Disgaea - Official

Rhapsody is a mix of good and bad. The story, charm, translation and humor is great. The artwork, character design, and sprite animation are all excellent. The random battle encounter rate is very, very, very low. The musical numbers are...well, some are okay and some make you want to tear your ears off. But they add to the overall charm of the game.

However, the battles, while set on a grid like traditional SRPGs, require NO strategy at all and are so easy that it's almost impossible to even come close to losing, even when trying to do so. Picture the most basic SRPG combat system and there you go. The battles are set on flat planes and the areas you fight on are themselves incredibly small.

The normal areas are nice but the dungeons are all underground tunnels that all use the same exact graphics and are super-repetitive visually. Also, the game is really short- I recall beating it in under 10 hours (possibly 6 or 7). Actually, that was cool- I don't really have the time to invest 80 hours into an RPG.

Overall, despite the game's problems, I found Rhapsody very enjoyable and well worth picking up. Oh, and did I mention that Marjoly is hot? She's the first 2D RPG character that I recall having the DOA bounce... :D

Also, the game comes with a free soundtrack CD, but I doubt it'll be spending much time in your discman...

Okay, finally caved and bought this game; now I've put a few hours in.

So far, like most of these type of games, it's getting addictive, but I can hardly consider it "superior" to FFT...I'm not even sure I like it better than TO. Overall it's very nice, but the problem's I have with it so far:

- obnoxious voices; just omit them, they're pointless anyway
- obnoxious music (so far); it feels like I'm playing "Merry-Go Lollipop Adventure"
- pain in the ass to level characters; exp through kills only is retarded, and it's really hard to level non-fighters, since they can't kill anything, and half the time they won't combo even if you have it set up to. Additionally, new characters often die in one hit, making it a nuisance to even bring them out to try and level
- weird broken system; I think I got the combos down, and I understand how someone can get an "extra" turn by jumping into someone else's combo. However, it seems wrong to me that I can move someone in position to combo, have someone else activate it, and then "cancel" their move to start all over again. How'd that get by?
- clogged menus...these type of games tend to have these anyway, but Disgaea is particularly bad. No way to sort inventory is annoying, and it's not always clear what's optimal to equip. Lack of available 'equip' spots is something I'd hold FFT over it too. Too many times I have to cancel all the menus, just to go into another set of menus, just to check something I wanted to know when I was looking in the first set of menus.

I don't really like the tone of the game so far either, and your guy looks like a total fruit speed-walking throughout the castle, not that it really matters.

Still, the battles are addictive and fun, as is customizing your characters. Team Attacks are really cool sometimes too.

Some questions: During a battle, you can bring up the "bonus" menu, telling you...what? -every thing you could potentially win on that level? Also, what does the Bonus bar at the bottom of the screen do for you? Just affect the cash award at the end?

God damn, I have to stop reading this thread. I told myself that I wouldn't play this until after FFTA but... I can feel my will power falling apart my the minuetes.

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Originally Posted by Captain Vegetable

I found a Rhapsody in English, but I hadn't expected it, which is why I made the "even in Japanese" comment. ;)

Who sells La Pucelle? NCSX either doesn't carry it or is out at the moment.

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Ooh, oh. I see. :)

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Originally Posted by FuryFox

Some questions: During a battle, you can bring up the "bonus" menu, telling you...what? -every thing you could potentially win on that level? Also, what does the Bonus bar at the bottom of the screen do for you? Just affect the cash award at the end?

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Yeah, the bonus menu tells you what war trophies you can aquire after a battle. It goes with the bonus gauge at the bottom right. With each successful attack the bar fills up, as you probably already noticed. The number next to the bar tells you up to which bonus you'll recieve. Since the gauge starts at zero you'll automatically get the first bonus as long as you pass the battle. Once the number becomes one you'll get bonuses zero and one, and so on till you've gotten all nine bonuses. It's a good way to get extra EXP and HL in the item world, as well as some rare and legendary items.

I agree with you some what on the music. While I do think the music is good, I generally prefer mose serious music in SRPGs. But given the light-heartedness of the game, it is rather appropriate.

