Gaming Generations :: Disgaea DS

NeedsMoreZazz · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:24 pm Post subject: Disgaea DS

Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Release Date: 9/23/08
Genre: Tactical RPG
ESRB Rating: Teen

One of the most popular Tactical RPGs of all time arrives on the PSP.

Plot
Laharl, the young son of the most powerful overlord the underworld has ever seen is awakened by his "loyal" vassal Etna several years after his father's tragic death, choked by a pretzel. The young demon prince immediately sets out on a vicious campaign to bring the now chaotic underworld under control with him as the new overlord and ruler.

Setting
Much of the game takes place in the fantasy underworld with different realms themed for ice, volcanos and forests. Laharl and his companions can also travel to Heaven and the Human world, as well as going into a magical item world existing inside of weapons and gear to power them up.

Graphics
Good quality pixel art. Characters and maps are pretty and detailed.

Gameplay
At it's core, Disgaea is a typical tactical RPG. You move units, attack, defend or use special abilities. Disgaea is different from others on several points, however.

Combat
First of all, in combat you move units, queue up their actions and then either execute them all at once, or end your turn, and then all actions will be executed. Attacks and actions are executed in order.
Also, when using regular attacks, all allies adjacent to the attacker have a percent chance of also getting to attack. The percent chance is dependent on how friendly the characters are to each other. For example, Etna is Laharl's vassal, and so has a high chance of attacking with him, while the prinnies, being Etna's vassals have a somewhat lower chance.

Experience and Levelling
Unlike most tactical RPGs, characters only gain experience when they defeat an enemy unit. This can be really hard for some characters, like healers. Due to this, you will want to try and get weaker units to participate in combat by standing next to stronger units.
A characters weapon skill is tracked separately from regular experience and goes up every time they use the item. Depending on what weapon a character is using, they learn special attacks for that weapon as their skill increases. The staff does not learn any special abilities, but levelling it up increases the range and size of the spells you can cast. Experienced spellcasters and rain down devastatingly huge spells on enemies far away.

Gear
As you play the game more powerful gear can be found. You can also use the gear to go into a 100 level dungeon within the item. Each level you comoplete increases the strength of the item. More powerful items have tougher dungeons. Every 10 levels you are given the opportunity to exit the dungeon, you can also escape at any time using special items. You can re-enter a dungeon where you left off earlier to increase the items power further. Some of the most powerful items in the game are only obtainable inside these special dungeons.

Units
You can create any unit you want from a variety of classes, or from any kind of monster you have fought. More powerful classes become available as you level up the classes you have, more powerful monsters become available the more of them you defeat. Each unit you create must be the protege of a unit you already have. They get along better with their teachers and peers. Also, as they level up, it strengthens their master as well.

Magic
Some classes learn magic as part of their class. Red mages learn fire, healers learn healing spells, etc. However, if a master character stands next to a spellcasting protege, the protege can show them how to cast their spell. So if Laharl stands next to a fire mage underling, he can cast any of their spells. Once he has levelled up a spell to lvl 1, he can then cast it on his own whenever he wants. The downside to this is that if they do not use a staff, the spells range and size will be very small.

The Assembly
The assembly allows you to alter the game. It can determine what kind of items you find in the shop, to raising or lowering the difficulty of your enemies, to giving you free money and so on. All of these are voted on by NPC demons, some like Laharl, some don't. You can work to improve their attitudes to help you pass your votes. At higher levels you can also beat them up and force their vote.

Geopanels
In many of the maps there are colored squares of ground that provide some kind of effect to units who stand on them. Some are beneficial and some aren't. Located somewhere on the panels is a crystal. Should the crystal be destroyed, all units standing on that color will be damaged and all those panels which change to the crystals color. On some maps (especially the item world ones) this can be used to chain together multiple map colors to do incredible damage. If you are able to destroy all of the colors completely using a clear crystal, you can get a special reward, as well as a ridiculously high combo.

Replay
Another nice feature is that once you beat the game, you can start the story over, retaining your characters and gear with more difficulty. The max level in the game is 9999 and after a certain point, you can reset the character to level 1. They retain a portion of their stats so each time you do this, the character becomes more powerful in the long run. The game also has quite a few multiple endings.

Sound
The music in the game is simple, pretty typical generic midi-fare that you would have expected from a game 10-15 years ago. It's still good, but not what youd' often see in a modern game. The game also has voice acting for most of the story both in Japanese or English.

Overall
While the sound and graphics of the game aren't exactly up to modern standards, Nippon Ichi took the tactical rpg that we were used to and shook it up with a game designed to allow tons of options for players as well as provide a game that can be played over and over again. The game is very well put together and it's obvious that their main goal when making this was for the game to be fun.

New on the DS
The game is more or less just a port of the PSP version, hence the review being mostly the same. However there are a number of new unlockable characters from Disgaea 2 available and some new rules and options tossed in for the multiplayer battle modes.

Graphics: 7
Sound: 8
Control: 10
Gameplay: 9
Replay: 10
Overall: 9

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completed reviews
Harvest Moon DS
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (DS)
Kirby Squeak Squad (DS)
Mario Kart DS
Disgaea (DS and PSP)
Chrono Trigger (DS)
Devil May Cry 4 (360)