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Not that great.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 36
Date: July 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is one of the reasons that made me realize I should research things before becoming impulsive and spending my hard earned money on crap. Not that this is total crap. I was attracted to the anime. And it does have some humor in the storyline, and sounds.

However when I started playing, I realized that the game play was too much like playing puzzles. Gets redundant and dull and boring. And the music is annoying. Just not my type of game but that's just my opinion. I prefer Final Fantasy type RPGs.

Disgaea

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was told this game was better than final fantasy tactics, not even close.but It is actually a worth play

Good, but not for me

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: November 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I was excited about this game when I first realized it was very similar to Final Fantasy Tactics and Vandal Hearts. But after I had it for a short while, I discovered I wasn't really having much fun playing it. I think one of the contributing factors for this fact was the inclusion of a game mechanic called the Geo Panel system. It is very confusing. Of course, you can just ignore the Geo Panels and continue to play in the normal vein of turn-based RPG's. I do actually appreciate the game makers including something new to "shake things up" a bit. But the more I tried to learn this new game mechanic and incorporate using it into my campaign, the more I found myself becoming more and more disenchanted with the game.
Oh sure, if I had wanted to truly invest the time in learning how to play with the Geo Panels, I would have gotten it eventually. But every time I thought I had the Geo Panel system figured out, it invariably would not work the way I thought it would - and I got very frustrated. In a nutshell, while others love the Geo Panel system, I did not.

It is still a good, deep, and involved game. Just what you would expect from a quality Final Fantasy Tactics-like turn-based RPG.
As far as the story goes, I think I would have preferred a more epic "rescue the princess" or "save the world" thread, instead of the intentionally half-ridiculous story that it is. But I did thouroughly enjoy the hand-drawn artwork; very high quality anime there.
I returned my copy of Disgaea and bought a new American-made turn-based RPG called Gladius. I like it much better and am having a lot more fun playing it than I did with Disgaea.

Disgaea is indeed a decent game, but, I myself, just don't have the wherewithal anymore to drag myself over the very steep learning curve that is required to get the very most out of this game.

A gallant try.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 22
Date: August 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

But the characters are too small on the screen, multiple views during combat still dont show certain angles that are needed, and the cuteness level of the game is way more than I thought it would be and too much to play for long periods of time. Rent it first before buying is what I should have done and I would have saved 50$. Otherwise the game is good but just not a good or large enough interface.

A Good Time Filler

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 21 / 32
Date: November 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Lately I haven really been the type to buy games until they've been marked down at least twice. However for some insane reason I picked this game up very soon after it came out based on one person's recommendation. Sounds like a mix for disappointment personally but in the end it was a good idea.

For the most part I really hate these grid based Tactical RPGs. Final Fantasy Tactics was frustratingly boring/difficult/lame after like 4 battles. This game is ten times the game FFT was. The battles are much quicker for one thing, especially if you're replaying old matches for experience. Also you can move all your characters on one turn, something I really hated in FFT. Though I must admit after a few days of regular playing it gets a little old. I find eventually become a bit tired of this game and become distracted by other games or other things going on.

However, the game is easy to come back to, and the charm picks back up almost immediately. This game is a very good game. That is to say, its something good to pick up and play when you have nothing else to play.

Anyway, how about some information on the game itself. You are Laharl, son of the late Lord of the Underworld, your mission is to defeat everyone else and become the new Overlord. Its about time someone made a game where you play as the villain, or at least the less than heroic character. As you battle through various locations eliminating other contenders for the throne. You'll gain several of the characters you encounter to your party to assist you in combat.

You'll need more than just the story characters though if you want to make quick work of things. Any of the characters in your party can recruit followers from a large list of characters. New classes and upgrades of classes become available as your existing characters gain experience. One minor complaint, It would have been nice if the class upgrades would have gotten new sprite (graphics) instead of just recolors, but I suppose that would have made things a little too confusing.

You can also recruit any monster you've battled before, but the cost of doing so is generally excessive for as weak as they are. If you want monsters, the real way to do it is to capture them. If you've weekend a monster in battle you can pick it up and toss it into your home base panel. If the monster is weak enough and the party members in the panel are strong enough, you'll capture the monster.

It doesn't take an eternity to gain levels either. I once made a new level 1 character and had her kill a very strong (weakened) monster and she gained 19 levels in one fight. She was ready to battle along side my stronger characters in no time. Which is really nice since otherwise I$B!G(Bd have had an essentially useless character that late in the game. Also this is the only RPG I can think of where levels go into the hundreds and thousands.

