I want to get a couple more reviews under my belt before I continue to go into other subjects. I'd like to review a game before I specifically talk about it, or related games, so I think I will do three reviews this week. The first is the PSP port of the original Disgaea game, Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.
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| "Or, do you want me to give human kids an addictive video game that will deprive them of their sleep?" -Laharl, Main Character |
Disclaimer: This game is six years old, and the original version (Hour of Darkness) is ten years old. I understand this, and acknowledge this. The game is still purchaseable and playable, however, so I shall review it.
Story - 9
The core story of Disgaea is, in my opinion, excellent. There are several storylines, about one in each chapter, that converge towards the ending. The story on it's own is pretty good, but what makes it truly great is the comedy. Many times while playing I laughed out loud. There are the scenes where they told Count Vyers, he was now "Mid-Boss" and his class and in-game name changed to match, as well as the entire sequence with the Prism Rangers, were very cleverly and hilariously written. And then there is Kurtis, who is ridiculously cool, and has an awesome soundtrack. And there are heartwarming and beautiful moments, including the "Good" ending and the end of
In addition, the game has multiple endings. Most of them are based solely on how many allies you inadvertently kill with area attacks, but the "Normal" and "Good/True" endings are very well written. The "Good/True" ending also paves the way for a sequel, Disgaea Dimension 2: A Brighter Darkness, which is currently available only in Japan. While there are other Disgaea games (Currently 2,3, and 4, as well as their ports.), they are not direct sequels to Afternoon of Darkness.
Graphics - 4
The actual game play graphics are not very good. They are very grainy and cartoony, but do have nice idle animations and special attack animations. However, the characters chat-heads and chat-bodies are well done, while still cartoon like. Some characters are a little on the skimpy side in dress (For example, Etna, the female demon on the left side of the cover) but most are pretty good. Flonne is one of the most modestly dressed, and is probably my favorite character.
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| Hello. I'm an Assassin. |
Features - 8
Disgaea has some unique features that make the game great. One of these, the Geo Symbols, have become a symbol of the franchise. These are small pyramids that provided penalties or bonuses to colored spaces that are the same color as them. Sometimes, you can destroy them in a certain order, and create a large combo that gives you bonus rewards and damages all those on the colored squares. There is also the Dark Assembly, something loosely resembling a senate, that you can propose bills too. You can bribe them to make them vote for you, or, if the vote fails, fight them to get the proposed bill passed. There is also the Item world, a world consisting of 30+ random levels in each item. Completing each level will give a bonus to the items power. Finally, the game has full voice acting in the levels, and has the option to turn on the Japanese voice acting instead, which I very much liked.
Gameplay - 6
While the features are well implemented, and the game starts out with a good set of enemies for your level, after the point the game becomes nearly impossible without going back and doing a fair bit of level grinding. While I actually enjoyed this, many people don't, and it can be very frustrating doing the same map 400 times so you become a high enough level to defeat a level 2500.
Content - 8
There is a fair bit of content in this game, a few extra stages were added onto the port. Completing the game, with all of it's sublevels and item collections takes a very long time, probably significantly more than 100 hours. It took me about 50 hours to beat the main story of the game, but this may change based on the amount of grinding you do.
Approachability - 6
This game is pretty good at lowering you into the action gently, then hitting you with a gigantic hammer later on. That said, the tutorial is simple and effective, but there are some things that it does not explain, and it can be hard to figure out how all of these things work, like the Dark Assembly, and bribing. Most things are explained once, and only once.
Additionally, to complete everything, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many hours of repetitive grinding is required. With 100 hours I have two level 2500 characters (The level cap is 9999) and they are not nearly strong enough together to face the next post game objectives. (Ideally, you would have more than one or two people at this level as well, as you can normally use 10 people per level)
Soundtrack - 7
While there are some truly great songs and BGM's in the game, the majority of them are just okay. One nice thing though, is the ability to buy all of the songs in game, and set them as the background music in the item world. On the other hand, Kurtis' soundtrack, the best song in the game, costs a billion HL to buy. After about 100 hours in the game, I am about one tenth of the way there.
Game Rating - T
I added this since the last one. This will have the games ESRB rating, and what I think of it.
Disgaea is rated Teen, which I believe is appropriate. There is a little bit of swearing, and there are Etna and Jennifer, who have more of their skin showing than they have covered.
Overall - 9
As I said earlier, this is one of my favorite games. I enjoy primarily the story above all else, and recommend that, if you cannot purchase and play the game, you at least read the manga. It's horrible, compared to the game, but at least you can get a sense of the great storyline. And listen to Kurtis' theme. It's incredible.
Here's a link actually - Japanese and English Translation as well.
It's just that good.
I really like Kurtis.
While the features are well implemented, and the game starts out with a good set of enemies for your level, after the point the game becomes nearly impossible without going back and doing a fair bit of level grinding. While I actually enjoyed this, many people don't, and it can be very frustrating doing the same map 400 times so you become a high enough level to defeat a level 2500.
Content - 8
There is a fair bit of content in this game, a few extra stages were added onto the port. Completing the game, with all of it's sublevels and item collections takes a very long time, probably significantly more than 100 hours. It took me about 50 hours to beat the main story of the game, but this may change based on the amount of grinding you do.
Approachability - 6
This game is pretty good at lowering you into the action gently, then hitting you with a gigantic hammer later on. That said, the tutorial is simple and effective, but there are some things that it does not explain, and it can be hard to figure out how all of these things work, like the Dark Assembly, and bribing. Most things are explained once, and only once.
Additionally, to complete everything, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many hours of repetitive grinding is required. With 100 hours I have two level 2500 characters (The level cap is 9999) and they are not nearly strong enough together to face the next post game objectives. (Ideally, you would have more than one or two people at this level as well, as you can normally use 10 people per level)
Soundtrack - 7
While there are some truly great songs and BGM's in the game, the majority of them are just okay. One nice thing though, is the ability to buy all of the songs in game, and set them as the background music in the item world. On the other hand, Kurtis' soundtrack, the best song in the game, costs a billion HL to buy. After about 100 hours in the game, I am about one tenth of the way there.
Game Rating - T
I added this since the last one. This will have the games ESRB rating, and what I think of it.
Disgaea is rated Teen, which I believe is appropriate. There is a little bit of swearing, and there are Etna and Jennifer, who have more of their skin showing than they have covered.
Overall - 9
As I said earlier, this is one of my favorite games. I enjoy primarily the story above all else, and recommend that, if you cannot purchase and play the game, you at least read the manga. It's horrible, compared to the game, but at least you can get a sense of the great storyline. And listen to Kurtis' theme. It's incredible.
Here's a link actually - Japanese and English Translation as well.
It's just that good.
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| And, as necessary for a true defender of earth, here is a portrait of Kurtis. |
I really like Kurtis.
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