Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[freeformschooler]

The new story in the PSP is hard. Can't get past the 1st mission.

I wonder: are they all like this? Etna mode seems normal enough but Axel mode in Dark Hero Days is tough as nails.

[Malt_Hitman]

Soul Nomad is a good game.  It’s a nice change from the character based combat of Disgaea to a semi-squad based combat with the rooms and decors game mechanics.  The extra story components with the Demon Path and unlockable special rooms gave you some added replay value without having to just grind right back through the original story over and over but you’d have to do that if you wanted to get all of the endings in anyway.  I’d buy another game using those mechanics again.

However, I have a question of my own. Disgaea 3 is being released in the US as a super-duper port for PSP called Absence of Detention soon. What I want to know is if it's worth it considering I haven't played D3 yet. What's the best feature? The worst? I want honest pros and cons from the (likely few) people here who've played it.

I’m not getting a PSVita but have played Disgaea 3 on PS3 so I’d say that biggest reason to purchase Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention is if you really feel invested in the Disgaea narrative/multiverse that’s being built on throughout the games.  Each game continues to focus on a new group of protagonists so you’ll get the full story of the new batch of characters as well as the extra shots and end-game cameos from the previous story characters such as Laharl, Etna, Flonne, and others.  If the website is to be believed you’ll get all of the extra content released as DLC on the Playstation Store so that’s a nice bonus.  If you’re lucky NIS will have integrated the better updated features of Disgaea 4 into Disgaea 3: AOD but I didn’t see much on the website about that.  At least one new feature, an innocence warehouse, looks like it will be a nice bonus to ease the micromanagement and storing of innocents so you won’t have to juggle placing innocents on spare weapons and risk selling them by accident or combining innocents without meaning to (hopefully).

As for cons, it’s really just more Disgaea and is now a bit behind the curve if you’ve played or are planning to play Disgaea 4.  Disgaea 4 has pretty much the same mechanics and additions to gameplay as Disgaea 3 did and built a little more on them.  Magichange, which allows you to temporarily change your monster units into certain weapons, is built up more in Disgaea 4 along with Monster Fusion which lets you combine two monsters into a giant monster and then, eventually with unlocks, magichange that huge monster into a huge weapon.  Reverse pirating, allowing you to enter an item and kidnap/murder special innocents with your own pirate ship, is also in Disgaea 4 with some additions to customize your own ship.

If all you’re really interested in is the characters and story but don’t really want another dose of Disgaea gameplay right now then you’d likely be better off trying to watch the cut scenes on YouTube and read over the TvTropes page on the game a few times.  Most Disgaea gameplay comes down to power level characters/equipment -> collect innocents -> power level stronger characters/equipment -> collect/merge stronger innocents -> repeat.  That’s not a bash of the game but just what it really comes down to.  If you have the time to invest and want to put that time in on your PSVita then go for Disgaea 3: AOD.

[Neonivek]

Yeah but Soul Nomad seems like a Great game that tries has hard as it possibly can to be terrible and ends up somewhere around just good to meh.

From charging you money to summon your own units to battle (but it being pointless to do so anyway), to not being able to equip because items are lost if used in normal battles, to even the story that throws away interesting concepts and turns them to mud (Honestly... the second story in it is actually better and shows that they had good ideas)

[Folly]

Wow, lots of people here confusing NIS and NISA.
NIS = Nippon Ichi Software. Japanese game developers.
NISA = Nippon Ichi Software America. US-based video game localizer and publisher.

NISA does not actually create new games, they just translate and release Japanese games outside of Japan. They mainly focus on NIS games, but they also release games developed by several other companies. The Atelier series, Ar Tonelico, Trinity Universe, and Cladun are all made by other companies.


Anyway, while I do love Disgaea, I actually enjoy NIS's non-disgaea titles even more. Soul Nomad and La Pucelle are my favorites, both with great stories and characters, and unique entertaining gameplay. Rhapsody, while quite dated, also had a solid story and some very enjoyable music.

I haven't had time to look at NIS and NISA's recently announced games yet, but I'm looking forward to them anyway. I've rarely been disappointed by games from either company.

