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Pros:
+A lot of good gameplay
+An overall charming story
+Lots of things to do off the beaten path
+A Huge emphasis on strategy
+Well done anime inspired art
Cons:
-Still a few problems with the camera
-By now the graphics need an improvement to better bring the story to life. The anime inspired art is really nice, but how about an anime scene or two to really convey a character's feelings or actions? Beyond that, the battlefield and character sprites look exactly like they did in the first two games. A graphical update would've been really nice.
In 2003, Disgaea came out and breathe some new life into the Tactical Strategy RPG. It quickly became a cult classic. Disgaea 2 came around and stayed true to the first by changing very little. In that sense, Disgaea 3 can be summed up as being a continuation of the things that worked in the first two games. If you enjoyed the first two Disgaea games, then you'll like Disgaea 3.
Disgaea 3 focuses on Mao as he tries to overthrow is Overlord of a father for destroying his game console. It's a joke of a story but it's meant to be such. In all honesty it isn't much of a bad story at all once it gets going. The story is told through still shots of the characters facing one another as the dialog pops up on screen. There's voice acting, although some of it is quite forgettable. But there's also a good sense of humor, mainly because the story doens't take itself so seriously. Disgaea 3 knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything more. It makes the overall experience of it fun and satisfying. But as the story progresses it actually becomes about so much more than a mere broken Slaystation Portable.
The story is charming overall, but the presentation of it isn't so much. Certainly character portraits carrying the story out isn't so bad, but by now Disgaea should be willing to take its production values to new levels with the Playstation 3. An anime cutscene or something to help bring some of the more dramatic moments to life would've been really nice.
Battling in Disgaea 3 is no different than it was in the previous two games. You move characters around the battlefield executing attacks. Disgaea has always had a huge emphasis on strategy mainly because of the Geo Panels. Depending on the placement of Geo Panels and the placement of Geo Blocks, characters can be granted certain bonuses ranging from an attack boost to even some that aren't going to help you at all such a hindrance to your defense. Disgaea 3 also brings back the bonus gauge where after a battle you can get certain bonuses depending on how much damage you've done or how many panels you've destroyed. Even by the third installment, the Geo Panels system manages to be unique. The Geo Panels also help to make a difference in your strategy. You'll find your level doesn't mean much if the enemy you're facing has a huge boost by the Geo Panel he's standing on.
Disgaea 3 also keeps the level cap incredibly high. You can go all the way up to level 9999. It might seem like the game puts more emphasis on level and brute force, but chances are you'll find there's still a lot of strategy involved in the game, and that's mainly because there's so much outside of the story to do, and the Geo Panels provide a neat puzzle element to the game.
The biggest problem, however, is that it doesn't look any different from the first two games. You're basically getting a Playstation 2 game on a Playstation 3 console. Tactical Strategy RPGs have never been the best looking games, but Disgaea 3, despite being on the Playstation 3, looks almost exactly the same as the first two games. There isn't a real noticeable improvement in the game's artistic or graphical design. The anime inspired character portraits are very nice and detailed, but the overall look of the game isn't much. It also still suffers from the camera angles. While you can rotate the camera you'll find that there's not much else you can do with it. Pillars and other environmental objects will still be in the way.
Disgaea 3 is a good game. Excellent for Disgaea fans. It may play the same way, but that isn't a bad thing at all. What may not settle well with some gamers, however, is that it's a Playstation 3 game that would've been better suited for the Playstation 2.
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I could not disagree with the three star review more: the current iteration of "Disgaea" is, IMHO, the best strategy game ever made, overtopping both of the original offerings in this series.
Why, though? What makes this offering stand out from its counterparts? It's simple, really: it's precisely the bizarre storyline of the main quest. Lots of people heaped praise on the storyline of the original "Disgaea". I wasn't one of them. I personally thought that, while the story had its moments, in the end, it was pretty blah (particularly considering the cast of wonderful characters appearing). The storyline for the 2nd "Disgaea" was less entertaining than the first (mostly because the cast of characters wasn't interesting in the least, until the post-game madness started). Yet, I loved the first two games, precisely because of what happened AFTER the game. The number of extras in the first game was impressive, and the extras in the 2nd game were absolutely stagerring.
