTurningBeauty: Rozalin. She even boosts the stats of adjacent male characters in an aversion of GameplayAndStorySegregation.

* HelloNurse: Rozalin. She even boosts the stats of adjacent male characters in an aversion of GameplayAndStorySegregation.

* RefugeInAudacity: In-Universe, the judge of the Dark Court will praise you for your moxy if you send someone else or a tower of multiple people to stand trial.

* VerbalTic: Yukimaru, zam. [[MostAnnoyingSound All the freaking time, zam.]] Even gets other characters doing it, zam.
** It makes more sense in Japanese. What she does is add "de gozaru" at the end of every sentence, which is an archaic way of speaking and often crops up with jidaigeki involving ninjas.

* ExactWords: Rozalin is bound to Adell by the strict terms of a summoning ritual.
** Also, the terms of the ritual was [[spoiler:to summon Zenon. They thought it screwed up and summoned "his daughter" instead]]. [[spoiler:Noooo....it did '''''exactly''''' what it was supposed to.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When you first meet the Prism Rangers, Prism Red says that [[spoiler:his demon detector says that Adell is a demon]]. Everyone says that it must be broken. [[spoiler:It isn't.]]
** A subtler one is the fact that [[spoiler:Adell's ears are covered by his hair, making it impossible for the player to tell if he's human or demon. It did make it easy for the player to initially believe that Adell was the only human left on Veldime]].
*** [[spoiler:Although, WordOfGod states that he has rounded ears due to a genetic deformity.]]
** There's another one halfway through the game where Rozalin says [[spoiler:"...do you suppose he (the real Zenon) may have been tricked by the faker and is imprisoned somewhere...?"]]

** Of course, as mentioned under ExactWords: [[spoiler:Mom cast a spell to summon Overlord Zenon. They got Rozalin.]]

* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler:Fake Zenon in the manga adaptation. Although taking Rozalin in as his daughter was still part of his revenge on the real Overlord Zenon, it's hinted several times during the final volume that he does actually care for Rozalin, especially during his death when he [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments fondly remembers all the gifts he sent to Rozalin when she was still a child.]]]]

** In a more meta-example, [[spoiler:the level 1900 Zenon reincarnating as a noncombative young girl, who is indeed level 1 and completely clueless about battle when the story starts.]]
* BadassNormal: Adell. [[spoiler:Subverted: he only thinks he's a human, which brings up the question of how much of his power stems from his heritage rather than his training.]]

* BrilliantButLazy: Adell is entirely capable of being intelligent, as he demonstrates with the InevitableTournament's ungodly complicated geopuzzle and his status as the group's OnlySaneMan, but usually turns his brain off because solving everything by punching the crap out of it is generally easier -- and [[BloodKnight more fun.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: It still has much of the humour and wackiness that the first ''Disgaea'' enjoyed, but the story and characters take things a bit more seriously this time around. Take the opening sequence, for example -- ''Disgaea'' involved Etna shooting Laharl to wake him up and casually telling him his dad died during his two-year nap, this game begins with a summoning ritual so TheHero can kill the BigBad and stop a curse that's transforming the village into demons.

* DisproportionateRetribution: The cause of the entire plot. [[spoiler:Fake Zenon loses a fight to Real Zenon (and somehow doesn't die). As revenge, Fake Zenon initiates [[ComplexityAddiction an incredibly complicated plan]] that involves tracking down and kidnapping the innocent reincarnation of Real Zenon, then raising her as an air-headed, pompous fool. It's so crazy that it actually works, at least until Adell starts [[PullTheThread pulling the thread]]]].

* DownloadableContent: [[UpdatedRerelease Dark Hero Days]] added in a number of downloadable characters and the PC Port included them as part of the purchase, including the formerly Japan Only Gig, Dark Eclair and Miabelle.

* EarnYourBadEnding: The worst ending, which is.....infamous to say the least.

** Also, the terms of the ritual was [[spoiler:to summon Zenon. They thought it screwed up and summoned "his daughter" instead. Noooo....it did exactly what it was supposed to.]]

** Design-wise, Rozalin bears a lot of resemblance to [[VideoGame/RhapsodyAMusicalAdventure Etoile Rosenqueen]], both of them being the LonelyRichKid who hides MoreDakka under a PimpedOutDress. Motivation and personality wise though, they're very different.

** A subtler one is the fact that [[spoiler:Adell's ears are covered by his hair, making it impossible for the player to tell if he's human or demon. It did make it easy for the player to initially believe that Adell was the only human left on Veldime.]]

** Rozalin and Adell start out hating each other, and this is reflected by the fact that as the game begins they only have a 1% chance of engaging in a Team Attack together. As the story progresses and they grow closer, this slowly climbs to 99%. If you get DLC Almaz and Sapphire for ''Dark Hero Days'', they too have a 99% chance of team attacking, due to them [[spoiler:being married by the end of ''Disgaea 3'']].

