Sure You Can, Dood!
Disgaea's poor cannon fodder/comic relief is finally the star of his own adventure. His own incredibly old-school, insanely hard adventure.
Published: February 16, 2009
Just one word. That's all it took for NIS to strike gold with their little explosive penguins, originally nothing more as a foil for the main characters in Disgaea to exact their rage (and a chance for NIS America's localization staff to inject a bit of their own brand of humor into the game), the lovable little guys seemingly had everyone at "dood!" They were such basic characters, literally just placeholders for party members that some (okay, I) just ditched and started created actual class-based characters.
But the prinnies stuck around, sneaking their way into the Disgaeaverse everywhere they could, and, surprisingly, they were genuinely funny. Which is what makes them so ripe for getting their own little breakout platformer. The souls of people who did very, very bad things in the real world are way too adorable and way too personality-rich to not get their own chance to shine. And they do -- with aplomb -- in Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? (yes, that's really the full title), a straight up old-school platformer that's so difficult they actually give you a thousand lives to get through the whole thing.
You won't need them all, of course -- not unless you opt to the one-hit-kill masochism of playing the game on Hard difficulty, which you can switch to anytime you feel like punishing yourself -- but even if you do start to get low, in classic Disgaea grinding fashion, you can opt to start all over from scratch while preserving all the little things you've unlocked while playing through things the first time. There are hidden critters you can butt stomp the ground and beat up on to capture and then trade for tons of unlockables (you can also share 'em wirelessly with other players if you're so inclined), there are soul gems that turn little colored wisps on the main hub screen an actual corporeal form (or, uh, the closest thing to one in the demon world) and can offer things like replays (which you can save and share too), the ability to save, items and so on.
In fact, there's a ton of stuff to find and unlock in Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? (and yes, that's the last time I'm typing the whole damn title out). It's a perfect example of why NIS has amassed the kind of fan base that it counts these days; you can blaze through the game, but you're rewarded for grinding a bit too. Even the order in which you attack the game's six themed stages determines how the enemies are laid out and who you'll tussle with at the end of the stages. The boss fights are pure old-school awesomeness; pattern memorization, big health bars (for the bosses, that is) and a massive sense of accomplishment when you finally figure how to butt slam (sorry, sorry, "hip pound") them enough to dizzy them for a bit and unload on 'em with the stitched penguin's twin blades.
There isn't even all that much to concern yourself with, gameplay-wise. Like Ghosts 'n Goblins, you can double-jump, but you're locked into the trajectory you start on when jumping. The double-jump can reverse this, but for the most part, once you start a jump, you'll have to commit to it. Throw in stuff like floating platforms and getting stunned when you're hit, and you'll instantly have 8-bit flashbacks to tons of "cheap" deaths from falling into bottomless pits. For guys like me that lament the loss of games that don't hesitate to punish players for impulsively bounding around, this game is like a love letter straight to my 8-year-old self.
The 80s tone of the game threads through the whole experience; the story (unapologetically abusive Etna wants a dessert, thinks you ate it and makes you collect the ingredients to make her a new one), the levels (classic themes like lava, night, grassy and so on) and of course the gameplay itself just harken back to when games didn't really care if they were asking you to do the seemingly impossible. You either do what Prinny asks of you, or you don't play it at all. And I'll happily play it, thank you very much.
Nowhere is the game more of a throw-back, however, than the visuals. Sure, the backgrounds are 3D (and absolutely gorgeous I might add, but you can see that in the screens to the left there), but the enemies are classic Disgaea transplants. They're also wonderfully animated, with tight, attractive little sprites and the Prinny in particular moves, dances, twirls, growls, slashes and jumps with the kind of loving detail that you simply don't see in games anymore. Thank you, Nippon Ichi, for reminding me of why I love 2D sprites so much; there's so much damned personality pouring from the PSP screen here that you can't help but admire the handiwork and revel in the little details.
The audio is also fantastic. Japanese and English voices are included, of course (including some NIS America staffers -- hiiiii, Naooooo!), but Sato Tenpei, the series' composer, continues to pen some aural magic with the vaguely-spooky-yet-incessantly-lighthearted tunes that will instantly plant anyone who has played a Disgaea game in the past in the perfect mood to enjoy the game's particular brand of playful punishment.
