Though why the hell you'd put a picture of a 2 x 3 image replication on the picture of a feature that can only do reps in the vertical dimension is well beyond the scope of my understand.
Copier hassles notwithstanding, Disgaea 2 time.
Nippon Ichi has really patched up what made Disgaea not so great and enchanced what did make it great. As if the first game didn't have infinate replay to begin with, Disgaea 2 expands upon that. Much of the core system, Attributes, Extra Gain, Master and Pupil bonus, Mastery Bonuses, Item World and Innocents (Specialists), Reincarnation (Transmigration), Dark Council (Heavy variation though), Geo Panels, Lift and Throw, and Rarity Chaining still remain.
I debated for quite awhile if I was going to retain my Disagea personas into the second game; Claire, Candace, Ivan/Evelinne, Sean, etc, but after a perusal indicated that Ronan had become a male-only class, I scrapped it and went with a fresh force.
So, what has changed?
Overall system changes.
You can now Attack while holding people, creating what is called a Tower Attack, generally weaker than each person would be individually, but good for gaining an extra square of attack distance and for fighting strongly in tight spaces. Also, you can now throw a Character or stack of Characters onto another Character or Stack and have them catch and automatically Lift the group. You can also throw diagnally by tossing while switching directions. I'd say it seems like a glitchy thing, except the game tells you how to do it.
The Counter-Attack system has been revamped. Instead of Counter, Counter x1, Counter x2, Counter x3, etc it's been changed to Counter, Counter-Counter, Counter-Counter-Counter, which is infinately more amusing.
Special attacks can now Critical, Hit, Nick, and Miss entirely, as can spells. Multihit attacks speed to be entirely binary in this respect, it's wholely all or nothing.
You now have options to turn off the special attack animations of Allies, Enemies, and Geo Panel Destruction, each individually. So if you're tired of Omega Star, you can now turn off Ally Anims and lay waste to your heart's content.
Weapons:
The classic weapon categories return, with one addition, however building on their sucess of implementation of tweaks in Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom, they're slightly revamped. I haven't had the time to play up to Skill 40 or 60, or wherever the 6th Weapon Skill lies these days (Actually, only Adell and Rozy have even gotten the 4th skill, at 10 in Fist and Guns, respectively, so far).
Fist Weapons - Damage dependant on a mix of Attack and Speed, High Counterattack value (Claire would've loved this variant).
Skills : Triple Strike - Same as before, 3 hits and a 1 square knockback, looks 300% more awesome now.
Tiger Charge - Revamped, now strikes for 4 squares away with on a 1 square knockback requirement.
Lion's Roar - Same as before, hits twice, once at 25% and then once at 100%. Not sure how the damage is relative to the first game, seems overall higher.
King of Beasts - The quintessenial Fist Skill returns. Like most of the other skills, this now deviates from the Disgaea system of 11 hits at x damage, instead opening with a upper cut of light blows, a few moderate damage aerials, and then a punishing meteor strike. I kinda like that the damage is no longer a flat constant, though in the end, it's just the total damage that matters.
Sword Weapons - Attack based damage, very rarely any movement or knockback spaces required.
Skills : Blade Rush - Same as before, 3 squres needing an open one behind, still highly useful in a variety of situations.
Hurricane Slash - Depending on whether Nightsever makes its return, this might be the essential two hit Sword skill.
Moon Slash - This one's new. Strikes a 3 target line, perpindicular to your facing. A ranged slash that crosses the T, great for when you can't move up and around for a Blade Rush on a line of three.
Axe - Strength Based damage, comes with negative Hit values but a high critical rate and damages the target's Defense.
Skills : Only unlocked the first two, and their identical to Disgaea's.
Spear - Attack based damage, comes with additional Defense. Gives a chance to Guard (reduce category and damage) of strikes from the front.
Skills : Secondary skill has been changed out for a 5 hit semi-ranged attack that lands you behind them, rest are same except cooler looking.
Bow - Attack and Hit combined-based damage. If it lands the killing blow, has a chance of spawning a treasure chest.
Skills : Against, a host of single target skills with status effects. The secondary is an attack called Raiden shot, that can actually by targetted anywhere within the normal firing grid.
Gun - Hit based damage. Has 1 Range greater than the bow, but can only be fired in straight lines. Decreases Speed on the hit target.
Skills: Changed to non-elemental, single target skills with just distance requirements. Several of them don't even have the distance req, letting you fire the skill anywhere the gun could already shoot.
Staves - Same workings as before. Increase with use or castings. Increase Potency, Cast Distance, and Area Affect of Spells.
No Skills.
Monster Weapons - Now come in two flavors. Melee with Strength and Hit and Caster with Strength and Intellect. They've added several Caster variety monsters, who damage with their skills based on Int, to go with this.
No Skills.
