02/15/08 by Garvar at 8:51am ESTGragh!
So once again I have no idea what the fuck is going to happen to me tonight and/or tomorrow. Ergo, if I'm home, comix, if not, tough luck for a double-feature this week. I'm the only one in my family without a car, and I think this is a consideration often left untouched when the rest of my family plans something.
Also, I've been sinking a lot of my spare nonconstructive time into Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and I'd just like to say, the difficulty curve of Etna Mode is unreasonably tiring. And by difficulty curve, I mean time-spent-grinding-before-you-can-clear-the-next-stage curve. It really is unreasonable. I thought killing someone with 4000 HP was enough of a chore, and on the next map you've got someone with ~12,000 HP. It's not just the lack of Laharl that makes it so; the monsters really do grow too quickly. I suppose it's a tactic NIS thought necessary to extend the life of an otherwise really short "game". Adding Etna mode into the PSP port of HoD was quite a pleasant thing to do, but would 13 episodes really have killed you? Or even half of that?
I'm not saying it isn't worth it though. Etna mode has one redeeming feature that, as far as I'm concerned, puts all of its shortcomings to rest: with the exception of the final chapter, it is absolutely hilarious. We're talking double the lolfactor of its parent game, Hour of Darkness. And that was already hugely entertaining.
Unfortunately I feel compelled to put another hundred or so hours into the HoD port in order to face off against Adell as well as other extra little goodies. Damn you, NIS. I'm also tempted to look into Soul Nomad, but with having only so much as a five second cameo from Laharl, I don't want to get my hopes up that the experience will be quite as enjoyable.
Plus, it's almost a certainty that I'll miss that laugh of his.