I had never before been so consumed by a game as I was by Disgaea. I never knew demons could be so much fun!
I went to work very tired for several months due to Disgaea. Not that it is something you cannot complete for several months if you just played through the story. But that was the great part. Leveling up new characters, changing them to different classes yet having them retain their skills from a previous class, and leveling up items. There were so many options and different side battles that you could do, that you could virtually have an endless playing experience. The difficulty always went up as you went further into different high level items. The fact that you could go to a panel of demons and monsters to "vote" on things like "better items" to be sold at stores was excellent.
I also thought that the voice acting in the game was wonderful. They really captured the characters personalities well. The writing was also very creative and funny, and there were several times I laughed when playing through the story mode. I played through Disgaea at least three times and each time enjoyed it more. Finding out that there is a Disgaea 2 due to come out soon made me happy and apprehensive. I will have a new game that is based on one of my favorites, but then.... I think I'm going to be tired at work again.
If you haven't had a chance to play Disgaea, it is easy to learn, easy to play and very easy to become addicted to. There's a ton of characters to make and the main characters that are part of the story can also become very powerful when you work on them.