Also, you can sort your inventory. While at the inventory screen press triangle and it auto-sorts. You can do it manually by clicking the item then clicking elsewhere.

Geez... I've poured about 30 hours of my life into this game. It's soooo dad gummed addictive. And i thought i was getting near the end with episode 6. The item worlds are eeeeevil. I like to take my highest level character and see how far she or he can get by her or himself, with the occasional throw. Etna's so cute.

So... Level 2000. I think my highest level chara is in the 30's. Is there some secret way to leveling up or should my hour count be well into the hundreds by the time i'm through with this one.


(>:| Side notes... The stupid strategy guide's nowhere to be found in Savannah, GA. A friend of mine said there were 4 at Gamestop on the day it came out. Not knowing it had a bunch of artwork, i didn't even look until i started reading about it. Also, every copy of the game in town is sold, as far as i know. The guy behind the counter even remarked, "Can you believe 4 people put this "Dis Gay Uh" game on hold?")

(edit stuff, cuz i forgot)

I hate having to choose between English and Japanese. The English voices are excellent (Naota's English voice actress is Laharl's English voice) , but i miss all the cool singing in some of the background songs unless it's in Japanese. Some times i end up resetting the game and changing the dub track just so i can hear the voices in both languages.

Bah. I love the music, much more than that boring FFTactics, or Tactics Ogre music. It fits the game.

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Originally Posted by Finch

Bah. I love the music, much more than that boring FFTactics, or Tactics Ogre music. It fits the game.

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!!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Tragic

God damn, I have to stop reading this thread. I told myself that I wouldn't play this until after FFTA but... I can feel my will power falling apart my the minuetes.

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Cave!

Wouldn't you rather play something entirely new and unique? You know you do... so why fight it. ;)

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Originally Posted by Finch

I hate having to choose between English and Japanese. The English voices are excellent (Naota's English voice actress is Laharl's English voice) , but i miss all the cool singing in some of the background songs unless it's in Japanese. Some times i end up resetting the game and changing the dub track just so i can hear the voices in both languages.

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Hrm. I suppose I should try the English soundtrack at some point.... I really love the Japanese one. Maybe I'll use English the next time I play the game. I can already tell this is a game that deserves to be played multiple times.... and I don't do that often with RPGs. :)

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Originally Posted by Finch

Bah. I love the music, much more than that boring FFTactics, or Tactics Ogre music. It fits the game.

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I love the music as well. Love! If a soundtrack is released, I will buy it. Like you said, it fits the game perfectly and it's very very nice. :)

As for the game itself. I can't say anything about FFT because I don't have much interest in that game for mainly aesthetic reasons... but Disgaea blows Tactics Ogre out of the water, and that's saying something considering that I love Tactics Ogre! ;)

Disgaea is so refreshingly original.... and it's not just different for the sake of it. All of the new ideas really work wonderfully.

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Originally Posted by sggg

Cave!

Wouldn't you rather play something entirely new and unique? You know you do... so why fight it. ;)

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See now, I was all ready to cave but then I realized I'm gonna want a good GBA game to play during my two one hour long gaps I have between classes at school this year. So I'll play FFTA. And I don't want to be in the middle of 2 SRPGs

Yeah, I'm still playing it after all, there's just little things that bug me about it.

Another one:

It's a freakin' chore to buy stuff! There's no way to see how much better something is than what you already have...if you "try it on" and lay it over your weapon, it just shows the new weapon stats, but if it's in any other slot, it somehow adds more to attack, even though you can't dual-wield weapons. So, I have to exit all the way out, check stats, go back in, but wait, the inventories changed! Gah!

Plus, I have no idea what those stats mean, like "dietician" or "gladiator" but I know they do something...maybe I just missed it.

Vandal Hearts had the best equip system in any game EVER. You go to the item shop...highlight an item in the weapon, armor or accessory class. It instantly compares it to the item you already have equiped. If you choose to buy it, the game asks if you want to equip it then and there. If you say yes, it then asks if you want to sell your old item. Quick, simple, hassle-free.