Disgaea: Hour of Darkness review

There are some games that we play for a challenge and some games that we play to simulate an experience. Then there are the games that we play just because they’re games, because you’ve played enough games to know exactly what pushes your buttons and like having them pushed regularly.

If you’re hoping to like Disgaea, you’d better be fond of Japanese turn-based strategy role-playing games. It’s an entire genre that we don’t really tend to see much of in Europe, because most of these games have a different focus from the sort of turn-based strategy that we’re used to.

Character Class

The main focus of games like Disgaea is not only on defeating the enemy (let’s leave the plot till later), but also doing so in the most overwhelmingly damaging and exaggerated way possible. This isn’t about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat; it’s about slaughtering an army in two turns. The simple core of these games encourages you to develop your characters to the full, giving you many options to do so. Now when I say “characters” I really do just mean collections of numbers and statistics.

So even though you can scrape through battles, and there is some tactical challenge to be had, the real point of games like these is to explore all the options given to you. Disgaea probably tops most games of this type when it comes to options. Custom designed characters, thousands of weapons, chains of combinations and special attacks always make battering the enemy an interesting tactical puzzle, even when it’s a forgone conclusion - it gives the same sort of satisfaction as clearing a line in Tetris.

Wacky Races (…and Alignments)

But where Disgaea takes a step beyond other games of its type is that it’s so damn weird. This is partly due to the game giving you absurd options where you wouldn’t think they were needed, that, and the penguins that attack with hunting knives while saying “Dood!”

As the game revolves around demons and the underworld, each item you find has an array of battlegrounds hidden inside it. You can venture through these levels, one by one, until you discover creatures within who can be persuaded to join you, thus enhancing the power of said item. Or you can switch them around from item to item and modify the effects of different weapons as you see fit. You can also petition, bribe or battle members of a demonic council to recruit new characters or change item prices. And I haven’t even mentioned the hospital that awards prizes for how injured you get.

Neverending story

The point of all of this is that there is pretty much no specific point to any of it. Most of the optional upgrades and quests are, just that, optional and completely unnecessary, and the fact that your characters can level up into the hundreds, if not thousands, is just more statistical extravagance. It’s just more reason to allow stat-addicted gamers to get more of their special fix.

So surely the presentation must compensate for all this? Perhaps you should stop reading now. The plot, which concerns anime-styled demons battling for rulership of the underworld, is silly, irreverent and funny, if you like that sort of thing. And though I’m sure a lot of people do, it’s just another part of the weird flavour that is Disgaea and not the main draw. The graphics are all hand drawn character portraits and tiny deformed characters on basic 3-D grid-like battlefields. Apart from the colours and resolution, which isn’t that high anyway, they wouldn’t look out of place on a PS one, or perhaps even a 16-bit console of yore. True, they have lots of character and even give the game its unique atmosphere and charm, but no one’s going to be playing Disgaea for the graphics. They’d be better off reading the comic adaptation instead.

Do not pass go

I’ll briefly abandon my objective viewpoint and daringly say that I love Disgaea. But I can find very little to strongly recommend about it. The graphics are pretty, but basic. The gameplay is often unchallenging and too complex for it’s own sake. What it does offer though is a steady sense of progression, not unlike games such as Diablo, but with even more flexibility. You can play it to death or simply play it, but whether it’s fun is entirely up to you. I guess I love Disgaea for no reason, but that usually means it’s the real thing.