More Disgaea 1 madness: I acquired the Hyperdrive!
This involves (in this PC release) going through all 100 levels of a max-rank item's world and defeating its Item God 2, without ever leaving the item to save!
You might think that this is a grueling test of endurance where you must fill your inventory with 15 restorative items (and finally the max-rank item). You'll need to build a highly optimized team with a healer, a mage for range and AoE, a tank, and a brawler for shifting enemies a-la Into The Breach.
Nah one reasonably-ground character is plenty, especially armed with the epitome of swords (which mysteriously grants a massive 5 tiles of ranged attack and a ton of defense). It helps to have a second character with three accelerators in their teeth (don't ask, they don't explain) to sprint through the item realms.
So why was this a challenge?
BECAUSE each level is so easy. Item running in Disgaea 1 is extremely easy and formulaic. The only real break from the monotony is an invincible geo-symbol protecting an exit-guardian, and even that just means an extra 30 seconds or so to throw the symbol or use a brawler to nudge the guardian. It's the sort of thing you do while watching a TV show, or even a movie.
And therein lies the trap.
Every 10 levels there's a miniboss, but they're optional. They might not even be on screen from your start. So you move your Divine Majinn or Thief-With-3-Accelerators to the exit, and reflexively start tapping the button to skip past whatever dialogs-
"Do you want to return to the Overlord's Castle?" [Defaults to yes]
Twice I got to level 80-90 before accidentally returning to the castle because I was too engrossed in a podcast or show. Mostly it happened much earlier. Very frustrating.
Regardless, I did it. Considering I'm playing around with perfected ultimate weapons, I'm pretty sure even Prinny Baal isn't a threat to me anymore. I could probably even finish the main story if I chose~ This was, I'm almost certain, the most difficult Steam-achievement of the game.
Like... I'm a fan of hypnosis stuff sometimes, but it all feels a little bit silly until you press a button you've been taught to press and realize "that wasn't something I chose to do".
it's kinda cool Scary, it's scary.
Disgaea 1 PC
My team is the members of 8-bit theater!
Fighter (Divine Majin, my main)
Thief (Thief, 3 accelerators for item-running)
BM (Galaxy Skull, useful for clearing item worlds where the nearest island is more than 6 tiles away with magic artillery)
Ranger (Scout, can randomize geo-tiles once per map. Rarely used but eventually will wield the Etoire)
BB (Ninja, the fist-using brawler who can nudge guardians off the exit)
WM (Angelic host, completely unused but wields an axe because some axes are hammers)
Deborah (Red Mage, using a sword and with prior practice in all combat magic. Needs to learn some healing spells)