Dec

10

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness review

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Disgaea: Laharl, Etna and Flonne
(Image source: Atlus.)

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness is a 2007 Playstation Portable port of a 2003 Playstation 2 game but plays like it was designed for the PSP. Unlike most PS2-to-PSP ports, there’s little to complain about from a technical perspective and with enhancements in the form of an exclusive scenario and an ad-hoc mode, the PSP version is arguably the superior version.

Graphically, the game doesn’t push the PSP’s hardware but aurally, the game is a treat. I love Sato Tenpei’s themes (The Anthem of the Braves puts a smile on my face, Sorrowful Angel wipes it off and Galaxy Wars fills me with grim determination) and the English voice-acting is fantastic. The option to switch to the original Japanese voices should provide some variety when you replay the game.

And you will want to replay the game because there’s a lot to love in Disgaea. This is particularly true if you’re an old school gamer with a love for turn-based strategy games. It may not quite reach the heights of classics like the Gollop brothers’ UFO: Enemy Unknown but this Japanese turn-based strategy RPG title scratched itches that went unscratched for a long time for me. I suspect, however, most old school gamers will never get past the super deformed character sprites or the 2D Japanese art style. Their loss.
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Dec

6

Disgaea: completed

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Disgaea Portable: Laharl
(Image source: Disgaea.jp.)

I finally completed Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.

I had expected to complete it earlier but the boss battles in the last few episodes of the game added a few hours to my campaign.

The frustration of those boss battles aside, I enjoyed the game immensely. This is the most fun I’ve had with a game this year and I would recommend the title without hesitation. I hope to put together a review within the next few days to explain why.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this thought: there are a lot of game elements in Disgaea that are left for the player to discover but I believe most players will never learn about them without guides and FAQs.

It is possible to beat the game without resorting to the crutches of cheats, guides and FAQs — I did so — but you may not get the most out of the game.

Final Stats

Time played: 62:53:55
Max damage 1534
Total damage 3215
Geo Combo 1020
Enemies killed 1889
Max Level 74
Reincarnation 0
Char creation rate 40%
Item rate 14%
Item world visits 26
Item world levels Stage 10
Item General killed

Nov

28

Disgaea: okay, slightly hellish

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Disgaea: Hour of Darkness Flonne
(Image source: Atlus.)

I’m closing in on the end of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness’s main storyline. I’m not just enjoying playing the game, I’m consuming it greedily. As I mentioned before, it’s been far too long a time since I’ve had a turn-based strategy game that hits all the right notes for me as this one does.

As I also mentioned previously, the game is not excessively difficult and in fact, is quite lenient in many respects. Character deaths in battles aren’t punished severely as a visit to the Netherworld Hospital will return a fallen character to full strength. There will, of course, be Hell to pay. (Hell being the currency of the Netherworld.)

On the other hand, a party wipeout will result in a Game Over screen. There’s one really tough fight which occurs early on at a point when your characters are fragile and lack offensive power — lose this one and you’ll get a credit sequence with a full song — but the game shouldn’t prove to be too frustrating.

At least until you get to Episode 11.
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Nov

22

Disgaea: Netherworld ain’t that hellish

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Disgaea Portable wallpaper
(Image source: Disgaea.jp)

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness is a pretty complex game. The manual, in-game help and tutorials will help players come to grips with the basics of the game but there’s still a lot to take in and keep track of.

(There’s also some stuff that has been omitted. For instance, the L and R buttons on the PSP page up/down long lists. This is very useful when you’re managing equipment in your item bag and warehouse.)

It’s no surprise DoubleJump Books produced a strategy guide for the game but what was surprising was the company gave away a PDF version of the guide for the original PS2 game, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. The rationale was people would love the free PDF guide so much they would buy the printed version. I thought that was very cool of the company. It was pretty much a big gamble since there was every possibility people would be content with the PDF file.

There was also the possibility someone would abuse this act of goodwill and the world being what it is and some people being who they are, this is exactly what happened. Some ne’er-do-well decided to sell links to the PDF file on eBay. By ne’er-do-well, I mean “complete jackass.” By comparison, those gamers who bought a link to a free PDF file would be “partial jackasses.”
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Nov

19

Disgaea: Item World

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Disgaea: Hour of Darkness: Vyers
(Image source: Atlus.)

I’ve gone dungeon crawling with a sword in many a game but before playing Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, I’ve never gone dungeon crawling in a sword.

“Huh, what?” was my initial reaction as well.

In addition to levelling up characters in Disgaea, you can also level up items. You do this by placing the item in your item bag and speaking to Elise who will then whisk you away to Item World. Once there, you can choose to enter any item you have in your item bag.

At this point, I should mention there are creatures living in items.

“Huh, what?” was my initial reaction as well.
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