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"Disgaea: Hour of Darkness"

I noticed that a lot of people have been talking about this game recently and I thought that it would be good to have your opinions of it. Lalakersrule says that he has clocked up 800 hours on it so either it is very very addictive or Lalakersrule is extremely sad. ;-) Anyway, I was looking through the latest issue of Official Playstation Two Magazine and I saw a preview of it and to my horror it only had a quarter of a page when GTA: San Andreas had six pages on it! So I looked down and saw why. 2D graphics!!! I know that it has sold millions in Japan and other countries but I never thought that it would have Two-dimesional graphics. I am not saying that graphics are the most important part of a game but I expected a game that had sold so well to have at least half-decent graphics for god's sake. But I still think that after so many good reviews there is quite a large chance of me buying it when it comes out over here.

So what do you guys think of it? I don't want people saying stuff like 'oh yeah, it sounds good'. I want people who have imported it to give me a first-hand review and help me out.

Thanks in advance,

Wakka.

Lou Role wrote:
> lalakersrule wrote:
> Call me crazy and from the old school of gaming but i prefer to
> place
> gameplay over graphics and Disgaea has the best gameplay of any game
> i've ever played.
>
> I'm the same as you, I much prefer gameplay over graphics. I bought
> GTA when it first came out on PS1 and I played it way more than all
> of my other titles. The 2D graphics certainly won't put me off
> Disgaea.

I agree. Gameplay over graphics any day!

lalakersrule wrote:
> Call me crazy and from the old school of gaming but i prefer to place
> gameplay over graphics and Disgaea has the best gameplay of any game
> i've ever played.

I'm the same as you, I much prefer gameplay over graphics. I bought GTA when it first came out on PS1 and I played it way more than all of my other titles. The 2D graphics certainly won't put me off Disgaea.

lalakersrule wrote:
> Heh i was waiting for this. *Ooooh it's only got 2D graphics, oh my
> god it must instantly not be as good*

These were my exact words:

2D graphics!!! I know that it has sold millions in Japan and other countries but I never thought that it would have Two-dimesional graphics. I am not saying that graphics are the most important part of a game but I expected a game that had sold so well to have at least half-decent graphics for god's sake.

I buy lots of games that have crap graphics. I recently purchased Space Invaders: Anniversary. Like you, I rate gameplay far over graphics but I just expected it to have good graphics. That's all. I am probably still going to get it but I don't want you to think that I am one of those gamers who likes big explosions and all that. I still play my Sega Megadrive about once a week (mostly Sonic) so that shows you that I am not a gamer who thinks visuals are the main part of a game.

Also, you say that Disgaea is more addictive than Final Fantasy. I usually clock up about 200 hours on each FF game and I get very addicted so I wonder what Disgaea must be like!!

Lou Role wrote:
> Cusack wrote:
> You're saying it like if he bought the magazine just to find info on
> San Andreas. I think people tend to buy ps2 magazines for the demo
> disc, and the reviews.
>
> Yea I know, but still, why spend £5.50 on a magazine when you
> can get all the info you need from the internet?
>
> Don't get me wrong, I sometimes buy Gamesmaster but that's only
> £3 a month and it does all consoles, and it does offer a good
> source of info for the times you can't go on the net.
>
> So you're really just paying money for a demo disc, why not just rent
> the full game for the weekend to get an idea of what it's like? It's
> still cheaper than the magazine.

I actaully don't buy it for the demo disc. I buy it for the reviews and previews and things like that.

Cusack wrote:
> Hey Wakka, you got a warning, what did you do ?

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Nothing like Zelda at all mate.

You have 3 main areas where you go and do stuff

The first and most important one is the portal that takes you to different areas. This is where you advance the story by fighting in battles with bosses or just ordinary characters until you get to the main boss. Each part of the world usually has at least 5 stages. Also you can go back to each stage once you've completed it and go and level up and beat up the enemies there.

The second area is The Item World, which i feel is the main part of the game for me as that's where i spend all my time. Every item you get in the game can be powered up just like your characters so you come to the item world and you get transported into the item. Here you will fight battles on randomly generated maps so no two battles are ever the same here. There are residents in the item called specialists who are the ones who power up your items. They are neither friend or foe and they will attack anyone, it is your job to kill them and once you have done that they submit to you and then it is possible to move them around from item to item. Every 10 levels of an item and you are given the option to return back home and then the stats get added up for the item as it gets powered up.

You have 3 types of items, normal items, rare items and Legendary items. Each item has 30, 70 or 100 floors respectively and the difficulty of the enemies faced in the item world is based on the level of that item and how rare it is. (For instance enemies are going to be much harder on level 20 of an legendary item than level 20 on a normal item)


Then thirdly we have the Dark Assembly, this is where you go to pass bills. These can include improving your counterattack, movement or making enemies stronger and a load of other options. Here you can create characters, rename them or transmigrate them which means changing their class and going back down to level 1. You can also improve your rank here by defeating a series of tests, which will give you more influence at the dark assembly to pass your bills and also allow more options to be opened up to you

I'm really interested in this game now.

What type of things do yuo have to do?
Like find things and is it a bit like Zelda?

Squall wrote:
> What style of gameplay is it like then Lalakersrule?

Strategy RPG so if you've played Final Fantasy Tactics or Vandal Hearts you'll know what to expect here


> is it like the battle systems in ff where you level up?


Not like FF with the battle systems but trust me you have no idea what 'levelling up' means until you've played this game. Each character can go up to level 9999 but then with transmigration you can get them up to whatever level you want. Into the millions if you want. I personally have my Laharl up to level 700,000 odd

What style of gameplay is it like then Lalakersrule?

is it like the battle systems in ff where you level up?

damn, when I read it I didn't get to that part you just mentioned