Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

The Disgaea series has had an interesting past.  The original game came out for the PS2 and became an instant hit and became so popular that it became a rare catch to find.  Eventually a sequel came out with more prints, and the original Disgaea was reprinted and a port of the original came out for the PSP.  Now Nippon Ichi has decided that the next Disgaea should come out for the PS3.  Was the move warranted, or was this something that might hinder the Disgaea base?

If you have played any of the previous Disgaea games, you know that there are wacky characters in your party, and Disgaea 3 is no different.  You are back in the underworld, but this time you are a member of the Maritsu Evil Academy with the name of Mao.  Mao is a fan of anime and comic books and uses this “research” to determine that he needs to become a Hero to defeat his father who happens to be an Overlord.  You can see how this might be a problem.

The Disgaea series has never been a graphically taxing game.  Most of the game has had sprites with a few flourishes of particle effects to show spells.  Attacks used a couple of frames of animations, but everything was very simple.  It worked for what it was though, displaying information as needed.  Not only that, but there were windows that showed the pertinent information to the characters and the land your characters were on.  The graphics could have almost been on the PS1 considering they were sprite based.

However, this is a PS3 game that we are talking about.  Because of that, the bar is set higher.  While the graphics do look a bit cleaner, the graphics still don't look like they have improved much since the original game.  Disgaea isn't a game that you pull out to impress your friends as far as the graphical horsepower of the PS3, but it truly ranks at the bottom of the heap.  Nippon Ichi could use some inspiration from Culdcept Saga.

You do have a story, but the cutscenes are done with static photographs.  While the characters are interesting and well-drawn, you expect more than just occasional changes to the portraits.  This would be understandable on the Nintendo DS, but the PS3 deserves something a bit better.

The voice acting is something you will either enjoy or hate with a passion.  The cartoon characters all have high pitched voices.  You might be able to handle it for a while, but they can grate on you after a bit.  While it's nothing like having every character sound like Minmei from Robotech, it certainly seems like it comes close at times.  The voice acting is done professionally though, which is more that can be said for some games.  At least you can change it to the original voice acting if you want to, which can be entertaining.

The music is playful, with just a hint of darkness.  It almost sounds like something from a perverted Disney movie.  It fits since you are an evil character trying to become a Hero in the most dishonest way possible.  I found it appropriate without being distracting, and it really is hard to find something similar  in the gaming world.

The controls are pretty basic.  All you need to is move your cursor and select menu options.  Sometimes this works well.  Other times, well, the camera can be difficult and not work in your favor.  Part of the reason is that the camera focuses on the square your cursor is on.  Since there are some rather odd height changes, the camera can go up and down with some odd vertigo.  Not only that, but since the play field is on a diagonal, it can be difficult to know which button to hit to go up and to the left.  This can mean several button presses to backtrack and find the cursor and get it to move in the correct direction.

The menus haven't really changed from their original game.  If it isn't broke, then don't fix it, right?  Still, it can take some getting used to that all actions take place after all commands are given.  It will take a lot of commands to perform certain actions, some which you'd think would be easier to perform with fewer inputs.

Disgaea 3 is a difficult game to grade.  If you are a fan of the series, you will be a fan of Disgaea 3.  If you like strategy role-playing games but haven't played any games in the Disgaea series, then you will probably enjoy it as long as you have plenty of time to put into it.

Before you go out to the battlefield you need to gather your army that you’ll control into battle.  You’ll create your army at the Classroom.  You need to have enough Mana to create classmates.  The cost of a classmate is dependent on the class of the classmate and what level the classmate is.  As you continue through the game, more classes are available to you and higher level classmates can be created.  There are over 100 classes that you can access.  This means that there is plenty of variety for you to choose from and new abilities that will be added throughout the entire game.  Not only that, but once you max out a character you can recreate that character with all skills and abilities intact but with a new class.

If you are going into battle, your classmates need weapons to fight.  There just happens to be an item shop in the town.  As you use weapons in battle, you will gain mastery for each weapon type.  Special skills for that weapon type will become available to that character.  Weapons can also be leveled up in the Item World.  Here you need to defeat residents of the unequipped item that you want to level up called the Notorious .  Each level that you defeat gains an extra level to the weapon.

