Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice

"If you've never played Disgaea before, this review is for you"

I had never played any of the Disgaea games before this one and I thought that people who were considering the game but new to the series might want an newcomer's perspective.

Introduction: Disgaea 3 is a SRPG, meaning that it's a strategy RPG, similar in nature to Final Fantasy Tactics or Front Mission 4. If you've never played any game like this, think of chess, but with the ability to move all the pieces at once, plus the ability to have really super powered pieces. All of the action takes place on maps where you deploy your characters. This is the 3rd in the series, but publisher NIS has made several other SRPGs, so it is quite experienced.

Gameplay: The gameplay of this game is beyond outstanding. First, it is fun and fast, which is completely key to the success of any SRPG. You can undo moves, skip animations to speed things up, do combo attacks with characters, inflict outrageous damage, customize weapons, replay boards to level up . . . it's as though NIS listened to all the things all players have said over the years and integrated them into this game.

It is, however, quite complex. To give you a brief overview, there is an item world, a class world, a dark world, reincarnations, pirating & reverse pirating, innocent towns, etc. This may sound off-putting, but it shouldn't turn you away from this game. First, if you're reading this, your most likely familiar with the gamefaqs message boards, and nearly any question you may have has been answered there. Second, there an excellent guidebook which will help you out. Third, and most importantly, you don't need to explore all of the complexities to beat the story mode in the game and have a good time.

The complexity of this game is what makes it shine. You can customize nearly everything about your characters, weapons, and monsters. You can even pass "bills" to make the game harder or easier. You can transfer skills and abilities between characters and monsters. It has the all important "continue+" feature. Simply put, this game has some of the best features I could want in an SRPG and it is totally satisfying. Really, it has some of the best features in any RPG.

Story: The story is off the wall. It involves a demon and a hero-hopeful and their adventures in a netherworld school, where being evil makes you an honor's student. It is very funny and you do not need to have played the prior games to understand it. There were a bunch of times I was laughing out loud and it constantly makes fun of gaming conventions, e.g., power leveling, save data, and parents not understanding gaming. It is simultaneously compelling but it doesn't take itself seriously. I'm my opinion, it's silliness stands up to the stories in RPG classics like Final Fantasy or Elder Scrolls. It is a linear story, but that doesn't detract at all from it's value.

Graphics/Sound: It's tough to rate this game on this category. Let's start with sound. The voice acting is great and you can turn on the Japanese voices, if that's your preference. The sound effects are great. The background music can get a little repetitive, but you can turn this down in the in game menu. Incidentally, you can also change the in game music via the customization that I mentioned earlier. The sound in this game is fine.

The graphics tend to be a lightning rod for controversy. The backgrounds are fine. The spell/attack animations look great. The characters, however, have a PS2 look. This didn't bother me because I could always see which character was which and what direction they were facing (the camera may require adjustment at times, but you can always work it out). Ultimately, the weak character graphics just didn't detract from the experience. Would it be better if the characters looked better? Sure. Does it mean you should skip this? Absolutely not - but you should know what you're buying. This may be an underhanded compliment, but if you use your imagination a little bit, the character models are ok. To sum up, the character graphics did not take away from my experience; they just didn't add much.

Play Time/Replayability: For a person new to Disgaea, to get through the story will probably take about 50 hours. There are 8 or so different endings, and every time you beat it all of your characters, monsters, gear, etc, carry over to the next round so you can continue to build them to insane levels. To get through the initial story you will probably only need to get your characters into the 100 to 200s, so it is very reasonable and doesn't require much grinding. Because you can reincarnate your characters to make them stronger, getting to level 9999 is just the beginning. That's not the best part, though.

There is a STAGGERING amount of post game content. If you played through just the story, you've probably only played through 25-30% of the content, and the extra stuff is not just cheap "spraypaint all the buildings stuff." There are actually more post-game levels than there are story levels. Finishing the story is just the beginning of this game - perhaps the best way to put it is you don't even come close to getting the most powerful weapons during the story - they are all in the post game levels. You could sink 200+ hours in. This has more bang for the buck than 95% of the games out there.

Final Recommendation: This game met and exceeded all my expectations. You should definitely get this if you enjoy RPGs and if you enjoy SRPGs, this has got to be one of the best. The only thing that keeps me from giving it a 10 is that people can legitimately criticize the character graphics. This didn't matter for me, but this review is for you! This is one of those rare games that, as you play it, you have the feeling that the developers understood exactly what you wanted (and didn't want). I completely recommend this and I hope I've helped you make your choice.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/08

Game Release: Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (US, 08/26/08)