Friday 8 August 2014

Otaku Review - Disgaea: Hour of Darkness 魔界戦記 ディスガイア

Disgaea is one of my favourite Strategy Rpg for the PS2 I'm glad to make this review of the first part of the Disgaea Series. Disgaea Hour of Darkness was released in Japan on January 30,2003, August 27, 2003 for the USA and July 1, 2004 for the EU. Disgaea was release on the PSP and the Nintendo Ds later on and i happen to own all 3 versions. The soundtrack of Disgaea is great the music sucks you in and the the 2D sprites have a lush colour palette what really helps this game pull you in to this amazing story.


Disgaea takes place in the Netherworld but there 2 other worlds Celestia and the Human world. Laharl is the main character that you will be controlling the hole time of the game but there are plenty of loveable character´s to join your party. Now i will list a few so let´s start with my personal fave Etna, Flonne , Hoggmeiser, Maderas,Vulcanus an Archangel , Vyers and then there are the Prinnys. Who couldn't love these guys they're great they have also become Nis Mascots .The Story Starts with Laharl waking up from a short 2 Years Nap. A lot Changed Laharl's old man bit the dust and now Laharl wants to take the name of Overlord but before he can claim his rightful title other Demons have come to take the title and be the new Overlord.

Disgaea is filled with awesome unique Characters.


Gameplay and controls are next up which consists of a Hub world which is the Overlord's castle pretty cool right? In the Overlord castle are shops and a council which allows you to make new party members and set laws in to play that can help you but also screw u over but you first must get the law/bill passed. You can use bribes to help passing the bill or you will have to use force beat the Council Members . As well as the Hospital which you will heal your Party for Hell (what's the gold for the Disgaea series).Dimensional Gatekeeper will be your key to moving around the Nether world.

Controls are very simple and easy to understand the battlefields block movement with turn based each character will have a move and action command. What they will be able to do depend on the the type of weapon that has been Equipped to the character with which will allow the can attack long range or short range. There is a pick up and throw ability which allows you to pick up enemy and party member and throw them across the map same with the geo symbols I'll go into those a bit later but with pick up a enemy you do not want to keep holding them and end your turn they will damage the party member that is holding it lucky that only with enemy Monster class skill work a bit differently as they will be determined by what they are.



Geo symbols are the puzzle element of Disgaea these nasty little buggers can be helpful but also your enemy each map will use geo panels and symbols on the field. The only way to get rid of them is to destroy the geo symbol but they are colour coded which will give the that colour there on the effect. Which can consist of more exp more Hl or No damage and so on if you lucky you can set off a chain reaction which will destroy the geo symbols and colour panels which can wipe the field enemy and your own characters so it best to make sure that your party member´s are not on a geo panel that is going to be wiped out from the chain reaction.

Character creation is another big part of Disgaea which allow you to make Vessels which are your peons you can also recreate them which will increase the strengths and abilities the better the rank the more powerful they are but that alone won't make things easy you will need to equip the best gear and weapon you can get and in order to best the best gear you will need to dive in to the item world which is the one place you will be see the most but its also great fun. You will spend a lot time in there the higher you go the stronger the enemies will be and the better gear u can get. Item word is cruel as well if you fall in the item world you will lose all progress in the item world so make sure you save and play it safe and smart .



So now we are on to round up, Disgaea Hour of Darkness its one of the most enjoyable games on the Ps2 which is also available on the PSP the Ds and the PSN. The PSP and the Ds version have bonus content throw in to them like new party members to unlock and the PSP version have the Etna mode which is my fave bonus in the PSP version by far. My time spent with the game back when it released on the PS2 was really enjoyable I love this title to death and to this day a Disgaea fan since then there are 4 disgaea games plus count Disgaea D2 and Disgaea 5 which is being work on and developed for the PS4 or PS3 at this current time i can not give out a full info for which it for cause i do not know. As well as Prinny can i really be a hero and the Disgaea VN which are part of the Disgaea World.

7/10

Who Should Buy?

- Any person that love Strategy turn based Rpg.

- Fans of over the top damage numbers.

- Grind fest Lovers

- Fans of Anime and Manga

- People that love Games with a great story and Loveable Characters



Who Should Avoid?

- People that don't like a text heavy story

- People do not to like Grind for long amounts of time

- People that don't like these type of games

- People that don't care for the art style.

4 comments:

  1. I'm always interested by Disgea but everyone always says how grind heavy it is and that point puts me off. How grindy is it really? What would you like the grind too?

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  2. you can get awa with not doing to much grinding if you play it smart and get the best gear and stat from yout items buy poping in and out of th shop each time you do so the items stats will be diffrent then lvling up the item will help to,

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  3. If you just wanna hit the story minimal grinding is needed, just enough to bring new troops up to scratch. Post Story though is a grind fest, fortunately the system is brilliant so you'll want to spend all your hours in battle!

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  4. Well story is what I would play it for. So I might pick up the Vita version and give it a try. I should like the story because I loved the Prinny game on PSP

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