Disgaea - Afternoon of Darkness - 9/10
The version of Disgaea being reviewed is the Sony PSP release of the first Disgaea game released for the Playstation 2 back in 2003. It was originally a Japanese release but was translated to English for general release. The original was followed by “Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories” which received mixed responses from fans of the original. The third installment, “Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice”, has also just been released for the Playstation 3 and is receiving consistently good reviews across the board.
The story begins with Laharl, an adolescent Demon, being awoken forcibly by his vassal Etna. He has been asleep for 200 years for reasons which become clear later in the game. During Laharl’s lengthy slumber his father, the Overlord of the Netherworld, has died. Given the direct heir has been asleep for so long the rite of succession has been thrown open to competition and there are many demons and monsters vying to win the supreme title. Thus Laharl begins a lengthy campaign to defend his birth rite and, ultimately, secure the very existence of the Netherworld itself.
The character exposition during the story of Disgaea is both fun and quite touching at times. The unfolding story successfully navigates between sensitive emotions as well as quite silly anime style humour. In what other game would you find a curvy blonde goddess exclaiming “"I heard at headquarters that the Netherworld is full of nasty, vicious creatures. If we're discovered... I'll be molested by countless slimy tentacles and my bodily fluids will be sucked dry!" Hooray for tentacles! The humour and storyline will definitely appeal to fans of Japanese anime.
Etna’s egotistical fantasies, which are interjected between the story chapters, are legitimately funny and offer another perspective on the events in the main campaign. In fact, once you play through the main campaign you can try your hand at an additional story which places Etna as the main character after killing Laharl in his sleep, instead of awaking him, as occurs in the main story.
Differing from Disgaea 1 and 2, the PSP version is in wide screen format and the presentation is gorgeous. The graphics of the game are fairly basic and at times rudimentary but this adds to the anime styling of the game and, for me at least, was very pleasing. The cut scenes occur more like a comic where still pictures change with the text / spoken word components. It is simple but quite charming and will definitely appeal to fans of anime if not the general gaming public.
The only problem I had with the graphics is that in some maps it can be a little hard to see around objects and between outcropping walls as the view point rotation is only available in ninety degree angle increments. A seemingly simple solution would have been to make obstructing matter transparent but for whatever reason this was not done. This is a fairly minor quibble as you can work out what is going on – it just isn’t as easy as it possibly should be – especially within the fairly geometrically challenging Item World.
Music and sound is also notable and some of the compositions are definitely infectious and well suited to the game storyline and graphical presentation. The stock musical tracks are varied enough that you will tend not to get sick of them. There are also some great one off musical pieces that pop up for specific story parts. The background music and chant of the red moon sequence is an absolute standout and themes from this appear later in the game in very different musical variations. The soaring guitar track accompanying the three coloured “Prism Rangers” battle is another, albeit overly optimistic, stand out. The Prism Rangers are a humorous parody of a certain set of multi coloured “powerful ranger” characters familiar to most people under a certain age.
The whole package is very well integrated right down to the voice acting which I really enjoyed. Captain Gordon, “DefENNNder of Earth”, is a notable standout as is the bratty adolescent, yet at times quite thoughtful, voice of the main character, Larharl – the would be Overlord of the Netherworld. Some commentators have expressed dislike of the Etna voicing but I quite like it as I believe it suits her character.
The player starts the game in the Netherworld Palace and from here you can access the multiplayer interface, various shops, the Dark Assembly, hospital and Dimensional Gateway. It is here you will spend your between mission time healing, equipping and creacting your characters. Speaking to various characters will tell new players some of the game fundamentals and the text help guides are actually well worth a read. There is also a quick tutorial covering various game aspects but this isn’t too laborious allowing you to get right into the action.
The Disgaea combat system forms the heart of the game and allows the player to develop their characters as well as progress the story as a whole. Combat happens within three main environments within the game. Story based missions are accessed via the “Dimensional Gate” and are divided into chapters which have fairly consistent graphical styling and monster classes per chapter. It is here that you will spend the bulk of your combat time and here that the story unfolds.