But finally, I really enjoy the storyline. I won't spoil it, but it is incredibly strange, and wholly entertaining. Rather, I'll break my review into the typical pro and cons sections:
PROS:
1) Storyline It's funny. It's well-written. What more could you ask for.
2) Music At times, it's positively incredible. The music playing in the background while in the academy (i.e. while not battling) ranks among my favorite video game themes of all time, and the main theme is good as well. The battle themes are less impressive, but this is actually nice, if one attempts to beat the game with skill as opposed to level-grinding (I would rather focus my concentration on the battle at hand).
3) Voice-acting I enjoy it immensely. It works very well for the story present (although the Japanese voices annoy me).
4) Extras I'm not talking about in-game extras (of which there are so many, I cannot even begin to describe them). I'm talking about the soundtrack CD accompanying the product. I love music CDs, when they're free.
5) Price Most Sony PS3 games are sixty bucks, and most PS3 games stink. It's nice to get a fifty dollar offering that is enjoyable.
6) In-game extras You could easily play this game for 150 hours. There is so much craziness to end the game, it's not even funny.
CONS:
1) Graphics Yes, I know. It's not really important to the main offering. But come on. Most of the time in the game is spent either in battles, or in the school. There's really not much to illustrate here. Why not go the extra mile and make some interesting NEW character designs? I mean, these are the EXACT SAME monsters we saw in the original "Disgaea".
That's about it. Really.
This game, however, will not appeal to anyone. Action gamers, stay away. There's nothing wrong with that, and the comment isn't meant as an insult. Some people don't like the slow pacing of strategy games, or the level grinding madness that ends each "Disgaea" game. Strategy gamers, come one, come all. Let's face it, we haven't gotten many strong offerings recently (I deplore the DS "FFTA" game, and the Wii's "Fire Emblem" was a pretty frail offering as well). "Disgaea" fans well, I don't even have to tell you, do I?
Good stuff.
Buy Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice Now
This is my first Disgaea game in the franchise. I certainly hope it isn't my last. I've put in about 6 hours into the game, enough to give me an idea of how the game will play. I have to say, it's been fun, great fun.
It's like playing a saturday morning cartoon, except it has a lot of content kids won't get. The game starts with Mao, who wants to defeat his father the Overlord, because his father ruined his video game system(sound familiar?) that cost him millions of hours worth of data. And so our quest begins. The voice overs sound like something off of Fox Kids saturday morning shows.
The game offers so many little things to do and manage. I was actually quite intimidated by the options it gave me when I started playing because I was pretty clueless. After some experimenting I'm slowly understanding parts of it. It is an srpg, but it is like no other srpg I've ever played. The levels are usually small and offer some traps, and puzzles as you traverse the area. I have a feeling this game is going to offer me a lot of great hours. There's so much to upgrade and different things to do.
I'm sure by now everyone knows this game has the look of a ps2 game. And honestly it does. But it's been such a good time, it doesn't bother me one bit. I love it. Rent it, buy it..I don't care. just play it
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Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories are Japanese strategy RPGs originally available on the Playstation 2. The original Disgaea has been ported to the PSP with upgrades and improvements. There will be a Nintendo DS port later this year. The original Disgaea is also being resurrected as a "Greatest Hits", somewhat of a milestone for a series like this.
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice is the story of the demon Mao in the Netherworld and his quest to become a hero and overthrow his father, the Overlord while he attends the Evil Academy.
The story throws snorts, snickers and outright laughs at you from the moment you boot the disk in your Playstation 3. Wry, tongue-in-cheek humor is de rigeour for this series.
You start with a level 1 set of characters and have the possibility to progress through the story, with the option of restarting again when you finish it, to a level cap of 9999.
Damage to opponents can rise to the millions of points.
You can "enter" a weapon or other item in your inventory through the Item World to raise its attributes.
