Best RPGs: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2)

Best Game About Exploding Penguins EVER! Welcome to the Netherworld, a spooky land of demons and indebted souls, where everyone is trying way too hard to be evil. The main protagonist is an anti-hero demon named Laharl, Prince of the Overlord. The Overlord is pretty much God in the Netherworld. Unfortunately, he died – choked on a black pretzel. So now, Laharl has to prove himself as a capable Overlord. At Laharl’s side is Etna, his number one vassal and dominatrix-like employer of the Prinny Squad. From the overly clean and sparkly land of Celestia comes the timid angel trainee Flonne, and from Earth comes the overly-dramatic space marine Gordon. The Netherworld is filled with would-be Overlords who take it upon themselves to challenge Laharl’s inherited throne. Each of the main characters is developed nicely with a unique personality. Now this is not a blockbuster story. While there are, to a certain degree, messages to be conveyed, it’s nothing too profound. This game will NOT motivate you to: respect your elders, be free of your fear of death, dissolve your ego, love your planet, or resolve to be a better person. What it WILL do is make you laugh, dood.

Gameplay
Contrary to popular belief, this is in fact, the most important part of any game. Gameplay is where Disgaea really shines. Like any RPG it follows the traditional pattern of see story, explore, fight monsters, level up, get items. Similar to any strategy RPG, the exploration factor is replaced by the emphasis on the battle system and amount of freedom you are given to modify your characters. The battles are governed by a feature-rich, grid-based system which rotates between player and enemy turn. Now part of the fun of this game is discovering everything it lets you do, so if you want to be surprised, stop reading and just go buy the game, dood.

Each stage has a base panel which houses all deployable units. Each turn, the player can move and assign an action to 10 units at a time. The enemy is given the same freedom; however they are not limited to 10 units. The player always goes first making it possible to win the battle without the enemy taking a single turn. Units gain experience by defeating enemies and gaining bonuses after battles. If one of your units dies, it cannot be replaced nor resurrected during the battle. As units level up they learn special abilities according to class, and weapon type. Main characters also have unique abilities which usually look the most badass. The player’s battle menu has the standard selections of Move, Fight, Magic, Item, Equip and Defend, along with some extra features. These all do exactly what you’d expect them to do. Units attacking directly next to other unit are given the chance for a combination attack. Not only do these combo attacks do more damage, they also look awesome. Throw allows you to pick up allies and opponents and throw them in a straight line around the battle field adding an additional element of fun and flexibility. In fact, it’s possible to play hot potato with units in order to make them reach even further distances. Throw also allows the player to combine enemies to make them stronger or capture them in the base panel. If you’re thinking “That’s not enough features, Disgaea, give me more!” You’re in luck. Also present is the Geo Panel system. Each tile on the battlefield may have a color over it giving it special properties. These properties are governed by a Geo Symbol placed on a colored tile. As long as a Geo Symbol is on a colored tile, all tiles of that color will have that property. Multiple Geo Symbols on multiple red tiles will mean all red tiles have both multiple properties. Staying consistent with the freedom and flexibility theme, Geo Symbols can be thrown around just like units and enemies. Destroying a Geo Symbol will clear all of the corresponding colored tiles from the battlefield in a spiral motion and damage any friend, enemy or Geo Symbol sitting on a tile of that color. What happens when all of the colored tiles are cleared in one turn? You should stop asking me questions and just go buy the game, dood.

