Laharl and Etna Go Portable
Disgaea is coming to the PSP, and it's more than just a simple port. Impressions inside.
Published: April 3, 2007
A while back, we asked you to help sound off on your support for the idea of a PSP version of Disgaea hitting the States. At the time Sony Computer Entertainment America was still dodgy on the issue of releasing the game in the US, but apparently you guys really stepped up, because Disgaea PSP is indeed coming, and it's getting a serious upgrade (no doubt in part due to Sony's mandate that a good 1/3 of the game must be new content over the PS2 version).
Oh, the same goodies that were part of the original (and quite awesome) release by Atlus a few years back are still here. You'll still play as Laharl, Prince of the Underworld, on a quest to whoop ass through the comically evil realms of the underworld while dealing with the unstoppable cuteness of Flonne, an angel-in-training sent to off Larharl's pa. The only problem, as anyone who was hopelessly addicted to the original game will know, is that King Krichevoskoy has already kicked the bucket, leaving Laharl the kingdom if he can smack the would-be rival underworld rulers out of the picture.
This core gameplay, along with the randomly generated worlds located in every item in the game allow you to essentially level grind for hundreds of hours without ever playing through the storyline, effectively making it one of the best doses of sheer replayability you can get for your dollar, but there's a good chance a lot of the folks that will freak out about Disgaea coming to the PSP have probably already drained that much time into the game. To help entice people back (and to give newcomers even more value for their dollar), Nippon Ichi is throwing quite a bit into the portable release.
For starters, you'll be able to play through an entire side story featuring everyone's favorite Beauty Queen, Etna, commander of the penguin-like Prinnies, and secret conspirator to overthrow Laharl. In something of a prequel/one-off "What-if" storyline, you'll actually play through the game as a slightly younger Etna, leading up to the eventual start of the original Disgaea where Etna tries to kill Laharl. Should she actually succeed this time around, she will of course become Beauty Queen Ultimate Overlord Etna.
Ahh, but the meat of the extension of the game is actually in the multiplayer. Though Ad-Hoc (and yes, we were praying for Infrastructure too), you'll be able to challenge a friend or enemy with your party, but NIS is making sure to include a handful of customization options too, including the ability to toggle a fog of war effect, select one of 10 duel maps or a randomized new one, auto-level both characters (though not their weapons), toggle the ability to randomly generate items on the field and set the win/loss conditions. Hell, there's even a Capture the Flag variant that uses the characters' ability to pick up anything in the world and chuck it.
The ability to trade items from your friends has also been added, as well as a hidden music shop that allows you to play any track in the Item Worlds and even a handful of hidden characters from other NIS games. This is all fluff compared to the main two-player battles, of course, but it's nice to have there. In fact, one could argue that the two-player stuff is really just a lead-in to the biggest addition gameplay-wise that the PSP version is getting exclusively: that of Geo Cubes.
The idea is simple: 10 Geo Cubes -- items that grant powers, abilities, items or status effects on friendly or enemy units ranging from ultimate weapons to instant level-ups -- are chosen pre-battle from a list of over 30. 5 are randomly assigned to each player, and though the person that doesn't pick the items can see what they were, they won't know exactly what their opponent has unless they can do some quick memorization. Each round, a mana point is given out to both players, and they can use a Geo Cube at any time, provided they have enough mana. The results can shift things so much, according to NIS America, that a properly-boosted LVL1 character can actually kill off a LVL9999 enemy. Yes, we want to know how that's going to work out too, but we can't wait to find out.
We did sit down with a Japanese build of the game briefly, and it played... well, like Disgaea. We know that's a little bit of a cop-out, but because the game was in Japanese and because can't read a lick of it in any real sense, we just started a new game and dug through the first couple fights, giggling gleefully at the fact that it all ran beautifully and the controls were more or less a 1:1 copy. In short, if you love Disgaea, you're going to have a reason to geek out all over again.