Classes:
Some classes got slight alterations. Lords were removed in favor of Geomancers, Ninja was made a dual gender class, Ronin was revamped to be male only. Alot of the classes now have a special feature during certain situations, alot of them are Stat X Up during Critical Health.
Warriors - Male and Female (Best weapons Sword, Spear (F), Axe (M)) - Attack Up (M) and (F) on Critical Health.
Skulls and Mages - Male and Female Skilled Caster Class - Of the Red, Green, Blue (and later Star) variety) - Faster Magical Growth (M) and Decreased SP Cost for Spells (F). Gain debuff skills, Break Armor (decrease Defense), Blind (decrease Hit), Slow (decrease Speed), etc.
Clerics - Still Female Only (Equal skill (C) with Bow and Staff) - Adds to Resistance of nearby allies (I think the actual Res Stat). Gains buff spells in addition to healing magic, Magic Wall (increase Resistance), Shield (increase Defense), Braveheart (increase Attack), Magic Boost (increase Intellect), etc.
Geomancer - Caster/Geo class - I think if they hadn't made this the crotchety old man class I'd have an army comprised of them. They're immune to Geo Change Damage, come with Star Magic and Healing right from the start, and they have Geo Change. Their attributes are mediorce at best however.
Sinners - Male Fist Weapon Class - Counterattack Damage Up in Critical Health
Gunner - Male Gun Weapon Class - Damage Up in Combo Attacks.
Archer - Female Bow Weapon Class - (I've forgotten)
Ninja - Male and Female Skilled Class - Dodge Up in Critical Health (M) and Extra Attack in Critical Health (F, absolutely badass). Males get Utsusemi (replacement jutsu) which cracks me up. They disappear in the puff of smoke and are replaced by a log while they strike the opponent from behind. Females seem to have Status Effecting attacks. Their primary Paralyzes the target by throwing Kunoi into the target's shadow, their secondary is a sleep-inducing effect.
Heavy Knight - Male High-Defense Class - The game loves to throw these things at me with spears in Stages where I can't sidestep them. They've got brutally high natural Defense and Health, and they get Defense Up on Critical Health.
Thief - Female Skilled Class - I think these things were male, based on voice, in the first game. That is no longer the case. Not only can they steal, but they actually have a variety of status effects, termed as stealing various intangiable things. Poisoned is Steal Health, Paralyze is Steal Freedom, Sleep is Steal Consciousness. They've lost their long throw range, but it's worth the cost.
Chaos Warriors - I think these are akin to the Earth Defense Force soldiers of the first game, but you have to get to New Game + to unlock them, so I'm uncertain.
Beastmaster - Female Skilled Class - I kinda find the furries cute. They're similar to the Catgirl Monsters, but human. They amplify attributes of nearby friendly monsters, and their Skills are Monster-specific buff spells (ultra powerful version, their secondary adds Attack, Intellect, and Hit all at once).
Knight - Female Skilled Class - The Knight revamp is amazing. Instead of adding a random spell to their attacks, they cast a spell to channel any element into their weapon, retaining it until they change elements. In addition they have spells to increase Elemental Resistance (Fire, Ice, Wind). Sadly, giving them a Sword severely hampers their cast-range, but it's a small price to pay for kicking ass.
There's a nice host of monsters, some with execeptionally cool abilities. Zombies gain life when they finish an opponent, Ghosts regenerate with each round. There are a few with select Elemental Immunities (Like Hounds are immune to Wind), and of course, Prinnies explode.
Currently my army consists of Adell, Rosalin, the female storyline Snow-Clan Ninja (Replacement jutsu with a Snowman with), Male Warrior, Female Warrior, Thief, Red Skull, Priest, Female Ninja, Knight, Beastmaster, and a Warslug (Named Sluggy. He's Immune to Ice, Intellect based Damage. Primary is a 5 Square Lightning Spell, Secondary is a self-targeted Intellect Boost).
Geo Symbols
The Geo System functions the same as before, they've just added some cool new Symbols to the lineup:
Move +1, Move -1, Attack +1
Attack +50%, Attack -50%, Defense +50%, Defense -50%
Heal 20%, Damage 20%, Ally Damage 20%
Enemy Boost +50%, Enemy Boost x3
Exp +50%, Mana +50%, Hell +50%
No Entry, No Lifting, No Close Combat, No Ranged Combat (You can use multisqure attacks, just only the point blank targets get hit), No Tower Attack
Stage Complete (Storyline only, not item world. Stage ends when you end turn with a character in it)
Warp, Clone, Fusion (Fuses Enemies on these squares, leveling them as if they had been thrown together), Invulnerablity, Encroach (Your character cannot leave these squares), Enemy Level up 10% (10% Chance of a Level up for each enemy on these squares. Ie, each enemy has a 10% chance to level, not 10% each per monster), Split Damage (Damage dealt to any of your characters on these squares is split evenly amongst them).
