Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories (魔界戦記ディスガイア2, Makai Senki Disugaia Tsū, literally: Netherworld Battle Chronicle Disgaea Two) is the second game in the Disgaea series. The game shows the story of Adell, a young human who hunts demons in his homeworld that got cursed, also wanting to take vengeance against the one responsible for it all, Overlord Zenon. The game was released in Japan on February 23, 2006, with the American release on August 29, 2006. An Xbox version was announced, but was cancelled.

In 2009, Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days, a PSP version developed by Silicon Knights PSP, was published. Later in 2017, a port of this version was released on PC as Disgaea 2 PC.

Plot
You are Adell, a young man who in the small town of Holt. Everyone except you was turned from human to demon 15 years ago, including Mom and Dad who gave birth to Hanako and Taro after being cursed. The world was changed Overlord Zenon has gradually been turning everyone into demons and stealing their memories.

As Adell, you attempt an assault on Zenon himself, meeting some very interesting people along the way. A botched summoning brings the daughter of Overlord Zenon, Rozalin, and binds her to you. Her servant, Tink, was turned into a frog and wants revenge.

Your brother and sister, Taro and Hanako, join you in your travels. A ninja you find in the Colosseum, Yukimaru, decides to accompany you to destroy Overlord Zenon. Finally, a Demon Lord that you mistakenly set back to level 1, Etna, demands to travel with you until she regains her levels.

Gameplay
The game is broken down into episodes, and each episode is broken into battles. The whole game is centered around the town of Holt except for the Colosseum episode and the exit of the Colosseum. From there, the player uses the dimensional guide, Friday, to travel to each level and complete it. Once completed, a level can be replayed, though story characters (such as Axel, Etna, etc.) will be replaced by a generic character.

Town of Holt
The town of Holt is the central location from which the party will operate. It contains three shops: Weapons, Armor, and Items. It also has the Dark Assembly, the Dark Court (for Subpoenas), the Netherworld Hospital, the Item Worlds, the Dimension Guide, and a handful of citizens that you can talk to. Throughout the story Holt is temporarily replaced by the Colosseum's waiting room, the passage between the floors of the Colosseum and the Land of Carnage.

Equipment
Equipment comes in three major categories. A character can equip one weapon and three pieces of armor. The third type, items, can be used in the field for various effects (such as healing HP, healing SP, etc.).

Weapons
Weapons come in several categories. The humanoid classes (mages, skulls, gunners, etc.) can equip seven different kinds of weapons. Each class has a mastery rating for every weapon (E,D,C,B,A,S). This reflects the speed at which the weapon skill grows and the maximum level for that character with that weapon. Monster classes can equip one of two kinds of weapons, one focused on intelligence and the other, attack power. For a complete listing of the types and names of the weapons, click here.

Armor
Armor also comes in various forms. Armor is the staple defense item in the game, though one can draw defense from other sources. Each armor type does different things. Heavy armor reduces speed but offers the best protection in the game. Robes increase intelligence as well as protect. Light armor merely protects. These are all up to preference depending on the character you are attempting to develop. In addition, various other items (such as eyewear, weights, muscles, etc.) can be equipped in the same slot. A character has three slots available. For a complete listing of the armor, click here.

Items
In Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, there are items you can obtain by playing throughout the game, or by simply buying them ingame. Items can be used to heal characters, regenerate their SP, remove status ailments, and various other things. Buying items costs HL (Hell), the netherworld's form of currency. You can obtain HL by completing stages or by selling items. You can also extort money from senators at the Dark Assembly with 10 mana, however, this usually requires you to "persuade by force", which should be explained in the Dark Assembly Section.

When you deal damage or get a geo combo while in a stage, you can add to the bonus gauge. When the bonus level increases, you earn items, hell, or experience at the end of the stage. The Bonus gauge caps at level 9, and it starts at level 0.

Items can be enhanced through the seemingly endless Item World, which can be entered at Holt Village and a few other places. While in the Item World, mysterious gates can appear, sometimes leading to shops that sell you items you can't find elsewhere.

Combat
Combat is, of course, the center of the game. Without fighting in the various battles, the game would not go on. As in depth as possible, the strategic nuances of combat in this game:

Combat Basics
The core of the combat basics is this: You move your characters into strategic positions based on the move rate of that character, choose an attack form (attack, spell, or skill), and choose a target. The attack will do damage, miss, or do no damage based on the computations of the statistics of each character involved. That being said, numerous nuances to that simplicity exist. Besides individual character actions, the characters can function as a unit to much greater effect.

