2/26/2012

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness Review

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Most rpg games that I have played always have had a serious tone to them. This is understandable since most rpg games, especially those of the fantasy genre, involved defeating a Dark Lord of some sort and saving the world from destruction. This is not the case with ATLUS' Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Disgaea is one of the funniest and most irreverent game I have ever played.

For starters, the main character in the game is a teenage demon by the name of Laharl whose sidekick Edna is a young demoness who seems to be constantly ridiculing Laharl and maybe even plotting behind his back. Laharl is clueless and behaves the way he thinks demon lords should behave, Edna and the rest of his courtiers barely give him his due respect and yet they still follow him for some reason. Weird and unusual cast of characters for an rpg.

With Disgaea being an rpg in the same vein as Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Battle Tactics, there will be an inordinate amount of jobs you as a player can recruit to join your team. Jobs that can be recruited from can range from stereotypical fantasy fare like wizard, mage, cleric to more out there jobs like being a gunslinger of some type. There is even a a unit character one can recruit that is nothing but demonic servants in the shape of penguins that are called Prinnies and who always say "dood!'.

The levelling system in Disgaea is very extensive. If one had the time and inclination to do so, they can level up every character in their team into the 10000+ level. The same goes for the levels of their items. The good thing about Disgaea is that there are certain levels --- I will leave it up to the new players to figure out which --- that helps immensely in powerleveling a team member in the tens of thousands.

The story for Disgaea is funny and doesn't make sense at times, but I think that may have been a plan of the developers from the beginning. But in the end, the story and its many subplots meld well together and everything starts to make sense. The dialogue ranges from downright funny, some sexual innuendoes thats either very mature or juvenile, and to very poignant and sad. I enjoy the option of keeping the voice-over in its original Japanese voices and using English subtitles. Or one can just go straigh to English voice-overs. More rpg games should make good use of this option. It'll save alot of gamers from having to listen to very bad English dubbing.

The graphics is very simple and some may say dated for a PS2 game. It uses anime-style 2d animations unlike most rpgs that have gone the 3D-animation route. The animation looks very colorful and nice even if it's not 3D. The music ranges from operatic to J-pop in styles. Disgaea is really very simple when it comes to its visuals and audio. It could've been done better, but its a minor quibble when taken in context to the rest of the game.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is a fun time of a game and one that doesn't ever get old or boring. For gamers who enjoy powerleveling their characters and who like to micromanage every detail of their gears and abilities, then this is a game for you. I hope ATLUS will continue with the success they had with this game and make an even better follow-up. I highly recommend.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Product Description:
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness takes you into the challenge of a lifetime -- the right to rulethe Netherworld!More than 40 hours of intense gameplay, with multiple endings

Buy NowGet 39% OFF

Want to read more honest consumer review about Disgaea: Hour of Darkness now ?

No comments:

Post a Comment