Adell's Downloadable Cameo | Interview with Souhei Niikawa

Adell's cameo in Disgaea 3. You have to download it (after purchasing it) from the Japanese or Asian Playstation Store if you have the Japanese/Asian versions of Disgaea 3.

I'm sure these downloads will be available in English. Ooh! Adell. I figured it wouldn't be voiced, but man... playing the game without any voice acting feels really.. really weird. I love the voicework in these games, it is absolutely spectacular. Oh Adell, you'll learn that when Mao starts drooling and Almaz flinches that's never a good thing for you.

Also, an English interview with Souhei Niikawa was posted recently. He talks about his aspirations and thoughts for Disgaea 3 and it's American release. I met with Mr. Niikawa a few weeks back, he's an absolutely incredible person. I wish him luck in the future. :)

Please enjoy the interview.

Almaz Ending + Worst Ending

AHAHAHA.

Haha~ Spoilers, like usual.

Almaz ending cleared.

Unlucky Hero indeed...



BEST.
ENDING.
EVER!!

If you defeat the final boss with just Almaz, you get a special ending where Mao wants to kill the final boss but Almaz steps in and says he can't. They argue, Almaz challenges Mao to a fight and...

Mao vs. Almaz
FAITO-!

You control Almaz in this battle. Mao hurts. We nearly KO'd each other at one point there...

After the battle, Mao's father watched the whole scene and decides to proclaim Almaz as the rightful heir to his throne. Almaz laughs and asks "You're joking, right?" to which Mao's father replies...

"I'm not."

Cue Almaz letting the whole idea sink in and utterly flip out.
Almaz is made Overlord.
Princess leaves him!
Mao and Raspberyl just kind of stare a bit.
Champloo seems ecstatic.
Almaz keeps crying at everyone to not leave him alone and...

The ending fades to black and credits start rolling.
The ending image is of a crying Demon Overlord Almaz with tears streaming down his face.

A+ ENDING. I kinda wish there was an ALMAZ-MODE where you could control Almaz, but sadly it just starts New Game+ Automatically. I'm going to try for Jiiya's ending tomorrow, since it meets almost the same conditions except with Mao instead of Almaz.



Worst Ending (99 Ally Kills) Cleared~
I swear, this is totally shaping up like a Kingdom Hearts plot.

The Death Toll is...


Almaz dies first. Poison.

Mao's heart dies next. Mao kills off his true feelings and goes into the Human World to destroy it. Before his death, Almaz pleads with him to stop all of this. Mao doesn't listen and even scoffs Almaz's death in this ending. Sapphire and Raspberyl are taken aback by this and...

Mao enters the human world to destroy it.
Princess Sapphire and Raspberyl fight to stop him.

Sapphire is killed.

Mao wants to kill Great Hero Aurum and Raspberyl tries to stop him. Mao tries to unleash his "darkness within" and Raspberyl hugs him to stop it.

Great Hero Aurum strikes Raspberyl down. Raspberyl is killed. This was all a part of his plan, he killed Almaz and wanted Mao to succumb to darkness and...

Mao slaughters him.

The ending of the bad end is that Mao screams and causes the human world to go up in flames.

Champloo-sensei takes a moment to reflect at how horribly wrong everything went before the screen fades black and...

That's it.

I admit, it's amazing to see how horribly wrong a situation like this can go. I have to give it to Nippon Ichi Software, they made a wonderfully well rounded game in terms of story.

Disgaea 3 [CLEARED]

...

I didn't sleep last night, haha.

I wrote my thoughts about the characters on my journal, I'm just going to copy and paste it here. I really should go sleep ... sometime.

Spoilers for the End of Disgaea 3

---

The above scene made me cry. No joke.

I want this game in English.
I admit, chapter 7 seriously made me wonder about the story. I mean, come on now. That was some weird plot twist. The final chapter made me... made me realize what amazing things these characters went through for each other. I NEVER know where to begin, but let me do my best.

Mao : Mao, from the start, I really enjoyed. During the course of the game, his cruel antics and his cold shoulder approach seriously threw me off a lot. I really wanted to like him, I thought. I really, really did. His emotions, his anger towards his father... it really made me feel bad for him. But you know, when you find out the real reason he was upset, the real problems he has locked inside... he's a good kid who misses his father. His father's been dead for 200 years, and I think he hasn't accepted that at all.