* HostileShowTakeover: After playing through the game a bit, various secondary characters will send proposals to the Dark Assembly to become the Main Character. If the proposal is passed -- and there's usually a very good chance of it happening -- a NonstandardGameOver is triggered (you get a cool item if you defeat it).

* IdolSinger: Axel has his own rock band -- and film crew!

* InsultBackfire: Any derogatory statement about Mom's lack of conscience will invariably be met with, "Damn straight, I don't -- Zenon took it. Now either go kick his ass or shut your trap."

* KillTheLights: The ultimate skill of the [[HornyDevils Succubus]] class is called 'Nightmare', and it involves surrounding the enemy with darkness and launch an unseen beatdown.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The PSP version of ''Disgaea 2'' is looking to beat ''Disgaea 3'' in this aspect. Alongside the returning playable characters, the optional bosses that were originally not playable in the original in the [=PS2=] version are now playable, many of whom became DLC in ''Disgaea 3''. Additional bosses have been added, including Mao, Raspberyl, and Mr. Champloo from ''Disgaea 3'' as well as the ''Disgaea 3'' version of Asagi, all of them playable. And if that wasn't enough, Disgaea 2 is also getting DownloadableContent.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: When the game generates a random name for a character, one possibile outcome is '''Deathsatan'''.

* NowBuyTheMerchandise: In ''Dark Hero Days'', Aramis, Badman, and Mao all shill the Dark Council for ''VideoGame/PrinnyCanIReallyBeTheHero, VideoGame/WhatDidIDoToDeserveThisMyLord'' (and its sequel), and ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' respectively. Amusingly, their petitions that you watch their commercials always have 100% approval and will pass even if you cheat to make the Council vote no. It's a great way to get items, though.

* PowerFist: Lots of classes use unarmed strikes with weaponry -- and Adell, of course.

* RageQuit: If you manage to [[spoiler: beat Laharl in either the 'pick a fight with an Overlord' side mission or in the first phase of his HopelessBossFight in the later chapters, he'll respond this way by ''blowing up the planet''. This unlocks one of the bad endings of the game.]]

* {{Seppuku}}: Yukimaru is a little too eager to commit suicide after 1) your group defeats her and 2) the odds against surviving an encounter with the [[spoiler:fake]] Overlord Zenon don't look good. Adell has to talk her out of it both times.
* SerialEscalation: The original ''Disgaea 2'' has a way of constantly making each challenge worse than the last. Starting from the first fight with Axel culminating in the BonusBoss Baal, but every time each battle not only gets consistently harder, geo effects are played with, enemy equipment is pushed to its limits, and eventually stats are just ridiculously allocated on the enemies. It finally gets UpToEleven when Pringer X is introduced on the port "Disgaea 2 Dark Hero Days" as a boss who is just overall ridiculously difficult, but even after winning, the player is forced to refight '''8''' of him with maxed out stats in every category, or the battle doesn't count in the dark record.

* ShoutOut: [[ShoutOut/{{Disgaea}} Has its own page]].
* SoundOnlyDeath: [[spoiler:The Worst Ending has a post-credits sound-only epilogue where you can hear Hanako trying to reason with the now possessed Adell. It gets worse from there when in the Japanese audio you can hear Adell kill both Hanako and Taro, then eat them, complete with the gory sound of their flesh being torn apart.]]

* ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: Adell's justification for why he solves most of his problems by [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer punching their source to dust]] even though [[BrilliantButLazy he's actually pretty smart]]: beating the crap out of things IS the most efficient solution. A short look at the entire series makes it hard to disagree.
** Given that the game takes place primarily in the demon world, and demons are expected to solve all their problems with violence, it seem's like adjusting to the environment.

Unfortunately the summoning ritual ends up conjuring Rozalin, Zenon's SpoiledSweet daughter. Having accidentally kidnapped the only daughter of the most powerful Overlord in existence, it's a race for Adell to return Rozalin to Zenon before he tears the world apart looking for her. It's a shame that Rozalin is so sheltered that [[UpperClassTwit she has no idea where her father actually lives]]. Meanwhile, [[VideoGame/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Etna]] has decided to strike out on her own and is gunning for the title of God of All Overlords that Zenon possesses.

* DownloadableContent: So far, [[UpdatedRerelease Dark Hero Days]] will let you recruit...
** [[VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters Gig]] ([[NoExportForYou Japan only]] due to glitches that occurred when he was downloaded)

** [[VideoGame/LaPucelle Dark Eclair]] ([[NoExportForYou Japan only]])

** [[EarlyBirdCameo Miabelle]] from Nippon Ichi's then-upcoming game ''Hymn Princess of Antiphona'' ([[NoExportForYou Japan only]])

** All the above [=DLC=] characters that were exclusive to the Japanese version of Dark Hero Days will finally be available in the west in the PC re-release.