I first saw Disgaea shortly after the first one was released many years ago. At the time, I thought that it was way too complex and I wasn’t looking for that much strategy. However, the beauty of the Disgaea series is that you can avoid some of that major strategy if you want. It is possible to get a lot more out of the game than it seems on the surface.

I am sure that demons would not be happy to be described as cute, but that’s exactly what they are in Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness. Even the zombies with flesh dripping off of their bodies are cute little characters that make me think of colorful chess pieces. Of course, that is probably because of the chess-like boards, but it’s still valid. Everything in the Netherworld is quite a bit more colorful and bright than I would expect it to be, but it works. The characters look like they’re straight out of an anime complete with large eyes and humorous sayings.

You will get to hear these sayings rather than having to read the text, as the characters do speak out loud. You will have text to read if you prefer that. I love the voices they chose. They sound very child-like, which is fitting given the fact that these demons are not quite adults. The characters that are adults don’t speak as much, but they have well done voice-acting as well.

We are back in the Netherworld. It has been in chaos since the death of the last overlord, Krichevskoy. His son, Laharl, has now claimed the throne, with the help of an angel, Flonne. Unfortunately, not all of the Netherworld demons accept Laharl as the new ruler. Laharl decides to go on a quest to show all how powerful he is so that they will accept him. Etna is one of Lahar’s vassals, so naturally she is going with him. Flonne decides she wants to go too. Laharl has plenty of Prinny (penguin-looking things) to do his bidding as well. Things get interesting when an angel names Sicily comes down from Celestia and announces that she is there to become the Overlord! It seems everyone is craving the title of Overlord. When they learn who she really is, there are more questions raised than answered. Laharl also has to deal with the Krichevskoy group, a group of demons loyal to the late king. They are up to no good, at least as far as Laharl is concerned.

To try and really claim the throne, Laharl has to go exploring the Netherworld. Each time he goes somewhere, he will run into demons that he has to fight. The board will be laid out in squares. You will be allowed to take a certain number of characters onto each board (around 10). If you kill one of them, you can’t replace them until after you are done with that board. Your characters have a set range that they can move and an attack range. Different weapons can change that range. Different enemies can also move in different ways, so it is truly up to you how to best strategize your game. You will really need to pay attention to the enemies as they can have status effects. Some of these effects can affect the entire board! You will need to destroy all of the enemies on a board to get past it and go on to the next level.

Laharl can also go exploring in Item World. Item World is a very different place. There you can go into each of your items. The item islands have beings living there called Notorius. You will need to get to the Mystery Anchor on the island before you can leave or defeat all of the Notorius. Personally, I recommend defeating the Notorius if possible as you will get the stage clear items for doing so. If you just use the Mystery Anchor, you get no bonus. The better the item, the stronger the Notorius. There are 30 levels per item, so be ready for a relatively long battle on the items.

As I said before, Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness doesn’t have to be difficult if you don’t want it to. It is strategy, yes, but there are ways you can get around that. The better your strategy, the larger your clear bonus at the end of the level, but you can still beat the game by leveling up your characters so that they simply hit harder. I would recommend getting to know a few things as they can really help you.

Squares can have elemental effects. These types of squares are called Geo Panels. There are also Geo Crystals. Geo Crystals control what type of effect a Geo Panel has. You can move the Geo Crystals to give different areas the effect that you want. You can also destroy the crystals if you want to make sure that effect is gone completely. Be careful though because when you destroy a crystal, it will change the color of the area that it is on to whatever color the crystal is that was destroyed. Any character, enemy or ally will take damage when the color is changed. If you want to avoid this color change, simply destroy the crystal on top of a square that is the same color as the crystal. At the end of a battle, you can get a clear bonus based on how well you performed.

You can create new characters at the Dark Assembly. These can be added to your fighting staff. You will need a pretty good balance of characters, so make sure to try them out. You will be able to unlock more characters for creation as you progress in the game. You can have over 100 characters, so you’ve got plenty of room to try them all out. You can only take a limited amount of them on a board, but the more you have available, the more options you have. These characters can also have apprentices. You can use apprentices to your benefit as it is purely bonus stuff. Becoming an apprentice does not hurt a character in any way. It just allows you to learn each other’s skills, which can be very handy! Always visit the Hospital to heal after each board. The more you get treated at the Hospital, the more prizes you will earn so taking damage isn’t a bad thing!

Disgaea D2 is a turn-based strategy. This means that most of your commands are all just (X) to select the action and using the D-pad or left stick to move the cursor. (L1) or (R1) changes the view, (Square) zooms in or out, and (Triangle) brings up the Main Menu. The trick isn’t getting the hang of the controls. You basically have a chess board-like set-up. Each character can move different ways and attack in different patterns. You have to figure out how to best use their skills to defeat the enemies. You will set all of your characters up to move wherever you want and then you press (Triangle) to execute the moves. Once you are ready to complete your turn (usually because you have no characters left that can act), you choose End Turn and the enemy will attack.

Characters standing on adjacent squares can support each other in team attacks, which can really be quite powerful! You can have up to 4 characters on a single team attack. How likely they are to join in a team attack depends on how much they like the characters that they could attack with. Characters that like each other can also defend each other. Characters can pick up and throw other players. This can be very helpful in getting someone to an enemy quickly! Prinnies will explode when thrown, which is good to know. You can even lift a character who is lifting another, so there are quite a few ways you can use this to your advantage. Only humans can throw. Monsters can be mounted. You can do mounted skills as well. The skills available will depend on how much they like each other.

My one major complaint about Disgaea D2: A Brighter Beginning is the fact that the game has a tendency to lock up the system completely. Every time it does this, you lose all your work. If you save in between each level, this isn’t as frustrating as you only lose 5-10 minutes of work, but it is very frustrating when you are in Item World as you can’t stop and save after each stage. I’ve probably lost over an hour of play time thanks to three lock-ups so far and apparently I’m not the only one. I have a feeling that I will probably not play it again until there is some kind of patch for the problem.

If you have liked the Disgaea series so far or you’re a fan of strategy games, you will enjoy Disgaea D2. Just be warned to save often!