MAKAIPUNK - building a netherworld travel diary

so first week of the new year went pretty well so far. managed to grab a couple obscure ps2 games, been working on getting my sleep schedule back on track, been helping out with quest writeups and design for that WoW private server i mentioned in my last non-jukebox post, and even got back to practicing my hand at pencil drawing. alongside a variety of other things. one of which was getting a cold last week and having to suffer through that.

been cleaning up a bit of my room a while back; my drawers and cabinets, mainly. stumbled upon a handful of drawing pads and various notebooks i had shoved in there when i moved into my new bedroom. they're a bit worn with age, but a majority of the pages of them are unmarked, so i'll use them for drawing instead of using a lot of printer paper for it.

the book before and after the new cover. art by airana@DA

that aside, stumbled upon a hardcover notebook with the title of "Forum for Excellence" and "The Warren Conference Center 2002" on it. so yeah, seemed pretty old, but the pages were all in perfect condition, oddly enough. from what my dad told me, he got it at a meeting way back when but never seemed to had used it. as for why i shoved it in my own cabinets when i got my own room... okay, to be honest, i'm not even sure why i had it there to begin with.

so now that i've rediscovered this little gem, i figured i'd make use of it and get started on a project i've been meaning to do for a while: making a "journal" of sorts centered around the world of Nippon Ichi Studio's Disgaea game series.

might seem like an odd project to write about on here, but it's been a while since i did a MAKAIPUNK thing anyway, so have a bit of a warmup on my end before i get back to bigger things. like hopefully chapter 3 of the Disgaea 1 manga readthrough thing. or maybe some game reviews or something. i don't know.


so why make a journal about this series, outside of the obvious fact that i like this game too much for my own good? and additionally, what sort of things would this book entail, anyway?

Disgaea's been one of those games i've been drawn into for a very long time. it might not have been as popular as it is now, and i never was able to actually play any of the games until some years back, but it still stands as one of my top favorite game series. the whole premise of demons being the protagonists for once was what got me interested in the first place, along with the emphasis on comedy. also, the prinnies. 'course, that was around nine or ten years back when i was younger and judged things based on how cool they looked.

well, that, and whether said things had you play as animals or monsters in it. but i'm getting ahead of myself. actually, on that note, i think Disgaea's one of the first series i liked despite the main characters not being animals. as a kid, i never was into games where you played as humans, but most of the cast in the Disgaea games aren't even human, so...

okay, i got way off track there.

as i got older, i started appreciating the characters and stories more. i got a copy of the Disgaea 1 manga, and i was actually able to play one of the games on a console i owned at the time (thank you, Disgaea DS). while the stories aren't the best, they're still pretty good, and the cast for each game is pretty enjoyable (or not. really, it all depends on your tastes). even got into roleplaying in the Disgaea universe and making my own fancharacters for the series.

in my current age, i still do that stuff. i might not have a ps4 to play the fifth Disgaea game, but i can still be fascinated by the new stories and characters NIS adds, as well as the new lore and stuff. eeeeeeeeven if sometimes they don't elaborate on certain details or concepts, but that's a thing even with fictional universes in mainstream media. hi, World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls. though while not everything about the Disgaea universe is explained (or explained well), that doesn't mean it's any less of an interesting setting for roleplay and fanfic.

might use this as a title page. art by finni@DA

that being said, Disgaea's one of those rare series that, to me at least, is incredibly versatile with what stories you can tell in it. of course, this isn't just limited to storytelling, but stuff like characters and even lore and history as well. it's a bit tricky to explain this type of thing in particular, but i'll do my best to describe.

each of the games tells a different story with a different cast. the first Disgaea follows the prince Laharl in his own netherworld trying to become king, second game features a human named Adell trying to restore his world back to normal, third stars demon kid Mao and his adventures at an evil school, and so on. alongside the new stories, settings, and main cast, each of the games introduce new types of units and monsters, as well as background information on existing lore. sometimes they'll elaborate on existing concepts as well, or create new concepts altogether.

while the lore isn't something people play Disgaea for, it's still something about the series that intrigued me, and what made the setting fun to use in roleplays. you could have a story set in the (nether)world of one of the existing games, and have some of the canon characters goofing around. or you could create an entirely new setting and cast and still keep the dark goofiness and over-the-top lunacy the games are known for. maybe perhaps you could sprinkle in new things as well.

additionally, there's not really any set "rules" barring what can and can't be done in the Disgaea universe. with stuff like DLC characters travelling through time and space just to argue with someone, and characters from other NIS games making regular appearances, it's kind of hard to do something that doesn't fit in Disgaea. maybe it's because of the ridiculous nature the games have for the most part, but it really helps in what freedom you have with using the setting for fanworks or roleplay.

there's probably a fanfic out there that's essentially like this. official light novel art by Chou Niku, scan from minitokyo.

"but gen what does this have to do with your silly journal project?" well, it's mostly as a way to explore and record various details about the Disgaea series, my own fan-things in particular. stuff like headcanons and story hooks in particular, but also things like netherworld concepts, fanon lore to fill in the gaps NIS didn't fill themselves, and ideas and scribblings for characters and units. of course, the book's also going to include whatever ingame information and official materials i can find. can't really have the fanon without the canon.

this all might seem a bit overwhelming to someone who isn't embarassingly deep into this doofy game series like i am. hell, i think i might have gushed a bit too much about how much i like playing in its setting. so why do i like the series so much if it caused me to go on this long tirade about it?

Disgaea's one of those games that has had a major influence on my creative life. its fun cast and setting has given me and my friends a lot of freedom in roleplays to do whatever the hell we wish. it's helped me with designing my own characters and writing stories around them. while i've had my own rough patches with the community over the years, i haven't ever had the heart to drop the game completely from my life. even if i haven't been able to play the games until recently, i've done too much with Disgaea and its impact has helped me a lot in developing my creative side.

in essence, this journal is a fictional "travel diary" of sorts to jot down the things i know about the world of Disgaea, and any headcanons and musings i have concerning particular subjects. alongside the other fanon stuff i mentioned, but i don't need to cover that again. might seem like a daunting task, but considering how much i like this series and NIS's works in general, it'll likely be a fun one.

and even after the one day in the farthest future when i lose interest in Disgaea entirely, it'll still be a nice thing to look back at and flip through the pages of.

at the end of the journal, but not the end of the journey. art by drowtales@DA

there's probably some other details concerning this whole project that i haven't touched on or just forgot to mention, but those'll come in time. for right now, i'm still working on wrapping up getting the journal started, and of course i'm balancing that with devwork and keeping this place active. and other things, as said before.

as much as this whole project is a personal thing of mine, i'll probably post photos of the book and some filled-in pages on occasion. if i put a lot of love into creating something, i don't want to keep it to just myself. the best thing i can do is share with people.

and if this whole doofy project inspires someone to do something like this with Disgaea or another series they love, then that's even better. c:

anyhow, that's all for today. stay rad, have a nice day, and be sure to tell your friends. oh, and if you happen to know any Overlords in your home universe, tell them i said hi and that i might visit them sometime for an autograph.