“Emizel, I've been watching you from the Netherworld. You've gotten so strong. I'm proud of you, son.”
—Death King Hugo, Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten
Hugo, also known as Death King Hugo, is a major antagonist in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten. He's the 61st President of the Netherworld, head of the Corrupterment and father to Emizel.
Profile
Appearance
Contrasting his son's cutesy appearance, Hugo is a tall, intimidating man. In his humanoid form he has a slightly hunched back, wide frame, muscular arms, and enormous hands. His receding hair is mostly swept back, with a single unkempt cowlick falling over his forehead. His beard splays out it multiple directions. It is long enough to reach down to his mid-chest, and is decorated with a gold ring that matches the one beneath Emizel's hoodie flame. Further matching, the part of his beard below the ring is shaped like a flame. Hugo is aged and wrinkled, though significantly less in his in-game appearances compared to his concept art. His eyes are small and lacking in pupils, consisting just of black sclera and glowing green irises. His concept art shows him with a skull-shaped pipe, from which green smoke is puffed. It is briefly stated in-game that the only trait Emizel inherited from him is his hair colour, although even in that instance Hugo's is far lighter than Emizel's. Rather than the dark golden-blond of his son's hair, Hugo's hair is more of a desaturated platinum blond, perhaps implying greying due to age or stress. He wears a green scarf tucked into his purple suit, and the scarf is supposedly a gift from Valvatorez from their younger days as rivals. The cuffs of his suit are the same green as the scarf, and they bear ringed markings that match the wrap that Emizel wears around his hoodie tail. The cummerbund he wears is the same green, as well.
In his monster/battle form, he dons a skull similar to those worn by Generic deaths. The difference here is that rather than the skull playing the role of his entire head, he wears it as something closer to a mask. His body is smaller, broader, and far more hunched in battle, and his shoes are discarded to reveal similarly-coloured purple hooves. His scarf becomes untucked like this. His beard becomes messier as well, the 'flame' of it becoming more wild in appearance. Where his hands are bare in his humanoid form, he has white gloves in his monstrous form. His skull pipe becomes his scythe, which is similar to the standard Reaper scythe, though with a green eye rather than the typical red. This form also possesses a pair of large, skeletal wings extending from his back, and a tiny goat's tail extending from his backside.
Personality
Hugo is a serious and grim man. His first few appearances in the plot show him to be somewhat ruthless in his political tactics, ordering for the extermination of Prinnies, the hunting of the Hades party, and even broadcasting the false death of his own son to supposedly hide the embarrassment of his failure to defeat the rebels.
When later formally introduced to the party, he shows good naturedness toward them, deeming them "brave, yet foolish, rebels" and praising them for their tenacity in reaching him. He speaks warmly to Valvatorez despite their long-held rivalry, and becomes boisterous and aggressively enthusiastic at the idea of battle. When unable to exert his full power, however, he shows a far more dour and depressed side to his personality, quickly growing miserable as he speaks of the shameful manipulations he's suffered.
Although his actions would imply little care for his son, Hugo's lategame interactions with Emizel and his base dialogue reveal deep love for his son, despite how he seems almost embarrassed to admit it. He defensively speaks of keeping photos of Emizel in his wallet, claiming that it doesn't make him "some doting dad." His postgame appearances also show him becoming much more jovial when dealing with the protagonists, jokingly tormenting Valvatorez and/or Fuka in a few of his dialogues as well as agreeing to mentor Desco and DES-X in the ways of final bossery. His battle dialogues enforce this more upbeat version of him, as well as his boisterous nature when involved in fights, as much of it consists of maniacal evil laughter and insults to the enemies.
Story
He makes a few short appearances in episodes 2 to 6, hearing a report from Psylos of the Three Brutes on what troubles are going on in the Netherworld and the news on the rebels going against the Corrupterment.
He appears before Valvatorez and his party at the end of episode 7, stating he was surprised to hear Valvatorez was the leader of the rebels and asks him why he formed a rival party only to hear him answer that he would have continued his new job as a Prinny Instructor if he never sent out the Prinny execution order. Hugo is then questioned by Valvatorez on why he is letting the human world get out of control. Before he answers he asks the rest of the party why they came to overthrow the Corrupterment, only to laugh when he sees how divided their goals are. Hugo is surprised again when he hears Valvatorez, a demon who lived life alone as a Tyrant and refused the help of others, talk about a camaraderie and declares that he will judge if Valvatorez's change through sardines and the promise he made 400 years ago is an evolution or degeneration, triggering the battle. After his defeat, he revealed that all of his actions were to hide the deal he made with the Human World due to the decline of fear energy in the Netherworld. He explains that they tried hard to find ways to scare the humans, but they advanced much faster and because of their own actions (wars, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction caused by human error and daily incidents of murder) they have begun to fear themselves and kept the fear energy in the human world, this causing the decline of Fear Energy. It is because of this decline that both Hugo and the demons of the Corruptment had weakened in power, since demons become weaker when there is less fear energy in the Netherworld and the Corruptment is affected by this the most. He also reveals that the Netherworld was being controlled by the secret ruler of the Human World, a man named Judge Nemo.
Hugo appears again in episode 9, where he contacts the group on how the Information Bureau helped spread how Valvatorez's party was trying to stop the destruction of the moon, causing them to pray and create awe energy for Great Flonzor X. He also states how strong Emizel has become and says how proud he is of him.
Before the party's battle with Hugo, it is revealed that he fought with Valvatorez a long time ago back when Vavatorez was still known as a Tyrant. Valvatorez states that they fought for days on end and were unable to settle their match. Hugo mentions that Valvatorez was the only man able to cause an injury on his body.
Battle
In battle, Hugo has the Netherworld President enemy class. He fights very much like a Reaper class character, only with much higher stats. He has high SP, followed by ATK, INT and Hit. He has the Reaper's Mind Killer Evility (which deals 50% of the damage he deals to his target's SP) and his unique Protection Target Evility, which increases that stats of his Bouncers by 30%. His only skill is Keeper of the Abyss (the same final skill Reapers have), which deals star damage and inflicts Deprave.
Hugo joins the player's party after the opening scene of the third chapter of the Fuka and Desco scenario. He has his same skills as he did in his boss battle (plus the other three Reaper skills) and has the same Evilities as Reapers plus his own new unique Evility that allows him to have a 10% chance to inflict deathblow when casting spells. He Magichanges into a bow with the Reaper's Magichange skills.
Gallery
