Disgaea DS (Nintendo DS) Reader Review

Disgaea DS is one of those games that you can play as long as you want to. There’s a near infinite amount of replay value here, in what is essentially an ideal game for any Strategy RPG fan. Having gone through the campaign twice and logged over 90 hours total, I can tell you that Disgaea is simply fantastic.

The plot of the game is based in the Netherworld, and centers around a “kid” (in reality he’s over a thousand years old) named Laharl, who wakes from a deep sleep to find out that his father, the King, is dead, and that his throne is being contested. In response, Laharl summons his vassals and sets about to secure his Kingship.

Things take an interesting turn when an Angel Trainee named Flonne is sent on an assassination mission, sending the two regions, the Netherworld and Celestia, on a course to battle. It’s a solid story that combines plenty of humor with great character development. While most strategy gamers aren’t too worried about the story mode, Disgaea will keep you coming back both for its charming plot and its fantastic gameplay.

The gameplay itself is what you would expect of Strategy RPG fare, leveling characters, mages, ninjas, turn based movement and fighting etc. Disgaea distinguishes itself in a number of ways though; perhaps its most notable feature being the sheer depth of the leveling system and the number of optional things to do.

Nearly everything in the game can be leveled up. Naturally, characters can be leveled. However, so can the weapons they carry. In the Netherworld ‘hub’, there is a place you can visit called the item world, a dungeon that is randomly created every time you enter it. For every level of the dungeon you defeat, the level of the weapon increases, which greatly upgrades the stats it gives your character.

Additionally, your character type itself can be ‘leveled-up’, through what is called reincarnation. For instance, once you gain enough ‘mana’ from defeating baddies, you can upgrade from a ‘Fighter’ to a ‘Champion’, which naturally comes with a great deal of upgrades in itself.

Additionally, the game features what is called the “Dark Assembly”, which is basically the governing body of the Netherworld. There you attempt to pass (through bribery) many things to help your campaign. You can pass things like triple experience, better weapons for the shop, and even make enemies harder, which is nice when you go through the campaign a second time.

The Dark Assembly is probably Disgaea’s standout feature, and helps add a lot of extra playtime and enjoyment to your quest.

And that’s just a portion of what Disgaea has to offer. Where Disgaea excels is in near endless depth. However, if you don’t want to take advantage of it, you don’t have to. What is so great about Disgaea is that you can just enjoy the campaign if you want to. The depth is there if you want it, and chances are you will. But if you are only there for the story, you can take the simple route without having to deal very much with the tons of extra features.

While Disgaea has many strengths, it does have a few shortfalls. Being a port of a PS2 game, it does not feel tailored to the DS system. The touch screen controls are, quite frankly, terrible. You are much better off leaving the stylus holstered. Furthermore, the visuals seem to have merely been ‘bumped down’ instead of changed to work with the DS system’s power and resolution, so a lot of the environment textures can be a bit bland and low res.

Still, despite some minor presentation issues, Disgaea shines as one of the best strategy games on the system period. It is definitely the one with the most replay ability, which says something given the fact that the Advance Wars series already has two fantastic entries on the system. If you are looking for an excellent strategy title, look no further. If this is your genre, this is your game.