La Pucelle

La Pucelle published by Mastiff is the newer of the two strategy RPGs. The story focuses on a 16-year old amateur demon hunter, who travels to purge the demons from Europe with her younger brother, Culotte, and her trainer/guardian, Alouette. Prier and company are from a goddess-worshipping church. Prier’s immaturity and rash behavior is definitely atypical for a servant of the church, but is countered with Culotte’s mature, intellectual demeanor.

Disgaea

Disgaea published by Atlus received quite a bit of controversy when it was first released. The story of Disgaea is a story about the Netherworld. Laharl wakes up to find that his father has passed away choking on a black pretzel. Now he is the ruler of the underworld, but other demons are ready to take the throne. With the help of his friend, Etna, and an angel from heaven, Flonne, Laharl is ready to accept the challenge and become the rightful ruler of the Netherworld.

Story

It seemed ironic that in La Pucelle, Prier, who had evil good-natured intentions, is trying to purge the demons while in Disgaea, Laharl, who was a kind but cruel demon, is trying to take control of the Netherworld. Nevertheless, both stories were interesting.

The development of the stories are very unique. Both have the feeling of an anime episode – the outrageous emotions, the name-calling, the faces, along with the typical anime “Next Episode” preview at the end.

Graphics

Both games graphics are good, but nothing extraordinary for the Playstation 2. The sprite characters exaggerates emotions very well, and the illustrations used during the conversations are detailed.

Sound and Music

Both games give you the option to hear the dialogue in the original Japanese or in the English dubbed track. However, I did notice that in Disgaea, the sound effects during an attack is not always in Japanese. The main characters all seem to speak English while the supporting characters all seem to be bilingual in Japanese and English.

The background music is appropriate and sets the mood of the scenes very well. However, it is easily forgotten compared to the well-orchestrated as the scores of Final Fantasy.

Gameplay

As mentioned before, both games are strategy RPGs reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics. The games have a similar battle system, typical of strategy RPGs, since both were developed by Nippon Ichi. However, both battle systems have added features that make them both unique and very different.

La Pucelle

La Pucelle has a very unique battle system in that there are colored panels that flow in a particular direction, Dark Portals. In order to master the game, one needs to master the art of purification and learn how to manipulate the panels to one’s advantage. The one thing that did bother me in La Pucelle was its sometimes two dimensional feel in the towns that would restrict the character’s movement to left and right, and the occasional up or down to move to a different screen.

Disgaea

Disgaea uses the class system, where each class offers different abilities. Each class combined with a different weapon offers a variety of abilities for each character. Weapons can gain levels as well by bringing them to an alternate dimension and battling through different stages. The game also implements colored panels in the game called, geopanels. Geopanels allow for additional combos of attacks. The unique difference from this game is the play on politics. To improve your skills, open hidden stages, and buy better weapons, Laharl must convince the Senators by bribing and tricking them, while their response depends on his level and influence in the Senate.

Summary

As for which game is better? Both are extremely fun and will provide strategists hours of game time; however, Disgaea is hands down the better game. Although these two titles haven’t been well noticed, they shouldn’t be overlooked. If you can only pick one of these two games, pick Disgaea.