Disgaea: Hour of Darkness marched onto the PS2 on August 27, 2003. It became with it Nippon Ichi Software's first great success. Later, NIS released a port of this heavy hitter for the PSP, that made the game even better.
But why did this become such a heavy hitter? Let's dive in, and have an afternoon of darkness.

Gameplay ‪9/10‬ -
I dearly wish I could I could give this a ten, it really is the bread and butter of this series. However, some mechanics just aren't as great as the ones introduced in later RPG's. The game's center is built around grinding. You enter a stage, blow up half the enemies, level up, then your character obtains mana. "What does mana do?" you may ask. Well, you can use it to reincarnate your character, allowing them to start at level 1 and get higher stats, or you could create a new character out of your current character's mana. The more mana you use, the better the new character you create will be.
The battle system is a solid grid based RPG, so it's not so useful to go into detail. But what sets Disgaea apart is the Geo Symbols present, along with the throwing mechanic. You can have characters stand on top of, and throw each other across a stage. You may also use this mechanic to move or eliminate Geo Symbols. Why would you want to do that? Well some symbols cause effects on the stage like invincibility, where if an enemy stands on a certain spot, you can't kill them. If you move the symbol, you can move the effect and make the enemy mortal again. Many levels in this game are based on Geo Symbol puzzles, however too many are just run and gun levels.
The Geo mechanics are also underdeveloped compared to other entries, but they serve as a great introduction. Afternoon of Darkness adds quality of life features to this classic game-play formula, by making save times quicker, and allowing you to remove attack animations, which significantly improves the grind. For these reasons alone, I would recommend this over its PS2 counterpart.

Graphics ‪7/10‬ -
Don't get me wrong, the graphics for this game are pretty timeless when you look at it from a 2-D vs 3-D perspective. However they haven't aged well compared to other games in the series. The sprites are low res, due to the hardware capabilities at the time, and a lot of the graphics in attacks take place in a generic brown square. It's nothing to write home about. But the characters having nearly full body portraits during dialogue is a really nice touch, that would characterize the rest of the series. They met each voice line with a character reaction that almost made you feel as though you were watching an Anime, which heavily boosted the immersion.

Sound ‪9/10‬ -
The music sound effects and music in Disgaea are superb, but due to the PSP's tinny speakers, this is the only thing I would say got worse since its transition to PSP. The sound effects all have a pretty ring, and bubbly feel. All the voice works is expertly done. The entire OST is composed by ‪Tenpei Sato‬, who has had a hand in just about every Disgaea game since. All of his tunes fit the mood of the scene, while maintaining a certain pep to them you won't find elsewhere.
When urgency is in need of being conveyed, you'll have it delivered, but the song will be both intricate and interesting.
Here's a little peak if you're interested...



Story ‪10/10‬ -
There is no doubt in my mind that this story is the best in the series. The premise is that the Overlord has died. Prince Laharl has laid in a coma for two thousand years, and since then, the Over-world has fallen into chaos. Demons from all over seek to claim the throne. But in the midst of it, Laharl suddenly wakes up, thanks to the efforts of his loyal vassal Etna, who also happened to be trying to kill him, but let's forget that part, she's super.
From there, Laharl sets out on a quest to claim his rightful thrown. He meets a colorful cast along the way, who throw him into a plot far deeper than the one he initially agreed to participate in, so he just might learn something along the way, but will he really?

Addictive/Depth ‪10/10‬ -
Here comes the long awaited answer to the last question I asked.
The answer is... Kinda? The part that makes Disgaea so re-playable is that it has eight endings. Laharl will learn something or he won't, it's entirely in your hands. The game also brings a new game plus feature, that counts the endings you've collected thus far. If that isn't enough to prove to you that this game is re-playable. There's enough secrets in it to keep you playing for possibly hundreds of hours, the game doesn't exactly end at the end you know? But for most people, finding the endings is enough, the after game isn't too special in this one.

Difficulty -


Conclusion ‪9/10‬ -
There's a lot more that can be said about Disgaea. I could tell you how the zaniness adds to the charm of the standard character tropes, like how there's questionably lucid penguins that call everyone "dood", or I could inform you that there's a near infinite number of stages, but that won't make a difference at this point. If you're not convinced to try this RPG after this review, then it's probably just not the right game for you. However I encourage anyone reading this to give it an earnest go anyway, because it really is one of the biggest series in this genre, and there's a lot more things to discover than I've laid out here.
Happy gaming doods!

I haven't played a disgaea yet as of late but I have been seeing them around a lot on the play station store and usually on sale but I don't really know much about all of them but this seems like it would be rather fun to play so I might look into the other games of the series too. Great review, keep up the good work!