Speaking of levels, you can level up a lot of things. All your characters have regular experience levels of course. Each character can also level up their special abilities, magic spells, and weapon skills for each weapon type. These levels are dependent on how much you use the skill or weapon. Weapons and items themselves can be leveled up as well. You enter the Item World and fight through maps repeatedly. Each map cleared is a level up for the item/weapon. Along your trip through the item world you collect Residents. The Residents are special monsters that give bonus status effects to weapons and items. Once you've collected a Resident you can also move it to another more useful or more powerful item.

There is also the Underworld Senate. You can bring bills to the Senate for things like "Better items for Sale" or "Stronger Monsters". The probability that they will pass depends on your favor with the senators. By bribing the senators with items you can gain more favor. Also if you're strong enough you can challenge the senators that vote against you to a battle. You can also take tests to increase your level in the senate.

Back to the core of the game, battles. Like I mentioned, they are fairly quick and generally easy. They do get more difficult in the later worlds, but there are some easy tricks you can use to gain levels quickly. One of the main gimmicks in battle are the colored Geo Panels. Random squares on the map will be colored one of several colors. There are also colored Geo Stones lying around the maps (Note: Not every map has Geo Panels). The stones add affects to the colored panels. For example, a stone may have the effect "Recover 20%" and it's sitting on a red panel. This will cause every red panel to recover 20% of the HP of any character on that space. The Geo panels also affect monsters, so some strategy has to be used sometimes. There are a ton of different effects from "Enemy Boost" to "Warp" to "Invincibility". Also you can initiate massive chain reactions by destroying Geo Stones on the Geo Panels. These chain reactions are often the only way to gain bonuses on some maps.

Also, in battle characters will often initiate combination attacks with nearby characters. If done correctly it$B!G(Bs possible to do many more hits of damage than you would have done with single attacks. Also you can toss monsters or heroes around to help cover more ground. Monsters can be combined into stronger monsters for more experience as well.

Unfortunately, I am out of space, bottom line is that this is a really fun RPG. There are a few points I didn't even get to touch such as the quirky plot or other battle features.

And you thought Final Fantasy Tactics was adicting!?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 24 / 30
Date: October 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I was in complete awe of this game. Nothing beats a good old fashion RPG that makes you laugh your pants off at the same time. I really can tell you right now, you will die laughing because this games dialouuge is stupidly hilarious. Lets begin.

Story- Finally, an original strategy RPG story that doesn't suck! Do you save the world? No. Do you find true love? No. Do you try and claim your rightful place in the Netherworld as king after you slept for 2 years? Yes. You, Laharl, wake up to find you father dead. In confusion, you seek out the demons that don't deserve to become king and beat them up. Whats better than that? Add the fact that the games dialouge is funny, and has voice acting and you have something special. But seriously, the story is very well done, while at the same time stupid

9/10

Characters- The colorful cast of characters for D:HOD are great. Most of them are demon people from the Netherworld, while others are from Celestia, heaven. Each character is great, and their personalities change very fast in this game. Not much more to say but they are great and funny, even the NPC's. My favorite characters are the Pengies, little penguins that hen they attack, they go "DOOOOOOOOOOD!" Its great.

10/10

Graphics- Despite other reviews, I found the graphics to be very pleasant. Yes they seem to PS1 graphics, little 2d sprites, but once you start playing the game, it truly feels like the good old days. You can trust me that the graphics are beautiful, full of color and depth. The battle field and other walking areas are in full 3d, and are very detailed as well, each carrying many seperate details, whether it is a small weapon, or noticable specks of dirt. Great graphics, just not something this game truly shines in.