Next there is the “Item World” which is basically a set of short levels hidden, literally, inside an item. Working your way through these item levels gives you the opportunity to improve the item statistics – sometimes quite dramatically. If you enter the Item World inside a sword and work your way through a few levels the sword statistics will increase when you exit the item world. To get the most dramatic results it pays to defeat the item world ten levels at a time. The item will “level up” the number of levels you defeat. The maps seem to be randomly generated and some are easier than others. The stronger the item you enter, the more resistance you will encounter – and the greater the benefits you will receive if victorious.
The third main combat area is within the “Dark Assembly”. It is here that characters can battle individually to increase their rank and influence within the Netherworld power structure. The higher your rank the more sway you have when proposing bills to the Assembly. Bills you can propose include game changing propositions like “More Expensive Stuff” which basically allows the shops to sell you a better grade of product than before.
If the bill fails you can either take your losses and walk or try to beat or bribe enough of the naysayers into submission to win your proposal. It is an ingenious way of scaling the game content to match the development and statistics of your set of characters. There are many other bills you can propose including bonus areas and character modification requests. Beyond the main three combat areas listed above there are a few others but they are best found by the players within the game.
Combat operates within a turn based square grid structure and each map is a unique combat environment. You begin each combat scenario from a portal spawn point and can select up to ten characters per mission. Objectives are usually “kill everything on this map” but the way in which you do this will depend upon the map layout, the monster placement, the existence of Geo Symbols (which add certain characteristics to map squares) and the structure of your own party.
Certain characters will be able to attack in certain ways. For instance, your basic Warrior or hand to hand combat class will be able to attack the squares in front and rear, left and right. Diagonal squares are not targetable for standard attacks of these classes. However, the spear wielding Etna can attack diagonally and also strike out at squares beyond those immediately adjacent to her position.
Archers and spell casters can attack based on the limitations of their weapon or spell but generally wont be good for combat of the up close and personal kind. The limitations per class mean you have to be strategic in how you place the characters if you want to maximize damage and minimize losses per turn.
Beyond the standard attacks each class will have additional special attacks which broaden the scope of inflicting damage and also demonstrate some pretty cool cut scenes as each special attack is executed. Specific story line characters will also generally have their own special combat moves which can be used to great effect within combat. Add to this the potential for combo attacks, throwing allies and enemies across the map (yes, throwing!) and a myriad of tactical choices and you have a pretty sophisticated and deeply thought out combat engine.
As a player you can choose to hammer away at the main story, knocking over each episode within each chapter in series or you can spend time building up your characters by replaying past scenarios or your items through the item world. You will need to spend time away from the main campaign from time to time to build up newly created characters due to the fact that new classes will become available as you fulfill certain criteria within the game. In this was you can approach Disgaea as a long sit down session or find something quick to do in a couple of minutes waiting for the bus.
Character creation occurs within the Dark Assembly and each character made will have a pupil relationship with the character creator. This relationship affects experience points gained and also allows the creating character to learn skills and even spells from the pupil. This means you can, for instance, have a healer who can also cast devastating Star spells when they are not happily healing their comrades.
As you kill monsters you will find that many of them will appear as options for character creation within your own team of Netherworld henchmen and women. You may find yourself being destroyed by a certain enemy attack and then go and create the monster class responsible as part of your own team… Pretty cool!
The sincere emotions and humorous story components of the Disgaea successfully break the game up into something a lot more entertaining than a standard strategy game. “Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness” will definitely appeal to anime and RPG fans as well as seasoned strategy RPG players.
The game play has considerable depth and the story telling, though silly at times, is quite engaging and memorable. Backed by simple but well suited graphics and a beautifully composed sound track Disgaea is a game to which you can keep coming back and always find something interesting to do. Oh and for those wondering - "Disgaea" is pronounced DIS-GUY-A, at least according to Etna and she should know!
Submitted by Thunar
6 days ago
6
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