Mao is the main character of Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice.
Story
Mao is the #1 Honor Student and son of the chairman at Evil Academy. His goal in life is to defeat his father, the Overlord. To defeat him, he decides that since heroes are the ones who are able to defeat Overlords, he needs to become a hero to be able to defeat his father. When the unfortunate hero fanboy Almaz von Almandine Adamant arrives, Mao challenges him and succeeds in stealing Almaz's title. Mao decides to challenge his father and after defeating his hand, the hand regenerates and defeats both Mao and Almaz with Mao being surprised at why he lost.
Wondering why he lost, Mao states he should have won due to him having Almaz's Hero title. It turns out that Almaz was actually an ordinary guardsman and not a true Hero, and upon learning this, with Mao decides to return his hero title to him. They go to the Heart Vault and inside Mao's Heart, another Mao named True Heart Mao who tells them they need to open Mao's heart in order to obtain Almaz's hero title. Back outside, Mao decides to go the old classrooms in search of a Legendary Dragon Egg. Mao believes that eating it sunny side up with hot sauce will open his heart up.
Raspberyl decides to tag along with Mao and Almaz stating that it is dangerous to go by themselves to the abandoned classrooms. As they arrive there, they easily obtained the Legendary Dragon Egg and Almaz notes that it was too fast. However, they cannot crack or cook the egg, requiring the help of the Legendary Chef. Inside a cooking kitchen, Mao meets Mr. Champloo who tells him the ways of demon cooking and how he will cook the egg if Mao defeats him in a "cooking battle".
It is eventually revealed that his father is already dead, killed by Super Hero Aurum 200 years ago, when Mao told him his weak points to get back at him for breaking his video games. Mao blames himself for his father's death, and wants to defeat his father's ghost, in order to help him rest in peace.
He tries to return Almaz's "hero" title early in the game, but is unable to because he needed to "open his heart" to do so. He only manages to do this when Almaz dies in the seventh chapter. He then manages to return the title, bringing Almaz back to life and making him human again.
Mao finally decides to go after Super Hero Aurum to take out his anger on him. He goes to his home, the Overlord's Castle and sees that it is all clean, thanks to Aurum. Aurum asks Mao why he is not in the Human World and how Almaz is alive. Deducing that he returned the Hero title to Almaz, Aurum dismisses Mao of not being a worthy opponent and leaves his minions to him. Later on, when the party confronts Aurum again, he states that demons should relish solitude and fights Mao with the help of 3 Diez Gentlemen. Thinking Aurum was defeated, Mao celebrates an early victory until Aurum reappears to them. This infuriates Mao into unleashing his dark powers until all of his friends go into a group hug and manages to calm him down. Aurum is surprised why Mao is not using his dark powers when Mao tells him he has a bigger power, the power of his friends. Impressed by the display of Mao's newfound power, Aurum tells them that they will settle this in the next area.
At the final area, Mao tells Aurum to prepare for death when Almaz senses something is wrong. Aurum then transforms into his true form, a six-winged being with the powers of multiple demons and Overlords. He tells them that he sealed multiple foes into himself so that he can gain more power. The entire party is disgusted by his look but Aurum tells them that a hero should have power when Almaz tells him back that heroes should have courage and love. Mao announces that it is the final battle and fights Aurum's true from.
In the normal ending, Aurum tells the party of what he'd wanted to accomplish and how he had a heavy burden of being a hero. He tells Mao to finish him off and at the last second, Mao decides to spare him and use him for his experiments. After taking Aurum to his lab, the party visits Mao's Dad with Mao noticing he is passing away. Mao has one final conversation with his dad before passing away and decides to become a greater Overlord than him.
In the Super Hero ending, Mao decides not to kill Aurum with him being surprised at why he does not want revenge. Then Mao's Dad speaks to him, saying that Mao has matured and that Aurum is already dead. He goes on to say that the next Overlord will be Mao. The Super Hero mocks Mao, stating that demons must be evil, not soft hearted. Sapphire intervenes and tells him that he raised Mao for 200 years and Almaz states that he should have changed being with Mao. The party convinces Aurum to become Mao's butler once again with Aurum accepting his fate. The scene changes with Aurum, now playing the role of Geoffrey, giving Mao his first task as Overlord.
Personality
Mao is a typical Demon: he does not care about the problems of others, will often take what he wants, and uses force to rule over others. His blatant disregard of rules earned him the spot of #1 student in the Academy. He has not once shown up in class, nor has he ever participated in any school activities, such as homework or volunteering. He keeps the most secrets in his Heart Bank than any other demon, making him #1 Honor Student. He has a brain with an Evil Quotient of 1.8 million, and uses it to conduct experiments and evil research. Whenever he finds a subject for experimentation, his glasses will fog over and he'll start breathing heavily. This tendency and the bizarre nature of his research has caused many to see him as a complete and total pervert. If it's for the sake of reaching his goal, he'll ignore everything and charge straight ahead.
