6/15/13

Disgaea D2. Thought, review, and walkthrough.

Alright, for my first long post after quite a while, Im going to write about a game that I really like. Just bought it about last week though.

 

The game, disgaea D2 is a sequel from the original disgaea from... 2003 or something. So its not some random fist dude, or a smart student overload, or a vampire ( yes, I played all of the disgaea series ), its THE Larharl.

 

Anyway~ I bought the standard edition, without the nendroid Etna and Flone or the BMG discs ( obs). But I got a guide book along with the game for like 500 yen. I dont usually care about game guide book, but hey, this is Disgaea, the game is like verrrrry deep.

The game and the official guidebook that I got.

 

Oh, I should warn you. There are probably some spoilers in this post, but Im currently only on chapter 5 when Im writing this so nothing too serious.

 

So lets take a look as to why Im loving this game.

The interface is much prettier. Looks like monster hunter though.


Unlike 2,3, and 4. This time disgaea is having quite a makeover. The UI is unlike anything before. They threw out some things, make it simple, and touched up a bit. And, kinda like dragon quest, when you move around the castle, Flone and Etna will follow behind you. Its fun trying to lose them by double jumping up the balkoni. Lol.

However, if you remember the secret Etna room ( which opened after pushing 2 switches ) from the original disgaea, you need to lose Etna. Not by killing her, no one would like that, youd need to appeal at the court thingy. You can even change who you control, etc. not really important for the story, just for fun.

And then, for the item completion, the item preview will be appearing at a thumbnail. Neat~

Oh, as you can see, Ive only thrown like 7 hours into the game when I took the pic. Probably around 20 something right now Im guessing.

The status screen has gotten better too. Dont mind my naming sense. Btw my monk is named Maam. From the dragon quest manga. Id name my magician Pop, but nah~

 

The hospital has gotten better too. Your reward is listed when you reached some benchmark. As in, if you healed up to 500000HP, you'll be getting ???????. <-- its written like this, so youd know that youd be getting something, but you wouldnt know what.

Unlike before, the same rarity equip bonus is much easier to achieve. 2 gold equipment added to 20% bonus, 3 to 30, and 4 to 40. Silver gives 2 to 10%, 3 to 20, and 4 to 30.

 

Next, lets talk about characters creations.

So just like from disgaea 4, the old man is no more, and this guy is the new geomaster.

 

Oh, I should remind you that on this series. You dont need to tell the characters to learn skills. They will learn automaticaly when they leveled up. HOWEVER, there are some skills that can only be learn by money.

Each characters got they own personality that you can choose when creating them, which affect their passive skill. I just created my archer just now and I can choose whether to give her an a 100% against flying enemy, or extra 2 range for attack or 5% increase in stats for each enemy in range. I chose the second one.

Flone got the best ability. She gets a 10% increase in stat when she heal someone up to full health. My friend make a very interesting strategy to make another character health become unfull by equiping them with an armor that gives +HP and then after flone healed them, he would unequp and reequip. Nice idea. I didnt do that but this one time, my Flone stats is at 600 average while the other is like 150 tops. It was a tough battle and Flone is a good healer. :)

Larharl gets 10% increase in stat everytime he destroyed an opponent and Etna got an extra 50% damage if she attack a full health enemy. Which might explain why my Etna is still low level.

My Maam ability is to counter 2 times. i.e enemy hits you once, Maam will hit one time to get even and one more time for the interest.

 

From the ability perspective, Flone might be the best. But this guy next is probably the cutest.

This is the male cleric. As houuin kyoma said it "but he is a guy".

 

OK, probably not the cutest. My vote for the cutest is probably the female Larharl. The voice actress Mizuhashi Kaori ( bakatest minami etc ) is really good. Of course, she voices the male Larharl too.

Of couse, I still havent see the angel Flone yet. Ive heard rumors, but my vote now is for female Larharl.

The human characters is cute and all, but the monsters arent to be dismissed. Heck, there are just about as many monsters as there are humans. I tend to make every type of monsters and characters, looks like im going to need a bigger home panel.

A LOT of monsters to be summoned.

 

Oh, by the way, the one that got the most stats is prinny. So think twice before you start throwing one.

...

......

Nah~ just throw them. Its much more fun that way anyway. Their passive ability affect how they blow. Short but powerful or long but much weaker.

 

Enough about character creation! Systems! Lets talk about the new system next.

First, the affection thing.

New feature that shows the affection of others.

 

You gain their affection by healing them, adding them, etc. You get hated by them by well.... Killing them is the fastest way.

What does that do you ask. Firstly, it allows Protect action and Cover Attack. Your teammate takes the damage for you instead and the enemy attack the enemy again after you respectively. And well... I think some cut scene will happend if the hearts are full. There is a trophy for that for sure.

