Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
| Disgaea: Hour of Darkness | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Original title | 魔界 戦 記 デ ィ ス ガ イ ア | ||
| transcription | Makai Senki Disugaia | ||
| Studio | Nippon Ichi software | ||
| Publisher | Nippon Ichi Software (JP), Atlus (USA), Koei (EU) | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
2003 | ||
| platform | PlayStation 2 , PlayStation Portable , Nintendo DS | ||
| genre | Strategy RPG | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | DualShock 2 | ||
| medium | DVD-ROM | ||
| language | English, Japanese | ||
| Age rating |
|
||
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness ( Japanese 魔界 戦 記 デ ィ ス ガ イ ア , Makai Senki Disugaia , Eng . "War story of the demon world: Disgaea") is a strategy role-playing game that was developed by Nippon Ichi Software and first published in January 2003 in Japan. Atlus distributed the PlayStation 2 game in the USA, Koei marketed Disgaea in Europe. In 2006 a version for the PlayStation Portable appeared , in 2008 (USA, Japan) and 2009 (Europe) a port for Nintendo DS .
Game description
The course of the game is divided into two repetitive phases, as is usual for strategy role-playing games. In the first phase, the player equips his characters, acquires weapons and equipment or pursues other game-specific options. The second phase consists of turn-based battles against computer-controlled units.
The game depicts the battles on isometric cards , which are divided into different fields, similar to a chessboard. The individual characters each have a certain range of motion and different attacks or spells. In addition to the characters that continue the game story, the player can choose from more than 120 characters to put together a group; A maximum of ten figures can be used during battles.
The game story can be finished in a few dozen hours; special game features, such as the so-called "Item World" or the "Transmigrate" option, allow playing times of several hundred hours. The individual characters can reach a maximum level of 9,999. An editor of the gamespot.com website therefore describes character development as the core of Disgaea.
The Item World enables the player to improve any equipment. To do this, the characters enter the microcosm of the respective object and linearly explore its 100 dungeons . The transmigrate option allows the level of a figure to be reset to one. An advantage arises from a greater growth in character traits and the possibility to choose another class, but to take over old class-specific skills. For example, a player can create a warrior who can cast healing spells.
presentation
The graphics display is spartan compared to the capabilities of the PlayStation 2. Reviews describe the graphics quality as comparable to PlayStation 1 titles and technically not impressive. Disgaea tells the story between the individual fights with the help of 2D illustrations, which are shown both with voice output and subtitles.
action
The plot is divided into 14 acts and describes a conflict between good (angels) and evil (demons). The player takes the side of the demons. The game is described as humorous, sarcastic, not taking itself seriously to the point of being silly.
Pawns
Laharl ( Japanese speaker : Kaori Mizuhashi ), a demon prince and orphan, is the protagonist in the game. According to the backstory, his human mother died by sacrificing herself for his continued existence, his father died defending his kingdom. As with all three main characters, it is portrayed as a pubescent child. The game describes its character traits as malicious, but these are subject to change in the course of the process.
Etna (Japanese speaker: Tomoe Hamba ) is according to the story a vassal of the prince. At the end of the storyline, the player learns that the dying king has made her an oath to support the prince. Still, she is often portrayed in the game as being insidious and treacherous.
Flonne (Japanese speaker: Yūko Sasamoto ) is a female angel who is in training. She tries to figure out whether demons can have good intentions in the game. The story describes her as good-natured, naive and childlike than the other two main characters.
Mid-Boss (English: intermediate opponent , Japanese speaker: Chihiro Suzuki ), initially titled Vyers , is an opponent that the player meets several times during the story. At the end of the plot a twist describes that the character takes on a more important role.
Prinnies represent the souls of deceased beings in the game. Their appearance resembles penguins, characteristic is the frequent use of "dood!", Colloquial for the English word "dude" (English: age!) - in the Japanese original the meaningless ssu ( ッ ス ). Laharl's mother and optionally Laharl appear as Prinnies in the game.