He is willing to do whatever it takes to defeat his father, even if it seems stupid or is something he hates to do. Despite his hatred for humans and heroes, he continually studies them, even keeping an observation journal to record his data. He believes that by learning about them, he can find a method to overthrow his father and take the title of Overlord for himself.
Because Mao stole Almaz's "hero" title, it is slowly manifesting within him. His speech is becoming more normal and "human like". As the game goes on, he slowly turns towards good, and considers the other people around to be friends, but never admits it. In this way, Mao's personality is similar to Laharl's, especially considering he actually does have feelings for Raspberyl, but will never admit it, similar to how Laharl will never admit caring for Flonne, although it's obvious.
In Battle
- Main article: Overlord Spawn
Mao's class is initially called Overlord Spawn, but is later retitled Hero, among other things and Overlord in Post Game. He has high Attack and Intelligence aptitudes, as well as decent HP and SP, making him a rather powerful character. He also learns Ice spells up to Giga (Tera in AoD) making him similar to a Magic Knight.
He starts out with a Sword and can also use an Axe, Spear or a Staff. His Signature Evility is Violent Courage which increases his Attack power by 3% times the number of Enemies there are on the field.
His Unique Attacks are Blast Finger, Shine Beam and Vasa Aergun.
Blast Finger can attack a single foe and has a range of 4 (straight). During the move, Mao throws his weapon up in the air, covers his hand in green energy, and jumps over towards the foe. He then grabs the foe and unleashes the energy in a pointblank range blast. He then jumps back and grabs his weapon on its way back down. It is learned at Level 8.
Shine Beam attacks the three spaces directly a head of Mao. During the move, Mao throws his weapon up in the air and covers his hand in blue energy. He then unleashes it into several rays of energy that come at the opponents from various directions. The energy rays then rapidly change directions and grow in size, effectively shredding at the enemy until the rays cover the screen. Once it fades back, Mao catches his weapon and the enemies plummet back down to the ground. It is learned at Level 32.
Vasa Aergun has an X-shaped Area of Effect, meaning it can hit up to 5 enemies at once and has a range of 4 along with it being a Star-based attack. During the attack, Mao is covered in a white aura and rises up off the ground. Eventually, it begins to zoom out off of Mao and has him transform into a gigantic monster. In his new "Monster Mode", Mao then fires 4 streams of lightning at the foes (1 from each of his hands, and 1 from each wing), causing them to rise up off the ground. Monster Mao then begins charging energy into his mouth and then fires out a massive energy blast which incinerates his targets. The attack ends back on the map with Mao normal once again. This skill is obtained after completing 6-2 in the storyline after Mao awakens his true powers in the Heart Vault.
Other Appearances
Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days
Mao appears in Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days as a playable character. To get him, you must pass a bill in the Dark Assembly and beat him. His bill is unlocked by unlocking both Mr. Champloo and Raspberyl, as well as having access to the Land of Carnage. During the battle, Mao is level 3200 and has 6 Kurtis Robots with him. Mao is also found in the Item World, where the player can ask him to grant the Magichange 2 ability onto a single monster class character. This saves trying to pass a bill for this which costs mana.
Disgaea Infinite
He also appears in the Disgaea Infinite visual novel, having been forced into working as delivery boy by Raspberyl. This leads to a continuity error, as he knows who Laharl, Etna, and Flonne are if he sees them, but when they appear in Disgaea 3, which takes place several years later chronologically, he doesn't recognize them at all. Although, due to the main character Prinny's interference, his recognition of the trio could have been a change in the timeline. The Trio's fame in the area of the Netherworld, in which the novel takes place, could also have caused Mao to know them.
Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten
Mao was released in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten as a DLC character. In his DLC cutscenes, he apparently has taken an interest in Desco for his future experiments. However, he is constantly beaten up by Fuka (and at one time, Vulcanus) for his actions. There is also a Pirate Ship named "Getter Mao" which Mao constructed for dissecting people and is somehow powered by Super Hero Aurum.
Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness
Mao appears in Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness as a DLC character. He was released on May, 30th 2013 in Japan along with Raspberyl and Salvatore. He retains his three specials from Disgaea 3 with a visual upgrade to all of them.
Trivia
- In Disgaea 4, the player can purchase paint schemes from the Character Painter for Mao that have the same color palettes as his heart residents such as Savvy Mao, Mao who says Dad, and Dark Mao.
- Mao's mother is never revealed.
- During the Post-Game, Mao's stolen item, which he constantly calls 'that' is actually a Super Hero Aurum action figure.
- In Mao's concept art it's shown that he would potentially have a C shaped scar on his forehead. It could be assumed this was for play on Harry Potter, but such a scar isn't ever visible due to his hair and the idea was probably scrapped all together.
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