Full Game Review
NIS America©
Genres: Comedy, RPG, Tactical, Fantasy
Genres: Comedy, RPG, Tactical, Fantasy
Plot Summary
Some people just aren't fit to play God. The God of Death is back, and he's looking for trouble! Use this power to slay the mighty World Eaters, but don't get carried away... Assemble an army to rival the gods! Explore a tale of intrigue, betrayal, and mayhem! Create units and customize every aspect of your squads! Treat innocent civilians with kindness, or hard brutality!
Some people just aren't fit to play God. The God of Death is back, and he's looking for trouble! Use this power to slay the mighty World Eaters, but don't get carried away... Assemble an army to rival the gods! Explore a tale of intrigue, betrayal, and mayhem! Create units and customize every aspect of your squads! Treat innocent civilians with kindness, or hard brutality!
Original Opinion
Lately I've been going around buying up PS2 games with whatever extra cash I can find. I just know that if I don't, I wont be able to find the good ones any more. The next generation has taken over almost completely now and the old Playstation 2 games are being replaces with Playstation 3 games. When I was at FYE and saw this game for $30, I just had to have it. I knew that it was a lesser known game and even though I very rarely spend over $20 on a game, I decided to get it anyway. I had no idea what kind of game it was or even if it was worth the $30. I took the gamble anyway.
Battle System
The battle system works the same as any tactics based system. It's like a chess board and you move an X amount of squares each turn. You then get a chance to use an item, attack, guard, or do a special. Pretty basic. However, each character on the map is actually a squad. You can have up to nine characters in a squad and you can fully edit them in the menu system. Another thing that makes the battle system different is that when you do attack, it chances to a side view of the fight. You actually see each character in both your squad and the opponent's squad do their moves. It's really weird at first, but once you get use to it, it's actually quite interesting.
The World Map
Have you played Final Fantasy Tactics? The World map in this game is the same as in that game. You don't get to run around. Towns and areas are shown as dots and you simply follow the line that connects the dots to move around. However, unlike Final Fantasy Tactics, there are no random battles when on the World map.
Hidden Characters
There's a random small chance of unlocking hidden characters. Some of them will only stay with you for an X amount of battles before leaving. You have full control over them and can even assign them to a squad. However, you don't know when they will show up nor do you know if they will stay with you forever or if they are just there for a couple of battles. Not all hidden characters are good. Some of them actually do nothing and cost you currency to keep or give you a random disadvantaged in battle.
Graphics
There's not much I can say about the graphics. They're very similar to Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics. There's no in game movies, and not very much action when it comes to cut scenes. Almost no movement at all except when you're in battle. The attacking animations are real nice, but that's all the game has going for it.
Multiple Endings
There's a couple of bad endings you can get while playing the game. In fact, you can actually spend about 10 minutes playing the game and get an ending. It's all based around the choice of giving up your body to the god of death or resisting and figuring out a way to defeat bosses yourself. I've done both and I'll let you know that all the endings you get are pretty lame. Even the best ending is lame and you have to sit through 10 or so minutes of credits before you even find out what happen to some of the characters and even then it's confusing.
Childhood Female Friend
Possible love interest? Depends on if you're nice to her. She's incredibly stupid and super annoying. If it wasn't for Gig, the God of Death, being such an ass to everyone, I wouldn't have been able to play through the game, because of this character. Oh, and she's a half cow and human mix bred... thing.
Replay Value
Every time you get to an ending (good or bad) you get the chance to start over with all your information. Levels, squads, and items all carry over. Oh, and currency does as well. After playing through and getting a good ending you unlock a really awesome squad member who shoots energy blasts. Not to mention that the more times you play through the game the higher the chances you have of unlocking the hidden characters. They also give you the chance to skip every cut scene in the game, which makes the replay value pretty high.
Disgaea World
This game is part of the Disgaea World, but is not directly related to any of the main characters from the Disgaea games. However, one of the hidden characters is a secondary character from Disgaea.
