(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.”
Continued…

(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.
Continued…