Soooo, Disgaea?

[Malek]

I was interested in Disgaea ever since I saw one music-vid for it on youtube, and two-three days ago I managed to get myself DS version. After going through first episode I'm finding the game crazy yet awesome, so that probably amunts to "crazy awesome", and I thought I'd ask around here and see what people think about it (the laws of probability say there has to be someone that played the game here so reveal yourselves :P).

Hints would be apprecieated too. Are some newbie mistakes to avoid (like not noticing that there is weapon shop next to item shop until Ep 2 *headdesk*) or stuff that isn't necessary but cool to do? Are prinnies worth my time or should I concentrate on humanoids? Is it better to go for team attacks or are those mostly for situations where not all characters can get into a position? How much powerleveling is a part of the game? So far it seems like I'm going to need and go back to level up my (currently 2) non-story characters (and prinnies :P) so they don't lag behind too much. Also does mentor/student relationship is forever or does the status go away after some time?

[Tengu_temp]

Mentor/student is forever.

You don't need to grind that much if you want to finish the main storyline - only the final boss might require some of it. The side quests, however, require some epic grinding.

Don't create too many extra characters - it's much better to have a smaller team on higher levels than the opposite.

Prinnies are good for finishing combo attacks, because their normal attack has so many hits. Apart from that, they're mostly useless.

If you want the best ending, don't kill your own units, not even by accident. Throwing prinnies and geo effects might be exceptions, but I'm not 100% sure.

[Kris Strife]

Geo Change damage doesn't count for the kill your own units.

Also, a tip for the Dark Assembly: Fill up your invetory with Mint Gums, Unopened Sodas and Fairy Dust. Select the 'Raise Military Funds', go through and give only 'Must Have's to the senators. Begin the vote, then return to castle, rinse and repeat. You will eventually get all the Senators to have a 'Strongly For' rating, which is as high as that bill can get.

This will help you out later for unlocking special areas and other hard to pass bills, though you may still have to use force to pass a few. Secret to this: Throw an enemy senator onto a higher level senator that voted yes, keep doing this until all enemy senators are dead, but be careful not to throw an enemy senator onto a lower leveled ally, or you'll make things worse.

Oh, and Farm, Farm, Farm the Maps with Extra Experience Geo Effects! Cave of Ordeals 3 and Winged Slayer work great for that. And even though they suck in battle, get your Thief units to ridiculously high levels. Some of the game's best equipment is only gainable by stealing from enemies.

[korifugi]

Hints? This might sound pretty obvious but for each character pick a single weapon type and stick with it, while you'll max out which special attacks are available to you at proficiency level 20, you'll still want to be increasing it (max 255 IIRC) as each extra rank increases the stat bonuses you should be getting from the weapon by 5%.

This makes it very easy for a freshly transmigrated Laharl to winged slayer the cave of trails 3 map and go from level 1 to 87 by himself (87 levels in about 12 seconds? i'll take that thankyou!)

[Ikialev]

Make a Majin.
And discover that you can tower throw, or else you'll never pass this Joachim mission later.

Throwing prinnies and geo effects might be exceptions, but I'm not 100% sure.
They are exceptions. Also, you can make HP Prinny and throw, fun.

[Hunter Noventa]

Make a Majin.
And discover that you can tower throw, or else you'll never pass this Joachim mission later.

They are exceptions. Also, you can make HP Prinny and throw, fun.

You can't make Majin til you get your levels into the 200s, so yeah.

Avoid the male priests and mages. They have inferior aptitudes for stats. In fact, that's the case for most of the classes where there's a male and female option, though you'll have to power level some of each to unlockthe best classes.

Give Flonne a bow til you unlock archers, then give her a staff and have her make a mage and a priest with the mana you got from leveling the bow. She's a devastating magic user.

Don't actually use archers, bows are woefully underpowered.

If you weren't aware, the characters you create can teach skills to the characters that created them. Have Larharl create a priest for example, and he can learn heal by standing next to them and casting it until it reaches level 1. Teach all your main characters Espoir, it'll save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

The item world is your friend and enemy. NEVER enter without a Mr. Gency's Exit in your inventory. NEVER.

Make a theif and level them with your main party. You will want a high level theif if you want the best gear. Give you theif a sword, theymight be better with guns, but swords have better AoE attacks.

Magic is vastly powerful and has very long range once leveled. You can clear entire levels without the enemy moving because they thin they're too far away to get you with the proper application of magic.

Levels with Exp +XX% are your friend. Cave of Ordeals 3 isn't available til endgame and New Game+, but you'll love it. Til then a anumber of maps are nicely arranged to help you level, but not til around Episode 7.

Episode 9 is the BEST EPISODE EVER. You'll know why when you get there. Episode 5 is a close second, espeically the end.

Most of the monsters are fairly worthless. You can get some absurdly powerful ones in the extra maps, but for the most part you don't want to bother.

[Cubey]

The item world is your friend and enemy. NEVER enter with a Mr. Gency's Exit in your inventory. NEVER.