Backstory
The backstory is about the fictional, demon-inhabited world Netherworld . The beginning describes how Laharl, the crown prince of that world, wakes up from a two-year slumber and learns that his father King Krichevskoy has died. The story then further describes how Laharl tries to become ruler ( overlord ) of the Netherworld himself . The second act opens two further storylines by introducing Celeste , a world comparable to mythological representations of heaven . Flonne is sent to Netherworld on the pretext of murdering Overlord Krichevskoy, who has already died after the plot. The first thread describes Flonne's question whether all demons are fundamentally evil. The player also recognizes that the leader of the world, Celeste Seraph Lamington, and another character, who has remained undetected throughout the game, are trying to direct the plot in a certain direction.
Laharl crowns himself overlord of Netherworld at the end of act six. The ninth section introduces the technologically advanced earth in the game as the third world. An angel already mentioned in the plot tries to become ruler over the three worlds with the help of humans. After an invasion of humans is fended off by the player, Flonne wants to investigate the question of why she felt an angel during the attack. The rest of the plot describes fights in Celeste and ends in a confrontation with Seraph Lamington. He punishes both the renegade angel Vulcanus and Flonne for fighting other angels. He turns both into flowers. Using Laharl, the game shows that not all demons described are fundamentally evil. Angry at the fate of Flonne, Laharl attacks Seraph Lamington. Depending on the player's previous decisions, one of four alternative endings is shown:
In the positive end , Laharl spares the angel's life and wants to sacrifice his own for Flonne. Mid-Boss then appears and explains that Flonne is not dead. The former reappears as a fallen angel . Flonne and Laharl are a knot that can link Celeste and Netherworld. Finally, the player sees Mid-Boss and the ghost of Laharl's dead mother ascend into the sky.
The neutral ending describes Laharl killing Seraph Lamington and sacrificing his life for Flonne. Etna and Flonne return to Netherworld and Laharl appears as Prinny.
In the negative end Laharl Seraph Lamington spared, but he seriously injured, Flonne is revived, however, Laharl recognizes that his heart wicked ( "wicked" ) is and turns away.
The Dark Assembly ending describes hopelessness ( “What is lost can never be regained.” ). Laharl picks the flower and has never been seen again.
Reviews
The game was generally positively received by the press. The website metascore.com calculates a metascore of 84% from 42 reviews . The British magazine Edge awarded nine out of ten points and sees Disgaea as accessible and coherent enough to inspire the gamer despite the unprecedented scope of micromanagement ( “The micromanagement is on a previously unimagined macro scale and yet is accessible and coherent enough to draw you in " ). The American magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded 80 percentage points and describes the game as one of the funniest, most profound and absolutely insidious role-playing games ( "one of the funniest, deepest, and downright dastardly RPG's" ).
In addition to the outdated graphics, the cumbersome camera work during the fights and the unadjustable and unorthodox controls were criticized.
successor
In 2006 Nippon Ichi released a sequel with Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories . The third part was released in Japan on January 31, 2008 for the Playstation 3 .
In 2006, Japan ran a twelve-part anime series based on the game.
In Japan, the successor Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention was released for the PlayStation Vita on December 17, 2011 . In Europe, the game was released on April 20, 2012, with the same content as the North American version, which was released on April 17th. Accordingly, the game came with an English language and text output.
Web links
- Official English website
- Wikia about Disgaea
- Disgaea: Hour of Darkness at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Greg Kasavin : Test report Disgaea ( Memento from June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), GameSpot .
- ↑ a b c Jeremy Dunham on ign.com via Disgaea
- ↑ Computer and Videogames via Disgaea
- ↑ a b Ara Shirinian on gamespy.com via Disgaea ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Disgaea on metacritic.com
- ^ Official Japanese website about Disgaea 3
- ↑ 魔界 戦 記 デ ィ ス ガ イ ア 3 Return . Nippon Ichi Software, accessed January 20, 2013 (Japanese).
- ^ Mathias Oertel: Test: Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention. In: 4Players. April 20, 2012, accessed January 20, 2013 .
