So little man, you think you’re a hardcore gamer? I have a game for you that will have you crying for mum.So many games have become classics, but very rarely are they considered as such weeks after their release. Disgaea - The Hour of Darkness is one such game, taking the sure path to instant worship amongst the gaming elite. The easiest way to do this is to make your game an RPG, which automatically classifies it as a classic in somebody’s eyes. Going one further, Disgaea is a strategy RPG, which is really the holy grail of gaming, as they are released only once a millennia. The last ingredient to an instant classic is the Japanese humour, which is found in this game to an almost sickening degree.
The story of Disgaea is cute and frivolous, which is a huge departure from the angst-ridden strategy-RPG’s we’ve seen over the past decade or so. In fact the humour found throughout the game is definitely one of the stronger points of the story, and often hides a fairly generic plot line. You play as a prince who must fight with many usurpers to his recently deceased fathers throne, and against an invading force intent on wiping his kingdom away altogether. There is a twist to this however, in the fact that the kingdom is Hell and you play as an evil Demon Lord. The invading force is Heaven and some corrupt angels, with an extremely cute one playing as sidekick to the Demon Lord, Laharl. They story is workable enough to keep you playing, but it’s certainly no Final Fantasy Tactics, in terms of depth. You are a demon, and you like to kill stuff. That’s about all the character development you are going to get. Then again, it is refreshing to play a game that doesn’t try to be a novel, and is content to just entertain.
This is where every strategy-RPG either wins over gamers, or makes them rant for years about the wasted promise of yet another broken game. Disgaea does not disappoint, and in fact, stands head and shoulders over its contemporaries. There is so much to do in this game it is actually a bit overwhelming…this is not a game for the slightly interested. To put it in perspective I put 57 hours into the game and only reached Chapter 9. As there is over twenty chapters in the game, you’ll understand why this game can dissuade even the terminally ill to live on, simply to finish the game they’ve been playing for so long. Where is all this time spent, you might ask? Well the main story can actually be blown through at a surprising rate, but the amount of side quests are staggering. One in particular is the item world, which allows you to enter into the world of any Item and by defeating spans of ten levels, power up the stats of the item. The time spent juicing up that Mega Axe alone will eat up the entire time other games take to play through.
Laid out in a grid based format, the battles take anywhere from minutes to an hour. If you’ve ever played a strategy game you’ll know what to expect. Each unit has separate abilities, and gain experience by killing enemies, which can then be used to upgrade to a different class. This is where the game really goes crazy. To change characters, you have to “reincarnate” them by going through a series of tests, and changing the character into anything you want. Say for instance, that you have a male warrior, who has gained enough points to upgrade. You first pick your class, let’s say female mage, and according to the points you have, choose a learned level. The higher the level, the more skills from the earlier class you retain. It’s a hard road to travel but the end result is a truly unique character. It also adds dozens of hours to your game time.
The graphics are the hardest sell about Disgaea, as they actually look worse than some SNES games I’ve played. Pixelated and blurry the in-game characters and settings are pretty much devoid of any new fangled looks, but are charming to the 9th degree. I would really like a strategy-RPG that had something extra in the graphical department, but I’m afraid that’s is just a pipe dream. Ten years from now on the PS5 we’ll still have games that look like they belong on an Apple II, but hey, graphics aren’t everything.
Another highlight about Disgaea is the wonderful voice acting that is the staple of the plot movement. Any game that hopes to do voice acting should look to this game as a reference point on how to do it right. It’s offbeat, charming and over-the-top.
Why are you even reading this? If you’re a fan of strategy games then you either have this game, or you must be broke and trying to figure out a way to steal a copy of it. It’s not perfect, but it has everything a strategy game should, and much more. This game has gone into second printing, so obviously the market is huge for this game. Buy your copy before you have to sell your kidney, just to afford the last copy on Ebay. MD
