Twelve Days: A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Or: I do use Raspberyl as my avatar, after all

If you are reading this I rather presume you won’t be doing so on the day it is published. If you are, I can only assume it a well deserved break from all the food, wine, and plotting to violently evict the invading relatives. Anyway, I shall be quick as the Queen will be on shortly and we mustn’t miss the Queen.

Over the past eleven days you will have learnt^[1] that I am a stranded Englishman with an odd fascination for Japanese four panel comics. Yet, for my final day, post, and Moment I choose the arrival of Disgaea D2.

Whilst the Disgaea series doesn’t have an anime adaptation beyond the opening cutscenes^[3], it is nevertheless heavily inspired by anime, manga, light novels, so on and so forth. Disgaea D2 is the latest game in the series, commissioned as part of Nippon Ichi Software’s 20^th anniversary celebrations, and is the first to be a direct sequel.

Disgaea 3 was my first game in the series, and since then I have attempted to play the others to a reasonable extent^[4]. One of these is Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, the first in the series. It remains a fan favourite, with her main characters being some of the most prominent NIS have produced thus far. It is natural, therefore, that Hour of Darkness should receive the first sequel.

D2 eventually made its way west with NIS America promising a limited edition, including all manner of little extras. Unfortunately, these were to be only for our wayward cousins across the pond, and so it was necessary for me to import the thing. This is something I do not regret, no matter how absurdly expensive postage and packing ended up being.

The game is a delight. The characters are as fun as I remember them. The mechanics are much improved. The monsters are no longer useless.

So there you have it: my final day and moment. You’re finally rid of me^[5]. I can already hear the collective sighs of all the crickets who no longer have to break the silence^[6].

Footnotes

1. Assuming, of course, you read the past eleven posts^[2].  ↩
2. Should this actually be the case, you have my sincerest congratulations and sympathies. It must’ve been an utterly awful experience. It was for me, and I was writing the blasted things. ↩
3. Let nobody persuade you otherwise. ’Tis such a shame too, I’m sure it’d make a good series – just like I’d probably enjoy a thirdMummy film, should they every decide to make one in the future. ↩
4. Said in such a manner because every one of them is almost endless and I’ve only one lifetime to spend.  ↩
5. At least until I actually write The Boredom of Totan Kobako.  ↩
6. If anybody has actually voluntarily read any of these, I do thank you for putting up with my rambling.  ↩

Post Scriptum

The limited edition in question was sent to my home address, 500 miles away. Hence, I asked my father to take a few photographs of the package and its contents upon arrival. This resulted in a set of photographs that wouldn’t be out of place in the Scenes of Crime office of one’s local police station. The header image is one of these photographs; Flonne, I hasten to note, appears decapitated because the little mini-figures that were a part of the limited edition came with both Etna and Flonne’s heads detached from their torsos and stands.