Game Review = Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness for the PSP is a port of the original Disgaea: Hour of Darkness for the Playstation 2. Disgaea is known for being one of the best (and only) Strategy RPG’s out on the market today, and Afternoon of Darkness holds to that title well.
Disgaea follows the story of Prince Laharl, son of the Lord of the Netherworld. Laharl has been asleep for over two years, and awakens to find out that his father has died and that hoards of demons have been trying to take the title of Lord of the Netherworld. After hearing this Laharl begins his journey to take his rightful place as King. Through all this Laharl meets many different demons and even gains some new allies on the journey.
This is a game that mixes Turn Based Strategy and RPG growing elements. You start a level with an emersion panel that you bring your characters onto the field. You get to bring out around 6 characters at a time (but this amount grows as you grow). You gather this army by gaining mana for each enemy you kill. You then go to a shop called the dark assembly and you get to create different types of humanoid and demon (mainly the enemies you defeat) characters that very as much as your main characters. The main reason you get to gather such an army is that many of your characters can tag team to attack. This opens amounts of damage that will make your mouth hit the floor and gawk at the destruction you just did. This tag team can also unlock specially bonuses only gathered by your bonus gauge and the amazing combos that you can perform. The last great thing is that you can level up your items and equipment and make them stronger that you can imagine. You do this by entering the world of the item and going through 10 levels in the item to gain access to the Boss. After defeating the Boss of the item it will grow by 10 levels. This can be done more times than you can imagine, but the farther you go the harder the levels get.
This game has many different elements of both Strategy and RPG’s that it makes a whole new experience that you may never have felt before. This game is a great new addition to the franchise and will draw you in at every turn. Now go out and clam your title as Lord of the Netherworld!

George Scherer