Disgaea DS

"One of the best strategic RPGs brought for you by Nintendo, thanks to them!"

Since the beginning of the video game era back in the seventies, the VG industry always attempted to marvel gamers by showing them great games. Many of those games don't make the cut sadly and most of 'em would be placed under a rock and forgotten until the end of time (ET the Extraterrial on Atari 2600, anyone?). Once a while, a marvel appears out of nowhere and marks the gaming world. Disgaea is one of them. It first appeared on the PlayStation 2 console (Or PS2 for short, for those who don't understand what I mean.), and while it wasn't really known, over time it would gain the reputation it deserved. Classified in the S-RPG (Strategical Role Playing Game), with its countless hours of battling hordes of humans, demons and even angels, extremely humourous scenes and a very well designed weapon system, it would be a shame that a game of that level would be one of the worst, right? Anyway let's begin our review, dear reader.


Story: 10/10

Enter Laharl, the heir of King Kritchevskoy, the Overlord who sadly passed away because he choked on a black pretzel. (Just by that thing, it IS completely ridiculous.) Laharl wakes up after a two-year nap, and when he learns of the death of his old man, decides to take up the throne and beat up those wicked ones who tries to get HIS place, namely the ex-vassals who wants to be the Overlord in place of the Overlord. He'll get many allies to help him, from the mysterious Etna, an old acquaintance of Laharl's who has apparently a secret agenda of her own to the very naive Flonne, who is an angel sent in a mission to eliminate King Kritchevskoy (Which is by the way already dead) and even the explosive Prinnies. (I will never forget those ­"Dood" words, and believe me, when I say "explosive", I really mean it! Throw one of these and you'll see!) The many inside jokes who compose the majority of the story plus the variety of the characters makes that game a great one. For that section, I give that a 10.

Gameplay: 10/10

The gameplay of this game is pretty simple, yet very well made. It consists basically of two things: the base, where you heal your characters, buy equipment, recruit/retire other members, gain some ranks and try to persuade the Dark Assembly to gain more items or money, and the battle zone, which consists of an area full of monsters on a chess-like grid space.

The main base like I said consists of many things. Let's see that more closely, shall we? First of all, you can buy many things there. At first, you only get crappy stuff. But! With the Dark Assembly, you can try to persuade the people there to get more expensive stuff. You can even buy the music you hearded at least once (Which is REALLY expensive). What can you do besides that? Well, it has a hospital which can give some prizes if you visit them often. It has also the important Dark Assembly. What's that thing? Think about the Congress/Parliament/whatever what you call where politicians vote laws and that's that thing. There, you can create/delete new characters, try to get more stuff (From glasses to slippers, it has anything!) or even try to gain some ranks, which is represented in the form of a battle between the one you want to gain that rank and some enemies. But beware! If you lose, it's Game Over so be really careful with that thing. By the way, you can bribe those senators to gain their favor, so if you want to win, do it the way YOU want! And yes, in case you wonder, you can battle them to force them to pass your proposals!

Now, I will talk about the all-important battle zone, which is the heart of any S-RPG. What it is? Like I said, it is a chess-like map in the sense it is built in a grid fashion. Battles are turn based. You make your actions, end your turn and your opponents do their turn. Basically, it is done like that. Many classes compose your team. You can build an all-warrior team of you can also create a wizard-only team. But strategic RPGs aren't only hack and slash. Like the name says, you must do strategic decisions with your army. Since that game lets only a maximum of 10 individuals on your map, you must devise wisely who you'll send in battle to let you get the best chances to win. Technically speaking, the inclusion of the touch screen for this game is a very well made idea, since you can use shortcuts to do your actions, or you can use D-pad since it uses the same things. You battle screen is comprised of two things with the DS version: the upper screen is the map, which is perfect like it is made, and the lower screen is the battlefield.

Like I said, gameplay is pretty much simple. But, it is very effective. And the inclusion of the touch option is a major plus for that game, I give that section a 10, too.

Graphics/sound: 9/10

Since it is a remake of the PS2 version, many players feared that the game would be less beautiful graphically. Players won't be deceived, because graphics aren't downgraded at all, save maybe for some animations. But, considering the limitations of the DS since it is less powerful than the PS2, we can understand that, right? But what makes this section deserving a 9 is the sound departement. Sadly, the music is simply put a marvel to hear. Each piece of music fits perfectly in the background. The Etna commentaries between each chapter is totally hilarious. But I must ask one question: why the developpers made the sound so low? Even if I am in a very quiet place, the sound is not that high. We can use headphones to rely that, but even with those things, it wasn't a good thing to make the game so quiet. Also, I would like to hear more voice-acting. Besides some cutscenes and when those characters attacks, we don't hear much from them, which is a shame. For that section, a little disappointing 9 is what I think.

Playtime/replayability: 10/10

One word for that: limitless. The level cap is so high (9999, and it isn't a typo. In fact, you'll never see that in other RPGs, I swear it!), the possibility of restarting your game with your actual stats, and playing the story with Etna as the main character makes that game a jewel in any collector gamer. I assure you won't clear that in game in one day or even one week, so if you search a game that will take time to complete it, you have found a winner! You'll understand why I put a 10 in that section, now?


Buy it or rent it? Buy it if you like S-RPGs. I strongly recommend it for anyone, in fact. You can buy that also for a very low price, so don't hesitate and buy it, seriously.

Final word: That game is one of the best I've ever seen. You won't regret a bit when you'll start playing that, I assure you!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/06/08

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