(consequently she is my highest levelled character, who would have thought :V) BUT FIRST, the boring part: review of Disgaea.
Disgaea is essentially a chess version of Ragnarok Online. You make (RO) a bunch (Chess) of characters which you can control and place onto a map (chess), and depending on your position (chess) you can do a variety of moves, including attack. Each character you make and level up (RO) has individual stats, classes, elements, weapons, and armor (RO). The sprites are also cute and animelike (RO) and a major deciding factor for me in getting and investigating the game. Oh and also, you can reincarnate characters in this game (RO, but I'm pretty darn sure RO ripped this off of Disgaea).
When just starting off the game felt pretty overwhelming. So many characters you could create, level them up to 9999, AND you had to get equips for them each... it seems that the game would take YEARS to understand and master. Furthermore, the character only gets exp if theyhave the last hit to kill the enemy! Well, needless to say I still think the game is pretty overwhelming but they have some tricks around Disgaea they conveniently put in to make matters, such as levelling, easy. Or at least, somewhat less difficult. But nevertheless, with the level limit being 9999, an ability to make an endless array of characters, and the option to reincarnate a character ALL THE WAY BACK to level 1... this game expects you to spend quite some time on it. This, by the way, only covers the "character" aspects of Disgaea. Levelling and customizing items, as well, can almost be a separate game itself.
Aside from gameplay, the other aspects are sadly, rather mediocre. (Take this comment, though, with a grain of salt, considering I've only gotten one (good) ending in the entire game). The storyline is good in terms of humor, as is the general descriptions of items and pretty much most of the game. However, at the end of the one ending I've managed to get so far, I thought the conclusion was quite cheesey and although they attempted some character development I felt that instead, the characters became worse off as the games went on. But overall, the story still managed to amuse, so that's fine.
One of the interesting aspects about the music of the game is that you can "buy" the background music and set it as the background music for a "mini" (though seriously, its not mini) game where you go into a particular item you have. Which is great, because the Item World is LOOOOOOONG and I don't want to be listening to some BGM I think is terrible, which was the case for the first couple runs through Item world when I was too poor to buy any of the music. The BGMs, for the most part, aren't that great and I'd still prefer to listen to my own music instead. The American Dubs are TERRIBLE and most absolutely unfortunately the japanese dubs are for PSP and PS2 only, which makes me kind of sad (although admittedly DS makes up for it with its extremely handy overview system for the top screen, which makes it incredibly easy to see what is where especially in really whacked up and stupid maps that Item World gives you sometimes). However, despite the DS's lacking capabilities in terms of graphics, the sprites and character designs are still cute and worthy enough to keep me amused throughout the game even if the plot does slowly degenerate.
So the (one) plotline (that I actually went through) degenerates, and the main characters for those plotlines are characters I rarely use anyway. What can make up for it? WHY, MY OWN CUSTOMIZED STORY INVOLVING THE CHARACTERS I USE, OF COURSE.
(Disclaimer: Even though I state that the plotline for Disgaea isn't that great I'm not going to dissemble the fact that my plot idea is better; it could just as well be just as cheesey and not interesting.
The story idea I came up with has some basis on the master-slave system they have in the game. See if you can figure out who are the masters and their respective servants are from the descriptions I give for the chars later. ALSO IF ANY OF THE NAMES LOOK FAMILIAR... well, obviously I'd name characters after characters I or other people made before due to my lack of originality in names.
General Plot Synopsis: The setting takes place in a fantasy/medieval type setting (appropriately enough), and begins in a moderate sized town situated in a clearing within a dense forest. The town has a fairly renowned mage academy, where many prospective students and wizard teachers reside peacefully with the local inhabitants of the town. One local resident of the town, a young child named Aria, is fascinated with magic and is eager to join the academy. Unfortunately, her magic potential did not seem very high and because of this, she was initially rejected by the academy for her poor performance during the entrance exams. Dejected, she ran away into the forest with tears swelling up in her eyes, too absorbed in her rejection to remember the dangers and warnings of going into the forest alone. After several hours had passed and Aria still had not come home, her two younger sisters, Ruby and Kyrie, set out to look for her since they were worried. They soon after found her talking with a mysterious dark nebulus, as if in some kind of trance. Aria had ran into a mysterious being and disclosed to it her inability to summon fire and/or ice during the trial. The being appeared to recognize Aria has having very large potential and volunteered to help her, under the condition that she makes a pact with it. Upon given the offer, Aria was first a bit skeptical, but then in an act of desperation. Upon performing the pact, the being revealed to Aria: if she had been asked to perform wind magic instead of ice or fire, she would have succeeded. The cloudy figure emitted a dark laugh, and Aria was only able to comprehend momentarily before she fell unconscious.