Next, is the piggyback system

They scratched out monster change ( or was it monster weapon? ) and add in piggyback system.

 

This is one way to transport your human character. When killed by enemy units, only the monster got killed, bit if they win, then both the monster and the person piggied got the exp points.

But the best part of the piggyback system, is the skill.

An example of the skill that initiate from the piggyback. Yes, that does seems like bomberman. Not even going to single line that one.

 

Next, theres the new item world.

They made the item world more challenging. First, youd need a ship. The default ships can only go as far as floor 30 and 60.

Of course, thatd enough. Thing is, the legend rarity (gold) items goes up to 100. To do that, youd need to eliminate the pirates (which are sometimes 2 times your level).

One more thing, Ive never completed the item world on disgaea 4 before, so i dont know if this is new or not. but from what I read, after you completed all 30 level on common rarity, the rarity will increase to rare (silver), and after you completed that, it will increase to legend (gold). After you completed that, the rarity doesnt change but the you can go to the item world from the floor 0.

Caption : A ¥500/30minutes rent boat. Thought about returning it but was afraid of the late fee. Not returning it. Lol.

 

The geopanel is the same as the.... Second? Not the one that block type and can be stacked. Its the triangle pyramid thing. Simpler.

Oh, when going into item world, its quite frustrating to manage which item to bring right? No? Oh well. Nevertheless, there is no chest item as such. You will bring all the items with you.

No more "OMG, I forgot the escape door"

 

The item court is still a feature in the game. The catch is; for the item court, you are going to need money instead of mana. Which costs like a fortune.

The court too has gotten much better. For one thing, there is the judge. The judge is usually asleep, but if he is awake, he can use special ability to support or condemn you. Like before, you can bribe, although there are many see saw effect in the game. Got too much support from one type, one other type will start to hate you.

Of course, you can always beat the hell out of them to make them approve. Or.......!

A new feature, you can literally throw money at them and make them approve. Requires A LOT of money though.

Lastly, is the gym. Much like digimon world, you can make your characters go to gym so theyd get an extra bonus when leveling.

Oh, I got Fuuka and Decco as a free DLC when the game came out.

One of the best axe in my team.

 

The story goes like this. Up until chapter 5 though.

Most demon dont recognise Larharl as the overlord. There are some that supports the former overlord but dont think the heir for the throne is suitable. (One of them is voice by Kuroyuki Hime from Accel World).

Some weird things are going at Makai. The heaven flower is blooming all over and causing some weird phenomenon. Like 2P Etna and Girl Larharl.

 

Overall, great game. It brings the memories back in a good way. Where most developer fail to deliver a sequel, NIS brings what people love about DISGAEA and present it with flowers all over. The humors are as good as ever and the seriously who didnt cry on the first game where the pink prinny goes back to the red moon? Its a sequel of that. DLCs are coming out too. Not sure if that a plus though.

The one in the middle is the angel from Kamipara (the guided fate paradox, great game too. Much like ZHP)

 

Coming out this fall for the PS3.

The clear file that I got as a gift. ^^

 

Have fun! If your stuck somewhere and wanted a guide, just give me a message below. I'll look it up on the book that I got. :)

 

6/10/13

"My" iPad

Wow, i just finished watching the E3 conference for microsoft. Those are some good games there got there. Im going to put up some of the screenshot of the games next post. Now, Im going to talk about the iPad that Im using.

Firstly, the games.

Dont mind the folder name. This is the folder of the relaxing games. The game that I play not so seriously. Consists of mobs of angry birds ( which I got for free ). The best thing here probably would be scribblenauts and anomaly I think.

Next comes the board games. This folder however, contain the board and card games that I once enjoyed, moved on, but still going there back once awhile. Reiner Knizia games are great mostly. Got most of them on offer.

And then the cards. As much I enjoy MTG, Ascension is a great card game too. The deck variety isnt much though, thats why I moved on.

And next, comes the hi-profile games. Im just learnt to play Le havre like a week ago, and I can only take on 2 level 2 oppenents. Its a really great game, no wonder it got the best board game of the year award from somewhere.

And then, theres warhammer quest, uplink, caylus, stone age..... Im enjoying those games too. Most because Im influenced by the guys from pocket tactics and boardgamegeeks actually.

I havent yet to learn to play tigris, eclipse and frozen synapse, but the the UI, graphics, idea seem great and I cant wait until I got the time to learn to play them. That is, after I got tired of le havre. Which is not that soon Im guessing. Agricola comes next though.

And then well.... Others. Lol. CnO duels is great though. Ive managed to make quite a great deck. Cant wait for the next update.

