Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days for PSP Reviews & Ratings by IGN

While many games these days are toning down the difficulty, simplifying mechanics, and lowering the barrier of entry for the expanded audience and "casual gamer," the Disgaea series remains the polar opposite of this movement. Bafflingly complex, arduous, and full of bizarre Japanese quirk, it is exactly what we mean when we talk about a "hardcore" game. It's also one of the best strategy games around, absolutely charming, and a great value for your gaming dollar since it is a near bottomless well of gameplay. As I've said before, if I only had one game with me on a deserted island, I'd want it to be a Disgaea game.



Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days is now here for PSP and is a faithful recreation of the original 2006 PlayStation 2 game. Hours and hours and hours of turn-based strategy are now portable, plus new story chapters have been added. There might not be enough new content here to justify a second purchase if you've already sacrificed a good chunk of your life to the PS2 version, but any strategy gamer that hasn't experienced Disgaea 2 needs to add this to their library immediately.



The stories in these games always star "bad guys" who turn out to be not so bad over the course of the tale. Here, the entire human population of this fantasy world has been cursed by the Overlord Zenon and turned into amoral demons. Adell is the only unaffected human, and must challenge the Overlord to set things right and get his family back. When he and his mother attempt to summon Zenon they receive his prissy daughter, Princess Rozalin, instead. Adell and Rozalin set out to find the Overlord and encounter a cast of wacky demons along the way, including some familiar faces from the first Disgaea.



This is a turn-based strategy game much like Final Fantasy Tactics, where battles play out one move at a time in grid-based arenas. But there are many more tactics to consider than you may be used to. For one, environments often have flashing Geo Panels that can alter the status of a character standing on it. Team mates and enemies can be thrown, creating many interesting opportunities. Geo Symbols, the stones that imbue Geo Panels with their properties, can be destroyed, causing damage to anything on the panels and possibly racking up enormous combos (which result in nice post-battle bonuses of items or experience). Each time you attack from one spot without moving, your attack power will increase. Any character in your party can create new fighters back in town, which become their apprentices and have a higher chance of performing team attacks and earning stat boosts.



If all of that sounds confusing, know that there are many, many more features that affect battle in Disgaea 2. Going over every single feature would take many pages (and time you could be spending playing the game), so just know that this is one of the deepest strategy titles you'll ever play and it will be quite rewarding to those brave enough to invest.



Your adventure revolves around a hub world where you can participate in many role-playing game conventions: shop for weapons and items, heal your wounds, chat with the locals, or venture out on quests. But there are plenty unique activities available that set Disgaea apart from other turn-based strategy games. A Dark Assembly governs the game world, and players can suggest various bills that might help them in their quest. The more useful a bill might be, the harder it will be to convince the Assembly to approve it. Like any good politicians, the senators can be bribed to vote in your favor. Then there is the item world, which is basically an entire game in itself. Every item in the game contains a miniature world that players can delve into in order to gain experience and legendary equipment. Participation in the item world is entirely optional, but will make you significantly more powerful in the story levels.



Fans of Japanese games and anime will be glad to hear the full Japanese voice track is included in this PSP version. At any time from the menu, players can toggle between the English and Japanese casts. (Pro tip: cool kids pick Japanese.)



Beyond the original game, there are new chapters starring Axel, one of the game's heroes, with his own story sequences. This bonus content has its own hub world, Dark Assembly, item world, and story missions. The "Magichange" feature from Disgaea 3 on PlayStation 3 has also been included in Dark Hero Days, giving players the option to change monster allies into weapons.

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