It is been way too long since I featured this Netherwordly group of penguins, so let's do that. I'm naturally mumbling about Prinnies of Nippon Ichi's Disgaea series – and the next one on the to-do list is Disgaea 4. Depending on which version and/or system you got it on, the title is either:
The featured today is "A Promise of Sardines Edition" of Complete+.
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Part 4 is perhaps the most Prinny centric of the entire franchise outside the Prinny spin-offs. The game stars Valvatorez, a vampire who used to reign as a fearsome tyrant, but for plot-centric reason I won't get into, lost all his powers. Now he lives off of sardines and has become The Prinny Instructor of Hades; his job is to teach the Prinny ways to all human souls coming to work their penance, whether it is in heaven or hell.
Though content with his lot in unlife, the rest of the Netherworld is falling apart. Demons aren't scaring people any more, meaning people stopped believing and ending up in Netherworld (hell) as Prinnies in masses. Now Netherworld is drowning in Prinnies and there are rumours of Celestia (heaven) being borderline bankrupt due to the lack of belief.
After the Corrupternment of Hell decides to exterminate all Prinnies to solve the Prinny overpopulation, Valvatorez has to step up against them and fix the broken Netherworld. And the only way to do this is to start an upraising and join the Netherworld Evilections to become the President.
Yeah, I love this series; you never know what you get yourself into when you pick one of these games up.
The gameplay continues much the same way as before as tile-and-turn based tactical RPG combat. I covered most of it a much greater detail in the Disgaea 1 feature, but everything said there still holds true. There are additional mechanics, however; monster characters (all non-humanoids) can both fuse to create a larger version of themselves or Magichange to turn into a weapon for other characters to wield (the Devil May Cry 3 way).
The 'tower mechanic' is also streamlined, allowing for easier accumulation of 'character towers', opening that part of the gameplay greatly. This plays huge part in battles involving the returning coloured tiles and their gems – these alter the battlefield and manipulating them is often the difference between a success and a defeat. Most of the time, getting to them in a timely manner without getting wiped out becomes way more a puzzle than a tactical combat experience, and the key to it all is mastering the use of towers in getting around the map faster.
The main plot of the game being the Evilection, a big part of both the story and gameplay revolves around campaigning and the politics of the Netherworld. For example, promoting characters to their max ranks or unlocking new features to your base has to go through the Netherworld Senate, in which you can bribe senators, get them drunk or otherwise cause mayhem to get what you want.
There's so much to the gameplay of the series that I could write about it all day, not to mention endless side- and bonus content. But suffice to say, I absolutely recommend the game to anyone who likes tactical combat with a little puzzle twist – and those who love zany humour in their games in general.
As a final note, I want to remind those unfamiliar with the series that Disgaea titles are 'stand-alone' and they are not a continuation – in this case you don't have to play games 1 to 3 to understand 4. That said, Disgaea 1 is such a brilliant introduction to the world that I'd start with that.
Whichever you choose to go with, go get it, dood!