Of course you need to have a good hospital for your troops, and one is provided at the Nurse's Office.  There you can restore your allies Hit Points and Spell Points.  The more points you need to restore, the more money you need to pay the hospital.  There is an advantage to going to the hospital though, as you can get prizes based on the amount of points that get healed.  The more you get healed, the better prizes you get.

As you can see, there is a lot to do even before you enter battle.  It’s important to make sure that you have enough classmates and the right equipment to go into battle, as Disgaea 3 throws you into the combat quickly.  You’ll find yourself with a challenge right from the beginning.  There are some useful tutorials to help you out at the beginning though to help you with all the subtleties of combat.

While all the options available in Disgaea 3 are great, it won’t matter if you don’t have a great combat system.  Fortunately Disgaea 3 has an intriguing system that won’t feel like it came ripped from another strategy RPG and painted with a coat of Disgaea characters.  Positioning is a huge part of Disgaea 3, and moving into certain areas that are affected by Geo Symbols.  These areas affected by the Geo Symbols are called Geo Panels.  These areas are indicated by the color of the ground on that area.  You can counter the affect by lifting up the Geo Symbol and throwing it to a different area.  There are even multiple Geo Panel colors on the field, so it might be beneficial to throw the Geo Symbol from one colored area to another.  If you don’t want to deal with the Geo Symbols, you can attack them and destroy them.  There are also Geo Cubes that have similar effects.

The lift mechanic is be used for more than just lifting the Geo Symbols.  You can lift allies over your head and throw them as well.  If you only lift them, the character at the bottom will protect the characters above from damage.  Throwing can send allies to an area they normally wouldn’t be able to reach on one turn.  You can also send allies directly at enemies on the screen.  This can be useful when the allies you have explode on contact.

The group attacks are where the real fun begins.  By lining up your allies to hit one enemy it opens up a whole new range of possibilities.  With combo attacks it is possible to have one character attack multiple enemies on the same turn.  Part of the reason for this is the fact that all attacks are executed at the end of the turn instead of at the end of movement for the character.  This really makes strategy of attacking important, because you don’t want to waste a turn attacking a character that will be dead after one attack.

While all of this might seem to be overwhelming, Disgaea 3 lets you go as deep into the system as you like.  If you just want to scratch the surface of the Item World and focus on the Classroom, you can.  If you want to try to buy better items, you can.  There are plenty of classes to try out as well.

That all sounds great, but that came from my Disgaea PSP review with very minor changes.  There really hasn't been much that has changed.  Sure, instead of having the Dark Senate you have Homeroom, but these changes are aesthetic and really don't change the gameplay.

So why play Disgaea 3 when the gameplay is so similar?  Well, there is the story.  Apparently Mao lost four million hours of playtime on his PSP when Mao's father stepped on it.  Of course, this is considered grounds for justifiable homicide in the underworld.  To defeat his father, Mao determines that he needs to be a “hero.”  He figures this out by reading manga and watching anime.  Of course, this doesn't sit well with the “Number 1 Delinquent” who tries to plan against Mao.  Mao does join up with some characters to assist him on his quest, and the explosive Prinnies are back as well.  The story also mocks several pop-culture references that probably won't be forgotten for a long time.  You can tell that the storywriters don't take themselves too seriously.

Disgaea is a game that requires a large time investment.  If you want a game that will allow you to play over 100 hours, then Disgaea 3 will satisfy your requirements.  You need to be sure that you are able to put up with the fact that the game can be slow at first, building your army.  There is a lot of variety in the characters and classes.

If you were hoping to challenge other friends on the PlayStation Network with your Disgaea 3 army, then you'll be disappointed, because there isn't any kind of multiplayer play in the game.  While it might have been a nice feature, it really doesn't fit in the spirit of Disgaea.

If you enjoy the Disgaea games and the sense of humor behind it, then you'll definitely get a kick out of the story that is crazy even by Disgaea standards.  However, once you start playing, the game might feel like the same game you have played before.  If you can handle that, then you'll get a game with a lot of hours of playtime.  If you were hoping for something a little different, then you might want to wait for a different Disgaea game, or another SRPG game altogether.

Gaming Trend Score

75

1. Graphics: 60
2. Audio: 78
3. Controls: 80
4. Gameplay: 72
5. Value/Replay: 90
6. OVERALL:75