Lifting and Throwing
One of the basic abilities is the lift. Only human classes can lift players and monsters. Once a target is lifted, you have the option to throw them or perform a tower attack (see below for tower attack). For throwing, each class has a specified distance and height that they can throw.

If you pick up an enemy and throw it, you can force it to walk back or maybe get it stuck on its own "island" (in the item world especially. You can also throw it into another monster, merging the two. The lesser level will be absorbed by the greater level, increasing that creature's level by the absorbed creature's level (i.e. you throw a L10 into a L20, the L10 will be absorbed and the L20 will become a L30). You can also throw the enemy into another ally's hands, making them the holder. You can merge an enemy with another enemy lifted by another ally as well. Beware, if you hold an enemy and end the turn, the character holding the enemy will receive damage.

You can also lift allies. You can throw an ally to increase the distance that they can close (especially helpful for quickly skipping in the Item World). You can also create tower attacks (see below). One other thing to note, when you create a tower of people, you can throw with each one (i.e. You have a three person tower and the bottom one throws the two tower three spaces forward. You could then have the bottom on of the two tower throw the top person).

You can also lift Geo Symbols and chests for various reasons. One of the bigger reasons is to get them away from enemies or to remove them from invincibility geo symbols. The geo symbols can be thrown onto different Geo Panels to add their effect if the player so desires. It also works in reverse (removing the symbol to remove the effect).

Combos
Combos are obtained by having someone stay in one place and perform actions. The greater the number of actions in a row, the greater percentage increase of damage or healing. This has a limit, however. The maximum combo boost you can get is 475% after 256 combos.

Chains
Chains are performed by attacking the same enemy with different characters in one turn and in one execution. Chains increase the damage of each character in the chain. The initiator receives no bonus, but each character afterwards gains a bonus with each character gaining a greater bonus than the last. Chains must be performed against the same enemy and in one execution.

Team Attacks
In Disgaea, there is something known as team attacks. It allows multiple people to attack the same enemy at the same time.

How to use: set people up so one person attacks the enemy, and the others stand next to him/her. To get the maximum combo, have your allies surround the attacker so that there are 4 of them. The more people attacking, the better the attacks!

Tower Attacks
Tower attacks are created by lifting characters. Once one character lifts another, the group has an option to attack. This is a tower attack. You can tower attack with up to ten people in the tower (dictated by the number of people that you can field). NOTE: Monsters cannot lift. If you want one in the tower, they must be the top character.

The benefit of a tower attack is simple. When an enemy is killed, the experience and mana is divided evenly among all members in the tower. In addition, special effects still work when attacking (like lowering defense or speed). Also, when the tower is attacked, only the bottom person takes damage.

This is one of the many leveling techniques used by players to reach high levels quickly. For example, find a high level creature. Place a low level person on the top of the tower and a high level person on the bottom. When you attack and kill the creature, each person receives equal experience and mana. When the lower level receives higher experience, they gain levels quicker.

Classes
Classes are broken down into two major categories: Human Classes and Monster Classes. Different human classes are available as you unlock them in the Dark Assembly. Requirements need to be met for most class bills to be available. Monster classes are available merely by defeating the first one of that class.

Classes each have six tiers that can be obtained. Using a higher tiers usually grant higher base stats. The Mages and Skulls, however, have different spells available depending on the tier you choose.

Episodes
The game is comprised of thirteen normal Episodes and thirteen Hidden Episodes. The Hidden Episodes are obtained by going through the Dark Assembly after meeting specific conditions. Each has a boss to defeat before continuing.

Item World
The Item World is a place accessible by the party where you can level up your items. Items that are leveled up have higher stats than items that are lower level. The stat increase depends on the base stats for the item.

In addition, in the Item World and possible to find the Pirates. There are 18 pirates in total, each one of them saves 1 Treasure Map, that when you get at least 16 of these, you will have access to the Land of Carnage.

Dark Assembly
The Dark Assembly allows the player to do various things. It is run on Mana, a form of currency given to players as they slay enemies. Once inside the Dark Assembly, a player can either bribe the senators to get what they want, or defeat them, with their entire party (maximum of 10 on the field) or with only Adell when attending a Dark Assembly as a senator.