 

You guys can check out whats free right now by clicking this LINK. They keep tracking on the limited time discount too, so check them often.

So thats how my iPad layout looklike. The safari is for main browsing, and the chrome is use for the incigneto mode. IYKWIM. The presenter is use for research meeting.

 

Gaming isnt all that I do with my iPad.

I enjoy reading light novels too. Btw, these are sword art online novels that is translated by bakatsuki. Reading with iPad is great actually. I dont use a proper reader to read it though.

And.... Watching simpson. :) will put on The Office after I finished watching these.

 

And btw, this is not my ipad actually. This is my labs'

 

Meaning i have to return it before I graduated. Thanks for cloud saving huh.

 

Testing the new apps

Trying using blogsy since everyone recommended me that it is THE app for blogging from the ipad.

Putting random picture. Thats my lab computer. I installed civ 5 for a good reason.

Putting random link

And.....

 

Lets see how this apps goes.

 

450yen on the store. You guys can see whether or not its going to get a price cut or the update history here

 

Id probably be best for me to look at the intro video.

 

6/9/13

Testing the blogger apps



I did it!

Hurm, cant hyperlink text...

After a long time

I'll restart doing my blog.

Mainly, it will be about games, animes, and stuffs that I enjoy.

I just need to find a way to write a blog with my ipad.....

9/16/12

The Game and Anime I have been playing

Havent update for a while now huh.

Anyway.

Dangan Ronpa is really good~~~

Spoiler though.
 I wished this girl wouldve live though.


Too bad. 
The First guy that died in the game. Sorry. The first guy to be accused as murder in the game.


Recently I have been addicted to sharing these pictures.
PEPSI and GUNDAM colab

 
Dragon ball. There are 8 versions. I currently have 6. Can you guys name the characters with just looking at the shirt? ;D

 Ive been busy with my sent japanese things to you service. This is one of them.

Im also busy with my part time jobs. Which explains why I didnt update the blog for a while. Sorry future me.

The Anime Im watching this season are....

Accel World
 
 Just started watching this recently actually. Havent watched it before because.... Sorry for this.... The main character isnt really appealing.

Although!! After watched it a few episodes, the story shines through. The virtual setting is great. Its ep 23 right now when Im writing this but Chue turning into dark side made me felt so NTRed. Why Chue, why~~~~???????

The light novel itself is still continuing, so I'd hope they make a second season for this story.




Sword Art Online


Taking place in a virtual world. Seems familiar to Accel World? It should be. They are from the same author. In fact SOA take place a few years before AW. The is even a drama CD called VERSUS where kirito and Silver Crow fought.

The story is so great that I cant wait for the next week that I picked up the light novel and read them.

Still..... Its great.

Hyouka


Im curious!!. No, this got nothing to do with Geass. I picked up this anime because KyoAni created it. Great story. Even greater drama CD etc.


Yuruyuri 2 
Funny~~~~

----------


Currently out of game to play.

Waiting for Xillia 2 and Dishonored. Skipping Borderland 2 unless it is really really good. Skipped Mayonaka Arena too. Hated Fighting game. Will get iot if the price dropped to 3000yen for used game.

Recently finished Tales of Graces F. Great Game. Cant wait for Xillia.

Am currently playing Accel World on PSP.

Will make short FAQ or walkthrough if there are requests. Somebody asked me to do Nagato Phase just a few hours before through twitter. That..... Is..... Really long time ago.

Still try helping the dude though. Not by making a walkthrough, just helping the part where he got stuck.




7/6/12

Dungeon Twister ( my personal review & strategy )

I posted last week about Dungeon Twister and how I am excited about the game right?

Here is my personal review.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

First Impression


When I started to download the game, I was rather shocked. The file is only 156MB. Almost like a mini. The price is $9.99, which seems kinda overprice I think? Bought it anyway, though. Huuuuu~

Loading screen was as expected, simple. Just text. Font type Arial. Havent seen one of those since... I dont know, cheap ps2 games?

However, presentation asides, the game - the main dish - is an A plus.

Modes


As usual, single and multiplayer mode. No splitscreen though, not that I care.

Single mode consists of Tutorial, Challenge, Simple Game and Advance Game.

I was..... A n00b in this game. I only heard about this game a week before it came out at playstation blog. I was paying a really close intention at the tutorial

The tutorial is great. I just knew this game and here I am, on challenge 12 of the game. BTW, on default, there is only 10 challenges, after youve beaten the 10th challenge, the 11 will unlock, and after you beat that, the 12th will unlock. Im still thinking how to beat the game using only 2 pieces AND without the +4 , +5 , and +6 battle card.

In a sense, even if you dont like playing online, the single mode is great. They even rank you up in the single player mode.