And that's just it; Disgaea PSP may well be the single best value for your dollar you'll ever find on the PSP -- well, that is until a port of Disgaea 2 is released, but if they spend as much time adding in new features to that port as they did this one, it's entirely possible that we could arrive at the coveted infinite replayability scenario all Strategy RPG freaks seek. Until, then, though, we'll just salivate over the idea o playing a translated, updated version of the first game on the PSP, and make sure to pass along our full impressions when we do.
Oh, the same goodies that were part of the original (and quite awesome) release by Atlus a few years back are still here. You'll still play as Laharl, Prince of the Underworld, on a quest to whoop ass through the comically evil realms of the underworld while dealing with the unstoppable cuteness of Flonne, an angel-in-training sent to off Larharl's pa. The only problem, as anyone who was hopelessly addicted to the original game will know, is that King Krichevoskoy has already kicked the bucket, leaving Laharl the kingdom if he can smack the would-be rival underworld rulers out of the picture.
This core gameplay, along with the randomly generated worlds located in every item in the game allow you to essentially level grind for hundreds of hours without ever playing through the storyline, effectively making it one of the best doses of sheer replayability you can get for your dollar, but there's a good chance a lot of the folks that will freak out about Disgaea coming to the PSP have probably already drained that much time into the game. To help entice people back (and to give newcomers even more value for their dollar), Nippon Ichi is throwing quite a bit into the portable release.
For starters, you'll be able to play through an entire side story featuring everyone's favorite Beauty Queen, Etna, commander of the penguin-like Prinnies, and secret conspirator to overthrow Laharl. In something of a prequel/one-off "What-if" storyline, you'll actually play through the game as a slightly younger Etna, leading up to the eventual start of the original Disgaea where Etna tries to kill Laharl. Should she actually succeed this time around, she will of course become Beauty Queen Ultimate Overlord Etna.
Ahh, but the meat of the extension of the game is actually in the multiplayer. Though Ad-Hoc (and yes, we were praying for Infrastructure too), you'll be able to challenge a friend or enemy with your party, but NIS is making sure to include a handful of customization options too, including the ability to toggle a fog of war effect, select one of 10 duel maps or a randomized new one, auto-level both characters (though not their weapons), toggle the ability to randomly generate items on the field and set the win/loss conditions. Hell, there's even a Capture the Flag variant that uses the characters' ability to pick up anything in the world and chuck it.
The ability to trade items from your friends has also been added, as well as a hidden music shop that allows you to play any track in the Item Worlds and even a handful of hidden characters from other NIS games. This is all fluff compared to the main two-player battles, of course, but it's nice to have there. In fact, one could argue that the two-player stuff is really just a lead-in to the biggest addition gameplay-wise that the PSP version is getting exclusively: that of Geo Cubes.
The idea is simple: 10 Geo Cubes -- items that grant powers, abilities, items or status effects on friendly or enemy units ranging from ultimate weapons to instant level-ups -- are chosen pre-battle from a list of over 30. 5 are randomly assigned to each player, and though the person that doesn't pick the items can see what they were, they won't know exactly what their opponent has unless they can do some quick memorization. Each round, a mana point is given out to both players, and they can use a Geo Cube at any time, provided they have enough mana. The results can shift things so much, according to NIS America, that a properly-boosted LVL1 character can actually kill off a LVL9999 enemy. Yes, we want to know how that's going to work out too, but we can't wait to find out.
We did sit down with a Japanese build of the game briefly, and it played... well, like Disgaea. We know that's a little bit of a cop-out, but because the game was in Japanese and because can't read a lick of it in any real sense, we just started a new game and dug through the first couple fights, giggling gleefully at the fact that it all ran beautifully and the controls were more or less a 1:1 copy. In short, if you love Disgaea, you're going to have a reason to geek out all over again.
And that's just it; Disgaea PSP may well be the single best value for your dollar you'll ever find on the PSP -- well, that is until a port of Disgaea 2 is released, but if they spend as much time adding in new features to that port as they did this one, it's entirely possible that we could arrive at the coveted infinite replayability scenario all Strategy RPG freaks seek. Until, then, though, we'll just salivate over the idea o playing a translated, updated version of the first game on the PSP, and make sure to pass along our full impressions when we do.