All Comments

Good to see you doing this one. Enjoy!

Nice liveblog so far! Looks like this is your kind of game.

You can replay older maps if you need to do some level grinding.

Yeah, I figured that. I'll probably do that "off-screen" for a while, then return to liveblogging this.

Congratulations, I think you obtained the first "Ending" of Disgaea. There's a bunch of them hidden throughout the game. Try to use real characters instead of prinnies, despite being the mascots of the game, they aren't really that great.

Well, I'll use real characters instead of Prinnies once I have enough Mana to actually get some new people. Shouldn't take too long, I think, but until then I'll keep upgrading them so they're at least competent.

You might want to invest in a healer.

Laharl has just enough move points to get past the two mages with the deadly X4 bonuses. He can then go and take out the Geo panel. Hurry the rest of the team in though, because Vyers will come looking for Laharl personally, and without sufficient Level Grinding Laharl won't be able to meet him on his own.

After Vyers is down by virtue of being attacked by your whole party, its a matter of having enough strength to finish off his lackeys.

Have you discovered the joy of the character totem pole yet? It's where you have characters pick up another character who's holding other characters. When you start the chain throwing, it can get a character to where you want him very quickly.

^ That sounds pretty funny. :P I might actually do that.

Right now my party's strongest members are Punchmaster and Laharl, though I think Laharl has better defense, but less damage.

Here's my thoughts. Use a character totem pole (as nightwyrm calls it), and position Laharl just in front of the Geo Panels. Then, use blade rush (I think it was called) to down all of them in one fell swoop.

Done right, you can destroy them before the enemy gets a turn in, evening the playing field.

Nin Nin Nin!

It's the sound ninjas make!

^ I recognized that, yeah. Sara from Ever17 is similar.

Take some antidotes on this one! And be careful!

Also, a magic user will come in handy.

Congratulations, dood! As a fan of the series, I wish you a buncha luck!

Oh and speaking of magic users, who created Nietzsche the Cleric? If it was one of the human-looking guys (including the main duo) you're in luck. If you place a character you created next to the human you used to created them, the creator has access to every skill his pupil knows! And if you use the skill enough, the creator doesn't even need to be standing beside his pupil to use the skills any more!

Long story short, you'll probably want to have more than one source of healing magic in the near future, and it'd be nice if you didn't have to make another mage for it.

If you want a magic user, Flonne's your best bet, though you'll need to teach her some offensive spells with the previously mentioned pupil system.

Also, you may want to hook your liveblog to the Disgaea Hour Of Darkness page, so anyone watchlisting it will notice.

Would I do that just by putting the title in the Live Blog? That'd be simple enough.

Worth a shot. I'm not quite sure how exactly to attach a liveblog - I haven't done one yet.

So, have you tried throwing your prinnies? They're definitely good for something other than meatshields...

Whoo, we got us some Disgaea up in here!

I have a few snippets of advice for you:

• Get Laharl up to Lv. 20 before anyone else. Trust me, it'll be worth it.
• It's probably a good idea to get yourself a Scout, so you get more ranged attack. (Name: Scout. :P)
• For sheer hitting power, consider getting soneone with an axe. Those things have the biggest attack stat.
• Also, throw your prinnies. It's good for working off tension.

As a last comment, make sure you don't cause any friendly-fire casualties. It'll make for the best ending.

Also, well done so far. You're certainly better at this than me.

Enjoy! Just watch out that you don't accidentally lose your last person in the Item World, as that can result in a lot of wasted time.

I heard someone describe it as a 'game in and of itself', which I guess is sorta true.

Have you passed at least one 'more expensive items' bill in the Dark Assembly? It's definitely worth it, and with the money from the Item World, you should be able to buy high-grade equipment for ust about everyone.

Also, this is good! Keep it up.

Ooooh, forgot to mention: you actually have to equip the levelled-up item onto Laharl for the first stage. It's nothing big, but can slow you down if he's your top fighter.

No worries, Punchmaster and Aristotle and Socrates can win most levels by themselves.

And yes, I've passed a "more expensive items" bill. It was actually the first one I did, since I really wanted better equipment.

Trying to figure out how to get those color combos are the best part playing in item worlds.

I'd argue making your own Infinity Plus One Sword is the best part, but the color combos are a lot of fun, too.

It's always fun to mess around with scouts and their color change in there.

Funny thing is, it's impossible to make an InfinityPlusOneAxe, since the lefeling up also makes the axe's Hit subtraction increase, beyond that of higher tier axes. Can I attach a Resident with a Hit increaser to it to balance that out?

IIRC, the trick with axes is to use mostly special attacks with them - they always hit. (That might be just for Disgaea 2, though.)

Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer is fun. :)

Just FYI, you WILL want to level your cleric, because you will totally want some healing later on in the game. Give your cleric a mage pupil and she(you did pick the female one, right?) can learn some offensive magic, it'll make the leveling easier.

Also, give Flonne a pupil of all 3 color mages and a cleric, and have her learn all the spells. You now have an Infinity Plus One Character

Definitely learn to use the pupil system and power up Flonne.

Hey, Disgaea doesn't have an entry on Sidetracked By The Gold Saucer!

Oh, and I'll definitely level up Flonne - I get to that between the next two segments of the Live Blog.

Yeah, he isn't very useful for more then a few chapters after you get him, especially since you're over-leveled.

Monsters in general aren't very good in Disgaea 1. There's no monster caster weapons, so you can immediately forget about any monsters that rely on spells. Even with the physical based monsters, the only really good ones are the nekomata, the dragon, and maybe the pumpkin head. Oh, and monsters can't pick up and throw things.

Disgaea 2, however, is an entirely different story...but that's for another liveblog.

I might do Disgaea 2 after this, I'm not sure. I just want to get near finishing Disgaea 1 before I think about that, though!

...Actually (late response, I know), this has got me thinking about doing a Disgaea 2 liveblog. Hmm.

Once you start reincarnating your dudes, the Blazing Core will be your go to place to level them back up. Expect to be seeing it a lot.

Reincarnating dudes? What's all that about?

You can reincarnate characters through the Dark Assembly, which basically lets them restart at level 1 - as a different class, if you so choose. The advantage of this is that when characters reincarnate, they get to keep most of their skills, and a little bit of their stats. The amount of retained skill depends on how much mana you're willing to pay, and the stat bonus depends on what level your character was pre-reincarnation.

Well, Five_X, when a person has done enough Promotion Exams at the Assembly and is at a high enough level, you can choose to have them reincarnate. This resets a character back to Level 1, but they will gain bonuses to their stats whenever they level up. Also, for characters that aren't important to the story (such as Tacticus), you can change their class in order to get more abilities. Sadly, every time you reincarnate, it costs more Mana. Thus, it's recommended you wait until you're really high-leveled (say, MUCH higher than the guys at the castle) before you attempt it in order to maximize bonuses & minimize cost.

There's a few other things to know, but I think that's all the important stuff. If you're really curious, feel free to read a guide on the matter.

Also, if it's a generic unit, they can upgrade their class if they're at a high enough level.

and upgrading classes is going to be the main reason you'll want to reincarnate. The higher tier classes get more stats from their equipment, and in the case of the mages/cleric, access to higher ranks of spells.

Laharl must have a masochistic taste for backstabbings to keep Etna around. This is an insane plan, though I have to admit it's entirely consistent with his character.

To be fair, she didn't really have much of a choice in the matter here. Though that doesn't mean he should trust her considering how well she pulled this off...

Speaking of which, have you discovered Etna's diary yet? It's an important sub-plot for unlocking stuff, though it's nearly impossible to find without a guide.

Uh, nope! I haven't found any diary or anything like that. I doubt I would find it without actually specifically looking for it, though.

Well, the PSP version makes it easier to find by adding a vague hint in the hub, which is where the diary's hidden.

It's a little pointless at this point, though, I think you have to read it in every chapter starting with chapter 1 to get the goods. As supplemental story material, though, it's probably still worth a look.

Personally, "Nightdwellers" was the only level in this set I really hated. Tactics become entirely moot when your entire team is getting randomly teleported every turn.

Oh goody, "the part" is coming up next..

IIRC, the enemy levels take a jump right about now.

^^ Yeah, that one got my mages killed pretty badly.

On the topic of Stealing, I know that Rogues have double the odds of other characters, and the rate of success increases the higher the person's level is. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if rare items (which can be powered up more than the regular versions via Item World) were even harder to steal than average ones. There's probably an exact formula, but I'm not going to bother making a trip to Game FA Qs to look it up.

IIRC, the stat bonus on the (Whatever) Glove items also influences your chance to steal.

Yeah, I was using the best gloves I could buy (at the time, I have better ones now), but Marx is somewhere around level 3, so yeah... I'll go have him fight the bourgeoisie.

Ah, it's been a while since I played this game...

Oh, this is gonna be good.

Equippable Horse Wiener.

That is all.

And we're not kidding, the enemy levels really begin to jump like crazy soonish..

Btw, if you really are getting bored with the lack of challenge, you can pass a measure in the Dark Assembly to up the levels of all the enemies. If it gets too much, you can drop them down later.

The main factor in stealing things is your thief's level compared to the enemies level. Better get to leveling Marx! Cause you're gonna want to be stealing stuff from the boss of the next chapter!

