As with many Atlus-published games, this one had a very limited printing run, and is now seen going for absoutely ridiculous prices on eBay and Amazon.Fortunately I got my copy at Game Force for $35, relatively cheap compared to $80+ of other sources.And so I bring you this review today of one of the most acclaimed strategy games for the PS2.

Do note that I'm still playing this one, however, so this review may be changed accordingly as I play through it more.
Anyway, this is a grid-based tactical RPG, not unlike Final Fantasy Tactics or the Shining Force series.You play as Laharl, the son of the deceased king of the Netherworld, as he attempts to defeat all comers trying to claim his father's throne.You begin the game with only a few units; your protagonist (who is adept with all weapons and has decent stats all-around), your vassal Etna (same story), and a few Prinnies, basic penguin-like monsters who wield knives and explode when thrown (which can be handy for damaging groups of enemies).You can also recruit more characters, such as Brawlers, Warriors, Clerics, Mages, and Scouts, by paying Mana at the Dark Assembly (more on that later).Each has their own unique abilities and drawbacks; Brawlers are strong with fist-type weapons, warriors rely on powerful swords and axes, Clerics use healing spells and bows (but generally have low attacking power), Mages have powerful magic but are physically weak, and Scouts can attack from a distance with guns.

However, skills learned are not often the result of one's class choice, but of the weapons they have equipped.Equipping Axes, for instance, gives you powerful attacks, but you must be directly adjacent to the enemy to use them.More often, however, you'll need to not only specify a target, but have enough space open for your character to move or your enemy to fall backwards.If the two spaces behind your Brawler aren't open (allowing him room to leap backwards before charging forward), then you can't use that skill.Even then, if one of those squares is too high or low for them to land on, you can't use that skill.The only exception to this rule is Magicians, who can cast spells targeting any panels within their range.They don't get off totally scot-free, though - they still have to use that skill enough times to power it up and increase its range.

You can also recruit nearly any type of monster from the game; Once you defeat at least one enemy of a certain type, they are unlocked and can be purchased via the Dark Assembly, though they don't come cheap until you've defeated quite a few of them.Another more amusing method is to pick up an enemy off a battlefield and toss them into your "base square" (the square all of your units are deployed from on each battlefield).At that point, all of your reserve characters stored in the base will do battle with that enemy, and should they win, the enemy will be subdued and enlisted into your ranks.However, should the enemy manage to defeat them all, they'll just pop back out and your active group will have to deal with them again - and you'll have to spend a large chunk of change reviving your slain reserves after the fight ends.Sucks, but I suppose it was necessary to prevent you from simply tossing a level 300 enemy into your base and then effortlessly plowing through the rest of the game.

Lifting and throwing is also a large element of combat.In many cases you must have your characters lift and throw one another to cross gaps or travel across the board to reach a necessary Geo Stone before the enemies close in (more on Geo Stones in a bit).You can literally stack one character atop another one at a time (up to the maximum of 10), then have them all toss each other away one by one, and carry one character across the board, which is both useful and amusing to watch.On the other hand, enemies can also be picked up and thrown around to achieve similar ends - toss them into the middle of a group and let your characters gang up on them, or clear them out of the way of a narrow path so that you can move through.Throwing one enemy into another also has a strange effect - the enemy thrown will disappear, but its level will be added to that of the enemy it combines with, making one bigger, tougher enemy for you to deal with.Generally this is something you want to avoid, but it can also be utilized to level up your characters on lower-level maps - smash some enemies together until their levels are on par with your party's, and then fight them as normal.This helps to offset the sudden jumps in difficutly throughout the game, as enemies can sometimes raise 5 or more levels from one map to the next.

One more element also adds a lot of strategy to the battles, that being the Geo Symbols.These show up as colored panels on the field, and depending upon the "geo stones" set upon these panels, standing on panels of that color will grant a bonus, such as Defense + 50% or Recovery 20% (recover 20% of your maximum HP at the end of each turn).In the randomly-generated dungeons these are, of course, random, but on story maps they often work to the enemies' advantage in order to make the fight harder, such as grouping enemies inside an "Enemy Boost" series of panels, which allows them to do much more damage than they normally would until you destroy the Geo Stone giving that effect.

Incidentally, destroying a Geo Stone while it's on a panel of a different color will change all the panels to the color of the Geo Stone, and ends up damaging everyone (friend or foe) standing on those colored panels at the time.Not only does this allow you to rack up damage on enemies, but it also allows you to set off chain reactions by destroying further Geo Stones - set another Geo Stone on the colored panels about to be destroyed, then set it off and start a chain reaction to rack up the damage - and get a pretty nifty bonus along the way (earning extra money and items).You get an even bigger bonus if you wipe out each color and then set off a "null" Geo Stone to erase color from the board entirely.If you manage to do all this with one large chain reaction, you'll get even more points.

The Dark Council also plays a large part in your advancement through the game.As your "rank" goes up (by taking on one-on-one fights against several enemies here), your Influence will rise, which grants you a greater chance at passing "proposals."These range from raising money to gaining more items to sell in your shop to "rebirthing" characters, which resets them at level 1, but allows them to keep a certain percentage of their stats and begin with higher parameters so that they can become more powerful as they level back up.Of course, all of this has to meet with the Senators' approval, at least to an extent.When you bring a Proposal before the Assembly, you'll learn which are for and against your proposal, and can bribe votes out of those who oppose with items.You can also elect to simply kill your opposition and win the vote by default.The latter is a difficult prospect, however, as you'll have to face the opposing Senators in combat, and they're often at very high levels.They'll also be even more opposed to any future proposals you bring to them, and they'll only get stronger as your levels rise, which makes things more difficult in the long run.

In addition to a main quest that spans roughly fifty hours of gameplay, there's also a number of post-game areas to tackle in order to defeat some tough bosses and acquire cool items.On top of that, Disgaea has several different endings for you to view depending upon how you do in the game, much like Chrono Trigger.These range from really bad (losing to the annoying rival character that keeps appearing throughout the game) to... well, it's good for your character, but not so much for everyone else (conquering the Earth).There's also a feature called "Cycling", which allows you to begin from the start of the game, keeping all the non-plot characters, items, and levels you gained in previous playthroughs.Again, very much like Chrono Trigger.

Like Phantom Brave, this is a fairly involved title, but it appeals to a wide variety of audiences.For the casual player, just the main quest should keep you occupied long enough.For others, the post-game battles, multiple endings, and ability to rack up some truly insane stats (9999 being the maximum level, and stats easily able to reach into the hundred-thousands) will keep them busy for a very long time.

- Spoony Spoonicus <- 8:22:27 pm, wednesday, november 1st, 2006 pst
- Spoony Spoonicus <- 1:56:41 am, wednesday, november 8th, 2006 pst <- (updated 11:21:39 am, sun, aug 24th, 2008 pdt)
- Spoony Spoonicus <- 12:29:12 am, thursday, february 28th, 2008 pst
- Spoony Spoonicus <- 11:22:44 am, sunday, august 24th, 2008 pdt