At the end of the game, he finally has a chance to talk to his dad. At that moment, it was when I realized that this was what Mao really was like. His father's been watching over him all of these years and wishes for him to be a good Overlord.

Final Title : 魔王マオ (Maou Mao) Overlord Mao.

The fact that he doesn't kill the final boss (instead STRAPS HIM DOWN TO DISSECT HIM LATER) and everyone comes to an understanding... really made the ending for me. Thank you, NIS. You somehow , somehow made this work out.

I feel that once the game comes out in English, I love absolutely love Mao.

Almaz : ... here, I know that there's no denying how much I absolutely and horribly love this character. Not only because he's Nise!Ash... he's very honest and good hearted. He's a good person, all and all. He wanted to become a hero to save the princess from getting kidnapped by the Overlord, had a rocky start with her, but he worked hard in order to save her. After he was poisoned, he told everyone he was okay. It was only when Mao was about to destroy the human world did Almaz speak up and clearly show his illness.

He believes in his friends.
He considers Mao his friend, through and through. He thanks everyone for being there for him, and... he truly deserved and earned that Hero title. Live strong, Almaz!
Raspberyl : I'll hold off on saying too much about her because I want to see her in action in English. She's very cute, I just have trouble connecting with her because I don't understand many of her lines. She's such a freak for rare characters, though! ♥

Sapphire : Okay, so at first I didn't really like her much. She was okay, you know? When I got her... she shoots Almaz. Why does she have a gun at the beginning?! Why?! That was weird... anyway! I thought it was pretty cliche'd to have Almaz get hit by the poison instead of her, but eh. It would be something he'd do. It's her fault he got poisoned though, she wanted to play with a random doll that was dropped on the ground. (Though, this was all MASTERLY PLANNED by NEGADUCK.) Anyway... when she started crying for Almaz that... that was expected. XD; I DID laugh at how she was so happy about it though, and Almaz was trying not to... be weirded out. I LOVED when she tried to CHAIN SAW Mao. That was amazing, she totally earned points for that.

Champloo : NINJA. He knows everything, understands the situations, has monologues and he seems so very wise~ I was surprised that Almaz really seems to enjoy Champloo's company. I think Champloo helps him BECOME A MANNNN (...no-not like... ) so that's good~

The Final Boss : ... I don't even know where to begin with him. I don't understand his intentions too well, so I will just leave him alone for now. I kind of wish he reverted back to Jiiya form, though. I like Jiiya form better then PSEUDO MAJIN/ZETTA Hero Guy. He wasn't a hero, Almaz is a hero! He has courage and fights for those he cares for!

Also, I took him down in like 4 turns. e_e;; Hahha. Mao was the only casualty...

So. How did the ending leave me?
Content.

Content... hahaha. It was a really nice ending. I-... Mao and Almaz are great friends. I love their interractions and I love how the ending didn't take itself seriously after everything.

Great ending theme too.
But... Harada barely drew any end images and that makes me sad. Hahaha.

Total Play Time : 30 Hours. (SPEED RUN)
Highest Level Character : Finnegan ( 95 )


---

In Conclusion :




I'm happy you got your happy ending, Almaz.
You deserved it.

Now to get Marona...!

Chapter 4 [END]

It's been a while, I apologize. I've been trying to get as much of the story done as possible, but I may have perhaps bitten more off than I could chew. I wasn't expecting a lot of things in this game, certainly not the depth of developement that the characters go through. Chapter 4, "The Hero Almaz" is definitively a very long and arduous chapter, but it sheds a lot of light and growth on both Mao and Almaz.

Recap of the Chapters, if you will.

Spoilers


1. Mao and Almaz's introduction. Mao knocks Almaz out, steals his title, and proceeds to go beat up his dad with it. Finding out he can't just use the title alone, they must travel to the Heart Bank and enter his heart.

2. The Heart Bank, def. a chapter I wasn't expecting. Having to enter Mao's heart and see his fragments speak to him... and to meet Mao's "true feelings" was a very interesting (albeit strange) thing to do. Seeing how Mao reacts to situations... he's really emotional. When he finds out that Almaz isn't a real hero, he dubs him ニセ勇者 (fake hero) and forever calls him that haha. Then having to go get the Dragon's Egg and meet Champloo-sensei... this game has some strange moments, indeed.

