Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

Rating Teen Genre role-playing Publisher Atlus Software External Links Official NIS America Website

The long reign of King Krichevskoy, the mighty ruler of the Netherworld, has come to an abrupt end. As the news of his death spread throughout the dark land, ambitious demons rose to seize the opportunity to rule. After two long years of slumber, the great Laharl, prince and only heir to the throne, has been awakened by his treacherous… I mean faithful vassal, Etna. Together they will re-conquer the Netherworld and secure the throne once and for all in Laharl’s name.

Provided Laharl can survive the experience.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness is a tactical RPG originally released on the Playstation 2 in 2003 under the title Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Disgaea tells the story of Laharl, who after awaking from a poison induced slumber discovers his father dead and his throne under siege. Laharl is joined by a cast of mentally challenged characters including his unloyal vassal Etna, a love crazed Angel trainee sent to assassinate his father named Flonne, and the defender of the Earth, Gordon with his assistants Jennifer the blonde and Thursday the robot.

Disgaea has lost nothing in it’s conversion from the PS2 to the PSP. Graphics look exactly as they did in the original version, with cute chibi style anime characters and rich colored battlefields showing brilliantly on the PSP widescreen. The music is crisp and clear, playing from the PSP’s speakers without any noticeable irregularities, and both the English and Japanese voice casts are available and performed excellently throughout the entire game. The PSP version even runs faster than the original release, minimizing the overall load times and improving overall performance. Disgaea does have an issue with limited camera controls, which was evident in the PS2 release, but they won’t hamper gameplay in any significant way.

Players are allowed to place ten characters on the field from their Base Panel, with each character able to move a limited amount of spaces and perform a single action per turn. Each Battle Field will contain a certain amount of enemies, natural barricades, and Geo Panels. Geo Panels are colored sections of the map that, when occupied by a Geo Symbol, provide a bonus or status effect to the characters occupying the remainder of the Geo Panel spaces. Geo Symbols can be thrown into new locations, removing their effects or stacking effects when placed on the same Geo Panels; or they can be destroyed, sending a magical backlash throughout the Panel and damaging anyone fool enough to stand upon them.

Besides the main characters, players can create an assortment of troops through the use of the Netherworld Dark Assembly. Every monster and every class can be created, allowing players to customize their armies anyway they like. Many secret classes can only be unlocked by leveling up the other classes to specific levels. Each created character is a pupil to one of your starting characters. This allows the mentors to draw upon the powers of their pupils when in combat should the need arise. You can also attempt to bypass the Dark Assembly and capture enemy units for your army by throwing them into your Base Panel. But be warned, if the enemy is too strong for your reserves to defeat, then your Base Panel will be destroyed.

Each character can use every weapon in the game, but specific classes are better with certain weapons than others and will learn those weapons at an accelerated rate. As characters gain levels in their weapons they are provided with new techniques, from single enemy strikes to global killing blasts. No weapon is ever considered weak in the hands of a master. Along with skills, each character has unique powers based on their class. These powers are improved through continual use, much like weapons, and quickly become a key component in any battle.

Don’t think Disgaea is a game that you can just walk away from once you’ve beaten it either. The original PS2 version contained six secret areas and eight separate endings to entice players to keep returning to the Netherworld. If that wasn’t enough, every item in the game can be entered into through the Item World Gate. By progressing through the Item World, you are able to level up your weaponry, creating even more powerful items for your characters. And don’t worry about a level cap, because there is none. Every character can theoretically be taken to an infinite level, or until the game finally fries out. To help promote this idea, and without having to create a 999,999,999 level monster, Disgaea gives players the ability to reincarnate their characters back to level 1 while allowing them to keep a variable percentage of their stats from their previous level.

If you still need more bang for your buck, the PSP version comes with an all new Alternate Mode staring Etna, the World Conquering Succubus. Based on Etna killing Laharl during the opening credits, Etna Mode provides an entirely new story and script throughout the entire length of Disgaea. You’re basically getting two games in one. The PSP version also contains an Ad-Hoc mode, allowing players to trade equipment or battle their armies to determine who the true Overlord of the Netherworld is. To combat against mismatched battles, new items called Geo Cubes are introduced and allow players to radically change the playing fields in a heads-up match.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness is an outstanding translation of its PS2 ancestor that will provided months of entertainment to any gamer. Any lover of RPGs, tactical games, anime, or just side aching comedy should get this game. The Great Overlord Laharl commands it! Haaahahahaha!!