Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

"Portable heir to the throne"

If you are one of those people who equates more content to more fun, Disgaea is for you. It is a Strategy RPG (S-RPG) soaked with enough options, customisations and battle tactics to drown out most other games in the genre - that's a hell of a lot!

Coincidentally, Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness has a very hell-ish storyline: the demon overlord, your father, has met an untimely death and various Netherworld-lings have stepped up to succeed him. But you're Laharl, an unruly Son of a Demon (who slept through father's demise), and hell if you're going to let some wannabes take your rightful place.

What ensues is a megaton of turn-based battles waged on several grid-based arenas, much like your typical S-RPG. The key difference here, though, is that much of the humour found in the narrative (made even more hilarious with full voice acting - both English and Japanese) is translated across to the battlefield. For example, when was the last time you were so annoyed at how your penguin footsoldier covered little ground that you just picked him up and lobbed him over to a surprised witch; can you say "backside attack"?

Then there are the Geo Panels which are the core focus of battles, instantly buffing characters who reside on their enhanced coloured tiles, but causing massive damage if their source is destroyed. Thus, not only do you have to be aware of conventional battle tactics from nearly a hundred different character classes, but you'll also have to keep tabs on what's happening geographically, so to speak.

There are heaps of missions and all the while a sassy dialogue keeps you wanting to fight just one more – ‘tis the nature of these kind of games. On the contrary, though, Disgaea isn't as epic as most other S-RPGs; most battles restrict your party size to just ten. But then, with the startling amount of classes and customisations available, this makes Disgaea a game which never plays the same way twice.

Infinite replayability? Hell yeah!

(Even if you have played the original to death, there's still something that you've bound to have missed - there's never been a better time to pick up where you left off!)

If you beat the game, or die prematurely, you can begin anew with all of your equipment and levels intact. This is very important as you'll only come to possess a fraction of what's available and many of the optional missions (I'm looking at the evil Item missions here) are impossible unless you have the right team for the job and are sufficiently levelled (upwards of 9999, seriously). It sounds daunting, I know, but the gist of it is extremely easy to pick up (there's an excellent tutorial here, unlike other S-RPGs...) and you'll be pulling off some off-the-hook magic attacks, partner combos, and sweeping Geo chain reactions in no time.

It all looks very pretty, too. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness is an enhanced port of the original PlayStation 2 Disgaea: Hourglass of Darkness. The same 2D anime graphics make a welcome return and they look even better on the small screen with nary a hitch in the framerate. The isometric perspective can be rotated to get a better view of battle, but oftentimes pillars and other tall obstructions can get in the way making it difficult to see what pathways are available and some tucked away enemies. You can issue orders via control pad or analog stick (precision versus speed) which works well, but sometimes you'll drop the cursor off the grid-space and the jerking camera angle can be quite annoying. I'm picking at stones here, but that's because those are the only real technical flaws I could find; the music is lovely, if not exceptional.

The enhancements over the original PS2 game go as far to include an extra scenario (the vassal who normally wakes you up inadvertently kills you and becomes the leading lady) and Ad-Hoc multiplayer, amongst other improvements including cameo boss fights (from other NIS games) and option to turn battle animations and effects off, speeding up replay battles significantly and making it even more accessible to those who have possibly burnt out on either of the two PS2 games.

I liked Disgaea. It was genuinely hilarious and the battles could be as smooth-sailing or as hardcore as you like. As with most other S-RPGs, a degree of patience is required, especially since there is no simple way to manage the insane amount of battling options without tons of tap, tap, tapping. If this sounds right up your alley, this is a no-brainer. If not, it still comes highly recommended. Disgaea is easily one of the best defining games of the genre, and now that you can play it in quick bursts during your daily commutes, how can you go wrong?

VERDICT - 8.0/10 Confused at the score? I'm more of an action-orientated gamer, but eight is GREAT!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/07

Game Release: Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (US, 10/30/07)