Disgaea 4

[Tobi]

I assume you can still blow yourself up somehow? Lol. And since this is a NIS game, I can assume it has decent amount of playtime for going through both Prinny and Asagi story, unless Asagi is really short, but I'm sure there's some extra/bonus stuff to do and collect. Dunno if to play this first or finish FFT finally.

[Kiarax]

Well, since the second isn't coming out til January you might aswell get through some other stuff first. Then play through Prinny 1 in preparation for the second. Got plenty of time anyway. It's not a very long game.

[Tobi]

I'll just finish up FFT, then move on to Prinny so I can finish that before Oct 18th, or else it'll be awhile before I ever get chance to go back to it. Gonna try to finish both within a week, while 100%ing Prinny.

[Kiarax]

Something you might wanna do for Prinny is just wasting your 1000 lives immediately and starting up a New Game+. That unlocks the Prinny Raid skill which apparently helps a ton. I still had over 700 Prinny's left by the time I got to the final boss on Hell's Finest. Prinny Raid makes it rain Prinnys for a ton of damage at the cost of your lives, so you can use that to cheese anything if you get stuck for too long. Also knocks out the alternate bad ending since you said you wanna 100% it anyway.

[Tobi]

Dying 1000 times doesn't sound plesant. That shit must takes ages, even on hardest difficulty.

[Kiarax]

You'd be surprised, lol.

[Tobi]

Still though... I could maybe see 500 probably, but 1000 sounds like it'd take awhile even if dying purposely, lol. Unless you don't have to restart a stage or start from beginning when dying, then I can see it being a lot easier.

[Kiarax]

There's checkpoints through the stage, if you die you immediately spawn at the last one. Plenty of them are a second or two away from a potential death.

[Kaisha]

Dying 1000 times doesn't sound plesant. That shit must takes ages, even on hardest difficulty.

Game gives you 9999 lives from the get go, there's a reason for that.

[Tobi]

Oh, checkpoints does make it sound easier. And wow, 9999 is a shitload. I'd love to see someone burn through all of those.

[Kiarax]

It gives you 1000, hence the needing to lose 1000 to get the bad end. >_>

[Tobi]

Where is 9999 from? 'cause that just confused me for a sec.

[Kiarax]

9999 is from Kaisha being silly.

[Tobi]

derp I thought Asagi was playable, but she just has her own alternate storyline, which is still good enough for me since she's still awesome and hilarious. Trying not to read too much into this, don't wanna spoil it, just had to make sure on Asagi thing.

"I just ate a Mushroom and guess what? It's gonna make my BB's bigger!!!"

[Tobi]

Wow... Barack Obama inspires a Disgaea 4 character >_>

[Tobi]

http://rpgland.com/news/disgaea-4-ep...d-nippon-ichi/

The lights on and the TGS party over, we pulled some chairs up to
what was once a table and talked straight with Nippon Ichi about
the next main-series Disgaea title. We learned about some game
systems, the reasons behind certain decisions, and just exactly
where some of the character and theme inspirations came from.

(RPG Land) HEATH HINDMAN: OK guys, first off, why PS3 for
Disagea 4?
The Disgaea series and other Nippon Ichi games have been on various
platforms, so why the return to PS3 for this game?

(Nippon Ichi) SOUHEI NIIKAWA: It’s true that the Disgaea series has
been on many platforms, but the main-series titles have always come
out on TV consoles first. Think about it, H. Disgaea and Disgaea 2 debuted on PlayStation 2;
Diagaea 3 was PlayStation 3, and so Disgaea 4 will be too.
Sometimes there might be ports or spinoffs on the handhelds or
other systems, but and the new, main-series Disgaea titles will
always be on PlayStation TV consoles.

HEATH HINDMAN: Since moving main series entries to portable
platforms like the PSP is a big trend in Japan right now…why NOT
put a main series entry on something like the PSP?

SOUHEI NIIKAWA: Well, with the Disgaea series, we want the whole
world to enjoy those games, and when you look at it on a worldwide
scale, the PSP is a tough platform — especially in the West! If you’re
making games just for Japan, then a portable system is fine, but if
we want to appeal to the worldwide audience, the PS3 is the
appropriate platform.

(RPG Land) JANELLE HINDMAN: It’s interesting that Nippon Ichi would
have the world in mind first, before just Japan.

HEATH HINDMAN: Almost ironic when you think about the name of
the company…

SOUHEI NIIKAWA: It is interesting. When we make a game, we try to
focus on the Japanese fans to an extent, to try to make them
happy. But at the same time, in the video game market, the
Japanese market is shrinking. So when you talk about “the market,”you have to look at it on a worldwide scale.
So making the game and selling it, those two things have to be
considered separately. But in creating the game itself, you want to
have fans all over the world be able to enjoy it.

