A Disgaea fan’s wish list

Editor’s note: by now, the North American version of Disgaea Portable has blown its covers off, so this wish list might turn out to be moot. But this was something that had been running around our Etna-maddened heads since the announcement of the Japanese Disgaea Portable, so the team wrote this… on the eve of the NA Disgaea Portable revelation. Still, with more details on the NA version to be revealed in the coming months, perhaps we will see this wish list hit some check marks!

We won’t even go into the subject of how bad we want a Disgaea game for the PSP in English, as it breaks our hearts just thinking about it. Instead, let’s focus on happier thoughts while we wait. QJ’s Nippon Ichi cultists have come together to give you this Disgaea Portable fan’s wish list. Enjoy!

1. Marona secret boss– admit it! Whether you’re a fan of Phantom Brave or not, the thought of kicking Marona’s do-gooder butt all over the Netherworld has crossed your mind at one point or another. We hope everyone gets to do that in Disgaea Portable. It’s good for the soul.

2. Overlord Baal– He’s powerful and all, but seeing him in his Prinny costume for several games as the ultimate boss is getting old. He better start looking for a voice and more personality. Investing 100 or more game hours to beat a mute boss just doesn’t cut it no more. Screams of terror are all the craze these days.

3. More Vyers- Touche! The Dark Adonis needs a lengthier cameo due to the simple fact that he’s one of the funniest characters in the NIS stable. The French(?) Mid-boss was the perfect joke villain to pit against Laharl in the original Disgaea, and we want to see more of him. Better yet, why not make him the new main character? That would be a barrel of laughs for sure.

The rest of the wish list can be found at the full article, dood.

Editor’s note: by now, the North American version of Disgaea Portable has blown its covers off, so this wish list might turn out to be moot. But this was something that had been running around our Etna-maddened heads since the announcement of the Japanese Disgaea Portable, so the team wrote this… on the eve of the NA Disgaea Portable revelation. Still, with more details on the NA version to be revealed in the coming months, perhaps we will see this wish list hit some check marks!

We won’t even go into the subject of how bad we want a Disgaea game for the PSP in English, as it breaks our hearts just thinking about it. Instead, let’s focus on happier thoughts while we wait. QJ’s Nippon Ichi cultists have come together to give you this Disgaea Portable fan’s wish list. Enjoy!

1. Marona secret boss– admit it! Whether you’re a fan of Phantom Brave or not, the thought of kicking Marona’s do-gooder butt all over the Netherworld has crossed your mind at one point or another. We hope everyone gets to do that in Disgaea Portable. It’s good for the soul.

2. Overlord Baal– He’s powerful and all, but seeing him in his Prinny costume for several games as the ultimate boss is getting old. He better start looking for a voice and more personality. Investing 100 or more game hours to beat a mute boss just doesn’t cut it no more. Screams of terror are all the craze these days.

3. More Vyers- Touche! The Dark Adonis needs a lengthier cameo due to the simple fact that he’s one of the funniest characters in the NIS stable. The French(?) Mid-boss was the perfect joke villain to pit against Laharl in the original Disgaea, and we want to see more of him. Better yet, why not make him the new main character? That would be a barrel of laughs for sure.

4. More Overlord Zetta– They don’t call him the most bad-ass overlord in the cosmos for nothing. He carried Makai Kingdom on his hardbound shoulders and perfected the art of playing the hero-villain… all while in the form of a volume of literature. Please give him his body and his original voice talent back.

5. Nippon Ichi Plushies– This is the fanboy must-have in real life! They’d look great in your car, room or TV. We hope the Prinny plush dolls don’t explode on impact, though.

6. No more Disgaea 2 characters– In just about every aspect, the sequel was better than the original. The graphics have improved, the combat system was richer and the game nuances were absolutely mind-blowing. The only hitch were the character personalities. Disgaea has always been about dark humor, and Disgaea 2 dropped the ball with some lackluster attempts. Okay, Adell and company can stay, but they’d have to join the Prism Rangers so we can beat on them.

7. Bazookas, syringes and balloons– These weapons were great (or funny) in Makai Kingdom and we missed them in the last Disgaea. We hope they’ll be available again in the PSP version.

8. Vehicles– These babies were nice to have in Makai Kingdom but, like bazookas, syringes and balloons, were missing in Disgaea 2. They may not be the most practical thing to bring into a battle, but driving tanks, planes and battle cruisers never get old. It’s not easy to level them up, but once you do, it’s a lot of fun to blast hapless enemies with them.

9. The class system– the job/class system is good enough as it is, but ever notice that tiers are almost meaningless except for the varying colors and the higher base stats? We hope it could be made deeper by, say, making higher skills exclusive to upper tiers. Speaking of skills, it might be a good idea to add class-specific ones instead of the standard innate attributes and magic. Weapon-based skills are fine, but there’s something wrong with a knight and a samurai who have an identical skill set.

10. A 2-player mode– Everyone’s asked for it a billion times, but that doesn’t make it any less true. We want to bash each other and we want it sooner than later!

• Ed.’s note: You have to admit some wish lists do make sense. According to IGN, the finally-announced North American version of Disgaea Portable WILL have a special “multiplayer duel system” so that “you can challenge your friends to see who the better Netherworld strategist is. You’ll also have the option to manipulate almost every option for the game, including changing game rules, win/loss conditions and even creating new battle maps to fight over.” Now, dood, ready to eat Prinny?

Well, that’s it for our wish list. Special thanks to Kristine C. for all the great insights. Let us know what you think and what YOU want for the perfect PSP incarnation.