Disgaea 2 Demo

Demons are a quintessential part of fantasy stories, since they are the perfect villains in almost every situation that involves the end of the world. Granted, the term “demon” is quite broad, so there’s never a shortage of ideas storytellers can come up with in order to describe them. Whether it’s a hellspawn bent on destruction, a fallen god trying to take over the world or a powerful human with demonic powers, there’s always a way to make them interesting.

Disgaea 2 is an old-school JRPG with a more lighthearted take on the subject, as well as an emphasis on story rather than combat. The game is ported from PlayStation 2, so it obviously features basic graphics and simple mechanics, as well as slightly awkward controls if you plan on using a keyboard. On the other hand, the story and the characters are quite enjoyable, depending on whether you can put up with a few silly concepts.

To begin with, the story concerns itself with a curse placed on the world of Disgaea by a powerful overlord by the name of Zenon. Naturally, a human by the name of Adell is trying to fight this curse, and he gathers a team of unlikely heroes to help him along, including the daughter of Zenon itself. The whole thing is quite comical, so don’t expect a serious story.

You control the character from a top-down perspective, which makes it easy to explore the maps and interact with various objects. Every now and again a selection screen appears that lets you decide your next destination, because the maps are split into sections and you cannot just walk from one area to another like in an open world game. The combat takes place in a special screen as well, and the mechanics are pretty straightforward, especially since there’s a tutorial in place.

Lastly, the graphics are about as basic as you would expect from a PlayStation 2 game, but they are by no means ugly. You can tell that the designers have put quite a bit of work into the artwork, and the character sprites are fairly expressive as well. The same can be said about the music and the sound effects, because they go pretty well with the action.

In the end, Disgaea 2 is one hell of an adventure, even if it’s not as serious as most RPG fans would like. However, the comedic situations can take the edge off and make everything a bit more fun over the course of the story.