Disgaea 4 Message Board

If you've been feeling tied down, unable to spread your wings and fly -- like a penguin, we'll say -- or as if your life is attached to a trip wire in the middle of an earthquake -- like it's about to explode -- Amazon is here to tell you that everything is fine, and these things are completely normal. The premium edition of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten is Amazon's Deal of the Day, at 33 percent off ($40) its original price of $60.

The premium edition includes the original soundtrack, a Fuka figurine and the Disgaea 4 artbook, along with the actual game, and at $40 it's below the price of a standard PS3 game, just for today.

#playstationhome If ever there was a reason to sit in front of your PlayStation 3 waiting for PlayStation Home to load it's today's North American debut of the prinny-powered Disgaea 4 Home Space. And for everyone else, there's pet ponies. More »

PlayStation Home has been updated today with new quests, rewards, music, videos, collectible items, and more. To start, we’ll be releasing a new personal space: the Gothic Manor. Set in a cool night environment, this exquisite gothic estate rewards all visitors with a special collectible item (space includes an extra bonus “secret room” for players that own at least three sections of the Mansion). Check out this video tour my buddy Magnus and his butler put together for you; you can even take your own tour in the Gothic Manor personal space before picking up this spooky pad from the Estates store in the PlayStation Home Mall.

When you approach the Activity Board today, you’ll notice two new quests that will reward players with limited-edition collectibles not available anywhere else. Take the Home Memories Tour to unlock the 2012 Home Active Calendar and then celebrate the impending Chinese New Year and receive this awesome dragon companion – the largest companion ever made available in PlayStation Home.

Hip hop fans will be overjoyed this week when we release two brand new boom boxes packed with some of the most slamming tracks you’ve ever heard. Visit the Exclusives store in the PlayStation Home Mall today to pick up new jams from El-P and NYC-based rap label Duck Down Records, home to established rap groups Black Moon, Smif-N-Wessun, Sean Price, and more!

Admit it – everyone loves ponies. This is why you’re sure to be stoked by the latest herd of Lockwood’s Stitchkins, available today in PlayStation Home. Starshine and Aurora are big-eyed unicorns who stamp their little hooves to get your attention. If you wouldn’t be caught dead hanging out with a pink pony, then Nimbus and Storm are more your style. Longer-limbed Pegasus, these winged miniature horses never give up trying to fly, even if their stubby wings aren’t quite big enough to lift them. Whichever you choose, their equine antics are sure to brighten up your day.

Silent Hill fans have two new costumes to add to their collection. Head to the PlayStation Home Mall to pick up the James Sunderland and Heather Mason costumes, available today in the Konami store. Check ‘em out!

That’s not all – we have new companions, hairstyles, and value bundles packed with furniture items for classic PlayStation Home personal spaces hitting the shelves of the PlayStation Home Mall today. So, without further ado, allow me to pass the mic to Magnus for this week’s Virtual Item Showcase.

The PlayStation Home Community Theater is updated today with the latest Home news from HomeCast Rewind, an interview with Home Community Volunteer Jersquall courtesy of Gamer Indepth’s ShoutOuts, and a special Platinum’d marathon that comes complete with a limited-edition reward!

In other news, the much-anticipated Disgaea 4 game space is making its way across the Pacific and will hit your PS3s today. Visit this epic new space to play Disgaea 4-inspired games and rack up rewards (and Prinnies, of course!)

Finally, I wanted to use this opportunity to give you all a sneak peek at an upcoming PlayStation Home exclusive. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures, and Locust_Star taking a hint and shutting his trap is worth at least a thousand dollars, so with this I bid you all a fond farewell…for now.

The Disgaea series is a tough nut to crack. With its dated gameplay and recycled graphics and music, each new entry in the franchise has flown in the face of convention. Nevertheless, whether owing its longevity to quirky storytelling or staggeringly deep and complex mechanics, the franchise has found favor among strategy role-playing game enthusiasts.

That storied tradition looks to continue with earnest in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, a testament that, all things considered, developer Nippon Ichi definitely still knows its audience.

Disgaea 4 will explode like a spectral penguin onto PS3 on September 6. Publisher NIS America announced that and a few other release windows today on the PlayStation Blog. It'll be available in three different configurations, depending on how much extra stuff you want to pay for.

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland, a new alchemy-themed RPG for PS3 (and sequel to last year's Atelier Rorona), will be out on September 27. In this game, young Totori searches for her missing mother while defeating monsters, helping townspeople with quests, and learning the art of alchemy in order to synthesize items.

And on PSP, ClaDun X2 will offer more pixelated action-RPG fun "at the end of August." This one promises more customization options than its predecessor, the amusingly named "ClaDun: This is an RPG." What isn't customizable is how you can buy it: it'll be released only on PSN.

The Disgaea 4 Premium Editions we outlined last April are now available for pre-order, so get ready to have the penguin and/or bomb-shaped voids filled in your strategically battling little hearts.

Pre-order packages come in your choice of Original Recipe, Extra Crispy (the "Premium Edition"), and Buffalo-style, (the "Premium Figure Set"), with art books and adorable figurines awaiting those who are willing to drop a little extra coin. All three options come with the game's soundtrack, however, so you won't be entirely left out of the freebie fun if a 4-inch-tall anime penguin girl isn't worth 20 extra smackers.