You got points when you beat the challenge mode...


And then they rank you up.


When I took this picture I was at no.13. Im currently.... at 10 place. Which bring me to my next point.

My name is bugged!!!! Seeing why all the other player didnt get their name bugged, Im guessing it is because Im playing with my Japanese account I think. Racist, racist everywhere. ( Lol, im just joking, but please, repair that bug. )

Oh, havent play the multiplayer modes.

Reason is... The game itself is quite long. Imagine you playing chess online. Plus Im a new player, although Im quite good Id prefer to play against someone I know first, however none of my friends play this. T_T

Im guessing everyone feels the same as me so the game didnt got many online players. Anyone wants to have a round with me please invite. Akimura87

Graphics


The graphic in the game itself is above average I think. Unlike the loading screen, you can control the camera, follow the opponent moves, zoom in, zoom out etc. The models are made above average. I was hoping when you move the pieces, there is an option that enable the camera to turn into 1st person view, the fireball cutscene couldve be more dramatic, but nope. Though maybe its better that way. This game is a board game, not an action game. 


Sound


Not really noticeable.  It wouldve been better if each of the pieces got their own catch phrases or something. ( Phrases that left an impression to me is from red alert. Mean green and unseen. Surely you know what unit says this right? Leave the answer at the comment )


AI level


Challenging but not good enough.

There was this one time, the thief, wallwalker and warrior has already passed the goal line or killed ( No longer usable, no one can get through the locked door ), I managed to trap most of the opponent by rotating the floors. With nobody able to access the rotating device, all the AI did was pass his turn. The AI could have just move and take the really long way or just use the Troll I didnt manage to trap, but nope.


In a nutshell


Great game for board game lovers. Though seriously, could have been MUCH better. Great board  game, great idea, the refreshing originality is there but the digital implantation is really weak. Hopefully there is an update or great DLC coming up. Im giving this game a root 3 point.

Root 3, quite difficult to describe. Its best if you dont show it to elementary students.

By the way, IGN gave a 3/10.

-------------------------------------------------

My strategy in playing the game.

Pieces

Thief is the most versatile piece, with 5 box range movement, 2 attack and defense, the ability to ferry other pieces across pit and open/close doors, it my most lovable piece of the game. It is also easy to abuse the piece and score 2 victory points in one move. Get the speed potion, get the treasure and get out.

Mage is quite good. 4 box range movement with 1 attack and defense. A fragile old man that can hover over pit and enemy which is quite useful. Get him a fireball and you get a free 1 victory point.

These two are best to put at the edge of the board and let the other take the center. Easier to take all your pieces out.

Troll is your.... Troll. Put him at the opponent gate is probably the best idea. With 2 box range movement, 4 attack and defense, he is really slow but pack a punch. You can easily kill the idle pieces with it. Even if he is ganged upon, he can regenerate, or you can just move him pass the line. An easy 1 victory point.

Cleric is your field medic. With 4 box range movement, 2 attack and defense, the best way to play him is to pair him with another piece. Crucial because if you didnt heal your piece, your pieces die, which lead to you losing a point and cant getting a point. Oh, FYI, carrying your piece with another piece across the line didnt count as two victory points.

Goblin is great if your aim is to get through the line only. Getting him over the line equivalent to 2 points. With 4 box range movement, it shouldnt be too difficult if you try. He is quite fragile with 1 attack and defense though, best paired with another piece.

Mechanic is great because turning the floor anti-clockwise can be a great game turning point. However he is quite slow with only 3 box range movement. So best to be put in the middle.


Warrior is your fighter, great if your strategy is to destroy the opponent pieces. Quite slow with 3 box movement but pack a punch with 3 attack and defense. Oh, he can break the doors too. Useful if your thief is far and rotating the floor is too much of a trouble.

Last but not least, wallwalker. Like the name, she walk through wall. However she only walk through wall if you stand in front of the wall. Meaning you have to go to a wall, stop, wallwalk. 4 box range movement so quite handy, quite fragile with 1 attack and defense.

Main strategy


Speed


Get through the line. Solo move through unguarded path. Main piece would be thief, wizard and goblin I think. However getting the thief early in the game isnt a good idea.

Combat


Kill the enemy. My favorite. Best if you kill the weakling and avoid the tanks. Might want to ready cleric just in case. Get the wizard his fireball for an easy kill.

My strategy


Get the wizard his fireball. Kill someone with the fireball, 1VP. Gang up/use a strong piece to kill a weakling or two for a 1 or 2VPs. If your Troll is near the line, just cross for a VP. After managed to get 3VP, get the wizard and thief out. Speed potion helps.






That is my opinion. Leave in the comment for your thoughts. Invite me for a game sometime.