Homeroom and Student Council votes must be secured to have more party members, better weapons and armor available at stores.
The amount of customization and stat augmentations you can make are staggering.
You can choose to have Japanese voice-overs, should you desire.
Negatives include dated sprites. While the game is displayed on my 1080p television, the sprites (not the backgrounds or cut scenes) are a little pixelated, which I would like to have been a little more sharp. But this is a minor quibble.
If this is your first outing in the SRPG world, it is strongly encouraged to get the strategy guide or find a good wiki as you will need a leg up in sorting things out. They've crammed everything including the kitchen sink into this game.
If you want to try the cheaper Greatest Hits version of Disgaea, no one would fault you, conversely, the PSP version is highly lauded as well. The latest iteration is averaging a low to mid 80/100 scores from most sites, taking points off for the mild graphical upgrades, but cheering the deep replayability of the game.
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I don't write reviews at all for things I purchase on Amazon so if I'm writing this then I have a reason.
This. game. is. epic.
Yes, it's good. But what I mean is that the battle system, items, characters, EVERYTHING is so huge and deep that this game has more to offer than not only any other console game and most MMOs on the market today. I'm not saying it's the greatest game, I'm saying in terms of scope there are VERY few things that can rival this.
Now I will start to list random good points about the game in no specific order:
Voice acting I was about to cringe when I was preparing to hear the voice acting for the first time because there are a lot of times when Japanese media is brought over to the U.S. and the voices are murdered, but I was pleasantly surprised. The VO work is amazing in English. I even recognized some of the voices from various anime and other game work. I like the voices so much I have yet to switch over to the Japanese track and coming from a guy who usually does switch over, THAT'S saying something.
Battle system deep, deep, deep. I must say the battle system for this game is incredibly deep, so much so that there's so much to talk about I will only say it's awesome.
Story Some push the story aside for being stupid, but I beg to differ. It's so unique and so different that it's what everyone has been asking for something new. It's not serious at all, it's just fun and crazy. The Overlord's Son, Mao, wants to defeat his father because he stepped on his game console and game he spent 4 million hours on. Oh and it all takes place in the Netherworld......which is one giant school. Long story short it only gets better as you go along. If that isn't unique, then I don't know what is.
Items, character choices, customization, etc again, words cannot describe how much freedom you are given in this game. Choose some classes you like, give them weapons and armor, choose their skills, kill things. It's unbelievably massive.
Visuals in a day and age dominated by all the latest 3d graphics, it's a nice change of pace. Colorful, crisp 2D graphics with a little bit of 3D in the mix. It looks beautiful.
There are a few bad things about the game....
Lack of explanations I must say they don't explain enough to you in the tutorial of the game. There's so many things to take into consideration when making all the choices around the game that sometimes you have no idea what will happen or what's the point of something. It's never too bad though as you might be able to figure it out, or heck it may even be in the manual, but I haven't opened it so I don't know.
Scope yes I said the scope of this game is amazing, but for some it will be too much. There's just so much to do and see that not everyone will be able to do so. This really is personal preference though. I love the scope and depth of this game, others may run away...far away.
Various battles Some battles are just downright annoying. There are very few 'normal' maps when there isn't some sort of 'catch' to the battle(high ground, geo panels, high walls, super small maps, etc). Instead you are forced to fight on something new almost every fight which can keep things interesting, but others times I was just hoping for something...simple. Then there are downright cheap enemies and attacks. Enemies with super high dodging ability, enemies that hit 4-5 of you guys at once from across the pacific ocean if they felt like it, and many other things. To make it worse they might throw anywhere from 1-20 of these guys at you. Like I said, keeps things new and interesting...but sometimes you just want....simple.
All in all, you won't find a game for this price(I got my copy for $30) that offers this much. It's amazing how much content is on this disk. 9999 lvls, 30+ classes AND monsters to choose from, DLC, extra missions, 20-30 hours main story mode, customizable classes, weapons, etc. If you've been looking for an RPG that will last you a long time then look no further. This game might just last you a lifetime.