In between battles, Disgaea gives us the Overlord’s castle. This is where all the magic happens. The player controls Laharl who is able to run around, very quickly I might add, his gigantic three room castle buying weapons, armor and items, getting healed at the Hospital, using the Dark Assembly, exploring the Item World and talking to your vassals. The vassals are NPCs and Laharl’s subordinates, but they’re all either idiots or smartasses. After getting dominated in battle, you pay the Hospital for healing and are periodically rewarded with some excellent items. The Dark Assembly is where units are created. New classes become available as units are leveled up and increase in rank. The Dark Assembly also has the options of increasing the rank of a character, increasing the variety of or improving the items at the shop, Transmigrating characters, changing things about the next battle, and entering hidden dungeons. To increase the rank of a unit, it must go to battle in a court of what I can only assume are berserk lawyers or lobbyists. As a unit’s rank increases, it is given more options in the Dark Assembly. Each time you choose to change something, you appear before a court of Senators who vote Yea or Nay. You can bribe them with items to sway their vote, or if you don’t like the outcome of the vote, you can just attack and kill all the opposing Senators. This is common practice in Netherworld. The Item World is a great original feature unique to Disgaea which provides for a huge amount of additional playtime. Each item has a level and stats in the same way characters do and as such, can be increased by fighting through the Item World. When you “enter” an item, the game generates a random battlefield and opponents with strength corresponding to the item’s level. As you defeat enemies and pass through Dimensional Gates going as deep as level 100, the item’s stats are increased. Every 10 levels you are given an opportunity to leave the Item World or you can use Mr. Gency’s Exit to leave at any time. Items are home to “Specialists” and bosses who, when defeated, increase specific stats or all stats respectively. Specialists can be combined and moved to other items as well. Given the amount of variety in the number of unit types able to be created, magic spells learned, monsters captured, and items explored, Disgaea stays consistently fresh, thus making level-grinding and power-leveling less of a chore and more something you constantly look forward to. Everything in Disgaea can be leveled to ridiculous heights - such as 9999 for max unit level and 19998 for max item stat level.

Visuals
Disgaea is not a glorified tech-demo. It’s a game with style. It’s proof that you don’t need to push the console to the limit to convey beautiful images. The main characters and units are pixel-art sprites with an satisfying amount of different animations. The cut scenes consist of two-dimensional anime characters making various poses and faces to express themselves. Part of the reward for leveling up is seeing new spells and special moves which will keep you dazzled and anticipating more. The battlegrounds are terrain based, featuring an array of rocks, shrubs, trees and liquids. The castle is warm and welcoming, complete with flowing lava. Between chapters you are treated to goofy auto satirical scenes featuring the main characters. While you will not find yourself wishing that pre-rendered movie lasted a bit longer, you will be treated to a consistent style that serves as a pleasant backdrop for a game about leveling up.

Audio
I can still hear the cheesy castle theme playing in my head. The soundtrack is largely eclectic. It feature tracks that inspire feelings of motivation for cinematic battles, light-heartedness for emotional cut scenes, and ethnic flavors for exotic locations. There is even a licensed punk song by Tsunami Bomb present. It still maintains a consistent vibe however - something that you might expect from a good composer. The sound is cartoony at times but makes impact where it counts. Repetition may become a problem after the 80th hour and the player may choose to replace the necessarily muted sound with his or her own soundtrack. The voices are great even in English. Each of the main characters has a personality which is brought to life brilliantly by the voice actors.

Conclusion
Very few games have this level of personality and content. Combining all of its elements, Disgaea achieves a truly unique aesthetic making it a nice example of a whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The game is huge, and one can easily sink 100 hours into it. By the time you’ve played Disgaea to its fullest, the zeitgeist may have redefined itself multiples times. You’ll have to stop complaining about the Jetsons because flying cars WILL be a reality. Three feet of dust will have collected on every surface in the room, and if you’re a guy, your beard will have grown to record lengths. To further illustrate my point, some hardcore, supernerd mathematicians with such time on their hands have even figured out the all the formulas the programmers used to calculate things like leveling and Transmigration. On the other hand, Disgaea is a niche title that some casual gamers may be put off by. On the surface one might see it as a silly, anime-styled game with a shallow story and unimpressive graphics. One can play through the game’s story without exploring any of the extras and probably finish it in 40 hours. However, gamers who choose to explore the mountain of content this game has to offer will see it for the magnificent gem of gaming achievement that it is.

Final Comment
Prinnies are souls in the Netherworld who have come to work off their debts. They look like penguins with fanny packs. When you throw them… THEY EXPLODE!

Game: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
System: PS2
Release Date: August 27, 2003
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software