8/10

Gameplay-.............................oh my gosh. You will absolutely love the gameplay. First off, the strategy battles are the best I have ever played. you dispatch the characters you would like to use (up to 10) in battle, then select where to move them and what commands to take.Basically its simple you know how it is, attack defense item magic. You can do combos with nearby allies also. But then, there is LIFT. If you are standing next to another character or enemy, you can pick them up, and throw them to other places. This adds huge strategy. For instance, say you want to throw a character over a gap onto another platform not reachable by walking, but still want them to move and attack on the other side. Run to them, lift them up, throw, and select where they will land. Then carry out other movements! Its fantastic. In terms of monsters, if you are surrounded by four monsters and you can't move, chuck one and get the heck away!
Another area the games depth increases is the "Geo system." Its incredibly confusing and I don't fully understand it yet, but here goes. Colored platforms below your feet flash in certain areas. Red yellow blue green purple, blah blah. These can add stats to your characters and enemies, as well as posibly grant invincibility when you STAND on them. But say they add stats to only monsters, this is a problem. Solution: Destroy the Geo Sphere, a triangular thing in a certain color. Say you want to destroy the red areas on the map and turn them to blue. You should throw a blue Geo Sphere onto any single red area and destroy it. It will turn all of the red platforms to blue, and add the blue Geo Spheres effect, as well as hurt anyone who was standing on the original red surface. Confused? Theres more. If the (color) platforms blow up on another Geo sphere on that color, the same effect will happen, possibly hurting or killing you party immensly. A couple good things come out of this: You can hurt your enemies, and the more chain reactions you do, the ore your bonus gauge goes up and after battle, you will get numorous gifts, depending on teh bonus level!
The battle system is very well done, surpasing a lot of systems in the past, including FFTactics.

20/10 lol

Sound/Music- There is nothing like some good tunes. These tunes are good, not great. Its not worth buying the sound track fo, but its very catchy.

9/10

Replay/Toughness- Replay value is to the extreme on this game! One thing that completely blew my mind, is that you can grow to level 10,000!!!!! AHHH! And theres more.
Item World is the best idea any game has come up with. You go inside your items in your inventory, and go through a series of levels defeating monsters. You can escape the item every 10 levels, so you best have a good 2 hours to go through. The purpose of Item World, is that the further down you go in your item, the higher the items stats will increase! So going inside weapons and armor is essential to survival. Every level you go down, the selected item will increase 1 level.
Dark Assembly is another fun thing to do. You can present cases to the Netherlands council of senetors, like allowing you to access certain "class" types, or supply the shops with more powerful weapons. The councils descision basically depends on your persuasion points, which you can gain after passing "Promotion Tests." In addition, completing "Promotion Tests," (which are battles) will enable you to present more topics to the council. Its very fun, and adds tons of replay value.
You can also create characters, name them, select class types, and stats too. Creating players with a certain person means the created pupil is a "Pupil" and the creator is the "Master." The master will gain additional EXP whenever the pupil kills an enemy. Yet another thing that adds to the replay value.
Lastly the toughness level. Disgaea is extremely difficult, and requires a lot of patience if you want to win. The battles are fast paced and slow, and can be confusing. But heck, battling is the fun part right? D:HOD boasts over 40+ hours of gameply, add to that if you want level 10,000 characters, fully level up all the items, and get all the character classes. That can have you playing for a good long while.

10/10

Believe me guys, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is more than a good strategy RPG. It is one of the most awsome games out there, and would be a real shame to miss. The greatest battle system, awsome replay value, and to top off this sundae, hillarios dialouge, Disgaea is pure brilliance. It definately falls in my #2 spot of favorite games, replacing Wild Arms 3. Definately worth you $50 bucks!

The Deeper You Go, the More There Is

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 20 / 31
Date: December 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is the first 'strategy' RPG I've purchased for the PS2. I generally prefer the more traditional RPG's, whether they be pure hack and slash, or heavily story based like the Final Fantasy series. I've never much cared for strategy style games when I used my PC as a gaming machine, so I stayed clear of Disgaea despite its tremendous reviews. But with my back acting up I grabbed the game as entertainment during a long bed rest - and that's more than enough about me.

My first reaction to Disgaea was a bit of disappointment with the graphics of the game, which are pretty basic. An initially the strategy element reminded me of games I had played 10 years ago - you moved your characters around the field and hit the kill button. The story line seemed pretty mundane as well; an overly cute demon wakes from a very long nap to discover his father (the overlord) had choked to death on a pretzel, and now young Laharl has to win back the title for himself. Laharl is aided initially by a group of preset characters. But you will quickly discover that you can tailor make new characters to fit your needs and the game becomes very much your own creation.

In fact, the real strategy elements to Disgaea stay hidden unless you go looking for them. There is a demonic council you can petition for an amazing list of things, including several major side quests, as well as better items and fighting skills. My favorite is the way weapons are leveled up, which requires you to take your party into the weapon and fight your way through an everlasting (almost) series of levels that are not just difficult, but extremely complex as well. This really brings out the strategy element much more than the straight foreward story line battles.

And then, there are eight possible endings...