Final Opinion
Other than the lack of mini-games, random battles, and the terrible explanation on how to play, the game itself is pretty decent. However, there are some extremely annoying characters that ruin a lot of cut scenes that otherwise would be good. The ending was crap and left you with more questions then answers. There's also a lot of random plot holes where dead characters are now alive again without any explanation on how it's possible. I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys tactical RPGs, but I warn all that it's not as great as it could have been.
Lately I've been going around buying up PS2 games with whatever extra cash I can find. I just know that if I don't, I wont be able to find the good ones any more. The next generation has taken over almost completely now and the old Playstation 2 games are being replaces with Playstation 3 games. When I was at FYE and saw this game for $30, I just had to have it. I knew that it was a lesser known game and even though I very rarely spend over $20 on a game, I decided to get it anyway. I had no idea what kind of game it was or even if it was worth the $30. I took the gamble anyway.
Battle System
The battle system works the same as any tactics based system. It's like a chess board and you move an X amount of squares each turn. You then get a chance to use an item, attack, guard, or do a special. Pretty basic. However, each character on the map is actually a squad. You can have up to nine characters in a squad and you can fully edit them in the menu system. Another thing that makes the battle system different is that when you do attack, it chances to a side view of the fight. You actually see each character in both your squad and the opponent's squad do their moves. It's really weird at first, but once you get use to it, it's actually quite interesting.
The World Map
Have you played Final Fantasy Tactics? The World map in this game is the same as in that game. You don't get to run around. Towns and areas are shown as dots and you simply follow the line that connects the dots to move around. However, unlike Final Fantasy Tactics, there are no random battles when on the World map.
Hidden Characters
There's a random small chance of unlocking hidden characters. Some of them will only stay with you for an X amount of battles before leaving. You have full control over them and can even assign them to a squad. However, you don't know when they will show up nor do you know if they will stay with you forever or if they are just there for a couple of battles. Not all hidden characters are good. Some of them actually do nothing and cost you currency to keep or give you a random disadvantaged in battle.
Graphics
There's not much I can say about the graphics. They're very similar to Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics. There's no in game movies, and not very much action when it comes to cut scenes. Almost no movement at all except when you're in battle. The attacking animations are real nice, but that's all the game has going for it.
Multiple Endings
There's a couple of bad endings you can get while playing the game. In fact, you can actually spend about 10 minutes playing the game and get an ending. It's all based around the choice of giving up your body to the god of death or resisting and figuring out a way to defeat bosses yourself. I've done both and I'll let you know that all the endings you get are pretty lame. Even the best ending is lame and you have to sit through 10 or so minutes of credits before you even find out what happen to some of the characters and even then it's confusing.
Childhood Female Friend
Possible love interest? Depends on if you're nice to her. She's incredibly stupid and super annoying. If it wasn't for Gig, the God of Death, being such an ass to everyone, I wouldn't have been able to play through the game, because of this character. Oh, and she's a half cow and human mix bred... thing.
Replay Value
Every time you get to an ending (good or bad) you get the chance to start over with all your information. Levels, squads, and items all carry over. Oh, and currency does as well. After playing through and getting a good ending you unlock a really awesome squad member who shoots energy blasts. Not to mention that the more times you play through the game the higher the chances you have of unlocking the hidden characters. They also give you the chance to skip every cut scene in the game, which makes the replay value pretty high.
Disgaea World
This game is part of the Disgaea World, but is not directly related to any of the main characters from the Disgaea games. However, one of the hidden characters is a secondary character from Disgaea.
Final Opinion
Other than the lack of mini-games, random battles, and the terrible explanation on how to play, the game itself is pretty decent. However, there are some extremely annoying characters that ruin a lot of cut scenes that otherwise would be good. The ending was crap and left you with more questions then answers. There's also a lot of random plot holes where dead characters are now alive again without any explanation on how it's possible. I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys tactical RPGs, but I warn all that it's not as great as it could have been.