[majikero]

I knew there was a difference but whatever. NISA has all the NIS games anyways. The other non-NIS titles are still just as good. The thread title isn't really clear if it's Nippon Ichi Software, the company, or Nippon Ichi Software America, the publisher.

[Haschel]

It's a bit presumptuous to think anyone confused the two, as no one really specified which of the two was the subject in the first place and it's actually kind of irrelevant to the discussion of games themselves anyway.

[Darvi]

The extra story components with the Demon Path

* Revya has gone berserk!

[kaijyuu]

I'll just pop in and mention the puppet princess series. Precursors to Disgaea, sort of maybe possibly in the same universe as La Pucelle (and to a lesser degree, Phantom Brave).


Only one released outside Japan officially was titled Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. Damn awesome, with two exceptions: It was piss easy (final boss dies in like 3 hits), and the dungeons are friggin' labyrinths. Low production values means every dungeon is pieced together from the same 4 or 5 room types, forming a maze that can't be easily navigated without a good memory or drawing a handmade map. All that might've been fixed with the rerelease that I never played (on the DS, I believe), as they did a gameplay overhaul.

Haven't played the rest of the series, but I know more than one person that has that claims they're just as good if not better.

[Dariush]

I just watched the video and thought 'damn, that's some elaborate fake they've put out there'. Then I saw actual playthroughs in the related videos and realized that this is an real game. My brain, it was raped.

[freeformschooler]

Aha, I had no idea Cladun was made by an outside dev. I did get that confused in the first post. Oh well, I guess it would be better to call it the "NIS/NISA thread"

Actually, I think I will do exactly that.

[BigD145]

I thoroughly enjoy NIS games. I've working through both Cladun's this year. Fun.

http://nisamerica.com/games/mylord2/  What did I do to deserve this, My Lord!  Is tons of fun. Go check it out. No Heroes Allowed! is really the culmination of both previous games. Treat each of the series as a step up in complexity.

Props to XSEED as well. They put out similar feeling games.

[Malt_Hitman]

The extra story components with the Demon Path

* Revya has gone berserk!

I can’t really tell if that’s a positive or negative reaction so I’ll just direct you over to Soul Nomad page of TV Tropes to see that I’m not lying about this.

Soul Nomad is also known for an infamous Villain Protagonist campaign called the "Demon Path". In this alternative storyline, Revya decides that it would be a better idea to use the awesome destructive powers of an evil god to do whatever the hell they want, and with the gleeful encouragement of Gig, starts down a path to ultimate power as the tyrannical "Devourlord". Then it gets worse. Much worse.

[Farce]

I have never liked Disgaea.  It's cute and funny and all, but the gameplay is - to me - mindblastingly terrible.  A singularity of grinding, positioning to get combos, and then reverting so you can have them actually attack to, etc.  Atelier Iris is pretty alright, though.  I've only played the 1st, but it's not bad.  I also have Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure around somewhere.  Cheesy and diabetes-inducingly sweet.

If you can find it, I recommend Sakura Wars 5.  It's uh, kinda niche, though.  Basically, it's a lot of text and dialogue interspersed with 1) walkaround segments where you visit locations/set events around New York and 2) tactical-style battles, set in a steam-powered 1928 New York flavored with jazz and Nationalism.  ...I would also recommend getting the limited edition for the Japanese voices, since uh, as is tradition, the English ones are a little bad.

[freeformschooler]

Ehh, I think the gameplay of Disgaea is hate-it-or-love-it. My desire for "more fire emblem" is so strong that the tactical element is appealing, and I do like watching numbers go up. If you like the theme of the series but not the gameplay, though, it may be worth checking out Disgaea Infinite, a visual novel that has a lot more content than you'd think it would.

Sakura Wars sounds fun but I never tried to get my hands on a copy of any of that series. It may be time to check it out.

[majikero]

Previous Sakura Wars are set in Kyoto. Sakura Wars 5 is set in New York I think. I think it has air battles though. Unlike the previous games, they don't get sent to battle by being launched from a jumping train.