Surely you mean "without".

[Hunter Noventa]

Surely you mean "without".

Yes, yes I did. Fixed now. It was late and I was typing like a madman.

[blueblade]

No complaint with all the advice above, but the key one is: Play it however you like. Especially for the main campaign, just have fun. I have seen this game played as:

- Laharl alone all the way through
- Using only plot characters all the way
- Using only monster captures
- Getting a diverse range of character types because you can and you think that's how a tactical game should be
- Grinding away to get the high powered classes and using them exclusively

and all are fun and rewarding. With the main campaign you should not need too much grinding, although taking the first 10 levels of your latest and greatest item in the item world is almost always rewarding.

I loved my DS version, and had a great time for 100 hours or so. Didn't finish everything though, but still had a blast.

[Murdim]

If you don't mind cheating (or if you don't consider massive save scumming (http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/589678/53575) as cheating), you can get a very powerful sword at the beginning of the last episode.

When you talk to the ghost in the middle room of the Overlord's Castle at this point of the game, hell (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IncrediblyLamePun) give you a Diabolic Sword. Even in its Common form, it would certainly be the most powerful weapon in your possession... but if it isn't enough for you (hint : the last episode is by far the hardest, and the final boss is a mountain of HPs), you can also reload and reload until you get a LEGENDARY Diabolic Sword, which is about three times more powerful than anything else you could get by this point.

Personnally, i didn't even do it on purpose. I just wanted to get non-sucky specialists... until I got a Legendary Diabolic Sword with two Gladiators on it on my fourth try :smallbiggrin:



- Using only plot characters all the way
Some additional thoughts about this gamestyle :

_ Keep your three Prinnies as cannon fodder. They're in the storyline, after all. Sorta. At the very end of the game, you'll have nine characters, but you'll spend most of your time with five of them, so there'll always be the place for the most powerful least lame of them.

_ NONE of the plot characters are casters. Unless you really want to play the whole game without any long-range attack and any healing beyond Flonne's Power of Love, you'll want to create some priests and mages as pupils and level them in parallel.

_ Corollary of the precedent point : giving Flonne a staff and using her as a über-caster is usually highly recommanded. Here, it is almost compulsory.

_ Don't put all your healing eggs in the same angel-shaped basket. You'll want to give Flonne a priest pupil in addition to the mage/skull one(s), and call it a day. IT'S A TRAP. Believe me, you WILL end up regretting it.

_ If you have the DS version of the game and a veeeery broad definition of the phrase "storyline character", you'll want to get Pleinair. Though not exactly OP, she's the awesome untouchable gunslinger everyone needs. You'll need to get an ending ASAP (read : Mid-Boss ending at episode 1) and start again from the beginning, but she's worth it.

[Malek]

First of all thanks all for wonderful advice, and sorry for not replying so long - ;past three days were busy for me. I had to check up some stuff to understand some (Majin... and after reading I decided against getting one uless I decide to do a all-maxed gamethrough in the future. Really they sound as overpowered as Orlandu in FFT was :P) one or two I learned my own (tower throwing) and currently I am at end of Ep 5 and stil having fun.

One thing I did "wrong" is that I *did& give Flonne a bow (I blame the fact that I saw an episode or two of anime somwhere on youtube and dimly recalled her beeing shown with one there) and yeah it does seem underwhelming, yet I don't feel like going through the hassle of making her a dedicated mage through master/student training. One thing I'm considering now is giving her a gun instead - these seem much better judging by my scout, but I'm unsure if B in guns that Flonne has is sufficient.

One additional question - how do you get more "Mr. Gency's Exit"? I got one due to storyline but that's it.

[Zephraim]

I think you get one for winning at every tenth floor of Item World. But I haven't played the game in ages, so I could be wrong.

[Kris Strife]

Yeah, 10 floors of item world nets you a Mr. Gency exit.

Abuse the Tainted Staff and Foresight Glitches: Free Uber Maxed specialists? Almost guaranteed poisoning on a melee hit? Huge increases to Mana, Exp and Hl gain? Yes please!

[Hunter Noventa]

And you actually have to beat every enemy, no using the dimensional gate ont he 10th floors.

The tained staff and foresight glitches are int he DS version too? I might have to grabit. Sure I'd have 3 copies, but the DS one has Pleinair!

[Ikialev]

Pleinair is overpowered and dodges EVERYTHING.

[Jothki]

Speaking of dodging everything, Ninjas (I think that's the class name, it's been a while) will occasionally dodge your own healing spells. It's actually less of a disadvantage than it looks like at first glance, though, since they'll be dodging other attacks more often, and your heals will be hitting a bunch of your other people at the same time.

You can horribly abuse the system that lets you undo moves before the character takes an action. Move everyone into formation for a heal or buff, cast it, and then undo everyone's move. Move people into position for a combo attack, trigger it, then undo the helper's moves.