My first pass through to the end took about 60 hours, and I thought I had covered most of the game. At this point I took a look at a walkthrough and promptly discovered I had missed almost half of the options available. That says a lot for the game's ability to hold interest on a repeat play through. It has certainly made me reconsider the 'strategy' style game as genre worth playing.

The story line turns out to more depth and originality than it initially appears to have, as it ranges from hell to outer space and heaven. In fact, the only real downside to the game is the graphics and lack of animation. Here it is acceptable, but lacks inspiration. Since the game's success begs for a sequel, I'm hoping for improvement on that front.

Raw Japanese Insanity

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: November 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Disgaea is going to be a love-it-or-hate-it game for nearly everyone who picks it up, and it's not hard to see which side of the fence you'll fall on. Chances are, if this game is indeed going to be up your alley, you've already heard of it, and probably own it. If you're not sure, however, or maybe if you're a vanilla gamer who's out to try something new, then this might just be the next big thing.

The plot of Disgaea looks relatively simple from a distance. Laharl, prince of the Underworld, awakens from a two-year nap to find that some things have gone wrong while he was dreaming. His father has died, and since he wasn't conscious to acceed the throne, the former vassals of the king are now scurrying to take the position that should rightfully be his. Laharl gears up and sets about to reclaim his place as ruler through any means necessary.

And from here, the plot will quickly descend into what can only be described as Japanese Insanity. In Laharl's travels, he'll encounter Angels that want to be ninjas, soldiers that want to be The Power Rangers, demons with lost memories, zombies made ultra-powerful through a particularly unusual endowment, spirits of the dead that serve pennance dressed in penguin costumes, alternate dimensions hidden within items, and an Underworld Governmental Assembly where "physical persuasion" is often necessary to get laws passed.

Seems relatively straightforeward, right?

Ah, but therein lies the rub, and also where the game gets it's charm. All that plot insanity carries over to the game's actual play mechanics as well. Disgaea is not a game that takes itself seriously. In fact, it doesn't take anything seriously whatsoever, ESPECIALLY basic game mechanics. It isn't ten minutes before starting that the game is gleefully skewering nearly every convention of the Tactical RPG genre imaginable.

For example, most Tactical RPGs keep statistics on the player's characters. Win battles with them and they become more powerful, typically indicated in the character's "level." A level 3 character at the beginning of the game will usually cap out at level 80 or so, with 99 being the absolute maximum. This holds true with Disgaea as well, and in a standard game, a level 90 character is indeed quite powerful and can stand up to some of the toughest battles in the main storyline...But why stop there? The maximum character level in Disgaea, should you feel like putting the time in to train them that high, is 9,999.

Yeah.

It's completely pointless, as there is no way that even the most powerful enemies in the game's most secret hidden dungeons (of which there are several) could ever stand up to such a powerful character, nevermind how long it would take to level them to that point - we're talking well over 100 hours, and that's if you're doing it really fast. However, at the end of the day, it's POSSIBLE to do such a thing. Really, that's the most important statement here. After all, you may not NEED to get your characters to anywhere close to that level, but if you WANT to do it...Why not?

Why not, indeed. One gets the feeling that the game's designers have long been fans of the genre, but when the time came to make decisions on things like level caps and attack ratings, the question "Why not?" came into play quite a bit. Ten controllable characters at a time? Well, why not? The ability for characters to pick each other up and toss them around the map, thereby getting around most movement restrictions per turn? Sure! Exploding penguins? Exploding penguins! The list goes on and on...

This could be a problem in other games, but Disgaea manages to pull it all off because, at it's heart, the tried-and-true methods of the genre are all here, and they all work flawlessly. They're just completely unshackled, and the really mavelous thing is that it still works.

And it's this key aspect that may very well kill the game for a lot of people. In order for Disgaea to be fun, you have to see all this as a good thing, which, to the uninitiated, is a difficult thing to do. The concept of going through a 100-floor randomly generated dungeon in order to level up a particular sword's base statistics will strike some people as brilliant, and some others as stupid. The fairly low (though very efficient) production values don't really give the game any added punch, and as a whole, it's really something that's aimed squarely at fans.

The game knows it's audience, but doesn't try to extend beyond that. If the features mentioned in this review strike you as something you'd want to play, then buy this game; you won't regret it at all. If you're unsure, however, then chances are this game's brilliance will fall flat for you.

It's a fans-only party, but those who "get it" will have an absolute blast.

