Nippon Ichi (Disgaea, Makai Kingdom, etc.)

Oh, that reminds me.

The other day, I saw a cartoon starring a kid wearing a hat that's surprisingly similar to what the Skulls wear.

Weird that.

So they're still keeping the generics' cut-ins the same as D4, yet updating their sprites and main artwork entirely?

Not much to complain about, of course, but it's like Harada's celebrating Opposite Day or something.

Ah, right.

edited 7th Nov '14 9:48:01 PM by Demonfly

The artwork isn't new. It's been around since DD2.

However, the fact that they even got new art there instead of reusing the D2 art forever still amazes me.

Look again, Brawler is more of a beefcake then he was before.

So much for Fall release, but it's something.

Not sure why on earth they're delaying it that long.

It isn't going to sell that spectacularly regardless of release date, and there's very little text as far as I know.

They don't even have a release listed for this quarter, so they wouldn't be competing with themselves, either...

Hey look, new trailer! Introduces new characters Christo (glasses guy with the horns) and Zeroken (the mini Chef class/Champloo guy)

edited 20th Nov '14 8:27:31 AM by AkoSiKuya23

I'm not seeing anything that suggests Zero's a chef (unless you just wanted to make the comparison).

Also, a brief overview over some new characters and returning generics. Some of the more notable changes are that Archers now seem to be taking the effects of D4's Support Cannon for themselves, and Fairies appear to have replaced Ghosts entirely.

edited 20th Nov '14 12:40:16 PM by Demonfly

So I've been thinking on getting into this series, seeing as I love strategy RPG's (Fire Emblem, FFT series and such). Couple things I'd like to know.

• What platforms are they on? I have a PSP, 3DS and PS 3.
• What's the gameplay like? Combat, battle format, levelling, classes?
• I hear they're kinda hardcore. What's a good place to start?

There's been a few on the PS 3, so that's a good place to start.

Disgaea has some of the most ridiculously high caps I've ever seen in video games. Classes aren't that different from other RP Gs: There's warriors, mages, healers, thieves... new humanoid classes can be unlocked either by defeating them on the battlefield or by reaching specific levels with certain classes. What I like is that, aside from special bosses, you can also create any generic monster for your party after you beat one in the field.

Combat is a case of "Move all the characters, assign orders, execute orders, then give enemy their turn". Character deaths are easy to undo, just go to the hospital and pay for their revival. In fact, you can get prizes for enough hospital based healing.

I also recall seeing your post on the video game lessons thread about equipment: You get one slot for a weapon, and three other slots to allocate to whatever isn't a weapon. It doesn't make sense, but you can have your characters carry three shields, or three magic orbs, or three straightjackets, or a straightjacket, a magic orb and a shield...

I think the hardcore part is more the level grinding. Not only do you have a 9999 level cap, but you can also reset your characters back to level 1 and turn the previous levels into bonus stats at level 1, which means that they gain more stats back at the level cap. I think D2 or one of the PS Vita remakes would be a good place to start: They're quite friendly to newcomers, what with the cheatshop streamlining the grinding process and D2 streamlining the promoted classes system so you don't need to reset a character to have them learn new/better spells.

& Points I probably should have mentioned.

edited 3rd Dec '14 2:30:22 PM by ekimmak

Endgame content isn't really difficult, it's just a giant time sink. For the three games I've played so far by the time you get to the endgame content everything is a matter of oneshot or be oneshotted, meaning there's little strategy involved. So I'm not sure I'd consider Disgaea 'hardcore.'

edited 3rd Dec '14 2:19:41 PM by Arha

Also, the level cap may be 9999, but you'll probably be at just 100 by the time you get to the end of the main game (and thus, the bulk of the content). The rest is basically grinding for extras, which may or may not be worth it.

Another thing to note for Disgaea is that money is very rarely anything to worry about; you can easily recover from virtually any loss in currency with just a few appropriately leveled battles, especially in the post-game.

As for the systems, DD2 (also known as A Brighter Darkness) is the most recent (and not necessarily the most polished) title available to you, since nearly everything else has either been upgraded on the Vita or is heading to PS 4. It does have a pretty good reputation as an entry-level game, though, so that could be what you're looking for.

The best part about this is that you're often just better off having them carry three pairs of shoes.

edited 3rd Dec '14 3:45:52 PM by Demonfly

I remember having to worry about money in Hour of Darkness, but in every other game, I always had more cash than I knew what to do with. So yeah.

DD 2 felt less one-shotty than the other games in the postgame. I was even surviving hits from Pringer X when I got to him.

NIS is basically riding on Disgaea 5 to stay alive.

I hate to say it, but they're probably screwed.

If they can't luck out and break their sales records by over 100%...

They had the same problem back with D4. Basically, D4 had to sell well, or they'd go out of business.

It seems that the boom they got from D4 doing well didn't last. It's kinda a thing that apparently, Disgaea is the only NIS thing that sells in Japan, but they keep experimenting with other games anyway. Even DD2 wasn't enough to keep D4's momentum and they went back into the red.

...how sad. ._.

This explains why NISA's reaching so hard by putting out collections of outdated Atelier and Neptunia games. (All 6 games in question have superior remakes either already out or soon to be released.) They really need the money right now, I guess.

But this time they're screwed. Previous Disgaea games actually sold more than Disgaea 5's sales target within less than a year on the market, but the PS 4 doesn't have quite the required install base for such a niche series to get too many sales at the moment.

edited 10th Dec '14 9:31:53 AM by burnpsy

Now if only NISA could stop burying themselves deeper with all of the negative word-of-mouth they've been garnering.

Maybe they should have kept to PS 3 for one last game?

There's two things I don't understand.

Why did NISA decide to localize Criminal Girls, and why is everyone so damn up in arms it isn't straight-up loli BDSM anymore?

edited 10th Dec '14 9:45:45 AM by Grounder

They're probably that desperate for money if they're localizing titles like that.

Take a wild guess at what kind of people are making those complaints.

It's nice to pretend that that's not the case and be baffled instead, honestly.

It would probably help if they improved the gameplay.