3. The PTA. What can I say? Almaz, Kyoko, and Asuka beg Mao to help Raspberyl out. After being kidnapped and having fake versions of her out ... I have no idea what the hell the PTA was trying to do in this chapter. It's very odd. \O_o/ Delicious male archers.

4. PRINCESS SAPPHIRE. My goodness, you're a violent one, aren't you? Poor Almaz~... now tell me, why do you start the game out with a gun? I - ... a gun? Sorry, you're getting an axe. That's just weird... why do Almaz and Sapphire have gun proficiencies?! It seems they're from a rather advance world, actually. I figured if there were games and anime... and Almaz knows what a plug is... huh. Almaz DOES have modern clothes, but I can't say the same for princess. I guess... when I hear 'princess' I automatically assume fantasy-esque human worlds.

Ah! Anyway! This is a great chapter (even if Almaz gets terribly abused by the princess). It shows a lot of developement for the main characters, and Almaz gives up his title for Mao's sake. I was really moved by this~ In his heart, he'll be a true hero! Good luck, Almaz! I believe in you!! ♥


/Spoilers

I've been tinkering in the Academy World for a bit, it's actually really fun but SO VERY TIME CONSUMING. I have up to Giga Ice with Mao, he has Fire and he has Heal now, but oh man... in order to get the rest of the skills he's going to need a LOT of mana. This is going to be rather difficult... yare yare.

I'm going to take a moment to pause the game's story in order to level this weekend. I got Mao to level 40, reincarnated him, and now he's back to 28. Almaz will be next, I-... I've been neglecting my Warriors too. That's not good! I love Warriors, but Archers are so much more effective here. Don't worry, Finnegan! I won't let you fall behind!!!

Thoughts on Chapter 1

Since I'll be talking about the game after it's out in Japan, (and I've received my copy already) I won't be using spoiler white-out anymore. I will still give a warning, though.


- Mao is so emotional. I swear, if I was Almaz I would be worried.
- Asuka sounds like Castile.
- Kyoko sounds like Flonne. It's so weird.
- The pupil system seems to be gone or updated. I understand you have to transmigrate a lot now to get certain skills (they can't be bought in MAbility shops) but you CAN'T change the class of unique characters! I really don't know how I'm supposed to get Mao a skill other than Cool. I'm hoping that if I transmigrate Mao he'll switch from "cool" to "fire" or "wind".

... Yes.
Mao is my magic caster.
It kinda seems weird to use a staff on him now that I've seen how he acts with a sword, but I can't help it! He's definitively amazing as a sword user and a magic user. He's my highest leveled character and I'M NOT TRYING TO LEVEL HIM. I'm trying to level up Almaz and my healers so I can unlock archers! Uwah, this is going to be a bit difficult~

I might have to modify my party more than I thought. Usually I have Beatrix be a master and give her mage pupils, but I can't do that in this game. It seems that even if they're in the same committee - you can't perm. learn your members skills. Sure, Mao can cast fire with his fire skull boy next to him, but that's it! He doesn't earn exp to reach level 1. How frustrating...

Anyway, Almaz and Finnegan are my sword users.

Here's a list of my characters so far.

Mao - Level 8　マオ
Almaz - Level 8　アルマース
Warrior - Finnegan フィネガン
Warrior - Dahlia　ダリア
Fighter - Metin メティン
Fighter - Anna アンナ
Healer - Beatrix ビアトリクス
Healer - Emilio エミリオ
Thief - Halo ヘイロ
Mage Girl - Akiko アキコ
Mage Boy - Simon (might delete him though ...)

I think that's how I wrote everyone's names. I also have a Prinny. Forgot what his name was though.

Oh right, since I'm thinking about names...
THE MALE NAMES IN DISGAEA 3 SUCK.
Holy COW, what horrible names! (The randomly generated ones) I- some of them are kinda, sorta normal?! And then it kinda just goes all to hell. Formaledy- I CAN'T EVEN WRITE THAT WORD IN ENGLISH, NIS.

Uhhh.
The girl names are really pretty though! *A*

YOU GUYS ALREADY KNOW I THINK ALMAZ IS ADORABLE.
WELL.
HE'S MORE ADORABLE IN BATTLE.
He goes "Ganbaruzo!!" and "CHACHACHACHACHA" <-- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? XD It's so adorable!
Aha, he also likes to go "Ano~~~" and "LUCKY~! ♥" (yes, in English.)

