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5. Disgaea

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Description
Laharl, Overlord Prince of the Netherworld, is woken after a two year slumber by Etna, one of his father's vassals, only to find his father has been died and his throne has been taken from him.

Laharl vows to reclaim the throne, teaming up with other demons, angels, space invaders, robots, and other various whacky characters, while struggling to hide his secret - his fatal and only weakness - from the other demons.

Then the story gets a little crazy.

Why #5?
Disgaea changed the face of tactical RPGs when it was released in 2003. Not only did it evolve the genre by making tactic RPGs incredibly fast paced, but it also proved that RPGs could be very, very funny.

Bare in mind that tactical RPGs before 2003 were almost by definition very serious affairs, Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics are probably the most obvious examples. Fortunately some genius at Nippon Ichi realised that a game can be tactical and hilarious.

Disgaea from start to finish is a riot, one that will keep you entertained for months. For example, games that have characters summon meteors to fall on their enemies are a dime a dozen, but how many characters jump on said meteor and laugh manically as they ride it down?

The voice acting deserves a mention - although at first, it seems to be just an average dub, it's intentionally performed this way based on the dialogue and voice actors. The performance of the voice actors was so funny that they were called back to dub the Disgaea anime - the first time this has happened I believe.

Gameplay wise, this game almost took my soul. Essentially it's one of the Tactics games stuck in fast forward, with anime characters. Most games allow you to max your level and that's it - in Disgaea, you can get to the maximum level, reincarnate your character (setting it back to Lvl.1), and keep some of the bonuses that you already had. In theory you could level the same character millions of times.

How addictive is this game? It still stands out as the first RPG that I've given up on - I've beaten the game, but I haven't touched any of the optional bosses. I sunk 100 hours into it, and I didn't even come close to the end.

A friend of mine pumped 400 hours into it, and I don't think he's even close to "mastering" the game.

Oh, and because said person will get this reference...

Prinny d00d!
D0000000000000d!
Is that a meta reference? Oh, I can never tell, so subtle these days...

What's not to love about about Prinnies?

We're in at last.

We actually moved in yesterday but I didn't have energy beyond a brief Twitter update. Now we've spent our first night in the house and finally the reality of the move has hit me.

It's been a long, often stressful, occasionally seemingly endless process. I can't remember another such extended period of stress. Even writing up my Ph.D and job hunting in 2002 weren't as draining. But now we're in.

At last.

Best wishes to all for a very happy holiday, spent with those you love, and who love you. It's the least we all deserve, isn't it?

I'm off work tomorrow to pack. I will be packing on Saturday and Sunday. I've got Monday off too and will pack then. And then?

And then on Wednesday the removals company turns up and moves our stuff to the new house.

Just have to stay sane for a few more days and then it will all be over.

Then the unpacking will start.

Thanks to gillo and sammywol

Thanks to gillo and sammywol

We had alaimacerc and irishkate round last for a game of Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers. This was the first time in a long time that we'd played C:H&G and irishkate's first exposure to the Carcassonne oeuvre.

As usual the bloody tiles never turned up when we wanted them and I was overcautious about placing my fishing huts. Nonetheless I took an early lead with a great little fishing river that just kept branching.

Alai then pulled ahead, on forests I think, while Sam did very nicely by playing the long game and grabbed one large meadow and secured it with two hunters to Alai's one, and managed to get onto the extensive river system I had a hut on for more points there.

Final scores were Irishkate 71, Alai 74, Myles 83 and Sam 98. Well done Sam! Must play it again soon. I like tile laying and I love the tile artwork.

We had alaimacerc and irishkate round last for a game of Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers. This was the first time in a long time that we'd played C:H&G and irishkate's first exposure to the Carcassonne oeuvre.

As usual the bloody tiles never turned up when we wanted them and I was overcautious about placing my fishing huts. Nonetheless I took an early lead with a great little fishing river that just kept branching.

Alai then pulled ahead, on forests I think, while Sam did very nicely by playing the long game and grabbed one large meadow and secured it with two hunters to Alai's one, and managed to get onto the extensive river system I had a hut on for more points there.

Final scores were Irishkate 71, Alai 74, Myles 83 and Sam 98. Well done Sam! Must play it again soon. I like tile laying and I love the tile artwork.