by  Dark Dom
from Christchurch, , New Zealand | Feb 3, 2008 |
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness _ Forum _ Profile
ESRB(NZ): PG, Mild Violence
Developer: Nippon Ichi
Publisher: Koei
Genre: Strategy Role-Playing Game
Extras: 2-Player Ad-Hoc Trading/Battling
Dark Dom's Rating: 4/5
To put it bluntly, Disgaea is a brilliant game.
"Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness" is the first in a series which tells the tale of the Prince of the Netherworld, Laharl, who gets woken up after being asleep for two years only to discover that his father has died. Of course, thousands of Demons want the throne and Demon Prince Laharl isn't one to step down and let someone else take it. Instead, he gathers a bunch of minions and fights for it. The Storyline is very thin, the main plot is that you have to kill everyone. Not a bad plot however. It also happens to have twists and whatnot, but I won't give anything away.
 A classic example of a battle scene.
The humour, graphics, music and catchy voice-acting is what gives this game it's charm. It's a HUGE step away from those serious SRPGs such as Final Fantasy Tactics. Disgaea has laugh-out-loud humour, the soft-anime graphics are a beauty to look at, and there is voice-acting on 99% of the cutscenes which saves you from reading all the time. Even in battle your characters (yes, even the non-main characters) have a small quote or have something to say, "I'll end this now!"
Battling can be as complicated, or as simple as you choose. It's very easy to get the hang of fighting it out, but to become a pro you need to master GeoPanels, Team Attacks, and Item World.
GeoPanels:
 Ooo rainbow-y. Press Select to hide the GeoPanels. >_>
GeoPanels are multicoloured tiles on the ground, and affect characters which stand on them in different ways. Certain GeoPanels grant 50% Defense or attack, while others only benefit enemies. Learning how to use these to your advantages is a challenge but are necessary for you to become an Expert. If you're like me, you'll probably just ignore them completely. =]
Team Attacks:
No screenshot, couldn't find one. =[
Team Attacks occur when you have team mates standing next to each other, and you attack normally. You'll have a % chance of pulling one off, the % rate goes up if your team mates have the same weapon classes equipped. You can have up to 4 team members doing a Team Attack, which results in massive damage. =]
Item World:
The Item World is a randomly generated Dungeon with unlimited floors. An excellent addition, seeing as you each of your Items have their own World to enter, for each floor you go through, your item goes up 1 level and becomes more potent. Leveling up weapons is a must for your attacks to become more powerful. The power of the monsters in the Item World depend on your Item's level. A low level Item will result in Monsters that die in one hit.
Those 3 techniques are essential to the game.
Oh yes, and the game has things called Prinnies.
 Prinnies are awesome.
Prinnies are people, demons or angels that have committed sins in their previous life, therefore they have to pay debt to society as Prinnies until they're reincarnated. Oh yeah, and when you throw 'em they explode. Yes, explode. Boom!
If a game with exploding Penguins doesn't catch your interest, I don't know what will.
Summary: To sum it up, if you're a SRPG nut, then I see no reason for you to get this.
If you're not, then get it anyway. Chances are that you'll get into the genre just from this game alone. |
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forums
4.50/5.0
4.5
