Part 4: It's a Battle, Dood?

Chapter 3: It's a Battle, Dood?

Last time on Disgaea 2 we were about to set off in search of Overlord Zenon. Today we learn that we're not the only people trying to knock him off.

Drama- Tutorial 1 Pre-Fight.




Is Zenon's curse getting stronger? I better hurry before everyone loses their memories and turns into real monsters...





Ouch! Critical hit.
W-W-What are you doing, you dolts!? I am the daughter of Overlord Zenon! Such a violent act shall not be forgiven!
Prinny: Like we care, dood. Our boss is gonna take out Overlord Zenon, so eat prinny bombs dood!
What did you say!? Are you confessing to be lackeys of some charlatan plotting to kill my father!?
Prinny: You got it, dood. We're lucky we found you out here, dood.
...H, hey! What happens now?
Obviously, we kick their ass!
Ah, yes, excellent plan. However, there is a slight problem.
What kind of problem?
...I...I do not know how to fight.
...You're joking, right?
I do not joke with peasants!

Tutorial 1

Tutorials 2-4

So, these four tutorials give us a brief rundown of the basics of battle in Disgaea 2. On our turn we can deploy characters from our Base Panel, move them, give them commands, and execute these commands. Let's go over some of the basic wrinkles of Disgaea combat:

Chain Attacks:



When we perform a melee attack while friends are adjacent to us, there is a chance we will perform a Chain Attack. The chances of Chain Attacks will vary by character and weapon. In general, characters with the same type of weapon will have a larger chance of a Chain Attack. Masters and Students will have higher than normal chances of Chain Attack, while story characters that like or dislike each other will have higher or lower chances (for example, Rozalin cannot normally Chain with Adell right now).

Combo Attacks:



Consecutive attacks on a target in one Execute command will lead to each successive attack doing more damage, which is needless to say very useful.

Lift and Throw:



Human characters can lift and throw friends and enemies. This lets us travel long distances in a turn, which is extremely valuable. We can also combine enemies together by throwing them into each other. Further, enemies we throw into our base panel can be captured if they're a monster. Lifting and throwing is key to gameplay in Disgaea and mastering it is necessary to pass some of the more tricky maps.

Geo Panels and Symbols:



Colored panels often cover the ground. These are Geo Panels. They provide passive bonuses and penalties to characters standing on them. The effects of the Panels are determined by Geo Symbols. These Symbols provide an Effect and have a Color. When we kill a Symbol, it will turn all the panels of the color it is on to its Color. This will do damage to anything on a changed panel, and will kill any Symbol on it, causing chain reactions. If we can clear all the Geo Panels on a map, we get an extra bonus as well, as it will damage all enemies, even those not on a Panel. Clearing Geo Panels is the fastest way to raise the Bonus Meter, which determines how much bonus loot we get after a map. We can throw Geo Symbols to control where their effects occur and control how they will clear. However, we can no longer clear them by throwing an enemy into them, which would kill them in Disgaea.

Shops:

There are three shops in Holt Village. One sells weapons, one sells armor, one sells consumable items. Buying more items allows us to upgrade our shop rank and purchase higher quality items. There's not much to it.

Hospital:

In Holt Village we can heal our characters, which will cost us Hl earned in battle. After restoring certain amounts of Hp, Sp, and restoring certain numbers of allies to life, we get bonus items.

Dark Assembly:

I'll go into more detail on the Assembly later, but our main use for it right now is to turn the Mana we earn in battle into new characters. More powerful characters cost more Mana to create.

Tutorial Outro




I lived in a beautiful mansion with hundreds of servants and everything I ever wanted! So, why would I ever need to learn to fight?
Fighting is for the lower classes! It is our duty as nobles to use those fights to improve our kingdom and subjects!
...So, you're the Overlord's precious, spoiled daughter. How cliché. But, you must be very important to him.
That's right. I am. My father cherishes me.
Is it not the same with humans? That is what I have read in my text books. Parental love, family love...
......
Were my text books wrong?
...No, they got it right. I'm fighting for my family, too.

Next time on Disgaea 2: Iron Fists of the Dark Hero!