The next morning she woke up, feeling dazed and tired. It took her a second to realize she was not sleeping comfortably in her bed, and another second to realize the disastrous scene around her: the entire village, along with the academy, had been destroyed. Panicked, she quickly began looking around for any signs of life. Soon after she heard a voice of someone shouting out: it was Saifa, a good longtime childhood friend of hers. Saifa had gone out into the forest along with Aria's sisters to search for her, apparently, when an extremely large tornado hit the town. Saifa ran back to the village but it was too late; everything had already been destroyed. Shocked, Aria implored Saifa to tell her if there were any survivors; Saifa reluctantly stated she couldn't find any. Aria's parents were dead, and her sisters were missing. It was then Aria thought about the night before, and then realized what happened: She had done all this. Aria fell to her knees, helpless. Saifa inquired what was wrong, and Aria told her. Saifa was silent, for a while, while Aria looked down onto the floor with a guilty look on her face. It was then Saifa told her, "Let's go!" and to prepare for a journey. When asked why, Saifa asked, with an optimistic face, "To look for the person who tricked you, of course!" Aria was dumbfounded, then touched. Her best friend would still stick with her even though she had inadvertently destroyed her hometown which they lived in. She looked onto her hand and, just then, realized a small marking, indicating the pact. She reached for the skies, swearing that one day she'll get back at the person who made her do this.
The story takes place one or two years later, where the characters should be like, 13, 14ish years old? :V
(Right, short synopsis, indeed >.> )
CHARACTERS and their jobs. (the more interesting part)
Aria (Green Mage): The main character of the story. She has long, light (grassy?) green hair which flows smoothly and reflects light. Her eyes are sapphire-bluish and still retains a bit of innocence in them, although it is said that when she is under control her eyes become a dull red color. She wears a proper mage "schoolgirl" outfit reminiscent of those brown schoolgirl outfits in Shuffle. She is generally lighthearted, kind, and a bit reticent; she prefers to read a good book rather than fight. However she acknowledges she must find the person who she made a pact with and consequently, this person has many soldiers and monsters under his command, which she must fight against in order to reach her destination.
Saifa (Female Warrior >> Miko): The childhood best friend of Aria. She's a sporty, tomboyish type that's cheerful and optimistic about everything. However, she'd be more willing to get into a brawl if needed, and typically she's in the front lines protecting her friend. During her childhood her father was a weaponsmith and she was taught the ways of a spear, so she is a fairly skillful fighter in that respect. She has rather short, brownish hair and brownish eyes. At the beginning of the journey she has rather poor and tattered clothes mixed in with some armor from her father's shop that had endured the disaster. Later she takes on the same noble appearance as that of Plagal, appearing something like a kendo warrior. She has a strong dislike of Plagal and considers her, at best, a bitter rival.
Flonne (...Flonne): The only really major character from the game series that I'll mention here. Basically given godlike status and is over 1000 years old, though she still looks and acts very childish and idealistic. Always preeching about peace and flowers. Although it appears that she doesn't like to fight and says she doesn't want to fight, she actually enjoys battling and can become VERY scary if she gets an opportunity. Luckily she has two guardians which follow and protect her, and also keep her from getting out of control. Her current purpose is to investigate the dark matter similar to what Aria had encountered and to stop disasters caused by those who had been afflicted by the dark matter. Flonne takes interest in Aria since she has presumably made a pact yet still holds her own free will, and wants to know why.
