"One of the funniest games around, almost perfect..."

I will admit it. I never heard of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness until after it went out of production. Found a copy for a good price and in perfect condition. It's my second NIS title (Phantom Brave being the first) and I must say, this is way better than Phantom Brave and my second favorite SRPG. NIS is becoming very well known for their SRPG and I must say, they are breathing a whole new life into the genre. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is the best to come out in a number of years on a console.

Laharl is awoken from a 2 year nap. His father is dead and there is unrest about the Netherworld. Laharl must now prove that he is the Overlord with the help of his female friend but when an Assassin from Celestia comes to kill Laharl, his world is turned upside down. The story is very cute, in a weird and sick kind of way. Witty dialog and fun characters add to the overall experience but sadly the plot dies when the Humans are introduced as the story takes a slightly different turn and just isn't funny after that.

The graphics in the game are very nice. For being set in the Netherworld, it's a bit bright and cheery, to a degree at least... Characters are all 2d sprites and they look great, facial changes for emotions ect. Not true cut scenes but during dialog a character picture is shown which looks nice. I must say, when comparing this title to Phantom Brave (PB came out after) I must say a lot more work went into the graphics in Disgaea. It's just fun and kind of twisted.

The sound in the game is kind of mixed. The voice acting is rather bad but part way through the game it has kind of grown on you. That doesn't happen much. Laharl's voice and attitude reminded me of Zim from Invader Zim. Sound effects are decent, nothing exciting. Music is really good. I liked it a lot and sadly the soundtrack is not available. That or I just can't find it....

The control in the game is very simple. X brings up your options of special, attack, throw ect. Triangle brings up another menu that allows you to perform the actions you picked from the other menu or to end your turn, which also does any actions you selected and haven't done already via the other choice. It's very simple and smooth. I do wish that the camera could give you a slightly aimed view because sometimes you can't see what is behind a tree because the angles you get don't always show you what you want to see.

Disgaea offers a very fun battle system that is complex in its own right but easy to get the hang of. Something that Phantom Brave was lacking. But let's not go there just yet. Let's talk about how the game gives you levels and how the levels are laid out. Now, the game features 13 or 14 main episodes. They really do feel like episodes and I can see this game being made into a short series, or better yet a longer one that skips the second half of plot in this game. Anyway, the episodes range from 3-7 stages. Each stage has the same goal. Kill all enemies. One or two have different goals but that isn't important here. Anyway, enemy variety is rather good and didn't really get sick of any enemies except the zombies because they are everywhere in one episode. Anyway, the levels all range in size and shape. Some feel like mazes. Some stages offer thing called Geo something or other, I'm horrible with names some times. Now these Geo things give different effects upon the playing field. More damage, invincibility , no passing ect. It just requires you to try and break the Geo but some stages have a catch. Maybe the Geo is casting invincible and it's sitting in the colored zone but there is also another Geo effecting the same area and it's not allow you to pick up ect. This causes some problems but thankfully, the game does suffer spots where you can lure the enemy and slay them.

The most annoying Geo is the ed block one and in one of the last levels it's used to form a maze within the level. Also, unlike Phantom Brave (which offers a circle movement) Disgaea uses the normal grid fair. This makes moving around a bit slower but also easier because the game offers the ability to cancel your actions before you actually pull them off. Also, this game does not offer the out of bounds thing which is almost a relief.

Now, the battle system is way different then anything I've played before. See, you have a blue portal that is placed on the field. Hover over it and you hit X to bring up a menu of your characters. Select the character, move them, and have them perform actions. Whatever, now you can have them do those actions via the triangle menu. However, go back to the portal and bring out more characters, place them around an enemy and you are suddenly doing combos, doing massive damage ect. The main focus in this title is trying to get combos and kill the enemy before they do major combos on you. You can revive a character using HL, which is like money. A nice feature, even though it does make the game a bit easier. The characters also have special attacks that work like magic or super attacks.

There's another catch though. Most animal based enemies that you run into become creatable characters for you. Levels up human characters past a certain point and you get even more characters. The game offers a wide variety when it comes to types of characters. Penguins, dragons, angels, ninjas, archers, ect. It's very diverse and I found it fun making a wacky team and bringing down the enemies! You can also equip weapons. Bows, Lances, guns! Whatever it is, there is a wide variety and most human characters can equip any weapon but some are better with certain weapons.

Sound good right? It can't get better right? WRONG! Now, those items you have? those weapons? That equipment? Imagine a thing called item world. Pick an item and go through 100 levels, you can exit at every ten. Each level levels up the item. That is what I call interactive. What about ranks? Most games give you a rank by what you've done in the game. This game offers a rank mode. Fight a solo battle in this and your rank goes up. Higher the rank the more areas that open and you can soon start passing laws. Imagine 6 or so different endings. Getting to level 9999 (not a typo!) and new game plus. Its sickening sweet with the replay value.

The plot keeps this game away from that perfect ten score. yes, the game is excellent and most SRPG fans will eat it up. It's addictive and offers more than most other games out there. Story mode itself, with extra stuff is about 15 hours. The game has a nice difficulty that gradually sets you up. It is truly a fine piece of gaming but the second half of the game just doesn't deliver a good enough plot and the humor seems to have vanished by that point. Oh well, here's hoping that Disgaea 2 is just as good, if not better. I will be preordering it for sure and I must say this game (Disgaea: Hour of Darkness) is worth buying and I really wouldn't recommend just renting it because it does tend to suck your life away....

Story - 6/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 7/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 10/10
Replay value - 10/10

Final Score - 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/06