Marx is leveling up pretty nicely, I've had him team attack stuff with his mentor, Laharl, so that he gets some of the experience. I think I'll stop level-grinding him once he's about level 20.

It's not a weapon at all, it's a piece or armor that boosts you attack! A shame you couldn't get the brain as well, it's a great item for casters(Flone). The Body shouls help out a lot though, put it on you weakest, most important character(probably Flonne).

as for a new character class, you should definitely look into making a ninja if you have them. Their specialty is their ability to dodge anything. Even healing spells.

Well, I suppose there's always a New Game+ if you can't swipe everything on yout first try...

Oh, and for classes, I think you should wait until the end of Chapter 8 to make anyone new. When that time comes, I'd recommend creating a Knight. If you don't have one yet, just get a female mage and female warrior to level 10. Despite a slow movement range (you could always throw 'em), they've got good statistics for both physical and magical attack/defense, and leveling one up high enough is the requirement to unlocking an even better class.

A female mage to level 10? I think I could do that pretty cheaply with Din/Nayru/Farore (Flonne's pupil magi), and I already have Aristotle, and she's way past level 10 by now. I guess that just gives me more stuff to do in between updates!

Also, ninja? I haven't seen that on the character creation screen. I'm guessing it's another unlockable one, like the Knight and the Ronin?

Yup. I think you need a male Warrior and a male Brawler to get the ninja. They prefer fighting with fists, possess horrific amounts of Speed (meaning they'll dodge quite a lot of what you throw at them, even healing speels from your own people), and their top class has a 7 in movement range and a godly jump height.

They effectively make Brawlers virtually obsolete, and it's well worth reincarnating any ones you have into Ninja. They're roughly like Ronin are to Warriors: a bit more fragile, but with a heck of a lot more smashiness.

I'll probably have a Ninja in addition to Punchmaster, then.

Funny thing is, a single assist kill(on a level 44 again) leveled one mage from level 1 to 13.

Oh come on! You get like seven comments in one day for one installment? Augh.

Of course, you did a video game, and a moderately popular niche fandom one, so of course people are going to read it.

Yes. :P

My other Live Blog (which has decayed and fallen into the dust of despair) didn't receive nearly this many, though. So yeah, it's because I'm playing Disgaea, and blind, too.

Sorry if I sounded bitter, because I totally am.

Nah, don't worry. I'm sure if you keep on going, people will become interested.

"She even actually pretty harsh toward him. That's kind of surprising." A fairly low-key aspect of Flonne's character, but an interesting one. On the rare occasion that someone actually manages to push her buttons, she tends to bite back like that.

She also doesn't seem to like it when people mock her flatchestedness.

As to getting Flonne some better healing, you're going to have the level up a cleric who is Flonnes pupil until THEY get better healing, then have Flonne learn that ability. Same thing with higher rank offensive spells.

You have to work for your infinity plus one character!

"The first level is "Valgipus IV", and I wonder why there is outer space in the Netherworld."

Nippon Ichi multiverse lore: a Netherworld, rather than strictly an analog of hell, is more like a pocket universe. There are many of these, created by Overlords powerful enough to do so.

Now I know!

I used Jennifer a lot, myself. Of course that could be because I liked her character design.

And knowing is half the battle!

...Also, Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth, is a good offensive character in my humble opinion. Stick him with axes if you want to just charge in and obliterate enemies with him, or go with fists if you think he needs the extra speed to survive a fight.

Guys, you've got to say it right. It's Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth!

Yes, you have to include the exclamation point.

Yes, every time.

I have the feeling this entire chapter was just an excuse for letting Mid-Boss do his thing. Oh well, all the better. Love his complaint that they're not doing the teamwork thing properly.

Ohoho, philosophers against zombies. Clever. Yeah, it's almost the end, but the last few chapters will by no means be a cakewalk. A level 80 character at this point is pretty decent, though.

I might just go to the Item World to beef up some of my existing equipment, actually.

Interesting that Kurtis is holding back to avoid damaging Flonne. Certainly elevates him above merely being a flat rival to Gordon.

Man, who would've thought Mid-Boss would actually get serious lines in this game.

This has been a great liveblog, and I enjoyed reading every installment of it. Also, the role that Mid-Boss had in this story isn't immediately obvious, but it shouldn't be too hard to deduce.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out the Rome: Total War liveblog I'm doing next. It's somewhere down the list and I'll be updating it soon with some actual gameplay.

And yeah, I kinda guess that Mid-Boss was somehow related to Laharl, and maybe was the person the Seraph was talking to. I mean, that'd only make sense, and would explain how he got into Celestia in the first place.

Well, congratulations for beating the main plot! If nothing else, it was a wonderful, comprehensive read. Best of luck with your Total War project, and have a nice day.

Thank you!