Official Japanese Disgaea II site
looks like Etna is so far the only returning character from Disgaea I... theres no word if Laharl or Flonne will be in the game yet...
(Rosari = Rozalin)
September 30, 2005 - Nippon Ichi, known for its original strategy RPG titles, has announced its first true sequel. Makai Senki: Disgaea 2 picks up where the original 2003 strategy title left off, featuring the same visual style and basic gameplay systems of that groundbreaking title. The game was fully unveiled this week in the latest issue of Japan's Dengeki PS2.
In Disgaea 2, you play as a red-haried character named Adel. The story begins when Xenon, king of demons, curses Adel's home world, making all its people slowly lose their memory as they transform into demons. Fifteen years pass, and Adel is the only human unaffected by the curse.
One day, Adel's mother -- who, as a result of her demonic transformation, does lots of silly things -- decides to sacrifice her family in order to summon Xenon. Properly summoning a demon will enter it into an unbinding contract with the summoner. She casts her spell, and everyone (except Adel) gets sucked away, but in their place appears not Xenon, mightiest of the demons, but his far less mighty daughter, Rosari. As you'd expect of anyone with red eyes, blonde hair and a big bust line, Rosari is royally peeved at this, and makes Adel promise to take her back to her father. Adel agrees, but has more in mind than just taking Rosari back. He also plans on defeating her father and returning his family back to normal.
So begins the unexpected pairing of the world's only human and the demon king's daughter, with Rosari and Adel heading out from Adel's home town of Horutoto. Along the way, the two will come under attack by a group seeking Rosari for the powers that she is expected to have (but doesn't).
Older Nippon Ichi characters join Rosari and Adel on their quest, some appearing as part of the story and others as part of gameplay. The penguin-like Prinnie characters appear in the game and apparently manage to get Rosari all riled up (Rosari seems to cause trouble wherever she goes due to her haughtiness, so perhaps this isn't the Prinnies fault). Etna, one of the main characters of the original, also appears as part of the storyline. Phantom Kingdom characters like Alexander appears in a summon spell with Vol Volga making an appearance when you use a certain item. In addition to these two, other Nippon Ichi characters are expected to join in on the fun.
Disgaea 2 inherits most of the gameplay systems featured in the original title, right down to creating your own ally characters for use in battle. You can create characters under a variety of professions, with Dengeki showing off male and female knights and male and female magic users. The classes from the original return, complete with some new ones that will be unveiled later.
You'll send these party members into battle with the demons that you encounter while on your journey to Xenon. The world is full of demonified humans who won't let you pass so easy, leaving room for plenty of grid-based fights. During these battles, you can pick up and throw allies and enemies, utilize combo attacks, and have all your characters join in for a team attack, with anime shots of the characters filling the screen. All of this carries over from the original. Also returning is the Dark Congress system, where you can make pleas to a council, using, if necessarily, force to gain acceptance.
Nippon Ichi is adding some new systems to the game on top of these. A mew Judgement System is included in the game, allowing you to take characters who use certain moves to trial, complete with a courtroom, a judge and even lawyer demons who attend the trial with different levels of excitement. Based on the severity of the crime, the court will hand down a penalty, although the defendant can resort to bribery to get out of a sentence. This judgement system is just one of the many new systems planned for the game.
One area of concern with Nippon Ichi titles is in dated visuals. Nippon Ichi still hasn't left the binds of 320x240 visuals, and the company's games look horrible on high definition televisions as a result. For Disgaea 2, the company has redrawn the character sprites so that the same character class looks better than it did almost three years back. The game has switched to a higher resolution, producer Souhei Shinwaka reveals to Dengeki. In addition to this jump in technology, Nippon Ichi has actually managed to cross the limits of a CD with this title, so Disgaea 2 will see release on DVD-ROM.
Nippon Ichi is planning to release Disgaea 2 to Japan in 2006, further cementing the PS2's strong lineup for the coming year. NIS America has yet to announce a release for the title.
credits: ign
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/654/654983p1.html
