Disgaea DS

"Disgaea is Here for the DS, and boy is it one heck of a game!"

A few years ago, the cult classic game Disgaea: Hour of Darkeness was released for the Playstation 2. Disgaea DS is the second port of Hour of Darkness released by Nippon Ichi Software.

The game is a good port of the Hour of Darkness, and has a few DS features like touch-screen interface, and has many of the features of the PSP port such as Etna mode. But I digress, I'll start my review now

Presentation (Style + Graphics) - 2/2

This game's graphics do it's job. That's about it. The Art and graphical style is also "unique" for lack of a better word. I don't believe you'll see a game like this one.

Considering that the game was originally for the Playstation 2, these graphics hold up really well. The Graphics are sprites, so yes it may not seem impressive from the PS2 version, but it looks GREAT for a DS game, and the awesome attack animations still look awesome. The only gripe I could pull out for this game in terms of Graphics pertains to the Special attack animations. They have a few moments that look kinda DS-ified, but it really doesn't matter because it actually affects the game very little since the attacks as a whole still look awesome. Considering it is a port, it holds up quite well.

For people who've played the Disgaea Series on the PS2, the DS-ification sticks out a little more than a newbie, but given a little time, you'll adjust. Plus the game is just so much fun, you'll forget it soon unless you're some kind of graphic freak.

Plot (Characters + Story) - 2/2

There's two things this game has on a lot of SRPGs. First, it has good characters, and second you can make your own characters. Most SRPGs only have one or the other (i.e. Fire Emblem and Advance Wars). The main characters are the Demon Prince Laharl, and his friends. You can make your own characters the dark assembly, and you can make them from a list of certain classes, and name them what you want.

The Story is very unconventional for a Japanese RPG. Rather than fighting for good and justice with love and altruism, you are a evil ransacking demon seeking to claim your father's throne for your own selfish desires. In this game what is good (love, kindness, washing your hands, etc) is bad. And what is bad (pillaging, killing, stealing, NOT washing your hands) is good. Keep this in mind as you play the game

It all starts when Laharl's Father, the king of the Netherworld dies choking on a bagel or something. At the time, Laharl is taking a nap. Etna, The king's trusted Vassal then tries wake Laharl up. Laharl's been sleeping for two years, and everyone's forgotten about him. Meanwhile, demons across the Netherworld are competing for the throne.

When he finally wakes up, Laharl is informed of everything he's missed in his "Nap" and goes off to reclaim his place as The Overlord of the Netherworld. Along the way, he gathers friends, demons, a group of "Defenders of the Earth" as he reclaims the throne. Plus, there are lots of different endings, and even better, a separate story mode where Etna kills Laharl while trying to wake him up.

Game Mechanics (Controls + Gameplay)

The Gameplay is probably Disgaea's best feature. First thing's first, let's throw away lots of the conventional RPG landmarks!

If you didn't already know, Disgaea is a SRPG, a Strategy Role-Playing game. At first, it plays like an Atypical SRPG: You move your characters around, they attack, cast spells, etc. However, underneath that there are many unique mechanics in this game. First is stack attacks. When a character is standing next to another character, there is a percentage that those two characters will team up and do an attack. This is possible to do with up to four characters at once provided the other three characters are adjacent to the character initiating the attack.

Next, comes lifting, and throwing. In Disgaea Once humanoid characters can lift and throw other characters. This is essential for clearing some maps, and useful for moving characters long distances.

These are just two example of some of the Gameplay mechanics. There are lots of them, and you'll learn to use them as you play the game.

There is also the Dark Assembly. This is where you make your characters and unlock more ingame stuff like classes, maps, etc. Basically, it works like this. you want to unlock something, You must acquire a certain amount of mana by killing enemies, and then you gotta get it passed in the Dark Assembly. And how do you do that? You bribe your way through. If you don't suceed in that, then you can attempt to beat the crap out of all the senators, but be warned: many of the senators are powerful, so it many not be the best approach.

Oh, and one final thing about the gameplay: You can level up you characters to Level 9999!

Where Controls are Concerned, this game does it's job. The Touch screen interface is a little awkward in my opinion, but that's no problem since the controls in general work well, and you don't even have to even use the Touchscreen if you don't want to.

Sound (Music and Sound FX) 1/2

In my non-professional opinion, this game's music is... slightly below satifying. It fits the mood, and does the job, but at the bare minimum. The in battle voices are good, and the occassional voiced scenes are too, but the music is just a little bland. The sound effects do their job, and hit the mark. Plus, the vast majority of the Voice acting is ommited, and the worst part is: the prinnies's Voices are different!

Value (Replay Value, Price, enjoyment) 2/2

This game feels a little hollow at first. Especially compared to the originals on the PS2, but that's just at the start. The thing that you gotta love about the Disgaea Series is the New game+. You can beat the game over and over again each time pulling over all you stats, items, characters and classes from the last save. I know a guy whose logged hundreds of hours into each of the Disgaea Games, and he's not done this with many other games. In my opinion that just speaks miles of how much replay value this has.

I'd say that the Original was better in many respects, and this one has good things too. However, the main thing I've gotta gripe over is the Price. Disgaea for the PS2 is $42 at my local GameStop. Used. This one is new, with bonus features, and is $30! And it's portable! For everything this game has, it's definately worth the price. It's highly enjoyable, and I'd recommend it to any SRPG fan. Now, if you already have the original on the PS2, then you essentially have no reason to buy this game other than portability and a few new features. If you own the PSP port, you have almost no reason to buy this game at all. But for anyone else looking for an awesome SRPG, I 90% recommend this one!

Rent or Buy? I'd say buy, but since I don't know where they rent DS games, I'd say borrow it. If you like SRPGs, then buy it, but if you're not sure, then borrow it first. But I'd definately buy it again if I had to make the choice again!

Final Score:9/10- Great game.

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

Game Release: Disgaea DS (US, 09/23/08)