Review: Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)
When I first heard that there were releasing one of my favorite games from the PS2 on the PSP I was so elated that I bought a PSP. Shortly after purchasing my PSP, I purchased Spectral Souls (another NIS strategy game released on the PSP) as a warm up game, for what was then called Disgaea PSP, though I started to wonder if my decision to purchase a PSP was a correct one since the loading times featured in Spectral Souls rendered the game all but unplayable. Will Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness suffer the same fate as Spectral Souls? Or will it be as great as its PS2 original?
Story:
You are Laharl, the demon prince. He is awoken rudely from a 2 year slumber by Etna, one of his fathers's only remaining vassals, only to find that his father, the Overlord of the Underworld, is dead and his kingdom separated and torn apart by other greedy demons, and former vassals of his father. Now it is up to you and the remaining vassals, a group of explosive fighting penguins, and a love crazed angelic assassin to return the power back to the royal bloodline and defend the underworld from new threats from the human and angelic worlds, and potential deceit from his remaining vassals.
Graphics:
This game looks every bit as good as it did on the PS2, now considering that the game uses 2d sprites rather than 3d models may turn some gamers away, but most strategy RPG fans will welcome the classic almost 16 bit look of this game, as many did with the original release on the PS2. There are some differences though like the sprites appear to have been cleaned up a little, then again the clean up may also be due to the change to a smaller resolution as it is with some of my video files.
Music & Sound:
The music and sound effects from the game are every bit as good as they were in the PS2 version of this game, and considering that I absolutely adore the soundtrack to this game and consider it to be one of the finest I have heard out of a game in years (especially considering how often I listen to it on its own). Not thing was missed when porting the music over to the PSP which shouldn't be to surprising, but I thought that it was nice to have all of the dubbing intact from the PS2 version, while adding dubbing to the new missions as well is a rather nice touch.
Control & Game play:
Fans of the Strategy RPG genre will be welcomed into new challenges here. Fans of the series will know what to expect. Like you not only can level your character up but your weapons, armor, and even your healing items up as well, and many other little fine touches that you start to learn that make this game far deeper and so much more involved that the average SRPG, because on the surface the game controls like any other SRPG except that Leveling up your character is not the only factor to your success forces you to try new things and aspects of the game.
Design & Fun Factor:
This is a game aimed at hardcore fans of strategy RPG's, and its great story and it's charming and compelling characters will keep you coming back for more and will keep you occupied for hours on end. To give you and idea I am over 60 hours in and I am still learning new things about this game, and new tactics to use. On top of that you have new options available to use like playing online against other players, and alternate story mode, new hidden bosses from other NIS games, and the best news is that the loading times on the PSP are actually faster than with the original game on the PS2! Like by almost a full 1/3! I have done a head to head comparison
Disgaea fans need no other reason to buy this game (let alone a PSP if you don't already have one), and this goes doubly for the SRPG fans. All others may want to steer clear of this title since Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness is intended to be a Strategy RPG gamer's wet dream, and only for the hardcore.
Graphics
8/10
Game play
9/10
Sound
9/10
Fun factor
9/10
Tilt
10/10
Average score
9.0
Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness:
Pros:
Strategy RPG fans will also feel at home
More content for fans to love
Great music
Charming story and characters
Extremely Deep
Cons:
Not for Everyone
Only intended to be for the hardcore