Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice

 The current Generation of Console’s have had quite a churn of games over the last few months, all of different genres and sizes; however they’re lacking in the one place Gamers care about more than graphics, soundtrack and all other inherent traits.  Yep, you guessed it; they all lack a decent play-time length which we demand from our money.  Well, off that dark horse rides in Nippon Ichi Software with Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, the next chapter in the long-awaited strategy based Series.

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’m a part of the European crowd so I technically shouldn’t have the game yet but thanks to the Playstation 3’s lack of region-locking I imported the title so it’s not readily available in the European market just yet.  Needless to say, if you want a copy and you live outside the United States you’re going to have to put forward that little extra to get your hands on a copy right now. No need to threat though as Square Enix will be publishing the game in all European territories during Q1 of 2009.  With that said, I’ll continue on with the crux of the review.

Disgaea 3 is as good; if not better than its predecessors as it still offers as much of the insane action and plotline as any other instalment.  The outrageous humour is there as always and the game just seems so much more masochistic than any of the previous titles which really shows the push the characters have had to make them so much eviler than before. The only qualm is that it was released on the Playstation 3 rather than the Playstation 2 prompting fans of the series to feel neglected.  Many fans can’t afford a Playstation 3 with the machine usually costing both and arm and a leg to get our hands on. The second issue lies in the fact that you literally need a decent high definition television to play the game.  It’s marred with issues when played on any standard definition television and it’s just not enjoyable to play or look at.  The sprites used often look blurry and most of the text can’t be read leaving the gamer bewildered and confused about what’s going on.

Apart from the problems outlined above, if you’ve got a high definition television and a PS3 your pretty much set for the ride of your life. The game takes place in an alternate Netherworld which is just one large School grounds that’s forever changing and rebuilding; rightfully named the Netherworld Institute Evil Academy. Whilst there, students learn how to not take classes whilst causing huge riots. Upon graduation students are set against each other in a huge battle royale to find out who is the best Demon of them all. The world’s extremely diverse and really allows you to experience what School life is like without you actually having to worry about the extras that usually come with School-related themes like answering questions or arriving on-time.

Whilst progressing through the game, you’ll be introduced to many new aspects to the Disgaea world.  For example the Heart Bank where Demons keep a part of their hearts so that no one can find out their weaknesses and other personal information or the Clubs system where each Club you have unlocks a new stipulation for your characters to grow from.  Auto spell levelling has been removed and replaced with a Mana collection system which allows you to purchase new spells and upgrade existing spells.  In order to collect Mana you’ll have to make your way through the game working to build up a strategical way to keep your Mages and other characters up-to-date with new techniques.

Since the game is set in a School, there’s a chain of command so-to-speak where the honour students are the tormentors of the weak.  They constantly cause havoc and mayhem wherever they go and are loved by their teachers for not turning up to classes and causing ‘good’ whereas the delinquents are students that dare to turn up to all of their classes whilst helping others and taking on volunteer work.  Teachers thrown upon the delinquents and there are usually harsh consequences that await them for their ‘evil’ deeds.

Throughout Disgaea 3; you play as the Overlord’s son Mao who is the number one honour student at Evil Academy. He dares to defy every rule laid out in front of him whilst not attending his classes. He occasionally performs crazy experiments which often involve using  both test subjects and other scientifical matte. He’s constantly playing video games as well (with which he racked up over 4 million hours of play-time in one game) and generally just goes about his own interests with no care for grades or any of the other School shenanigans.

The plot unravels as Mao finds that his father, the Overlord, has stepped on his handheld games console; the SlayStation Portable. His father does apologise but Mao wants none of it and demands that his father returns the 4+ million hours that have been destroyed which ultimately climaxes with the fact that his father can’t bring the saves back. Having heard this, Mao decides he wants to teach his father a lesson he’ll never forget, however, Mao being sparsely under-levelled at this point gets a sarcastic comment thrown at him from his father erupting in the story’s beginning and plot to reach his ultimate goal of defeating his father. Using his 1.8 million evil quotient and having grabbed research materials, namely manga, anime and video games that depict anything to do with heroes, Mao sets off to gain those hero traits for himself believing that the hero always beats the Overlord.  With the help of his unusually clairvoyant butler, Geoffrey, Mao hunts down a person named Almaz von Almadine Adamant who is a self-proclaimed hero although he’s never actually undertaken any form of heroism before in his life.  Mao goes on to kidnap the unsuspecting hero to steal his title however things take a nasty turn for the worse causing one huge adventure full of crazy chefs, Mexican demons, foreigners which just happen to be there for no apparent reason and parodies of Sentai (Power Rangers), Dragonball Z, Steve Irwin and American Idol.

