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GF Rating
9
Excellent
The more you break it the better it is
posted by skcollins (SAN FRANCISCO, CA) Nov 17, 2008
Member since Jul 2008
8 out of 9 gamers (89%) found this review helpful
This is a direct port from the PS2 version, with great support for the touch pad. Less cut scenes and full voice, which is just as well because the English voice acting in this game is atrocious. The DS version doesn't have an option for Japanese voice acting, but it does have options for everything else. It's nice to see a game that respects that every gamer is a little different, and not everyone wants to watch the screen explode for 5 minutes at the end of every round (although that can be very satisfying sometimes!).
Disgaea is a strategy/puzzle game, not really an rpg although there is a cute storyline. You spend most of your time on a battlefield grid, trying to a) kill everything, b) use specific skills and characters in combination to improve your stats and c) manipulate colored tiles on the board for massive explosions and bonuses. The beauty is that it's only complicated IF you want it to be; you can finish the main story without working too hard at it, or you can spend ages playing levels until you get the highest bonus score on each one.
Item World is my favorite part of the game, which is a mode that randomly generates maps where the objective is to clear the map, or just make it to the exit gate which is often much easier but requires a lot of strategy. Item World lets you level your items up, supplying your characters with massive bonuses far surpassing their natural stats. You'll feel like you are abusing or breaking the game, which is a ton of fun. But the more you break things, the harder Item Worlds you can tackle, so it's actually a self-balancing system. Brilliant design, and near-infinite replayability!
Disgaea is a strategy/puzzle game, not really an rpg although there is a cute storyline. You spend most of your time on a battlefield grid, trying to a) kill everything, b) use specific skills and characters in combination to improve your stats and c) manipulate colored tiles on the board for massive explosions and bonuses. The beauty is that it's only complicated IF you want it to be; you can finish the main story without working too hard at it, or you can spend ages playing levels until you get the highest bonus score on each one.
Item World is my favorite part of the game, which is a mode that randomly generates maps where the objective is to clear the map, or just make it to the exit gate which is often much easier but requires a lot of strategy. Item World lets you level your items up, supplying your characters with massive bonuses far surpassing their natural stats. You'll feel like you are abusing or breaking the game, which is a ton of fun. But the more you break things, the harder Item Worlds you can tackle, so it's actually a self-balancing system. Brilliant design, and near-infinite replayability!
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GF Rating
5
Fair
Disgaea For Those Without a PSP/PS2 ONLY
posted by Guiltl3ss (SPOKANE, WA) Dec 15, 2008
Member since Sep 2008
3 out of 12 gamers (25%) found this review helpful
I wont review the game itself, I'll leave that for other reviews. I'll do a slight comparison, however.
First off, if you have played ANY of the other two Disgaea 1 (PS2 or PSP) SKIP this game. It has reduced graphics, horrible music, and is just a worse experience. I hate to say that because I LOVE Disgaea games, but this game just doesn't do anything good for the series. Only play if you have NO other means to. Even then, I'd say buy a PSP for the game instead (as you can easily rack 50+ hours it makes a rather good deal).
Avoud on DS, but Disgaea is the best Strategy RPG series out there. Play it, just not on DS.
First off, if you have played ANY of the other two Disgaea 1 (PS2 or PSP) SKIP this game. It has reduced graphics, horrible music, and is just a worse experience. I hate to say that because I LOVE Disgaea games, but this game just doesn't do anything good for the series. Only play if you have NO other means to. Even then, I'd say buy a PSP for the game instead (as you can easily rack 50+ hours it makes a rather good deal).
Avoud on DS, but Disgaea is the best Strategy RPG series out there. Play it, just not on DS.
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GF Rating
8
Very Good
Lather, Rinse, Repeat. And repeat. And repeat...
posted by Iamnobody (WILMINGTON, DE) Jan 15, 2009
Member since Jul 2008
Disgaea DS is a RPG strategy port from the PS2 game "Disgaea 2: Hour of Darkness".
The game features a relatively small cast of characters, and like nearly everything else in the game, they start out interesting and get progressively less entertaining as the game goes on. These characters (one in particular) are often involved in skits between chapters. The skits rarely make any sense at all, but they do succeed and being mildly entertaining... until you get tired of random nonsense around the 5th chapter.
Like the story, the gameplay expects you to have a lot of patience for doing the same things endlessly. When I started the first level, I noticed that there was a clear counter. It wasn't long before I realized what that was for: You are expected to level up by playing the exact same levels over and over and over again. To its credit, Disgaea does level up comparatively quickly, but it doesn't help much when you are expected to reach unbelievable levels. (100 is not even close to the cap here) Since only the character that kills an enemy gets any EXP points, you may end up having to clear one or two levels dozens of times just to get your party close to the same level.
Disgaea is by no means balanced, and the difficult level swings wildly until about the 9th chapter, when it promptly decides to become aggravatingly difficult. You'll suddenly find yourself outnumbered 2:1 by enemies that are not only nearly the same level as you, but often have ridiculous boosts applied to them as well.
The game world outside of battle is unbelievably small and features extremely little to do. You can buy items, level up items through a process that can take hours to make even slight changes, or try to get the laughably uncooperative senate to do something for you. There's always the option of forcing the senate to pass your bill, but that's not even close to possible until very late in the game.
Like doing the same thing repeatedly? Buy this game. Otherwise, stick to FFT.
The game features a relatively small cast of characters, and like nearly everything else in the game, they start out interesting and get progressively less entertaining as the game goes on. These characters (one in particular) are often involved in skits between chapters. The skits rarely make any sense at all, but they do succeed and being mildly entertaining... until you get tired of random nonsense around the 5th chapter.
Like the story, the gameplay expects you to have a lot of patience for doing the same things endlessly. When I started the first level, I noticed that there was a clear counter. It wasn't long before I realized what that was for: You are expected to level up by playing the exact same levels over and over and over again. To its credit, Disgaea does level up comparatively quickly, but it doesn't help much when you are expected to reach unbelievable levels. (100 is not even close to the cap here) Since only the character that kills an enemy gets any EXP points, you may end up having to clear one or two levels dozens of times just to get your party close to the same level.
Disgaea is by no means balanced, and the difficult level swings wildly until about the 9th chapter, when it promptly decides to become aggravatingly difficult. You'll suddenly find yourself outnumbered 2:1 by enemies that are not only nearly the same level as you, but often have ridiculous boosts applied to them as well.
The game world outside of battle is unbelievably small and features extremely little to do. You can buy items, level up items through a process that can take hours to make even slight changes, or try to get the laughably uncooperative senate to do something for you. There's always the option of forcing the senate to pass your bill, but that's not even close to possible until very late in the game.
Like doing the same thing repeatedly? Buy this game. Otherwise, stick to FFT.
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