Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness Review | RPGFan

The crew is back in action in Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness! Laharl, Etna, and Flonne finally get their rightful time in the spotlight with a game that serves as a sequel to the original Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Turns out not much has changed at all. Seriously, it's unabashedly familiar.

[wishingW3L]

I wonder what's wrong with this review that nobody's approving... RPGfan is a website that is as old as IGN, and the good thing is that they don't make money off ad revenues and promotions so their reviews are the most unbiased you'd be able to find around the net.

[Hicken]

Doesn't mean it's a good review or should be approved. Half the IGN articles that have made it to N4G shouldn't have been approved, either.

[admiralvic]

"they don't make money off ad revenues and promotions so their reviews are the most unbiased you'd be able to find around the net."

Yeah... no. First off, views are always important. No one sponsors sites that don't get views and people who don't get views aren't paid that well. Would you fund a site and give the same payout to the person who got 100,000 views and the other who got 300? Most likely not. These sites aren't funded through the goodness of peoples hearts, as bigger sites (especially IGN size) cost a LOT of money to maintain. Furthermore, even if the site has no reason to post a "troll" review, it doesn't mean the person who reviewed it was right. Sometimes people go into a good game with the wrong expectations and we see different scores. Happened for Killzone Mercenary and The Wonderful 101 and probably happened here.

[3-4-5]

If something is good and you really like it, you basically just want slight improvements and variations of it, not to change the entire thing.

I'm brand new to the series so I love that I have 4 more games in the series to play after I'm done with Afternoon of Darkness.

[callahan09]

The problem is the score at the end. It serves literally no purpose. The write-up was excellent. It told me what was new to the series, what hasn't changed, it told me everything I need to know in order to make an informed decision whether or not this game is for me. That's what a review should do. But what is the point of assigning it an arbitrary score at the end? There is room for opinion in the text, because I can disagree with that opinion while I'm reading it and know that even though he doesn't like the humor, the way he describes it is such that I know I will appreciate it. But to give it a score just undermines the process. The number says "This is what this game is worth", when that isn't the case. The whole thing is an opinion, and it doesn't do anybody any good to see that number. Reading the text gives me the information I need about the quality and character of this game. The number doesn't tell me a single thing of value about it. Just because the things he described weren't to his liking doesn't mean he described something that wouldn't be to MY liking. The numbers are there for hits. People who actually want to know if they should buy a game... those people will learn absolutely nothing from that number. I wish the industry would just do away with that whole number-scoring system. It's useless, it's arbitrary, and it's distracting.

[izumo_lee]

I'm sorry but as much as i respect the persons take on the series & how they think it hasn't changed much there is a reason the series is much loved by the fans regardless.

The person complains about the overuse of the jokes, the 'grinding' in the game, the 'generic' voice acting, keeps saying after 5 games in it has been too familiar....etc. If one has issues about these in a Disgaea game than they are playing the wrong game. It seems to me that they wanted new characters or something cause to complain about the characters like Laharl, Etna & Flonne just feels wrong.

For me personally i will always go back to Disgaea cause it is so Japanese in everything it does. I want to see the wackiness, the over the top moves, the crazy dialogue, the grinding cause that is what Disgaea is about ever since it started & to complain about now as this person is suggesting just doesn't sit well with me.

68% is too low for a game that was made cause of nostalgic value for the long time fans of the series. For a long time fan of Disgaea this score is a 'slap in the face' for me....

[tiffac008]

Well the review contributor did say he lost the connection with the series. No nostalgia can help there.

[izumo_lee]

True but it still felt like a punch in the gut for a long time fan of the series that is happy just to continue playing this series.

Disgaea to me is a franchise that can never get old & i wish for it to continue for a long time.

[Hicken]

Funny how that works: take someone who's not interested/doesn't like a genre or franchise, and have them review a game.

The stuff he complains about is the very same stuff that fans of the series look for in each entry. Fair enough if it's no longer to his liking, but that doesn't bring down the quality of the game.

It's really about time that reviewers learn to separate their personal feelings from an objective critique of the title. That's one of the flaws of this review, most certainly.

[Bundi]

I'm baffled by people who think like you.
Games should only be reviewed by people who are fans of the series/genre? That makes no sense.

The market is filled with consumers that are either fans of the genre/series, those that are neutral about it and those that aren't fans.
So why should games be reviewed by only those who have a positive bias towards the game when it is being released to a public that consists of more than just fans?

The reviewer makes it easy for the reader to know how he feels about the series so the reader can decide according his/her own feels towards it how he/she ranks the review.
Yes, his complaints may be what makes the game great for the fans, but he cannot "like" something simply because others do.

Opinions aren't supposed to be only from those who have positive feelings there Gestapo. That's not how the world works. Reviews are never going to be completely objective because they are opinions.

Opinions are formed through facts AND feelings.

[GameCents]

Wow, THIS @Bundi!
Finally somebody who gets it!

[insomnium2]

@bundi

Why does it always have to be someone who LOVES the series? What about someone who doesn't hate it? Would that be too much to ask? You are way too black and white.

I mean the guy hates the game for the things that makes it good for the fans of the series.....smh....and you see nothing wrong in that?

A review should be objective and always look at the context the game was meant to be and who it is for. Also the rivals in the same genre should be compared and the target audience taken into account. You can bring up this game is not for everyone. Hell it's your job to do it imo but to score it low because you yourself are "not into it anymore" is just BS.

[GameCents]

"The market is filled with consumers that are either fans of the genre/series, those that are neutral about it and those that aren't fans.
So why should games be reviewed by only those who have a positive bias towards the game when it is being released to a public that consists of more than just fans?"