This instalment offers more stores, menus and customisation than ever before.  The RosenQueen stores make a return as you’ll shop for new weapons, armour and items. The hospital also makes its return but has been renamed the Nurses Office to stick with the School theme.  A new addition is the Evilties Instructor who you’ll entrust to add more skills to your characters specific styles; boost the skills you’ve already acquired so they do more damage (or healing in certain cases) and purchase Evilties which add an extra status to your character allowing them better attack, damage or healing capabilities.

The Dark Senate makes a return although it’s different from anything you’ve encountered before.  Heading for the homeroom places you up against the Student Council who decides what will happen on the School grounds through voting. Passing bills in Disgaea 3 is a big deal as they help you acquire more experience points, better weapons and armour, or unlock new areas which will help you level and explore the story more fully. When you try to pass a bill, the Student Council will vote on the movement placed in front of them and depending on the outcome you’ll either get the desired affect you wanted or you’ll be declined because they simply don’t like you.  If the latter is indeed the case and your characters are of a decent level then you can choose to literally make them pass the bill by destroying them all.

Setting and unlocking Clubs are also a big deal in Disgaea 3. The game allows you to take advantage of your characters seating within the classroom so that chains happen more often with specific characters; plus assigning your characters to Clubs adds extra stipulations which will help either in battle or as you tour the School.  The way in which you set your characters up is entirely up to you and it’ll always offer you different outcomes allowing you to find what works better in the long-run for your play-style.

Once you’ve become acquainted with the Characters and the Schools surroundings, it’s time to dive head-on into battle.  Taking the characters hired for you by your butler and characters you’ve created in your homeroom, you’ll head into battle against the students and teachers of Evil Academy. This instalment is pretty much the same as the previous instalments battle systems, allowing you to set each character’s moves in turn and strategically plan out your mode of attack. Having said that though, there is one huge difference in which the old Geo Panel system has been revamped into Geo Cubes. These cubes cause an area of effect which could either enhance or diminish your luck out on the battlefield. Using cubes in this instalment has really brought out a three dimensional feel and it’s a whole new ball game where you’ll find that the games just become a whole lot more challenging.  For seasoned veterans of the series; you’ll find that your old strategies just turned to dust and that working across a whole new plain may get the better of you for a while since you’ll need to adjust to the changes.   However, the introduction of Geo Cube is greatly welcomed and offers a new way of looking at strategy games in general. You’ll be deploying your characters out by how many spaces they’re allowed to move taking into account enemy positions and the range of your weapons skills so that you can cause as much damage as possible. Linking characters moves cause’s chains which ultimately cause serious destruction on your aggressors.

Sometimes you just want to take a break from the main storyline and as always this series doesn’t disappoint. While you’re not out there dominating the storyline and it’s many challenges, there are many other things you can try to quench you desire for change; the Item World for example is a great place to both level your items so that they’re more effective as well as levelling your characters up to insane levels that you could only dream of in other games.  The highest level offered in this instalment is 9999 so if you want to reach that plateau you’ll have a lot of grinding to do.  The new Class World brings a whole new dimension into the fray where it’s much like the Item World but instead of battling on a normal isometric level, it’s full of Geo Cubes.  Instead of levelling your weapons, etc like in the Item World, you’ll be doing other things like merging them to make them stronger.

As with any RPG, you look for quality in the sound and there’s dip here. Tenpei Sato has once again outdone himself by creating a Disgaea soundtrack that offers one of the most vibrant atmospheres ever with pieces that will make you sit on the edge of your seat. From happy-go-lucky style tracks to music that’ll have the hair on your back stand on-in; you’re in for a sheer masterpiece.  The English voice acting also manages to fit right in with the Disgaea style, offering the feelings and convulsions you’d expect from a title of this calibre.  On a side note, if English isn’t your forte when playing RPG’s, you can easily switch to the original Japanese voice actors with English subs allowing you to play the game the way it was originally sent out in Japan.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice is an absolute treat for anyone who owns a Playstation 3.  It might look like a Playstation 2 game because of the character designs but don’t let that fool you; what it loses by using sprite-animated characters it easily makes up for in content, play-time and sheer depth. The humour, parodies and well thought-out storyline will have you hooked from the first minute you choose New Game.  This title is a must have for any serious RPG fan.