Plagal (Miko): One of Flonne's two guardians. Typical cool-tsundere type character, always calm but serious. When Flonne and her guardians first heard about Aria and Saifa, Plagal attempted to attack them, believing that they were under the influence of the dark matter, but was later stopped by Flonne. In general throughout the journey she remains highly suspicious at Aria and Saifa. Otherwise, she is very loyal and always does her best to protect Flonne, like a typical devoted knight. Her appearance is that which if she wasn't a fighter she'd look like any other girl; she has long, slightly wavey hair that's silvery white in color, and is usually tied back in a ponytail because of her occupation. Wears traditional japanese kendo robe...thing.
Sanctus (Priest): The other guardian of Flonne. In contrast to Plagal's cold attitude, Sanctus emits an aura of maternity and empathy, and it is not unusual for her to act like the mother of Flonne at times. (She certainly appears like that, in any case, despite Flonne being much older than her) She dislikes fighting at all, but to prevent Flonne from entering the battlefield she learned some powerful light spells to accompany her potent healing spells. She is very willing to trust Aria and Saifa, and agrees with Flonne that they are allies. Her appearance is something like a typical caring maternal figure in a Ragnarok Online priest outfit. She has long light purple hair, slightly more horizontalish eyes (as an indicator of maturity, not sinisterness), and uh... a maternal figure, as I stated before. :V
Aya and Ara (Brawlers): Two high ranking henchmen of the mysterious nemisis for the group. They always appear together and look almost identical aside from their hair color. Aya is the older of the two, has short brownish-yellow hair, and is much more willing to talk smack to her opponents. Ara is the younger twin, has short reddish hair, and usually finishes her work quickly and stealthily. Aside from their usual tasks of blowing up innocent towns and causing terror, they are both assigned to look after Aria's group and occasionally cause trouble for them. Aya also mysteriously alludes to Aria that they are alike, which Aria denies vehemently. Both have slitted eyes and appear and disappear from scenes like ninjas. And has this cliche "evilness" aura around them.
Sheryl (Archer) and Wolf (Scout): A Romeo and Juliet-esque scenario in which both Sheryl and Wolf are outcasted by their traditional guild for having affections with each other, reason being the weapons they used. (Archers think Guns have no spiritual power, Scouts think bows are outdated, blah blah blah... becomes a faction and now no one knows why but they just hate each other.) Having been outcasted from their guilds, Ara provides them with shelter in return for their devotion to their army. However, neither of them like plundering towns and completely disagree with what they do, yet at that time they had no option and felt as if they could not back out of the contract. Then they met Aria, who made them realize that they didn't have to follow everything that their "master" told them to do. They rebelled against Ara and joined Aria's journeys.
Sheryl in general is a very meek character. She has slightly curly pink hair and tends to blush a lot. Typically when she's talking to strangers she will stutter and act as if she was a dojikko. However, despite her appearance she is an expert archer that can snipe as well as any other ranged item user. Her power lies more in delivering a single fatal attack rather than a barrage of multiple hits. Wolf on the other hand is more aggressive, speaks rather roughly and is quick to fire one too many shots. He is quite agile and good with getting around on land, making him very convenient for being... well... a scout. Sheryl and Wolf's relationship, interestingly enough, is one in which Sheryl dominates. In fact, Sheryl only speaks to Wolf with confidence and when she speaks to Wolf she always sounds commanding. Wolf, on the other hand, while appearing tough to outsiders, cannot help but wince whenever Sheryl seems the least bit angry (any anger Sheryl has at the moment is always directed towards him). In spite of everything they seem to love each other very much.
Also interesting to note that Wolf (so far) is my only male character in the game (besides the default characters)
Oppai (Succubus monster): A monster which Flonne captured. Flonne uses her as a doormat. Is, in general, comedy relief. Although at first she was furious and humiliated at her capture, she later comes to respect her master and learns some spells from her. I think, given her status as "Succubus" and her name as "Oppai", I need not describe her personality or appearance. :V
MORE CHARACTERS (possibly) TO COME. Maybe after I reach level 1000. Aria is going to transmigrate into a galaxy mage soon~~
(BTW this took over a week to finish, I am so slow)
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