There's simply no getting around it: Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? is some kind of loving time capsule, simultaneously keeping graphics whores in check with gorgeous visuals, yet reminding every person that plays the game exactly what games used to be like: unforgiving, tightly-controlling and insanely fun. Yes, it's challenging (it's also hilarious from start to finish, offering some of the most genuine comedy per pound of any of NIS' efforts), but that's the whole damn point. You can get your ass kicked and still have a blast. Both are supplied here in spades, and if your poor PSP is starved for something new to chew on, you have zero excuses here. Go buy this game, people.
But the prinnies stuck around, sneaking their way into the Disgaeaverse everywhere they could, and, surprisingly, they were genuinely funny. Which is what makes them so ripe for getting their own little breakout platformer. The souls of people who did very, very bad things in the real world are way too adorable and way too personality-rich to not get their own chance to shine. And they do -- with aplomb -- in Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? (yes, that's really the full title), a straight up old-school platformer that's so difficult they actually give you a thousand lives to get through the whole thing.
You won't need them all, of course -- not unless you opt to the one-hit-kill masochism of playing the game on Hard difficulty, which you can switch to anytime you feel like punishing yourself -- but even if you do start to get low, in classic Disgaea grinding fashion, you can opt to start all over from scratch while preserving all the little things you've unlocked while playing through things the first time. There are hidden critters you can butt stomp the ground and beat up on to capture and then trade for tons of unlockables (you can also share 'em wirelessly with other players if you're so inclined), there are soul gems that turn little colored wisps on the main hub screen an actual corporeal form (or, uh, the closest thing to one in the demon world) and can offer things like replays (which you can save and share too), the ability to save, items and so on.
In fact, there's a ton of stuff to find and unlock in Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? (and yes, that's the last time I'm typing the whole damn title out). It's a perfect example of why NIS has amassed the kind of fan base that it counts these days; you can blaze through the game, but you're rewarded for grinding a bit too. Even the order in which you attack the game's six themed stages determines how the enemies are laid out and who you'll tussle with at the end of the stages. The boss fights are pure old-school awesomeness; pattern memorization, big health bars (for the bosses, that is) and a massive sense of accomplishment when you finally figure how to butt slam (sorry, sorry, "hip pound") them enough to dizzy them for a bit and unload on 'em with the stitched penguin's twin blades.
There isn't even all that much to concern yourself with, gameplay-wise. Like Ghosts 'n Goblins, you can double-jump, but you're locked into the trajectory you start on when jumping. The double-jump can reverse this, but for the most part, once you start a jump, you'll have to commit to it. Throw in stuff like floating platforms and getting stunned when you're hit, and you'll instantly have 8-bit flashbacks to tons of "cheap" deaths from falling into bottomless pits. For guys like me that lament the loss of games that don't hesitate to punish players for impulsively bounding around, this game is like a love letter straight to my 8-year-old self.
The 80s tone of the game threads through the whole experience; the story (unapologetically abusive Etna wants a dessert, thinks you ate it and makes you collect the ingredients to make her a new one), the levels (classic themes like lava, night, grassy and so on) and of course the gameplay itself just harken back to when games didn't really care if they were asking you to do the seemingly impossible. You either do what Prinny asks of you, or you don't play it at all. And I'll happily play it, thank you very much.
Nowhere is the game more of a throw-back, however, than the visuals. Sure, the backgrounds are 3D (and absolutely gorgeous I might add, but you can see that in the screens to the left there), but the enemies are classic Disgaea transplants. They're also wonderfully animated, with tight, attractive little sprites and the Prinny in particular moves, dances, twirls, growls, slashes and jumps with the kind of loving detail that you simply don't see in games anymore. Thank you, Nippon Ichi, for reminding me of why I love 2D sprites so much; there's so much damned personality pouring from the PSP screen here that you can't help but admire the handiwork and revel in the little details.
The audio is also fantastic. Japanese and English voices are included, of course (including some NIS America staffers -- hiiiii, Naooooo!), but Sato Tenpei, the series' composer, continues to pen some aural magic with the vaguely-spooky-yet-incessantly-lighthearted tunes that will instantly plant anyone who has played a Disgaea game in the past in the perfect mood to enjoy the game's particular brand of playful punishment.
There's simply no getting around it: Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? is some kind of loving time capsule, simultaneously keeping graphics whores in check with gorgeous visuals, yet reminding every person that plays the game exactly what games used to be like: unforgiving, tightly-controlling and insanely fun. Yes, it's challenging (it's also hilarious from start to finish, offering some of the most genuine comedy per pound of any of NIS' efforts), but that's the whole damn point. You can get your ass kicked and still have a blast. Both are supplied here in spades, and if your poor PSP is starved for something new to chew on, you have zero excuses here. Go buy this game, people.