He-
There's one scene where he's all "Ahahaha, that's wonderful. I really think-"

And then out of freaking nowhere he goes -
"NO WHAT. WHAT. THIS IS INSANE WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE AWOEIFJAOEFIAJEFWOAIJFAOWIFJAWEF" I swear to god, listening to Shimono Hiro freak out is one of the most amazing things EVER. He's so incredibly GOOD AT IT. I love how he portrays Almaz, I think he's absolutely perfect. SO HAPPY HE'S HIS VOICE ACTOR. I CAN'T DESCRIBE MY HAPPINESS. Wait, I'll do it with a line of hearts. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Oh man, Machiko-sensei is so funny. She entered the classroom once. (She comes riding on bats!) I went up to her with Mao to speak to her and she-

She -

No, Machiko-sensei. We're not trying to have student-teacher relations with you.
Oh man, she's so cute. She has this high pitched voice and she goes "DAME~ MAO-KUN~" NO. STOP. I'M NOT TOUCHING YOU ANYWHERE. I'M JUST TRYING TO TALK TO YOU you two-bitwhoresob.

Ah~ I do love the Homeroom though. It's so fun to talk to your characters and see what's on their mind. Almaz keeps complaining that his stomach hurts (or he'll find a lucky coin on the ground. Honey, I don't think any coin you find has been lucky so far.)

One of my thief girls asked me if she could steal Mao's heart. XD; SORRY that's -. .. that's chapter 2!

Onward! ♥

Special Ending | Chapter 2

There's an ending you can get in one of the early chapters.
Please be aware This contains cast spoilers as well as a Character Ending Spoiler

Character Ending - Chapter 2

SPOILERS / ネタバレ

---


When you fight Raspberyl in this chapter, you have a chance of getting a game over. If you lose to her, you get a special ending in which she takes Almaz (Mao's vassal) from Mao and the game ends with a history of the School and what happens with Raspberyl in charge (?). It's very frightening, I saw things that spoke of tomato juice and... I don't want to imagine the evils she creates!

That's about it. It also shows all of the people who've worked on the game in English. Basically, there's no cameos listed other than the ones on the cover. Perhaps there's more but they're not voiced? I don't really know... anyway, I'm a little 'blah' that Ash isn't in the game-- his voice actor is Almaz! That's really not fair~

Oh well, that's something we can't change.
I like how there's English names for everyone already!
Mister Big Star~ Salvatore the Magnificent! Remember, Mister is a part of Big Star's name!

Though, I really don't agree on the translations for Asuka and Kyoko. It's like they ran those through a quick translator... everyone else's name is fine though. Mr. Champloo, Almaz, Mao, Raspberyl~ I'm glad they're not funky.

Anyway, seeing poor Almaz getting kidnapped by Raspberyl was quite enjoyable.


---

Chapter 2 has ... really sad music. I don't- I felt really sad in the ココロ銀行　(Heart Bank). I do like the NPC that takes you there, though. Mostly because her name is almost the same as my own. (Angelina ---> Angelica !? Make it happen, NISAmerica!)

A-Anyway. Here are my thoughts on it.

SPOILERS / ネタバレ

---


Inside of Mao's heart, Almaz finds and picks up one of Mao's memories. Mao yells at him for doing so, but suddenly they're transported to a memory in which Mao and Raspberyl talk. Mao seems agitated at her because she wants to become a delinquent, Raspberyl seems to enjoy it though. She's trying to be nice, but she knows she's grating on Mao's nerves. She doesn't think it's cool to just be an honor student, I believe. I get the feeling that Raspberyl wants to be a demon in her own away, I love her for it. She is rather unique, don't you think?

Almaz makes a comment that she's a good person (demon). Mao scoffs at this and- suddenly! Raspberyl appears out of no where and wants to take Almaz off of Mao's hands. Almaz hesitates and tells her not to worry while Mao yells that Almaz isn't even a real hero. He's a fake! Raspberyl kind of scoffs at this and -still- wants to take Almaz off of his hands, so battle begins! Raspberyl vs. Mao for the grand prize! (Almaz).

Hilarity.

If you defeat her, you'll progress.
If you lose, you'll get one of the endings. Raspberyl's Ending.

Aha. I quite enjoyed it.