HEATH HINDMAN: That makes sense.

SOUHEI NIIKAWA: That’s the only way we can survive.

JANELLE HINDMAN: So what did you learn from Disgaea 3 that
helped you shape Disagea 4?

SOUHEI NIIKAWA: Well we learned from our success and our failures.
When you make a new game in the series, you need to look at what
went right and what went wrong, and look at the reviews and what
people have been saying, and try to improve on whatever you can.
So, in a sense, everything that was done for Disgaea 3 has helped
us take steps towards Disgaea 4.
The first thing, that we’re most excited about, is the new
graphics.
We got a lot of comments from gamers, from fans, and from
press about the character sprites in the other Disgaea games, so
we did something about it. The designers and the team, they
wanted to try to animate it, see what would happen if they made it more lively and much
more clean than regular sprites. So that was something they
worked on after Disgaea 3.

HEATH HINDMAN: And if I may say, I wasn’t sold immediately with
seeing it via projector on a giant screen, but after seeing it on the
TV screen, the game looks totally good.

SOUHEI NIIKAWA: I was worried, wondering if it came out clean
enough. It was very hard work — this game has been in development
for three years but we got Mr. [Takehito] Harada’s animations
captured perfectly.

JANELLE HINDMAN: This one’s for Mr. Sato. The music we heard
playing today, was it the soundtrack for Disgaea 4?

(Music Composer) TENPEI SATO: Yes. The soundtrack is about one-
quarter to one-third finished, and the completed songs were on loop
during the press conference.

JANELLE HINDMAN: About how many tracks will there be?

TENPEI SATO: Between 40 and 50. Of course, in the game, there will
also be songs from the older Disgaea games, arranged or remixed.

HEATH HINDMAN: Rank your favorite Disgaea soundtracks.

TENPEI SATO: *Laughs* When it’s finished, 4 will be my favorite.

HEATH HINDMAN: *Laughs* Aaaaah, I knew you’d say that!

TENPEI SATO: *Laughs* Nono, there’s a good reason though! Every
time I make a new Disgaea soundtrack, I get letters and emails from
people all over the world. With every game, there are new
fans in different countries, and I draw inspiration from them, from
their stories, from their compliments, and from the various music
styles of the world. So every soundtrack is more like the whole
world’s Disgaea soundtrack, not just Japan’s.


HEATH HINDMAN: So back to the game itself, you’re going with a
political theme. Why?

SOUHEI NIIKAWA: Well, Disgaea 3 had a school setting because that
opened up possibilities for new game systems. After that, it
seemed like going back to the old way for Disgaea 4 would be kind of
boring. So now it’s time for a new direction. A political theme opens
up new ideas for new systems. I slapped the idea on Mr.
Yamamoto’s desk and said “Make it happen!” *Laughing*

(Nippon Ichi) MASAHIRO YAMAMOTO: It’s true. I heard the theme of
the game, so
I put in some gameplay systems to fit it, like an election system
and a political cabinet. You’ll see more details on these systems
soon.

HEATH HINDMAN: So…since it’s all political…who in this game is Barack
Obama?
(In the background, several Nippon Ichi employees break into
laughter.)

MASAHIRO YAMAMOTO: *laughs and nods* Well, he’s not in the game
in literal appearance, but he did inspire one character.

HEATH HINDMAN: Can I get a name?

MASAHIRO YAMAMOTO: Haha, well…I won’t give away who it is yet,
but he says Mr. Obama’s popular catchphrase.
[In unison]
HEATH HINDMAN: “Yes we can?”
MASAHIRO YAMAMOTO: “Yes we can.”

*Everyone leaves*
And that ’s the story of the time I ended up alone in Tokyo.

RPG Land thanks Nippon Ichi for taking time out of their cabinet-forming and sprite-sharpening to talk with us about this game.
Look for more Disgaea 4 updates on RPGLand.com and the official
Disgaea 4 website. Eventually, there will be a version of that site
available in English, but for now, Japanese is the only game in town.
Disgaea 4 will hit Japanese stores on Feb. 24, 2011, then arrive in
North America in the summer of the same year.

[Kiarax]

http://disgaea.jp/4/news/skill_name.html
Videos of 6 new skills. They're asking for name submissions for each, but obviously you can watch the videos without entering anyway.

[arus2001]

I shook my head at the gun one. If you can move faster than a bullet and then punch it multiple times to redirect it, why not just punch the damn mobs. D:

[Lucavi]

Just give me the classic moves! King of beasts! Mystic Blast!

YES WE CAN!

[Priran]

the bow one was pretty fucking batman