[Cubey]

There is a reason to have archer characters. It's not about their combat effectiveness though.

They're cute.

[Vic_Sage]

There is a reason to have archer characters. It's not about their combat effectiveness though.

They're cute.
Main reason why I have one in Disgea 2, keep her partnered with a Dragon for protection to.

[Eakin]

You can horribly abuse the system that lets you undo moves before the character takes an action. Move everyone into formation for a heal or buff, cast it, and then undo everyone's move. Move people into position for a combo attack, trigger it, then undo the helper's moves.

Along the same lines, if you're fighting near your base panel you can move a character into it, then redeploy them and move them again. If you do end up with a bigger team than some other posters recommended (I ended up with dozens of characters but an "active roster" of about 20 on my first playthrough) go ahead and return people to the base panels and bring out fresh fighters as needed.

Lifting and throwing will let you cover ground WAY faster and keep you from getting characters stuck behind bottlenecks. Don't get too spread out or you'll get surrounded and destroyed on the tougher maps.

Early power leveling can be done in the map where all but one of the panels are covered by invincible geo effects (9-3?). Throw all the monsters into each other and you'll end up fighting one level 250ish bad guy. Toss her onto the vulnerable panel and just make sure the character you want boosted gets the killing blow. Combine with the "triple XP for your next kill" bill for best results. Oh, and the rest of your characters can wail on each other to boost their weapon skill at the same time.

I ended up giving Flonne a gun on my first play through and letting her go to town from the rear of my group, it worked surprisingly well though she's much more useful as a caster as others have said.

[Hunter Noventa]

The level Eakin is thinking of is actually 5-3 but the strategy is sound. Just don't try it the first time through. And make sure you throw the monsters onto the one witht he lowest defense to start with, makes it easier.

[tonberrian]

Is anyone else playing Dark Hero Days? I'm on my forth cycle (previous cycles were Adell Mode to Good ending, Axel Mode, Adell to Midboss ending) and I'm trying to get into the Land of Carnage (only need 3 more maps - Jolly, Animal, and Prism iirc) so I can get Mao and train up to beat Zetta.

Also, Copy Robots rule.

[Murdim]

Pleinair is overpowered and dodges EVERYTHING.Not from my experience. After having played the whole storyline with her in my main team, I would say she has been about as useful as Flonne, and less than Laharl. Powerful, yes, more powerful than most characters you can get at the same point of the game, undoubtedly, but hardly overpowered when compared to the storyline characters or the higher-level classes.

Yes, Pleinair dodges most attacks... but that doesn't mean she's not extremely vulnerable to those rare attacks that manages to hit her. And not only because she has a very low defense coupled with mediocre HP. Since dodging depends of the attacker's HIT as well as the defender's SPD, it is intrinsically stronger against low-level enemies, and weaker against the higher-level ones. In other words, Pleinair mainly dodges attacks who wouldn't threaten her anyway. It is impressive, it is quite handy since you don't have to heal anyone, and it gives you the impression she's completely invincible. In a serious fight against more powerful enemies, however, her defensive capabilities are good but not great, with a serious risk of being one-shotted after dodging one or two attacks.

[Eakin]

Oh, yeah, good catch Hunter. Even better, it's available earlier.

Oh, and be sure to invest in at least one character with fist weapons. Their special moves all tend to knock enemies back which both prevents counter attacks and lets you get past the Gate Keeper enemies in the item worlds. Plus you can kill Invincibility geo symbols if you knock them off the panel color they start on.

[Stormthorn]

Apart from that, they're mostly useless.

One high level prinny with 3 properly leveled muscle galaxies will do a good chunk of damage when thrown.

[Malek]

And you actually have to beat every enemy, no using the dimensional gate ont he 10th floors.
Ah so I have to beat the floors to get it. Thanks


The tained staff and foresight glitches are int he DS version too? I might have to grabit. Sure I'd have 3 copies, but the DS one has Pleinair!
I read through a comparison table between version somwhere and I dimly recall DS version listed as free of glitches. Not sure if these were the above ones though.

[tonberrian]

I read through a comparison table between version somwhere and I dimly recall DS version listed as free of glitches. Not sure if these were the above ones though.

From what I saw, the DS version doesn't have the glitched items or the Counter glitch.

[banjo1985]

I used to have the PS2 version, and I now have Disgaea on the DS, and it does seem that the DS has got rid of the glitches that let you spam the older version of the game.

I'm summoning up the courage to get back and play this, I love the game but the prospect of dozens of grinding hours fills me full of horror.

[Ikialev]

Counter glitch is removed, as proved by my majins in invincibility map.

[tonberrian]

Dark Hero Days DLC starts in just over two weeks! *is excited*

[Hunter Noventa]

Ah so I have to beat the floors to get it. Thanks


I read through a comparison table between version somwhere and I dimly recall DS version listed as free of glitches. Not sure if these were the above ones though.

Only on the tenth floor. Skipping the rest means nothing.

And yeah, no fun glitches in the DS version.