The guy mentions that there are 3 types of consumers, including the neutral ones and that games should be reviewed by people that represent all 3.

Not sure where you are getting black and white from...

People, reviews are opinions, get it through your skulls. How is it BS to give a score based upon YOUR OPINION??!!

If I like something, I'll give it a good score, if I don't, I'll give it a bad score! It isn't rocket science!
This isn't a test or exam, the reviewer is not here to simply grade the game according to categories.
Otherwise why bother reading the review? We should then just skip the entire thing and read the graphics, sound, gameplay and replayability scores since you don't want to hear how he feels about the game.

I didn't like this game, but it's a 9/10 - Your logic.

[Hicken]

You don't have to be fans of the series or the genre, but it's gonna be hard to get a real grasp on the game and what should be expected from it.

I'd be the worst person to review horror games, cuz I don't like them. They just creep me out; It'd be hard for me to even complete the game, so getting some sort of objective review out of me would be difficult.

I'd still TRY, though, which is more than I can say for most reviewers.

A review isn't supposed to be an opinion, straight up. It's supposed to be objective enough that a person can make up their own minds, and not have that decision influenced unduly by the reviewer's personal impression. This review fails at that, and you fail at your defense of it, and others like it.

Edit: Because someone who isn't a fan is going to color it negatively, more often than not. Someone who's neutral will do the best job, obviously, but someone who's a fan will also know how best to get across that the game fails or succeeds at what it's supposed to be/do, as they'd have the most experience with the series or franchise.

Granted, a massive, uber-biased fan would write a glowing fail of a review, but that's not the only type of fan out there. More to the point, they don't make up the majority of fans, just as fanboys of a console don't make up the majority of fans of said console.

[Inception]

@Insonium2

Can't agree more with you and Hicken. If the reviewer already hate Disgaea than why bother to review Disgaea D2? It's stupid and i don't know why RPGFan doing this instead of using the reviewers who review Disgaea 3 or 4.

[admiralvic]

@ Bundi

You're going to an extreme when thats not what people want. Like I hate playing stealth games. I just lack the patience to sneak around, so I generally cause a lot of alerts and kill everyone. So I most likely won't notice some stealth mechanics, I will have a completely different view point than others and in a lot of ways I am not really reviewing the game for what it is. So the question becomes, should I review this game despite being wrong for it?

All these people typically want is someone who might RPG's, but may or may not be a fan of strategy / Disgaea like games. You have to have some understanding of what you're talking about and overall interest to have a really good review, which is all these people want.

@ GameCents

"People, reviews are opinions, get it through your skulls. How is it BS to give a score based upon YOUR OPINION??!!

If I like something, I'll give it a good score, if I don't, I'll give it a bad score! It isn't rocket science! "

This is true, but it's hardly that simple. Reviews are based off opinions, but a review still ultimately has to explain the score. I can't praise The Last of Us for having good graphics, amazing story, interesting stealth mechanics and then for no reason slap on a 5 because I didn't feel it was a good game. Opinions are true to a point, but if you can't justify your opinion to others, then your opinion is invalid.

Additionally, a lot of people seem to think it's okay to think of a review simply based off their needs. Like I had to review Everybody Dance a while ago and I can tell you I only knew 3 songs in the whole game. Of the new songs I had never heard of before, I didn't care for any of them. Now, this game is probably geared towards teenagers, so I should probably think about it in terms of what they would want, not someone in their mid twenties that likes 70's and 80's music. It's basically expecting everything to cater to your whims, which is just unfair and unrealistic.

[tiffac008]

^This

Reviews should be based on what the game provides with an understanding to where it is geared to and not what the reviewer wants it to be or the review will never be unbiased.

[GameCents]

People seem to have this strange notion that reviews should be mechanical and convey just the facts. Simply not true.

Hicken you say you'd be bad at reviewing horror games because you don't like them however I'd probably find merit in your review more than a horror lover because I myself do not like the genre either.
This is why it is important to hear from EVERY possible perspective because as someone who did not enjoy the previous game, I'd live to know from someone who shares my sentiments how this one fared to him. In that scenario, his review would be more important to me than that of a fan or someone completely neutral.

"You don't have to be fans of the series or the genre, but it's gonna be hard to get a real grasp on the game and what should be expected from it. " No it simply means that this review is not meant for someone like you.

@admiralvic
"So the question becomes, should I review this game despite being wrong for it?" As long as you make it clear how you feel about the genre then YES! Because others with the same feelings will be able to relate to your review and decide whether or not this particular game is worth setting aside their dislike for the genre and give it a try.

"I can't praise The Last of Us for having good graphics, amazing story, interesting stealth mechanics and then for no reason slap on a 5 because I didn't feel it was a good game. Opinions are true to a point, but if you can't justify your opinion to others, then your opinion is invalid. "
No you can't, and neither did this guy. Read the review and you can tell it isn't about to receive a 10.

BTW, 6.8 is hardly a bad score.

[insomnium2]

@gamecents

"People seem to have this strange notion that reviews should be mechanical and convey just the facts."

Who the hell ever said anything like that? You are even more black and white than Bundi is.

"BTW, 6.8 is hardly a bad score."

That score is garbage plain and simple. Everyone has the scoring from 4-10 in mind since we are bombarded with that all our life in school.

@bundi

"I didn't like this game, but it's a 9/10 - Your logic"

Exactly. I didn't like Bioshock 1 one bit. I plyed it for a few hours but couldn't get into it. Still I would never ever score it less than 8.5 purely because of the quality it oozes.

Admiral explained this perfectly about TLOU. A score of 5/10 would sit perfectly fine with you since "it's his opinion". I'm sorry but that's effing retarded and extremely detrimental to this hobby/industry.