Developed and Published by Nippon Ichi Software
Date of Release: January 30, 2017
Price: $19.99
Well, here we are once again, ready to take the plunge into the netherworld. It's been a year since the amazingly polished port of the original Disgaea: Hour of Darkness made it's way to PC under the apt title of Disgaea PC. It was a slightly rocky launch, but things got ironed out quickly enough and all the major bugs have been squashed. With lovely sprites, upgraded texture work, and some modern touches like normal mapping and ambient occlusion, it really ended up being the definitive version of the 2003 classic. Sadly, now that the follow-up Disgaea 2 PC has hit the scene, the exact same cannot be said for it.
Don't get the wrong idea though, Disgaea 2 PC is every bit as great a game as the original, but this port is lacking a lot of the polish that made Disgaea PC great. There's no HD textures, and the sprites are a bit blurry this time around, with the terrain having weird texture tiling issues. Honestly though, those are just a few visual flubs that can easily be patched out later, and barely detract from the real spectacle here, with is the intense SRPG action. Disgaea 2 PC is, like its predecessor, a simply amazing turn-based strategy RPG. A lot of that comes from the flawless execution of its battle system, which has a staggering amount of depth. If you like grinding, this series is for you, as you can level up your characters to 9999, and then enter dungeons based on their very equipment, and level their items and weapons up as well by beating massively powerful bosses in the item worlds.
There's countless hours of superb gaming to be had here, and the well-done interface helps a lot with that. The interface elements have been redrawn painstakingly in HD, and the new character portraits are crisp and clean. The soundtrack by Tenpei Sato is there in all it's glory, and the voice acting is a real treat. Also impressive is the new mouse driven interface for the PC version, though if you want to use a gamepad that works just like in the PS2 days. All in all Disgaea 2 PC is a slightly flawed but impressive addition to the series new home on PC. If grindy-ass SRPG goodness is your bag, go get it!
