I just got a Vita and wanted to get disgaea, but i'm wondering if I could play any of the PSP ones before jumping into the 3rd game on Vita. Also is there a significant difference in visuals since they are all ports?

D3 has slightly better visuals as it's "native" to the Vita's resolution. Native in quotes because it was originally a much larger resolution.

D1 and 2 for the PSP still look fine, but keep in mind you're scaling from 480x272 up to the Vitas resolution. The Vita actually does quite well with D2 stuff like that, but it's still not quite as crisp as D3 looks.

That being said, they're all pretty good. You can buy D1 or 2 in the PSN store and play them on the vita just fine.

@jebro D3 looks great on the Vita and I am enjoying it (i'm a little SRPG burnt out at the moment.) You can play all the PSP ones but its more a matter of do you want to. I personally skipped 1 and 2 because I don't have that kind of time. Then I will move to 4 in a year or 2 when it gets ported to vita. I've played a few psp games on vita and love the experience so you should have no fear I say.

I would suggest jumping right into Disgaea 3 on the Vita. Such an amazingly fun game, don't delay playing it any longer! If you enjoy it then you can always go back to 1 and 2 or even pick up 4 on the PS3.

Disgaea and Disgaea 2 for PSP look and run better than the original due to upscaling graphics and including fixes and elements that help make the game smoother (example: trying to level a Thief or a Cleric let alone monsters was pretty awful in Disgaea). Personally I think Disgaea 2 has the best story and characters out of the series while Disgaea 3 has the best mix of mechanics so I would say go with Disgaea 3 Vita.

@EXTomar said:

Disgaea and Disgaea 2 for PSP look and run better than the original due to upscaling graphics and including fixes and elements that help make the game smoother (example: trying to level a Thief or a Cleric let alone monsters was pretty awful in Disgaea). Personally I think Disgaea 2 has the best story and characters out of the series while Disgaea 3 has the best mix of mechanics so I would say go with Disgaea 3 Vita.

I'm so glad that someone agrees with me about Disgaea 2's story.

To answer the question though I'd go with Disgaea 3 on the Vita. It has the most recent mechanics in it, so it just has more to offer. Also better graphics.

I have always felt that Disgaea 2 had that right combination of serious and light-heart adventure that Disgaea 3 and Disgaea 4 miss a bit. And while entertaining the side topic: I wish the game engine was built more like SCUMM where it would be fun to pull in the Disgaea 2 adventure into the Disgaea 4 engine.

Awesome, thanks for the input. Going all in on Disgaea 3 for vita, kind of lame it's 39.99 instead of the 34.99. I thought all digital games were going to be discounted?

Keep in mind that NIS America is an incredibly small company and you are getting a feature complete game right from the get-go. It is up to the publishers to determine if they want to discount it, and considering how risky of an investment it was on their part, they need every cent they can recoop.

You made a wise choice, though. Disgaea 3 was my favorite in the series and the only one I was willing to start a new game on once the vita version came out.