Disgaea returns on the PS2 in the form of Cursed Memories.
The original Disgaea's Laharal achieved Overlord status and is doing whatever demonic business demons do in their dark dank castles, so the spotlight shines on a new protagonist, a human by the name of Adell who just so happens to be adopted by demons. A curse has befallen the human citizens of Veldime, turning humans into demons and locking away memories, except Adell is inexplicably immune. His family conducts a summoning ritual to beckon Overlord Zenon in order to slay him and break the curse, but a snafu occurred and they ended up with Zenon's daughter Rozalin instead. Bound by the ritual, Rozalin is forced to lead Adell and his party to her father where Adell swears to defeat Overlord Zenon and free his family from Zenon's horrible curse.
The gameplay of Disgaea 2 is very deep and complex. It's an isometric strategy role-playing game where you call up to 10 characters into the battlefield and place them accordingly. Each character can move a certain number of squares and some can cover more obtrusive terrain better than others. Also, depending on their weapons and classes, they can attack in different patterns and have varying ranges. They can also lift and throw each other (and enemies), which adds an element of strategy in regards to playing the field.
As you move your characters around, you can attack one at a time, or you can prepare your moves in sequence and execute them all at once. By doing this, you increase the stage's bonus gauge. Each level that the bonus meter reaches will earn you an award after you clear the stage. Rewards can be items, Hell (the game's currency) or experience, and filling up the gauge is essential especially when you're advancing levels within an item world. Some very rare and powerful equipment can only be obtained via this method. Characters can also perform combo attacks if the player attacking directly in front of an enemy has a teammate standing on an adjacent square. This is a good way to share experience points with characters, as usually the only character to receive EXP is the one who made the kill.
As with the first Disgaea, the Geo Panels have returned. Geo Panels are colored squares that are overlain on the battlefield and they can either be spread out sporadically or cover the entire surface. They can be a mix of colors, or they can be one singular color. If a Geo Symbol is placed on a Geo Panel, then all panels that are of that color share that effect. There are a vast number of different effects, some being beneficial such as increased attack, experience, or elemental prowess, or they can be devastating such as being killed instantly if attacked. If you destroy a symbol that is a different color than the panel it's on, it wipes out every other symbol on that color while changing those panels to that color. You can actually clear the board of all Geo Panels if you chain Geo Symbol attacks successfully and deal damage to enemies in the process. The story levels make great use of Geo Panels in the later half of the game, adding further still a great layer of strategy.
There's a wealth of classes to play with. You have your standard fighters and can make them use fists or wield swords, axes and spears; you have your thieves adept with guns and bows and arrows; skulls and mages that are proficient in casting elemental magic; and of course, there are the penguin-like prinnies the franchise is known for. Disgaea also allows you to reincarnate characters you create (and you can make an unlimited number of them) to make new, more powerful classes that start off at level one again, but level up much quicker.
If you really want to get strong in Disgaea games, simply replaying a level you already cleared won't be good enough. You'll need to actually level up items and equipment you get. To do so, you enter the item itself and are taken into a randomly generated level. You can clear the level by either killing every enemy on the floor or reaching the floor's exit. Each level you clear increases the stats on the item, but every progressing floor contains harder enemies. Also, you might be invaded by high level pirates just when you think you're doing good, forcing a quick escape to the next level. Item leveling can be far more addictive than the main game itself, not only because you can make some extremely powerful equipment, but you can also net even stronger items as you delve deeper into the item worlds.
Like the first Disgaea, Cursed Memories contains the Dark Assembly, which is a governing body of senators that can pass bills for new items and equipment, make enemies harder or cheaper, or other worldly changes in the game. When you seek an audience with the Assembly, you're first given your potential approval rate, which is roughly 50 percent. To increase your odds, you can bribe senators with items in your inventory, or even put to sleep senators that are in total opposition against you. Senators are also more inclined to be in favor of demons with a high felony count, and you can earn felonies by entering the subpoenas and seeking out their bailiffs. Earning felonies is a great way to make your characters even stronger.
The only major flaw in the game is the limiting camera. You can only change the view in 90 degree increments. There are times where an enemy could be attacking one of your characters behind an obstruction and you have no idea who it is, since the camera won't let you rotate it during the action. You can zoom out, but when confirming actions the camera returns to its close up perspective. It can be quite confusing at times trying to gauge distances and terrain when camera manipulation is so restrictive.
The Disgaea games are not the RPGs you'll want to play if graphics matter the most to you. Characters are sprite-based, and don't even turn around as the world they're standing on is being rotated. Everything from textures to animations to special attack and magic special effects are generally not outside the graphical capabilities of the first PlayStation. Disgaea instead relies on aesthetic simplicity and artistic design to get the gamer into its atmosphere. You have to admire the charm this game exudes when it knowingly isn't making any use of the PS2's architecture.
With the game's great writing and humor, it's only fitting that the facet that stands out the most in the game' audio department is the voice acting. Now, if you aren't a fan of anime, you will be turned off by the voice overs, as the lines are delivered in typical anime fashion: high-pitched, perky, silly, and a forced emphasis on just about every other word. This is all perfect for the world of Disgaea, though. The music is also very familiar to fans of the first, sounding perfectly suitable for an anime movie as well. The sound effects don't do much on a technical level, just as with the graphics, but they deliver explosive punctuations when need be.
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories offers so much gameplay, even after you finish the game. You can continue to level up your characters and create entirely new teams. There's no limit to the combination of party members you can arrange, and randomly generated dungeons in the item worlds keeps the game forever fresh. Its story may be campy at times, but it contains a powerful message of never underestimating the human spirit, and it packs a plentiful number of laughs. Its anime presentation and simplistic graphics, however, lock this RPG franchise into niche territory, but for those willing to play RPGs outside of the norm, they'll enjoy Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories for quite some time.