[Image credit: Penny Arcade]

Most North American players haven't even seen one mission of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten yet, as it's set to come out in the States this September. But the game came out in Japan last February, and now Nippon Ichi has announced two different downloadable scenarios coming this August and October. The first is called "The Tyrant Valdorez," and will follow that character (along with his new playable moves) through a story with follower Fenrich. And the second is "Fuuka & Desco's Chapter Begins," focusing on the side story of those two characters.

Fuuka and Desco's story will also be available either in add-on disc form, along with a collectible Desco figurine, in a special edition Disgaea 4 collection with the full game, or simply as a downloadable content pack. Note that both of these DLC packs are only announced for Japan at this point -- it's unknown whether they'll see the light of day here in the US yet.

NIS America is going to save you Disgaea superfans a little time, by allowing you to buy Disgaea 4 and a tie-in toy at the same time. The publisher announced a Premium Edition, which will be available at "GameStop and other retailers" at the September launch, and contains an artbook and an exclusive Nendoroid figurine of Fuka (above, snapped for the Japanese Disgaea blog).

If you really want a big box of Disgaea stuff, though, you'll want to pre-order from NIS's own store. It'll begin taking pre-orders in July for two different bundles: the same Premium Edition sold elsewhere (with the addition of a bonus soundtrack), and a Super Premium Edition that comes with nine more exclusive toys.

Oh, also, all of these packages include the actual game.

#specialeditions Players willing to spend the hundreds of hours it takes to fully experience a Disgaea title deserve a little extra, and NIS brings that something extra this September with the Premium Edition of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten for the PlayStation 3. More »

This fall, you can look forward to massive level numbers and dead souls turned into explosive penguins. That's right, Disgaea's coming back. NIS America announced that it's strategically launching Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten on PS3 this September. It's coming to Europe, too, with a less clearly-defined "fall" release window.

In addition to localizing the netherworld strategy game itself, NIS is also importing the naming contest used to market the Japanese release of the game. The "Come up with Dis-name-a" contest seeks new names for a sword, a skill and "a scantily-clad NPC." To see the objects in need of names, and hopefully to find inspiration, check them out here.

NIS America announced it's bringing Disgaea 4 stateside this September for PlayStation 3. The game will launch in Europe later this fall...

Axel struts his epic white collar in this gameplay from the early moments of Disgaea 4 on PS3.

Get re-acquainted with the mechanics of Disgaea's turn-based gameplay with the tutorial from the Japanese version.

The opening moments of Disgaea's fourth chapter, courtesy of the Japanese version of the game.

Even if you've never played a Disgaea game before -- heck, if you haven't played any game before -- you should watch the Disgaea 4 trailer posted below. It shows off a handful of the game's absolutely preposterous special attacks, many of which involve slamming foes into various celestial bodies.

#disgaea4 This is a "wooden horse", used for torture in Japan during the 15th century's Warring States Period. These days it's used in S&M play. But it apparently won't be torturing the ladies of popular Japanese role-playing game Disgaea 4. More »

Over six minutes of Disgaea 4 footage in this Nippon Ichi Software overview and tutorial.

The opening cinematic sequence to Nippon Ichi Software's upcoming PlayStation 3 video game release, Disgaea 4.

Nippon Ichi Software continues the saga of Prinnies, demons, and characters with attitude in Disgaea 4 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

#ps3 Next February, tactical role-playing game Disgaea 4 will be released on the PlayStation 3. There will be a limited edition bundle. It will be cute. Very cute. More »

Which is to say, none at all. There's a vampire and a monster and a girl who's a monster and a bunch of Prinnies and they almost kiss and then the world blows up in a church and there's a -- oh, forget it. Just go watch it after the break.

If you've got a penchant for giving your boring, monotonous daily maneuvers wildly eccentric titles like "Flying Eagle Bagel Spread" or "Tsunami Power Work Commute," you seem like the perfect candidate for Atlus' newest promotion. All you have to do is check out a few videos from some heretofore nameless special attacks from Disgaea 4, and provide each of them with a fittingly outrageous title.

Of course, submissions are limited to ten characters, so the examples provided above wouldn't exactly be eligible. We're sure you can still blend brevity and exuberance, though. Here, watch this: "METEORGUN." Yeah, that's solid gold stuff, right there.

If you're a fan of Nippon Ichi's twisted strategy RPG series, Disgaea, you've likely spent a ludicrous number of hours staring at illustrator Takehido Harada's charming 2D character art. You'll get to do so again with Disgaea 4, with the benefit of higher-resolution artwork. By the looks of things (check out Andriasang for some neat comparison and screenshots), the new sprites have lost none of their personality in the long-awaited upgrade.

Disgaeaeaeaea 4 will launch on PlayStation 3 in February 2011 with a limited edition package, including a Nendoroid Petit figure, art book and soundtrack CD. It'll also retain all the original illustrations, allowing you to toggle between the old and new characters. It's nice that the old art is sticking around, but couldn't Nippon Ichi have shipped their used goods to a less fortunate soul, like IGA?

Check out the new high res sprites and the new instructor class in Nippon Ichi's PS3 sequel.

#tgs After a seriously disastrous year, Nippon Ichi Software falls back on a proven breadwinner to help heals its wounds, readying Disgaea 4 for release on the Japanese PlayStation 3 in February. More »

The quirky series is back with better visuals and vampire politicians.