FFTactics vs. Disgaea

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: September 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I personally prefer FFT over this game. Why? Well, a number of reasons.

The things that rock about this game are the depth of extras. The main story is alright, and to be honest, I enjoyed that it was different then usual. Those goody goody parents may be put off by the demons thingy, but the game isn't for kids anyways.(mainly because it is so complex)

Items are literally dungeon portals, which let you powerup other items, and gain levels. The Dark Assembly is alright, yet you don't need to know it to win the game. The Geosystem is what confuses me most. Sometimes I think I do something then bam something else happens. You don't even need it though.

FFTactics has a great story, which I loved mostly because of the characters. The characters in this game are annoying rather. Im fine with most of the characters, except the main one, laharal. His voice is annoying.

The battles in this game involve alot more special techniques, combos which are alright, and different weapon types. I enjoy seeing guns AND swords in a game, and that was a great addition. The battles themselves are pretty easy, I just build up laharal and have absolutely no problems. I enjoy it though. It is relaxing to play a game that doesn't require every minute clicking. You can sit back, set up your commands, and execute when your ready. Disgaea provides a relaxing game rather then a frustrating one.

FFT would sometimes leave you in tremendously hard battles. Those who have played it can agree probably that the battle in the castle, against that one special someone who turns into a demon is wayyyy too hard. You know, you have to be a knight or samurai with Ramza, you kill him off alone then he spawns into this demon minatour with 3 bodyguards and can kill everyone in one shot. I got over the battle after restarting from the beggining a few times. Disgaea gives a rather enjoyable setting, with good depth but not too hard.

The main problems I have with Disgaea are slight. The music is annoying now. I am so tired of that castle song. The comedy is dry, I have never laughed at anything in the game, and I have a great sense of humor. Even with a spoiled brat running around, you can't make someone laugh with pure stupidity every time. O look the girl is an idiot, LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!11. Just kidding, it isn't funny anymore. Demons sleep 2 years? thats funny, my characters seem to sleep about 2, no wait...3 hours. I'm not trying to go into huge detail, but I do like this game.

The one last thing I want to say is the biggest problem, complexity. The game can't avoid this. but there is alot to learn. and you probably will spend a good 15 minutes in the help menu, which is easily built in and can be accessed basically any time.

Is it worth the money? Yes it is. The game provides tons of battles, Huge levels(not like battle levels, im talking the levels your character can gain), 10000 I believe. On top of that, items are mini dungeons basically, characters have voice overs(japanese AND english), and there are plenty of special moves. You can learn moves off pupils. You can do combos. Shoot guns, bows, chop with axes, swords, staffs, and the occasional stabby ol' spear. I would reccomend this game to FFTactics lovers.

An excellent game, needs only a few improvements.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 17
Date: September 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I so wanted to be able to give this game 5 stars, as it has almost everything Final Fantasy Tactics had, with a few more layers of complexity. The item world is a rediculous concept, but it's also one of the things that makes the game so enjoyable! The dark council is another stroke of genius, allowing character combinations and classes that make the game infinitely replayable.

Unfortunately, there are a few flaws which detract. First of all, the graphics look similar to FFT's PS1 graphics. There's little detail, and only being able to rotate the camera by 90 degrees on the isometric battlefield can make seeing some tiles and enemies nearly impossible. It's a rule that many game companies ignore: If the characters can see something, the player should be able to as well. The camera angles simply make the game harder to play, and it shouldn't have to be that way. Even the option of being able to see the battlefield from directly above would have helped greatly.

With the graphical lack of detail, it can also be difficult to tell who is who on the battlefield. When you have your 10 characters mixed up with the enemies who often look identical, it can be easy to lose track of enemies. The "characters" tab on the battlefield helps out a lot, making this only a minor problem instead of a serious annoyance.

And finally, there is no in-battle save feature. I know that not being able to save makes the battles a little harder, but it also means that you have to invest a nice chunk of time to play the game non-stop, especially in the item world where you have to fight through 10 levels without being able to save during or between the levels. Item world runs can often take hours, making it difficult to simply pick up the game for half an hour. The only other option is to leave the PS2 running for long periods of time, but for many of us that's not an option, nor is it desirable... and it ruins the # of hours played counter on the save games as well. :)

So, 4/5 stars. Despite the length of the paragraphs above, these are minor gripes compared to the overall enjoyment of the game. It's too bad, because the flaws that keep this game from being perfect are so easily fixable as well.

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