---

I do wish to talk about the Soundtrack a little. I do believe this game has the best soundtrack out of all the Nippon Ichi titles. I'm enjoying it immensely. Do be aware I will rip it once I get a chance to. So look out for it!

Disgaea 3 Play Thoughts

Still watching videos at NicoVideo. The story is easy to understand so far, which makes me happy...

Thoughts on Episode 1; Please Highlight - might contain slight spoilers.
As we all know, Disgaea 3 was officially released today in Japan. Thanks to the efforts of a NicoVideo account owner, we're able to get a glimpse of the first chapter while waiting for our copies to arrive stateside. What do I think about it so far? This is actually a really tough question, I'm - in all honesty, not too sure what to think for myself.

I am enjoying the game greatly. Even by just watching, I really enjoy Mao and Almaz's interractions so far. Almaz interrupting the battle between Raspberyl and Mao because that's his job as a hero... his voice acting is exactly like Ash, if only for his much higher pitched screams and squeaks. He's quite a bit of a coward, but he does mean well. He's always thinking of his princess and how he'll do anything for her sake, he's very cute.

Jiiya seems like a sort of enigma so far. He's very to the point and very much proud of Mao.

Mao... Mao. I admit, while Almaz will be the "star" character to me (I really like him for many reasons), Mao is slowly growing to be a very lovable character. He's extremely adorable in his mood swings and his fears. The reason he wants to kill his dad... is interesting. Poor Almaz, he wasn't expecting something like that... to be Mao's servant and - Mao-sama. Ahaa. I still can't get over that Almaz must call him that. That's so interesting. Mao doesn't seem to really think things through it seems. He's quite easily excitable... but so is Almaz. What a strange hero combination those two make. Where will things go from here? I do not know~

I think the commercial breaks are a cute touch. How wonderfully silly, it really does feel like we're watching an anime- not playing a game.

I enjoy how fluid Mao's sprite is. He stomps his feet, points out at Raspberyl, yells, and is overall just a very animated character. Almaz- Almaz makes me laugh, he thinks he's lucky for finding a coin... oh, how terrible his luck truly is...

So far, I deeply enjoy the scenes. My understanding of them is subpar and somewhat limited, but I understand the situations that are going on. The added touches to gameplay really make the game interesting looking and - when I get my copy - fun.

I only hope the story in Makai Senki Disgaea 3 continues to impress me.

Disgaea 3 First Impressions

Oh, NicoVideo never fails me! ♥ (If you want to watch the scene, you must have a NicoVideo account. I'm sorry!)



Thoughts : [Light Spoilers?]

Mao is late for school, but he's almost done reading his Legend of the Hero comicbook. He seems really into it, until he slams it down and yells that he finally understands. He wants to become a hero in order to defeat his old man. The prinnies are startled by this, they just came in to tell their young master (bo-chama!) that he's late for class ... yet I somehow get the feeling that's nothing new.

Jiiya seems to be quite happy with Mao's reasoning and decides to help. You go, Jiiya! You go! Before Mao's able to run off and do anything, though- Jiiya makes sure he has henchmen to help him. All good students should be ready for anything, of course.

Jiiya's voice completely took me by surprise. I certainly wasn't expecting that level of pitch when I pictured Jiiya. He's quite comical.

Mao's voice, on the other hand... wow. I'm not sure what to say, his voice actor definitively has "obsessive" down to a notch. His Haa-Haa (which sounds more like a Aah-- haaaah ) is definitively something I'll remember well. Honestly, it sounds like Mao gets a little too excited about information pertaining to heroes. That's not... exactly a good thing. (Justice...! LOVEEEE....!!! No, Mao. Honey- stop. You'll give the neighbors bad ideas.)

I absolutely love the base theme. Is that Mao singing? It certainly sounds like his voice actor. I can't wait to see more scenes, my copy of the game itself won't arrive for a while, so I'll do my best to wait patiently.

(Jiiya is level 100. Machiko-sensei is level 500. Wow, I guess she's a teacher for a reason.)

HIGHLIGHT FOR POSSIBLE SPOILERS :
NicoVideo members think that Jiiya will be the final boss. HAHA. I seriously think Jiiya is somehow "evil", I'm not sure why - perhaps it's the ingrained thought that "The Butler Did It". Perhaps I've been reading too much Alfred Hitchcock? That might be a case... but he does seem sort of suspicious, do you not agree?