Gamespot score:7.5(Good)
My score:7.9
(+)Pros:-Addictive as hell stragetic RPG gameplay,-grinding pays off as you see your characters do ridiculous amounts of damage,-incredibly comical story and setting,-geo block system makes you think further and strategize for more crazy tactics,-ridiculous amount of post game content,-classroom system is awesome.
(-)Cons:-Most of the game is a freaking grindfest,-graphics are bad for a PS3 game,-camera gets bad at times.
Gameplay time:70 hours+
Disgaea has always been an absurd series. I for one, started on disgaea when it first debuted on the PS2. I skipped out on the 2nd one, but went to grab the 3rd one because it was so damn cheap when I saw it. I must say, it has been awhile since my lust for stragetic RPGs were stirred up this badly. Disgaea 3 is still as funny and ridiculous as the original, and is an overall fun experience. With quirky stragetic gameplay, stupidly high post game levels and a TON of character creation freedom, Disgaea 3 is a game for the fans. If you have played any Disgaea games before, the third installment in the franchise will without a doubt please you (just like it did to me). I actually enjoyed this more than the original, but for purposes more than one, it has to receive a lower score.
Just like before, Disgaea 3 has an incredibly quirky and funny story. The star of the show this time is named Mao, and he is the son of the overlord. He belongs to the evil academy of the underworld, where the very evil-ness of students is praised by teachers. Its a screwed up place where skipping class is normal, and failing exams will get students praised. If you pass or study for exams, you're considered a delinquent. A screwed up place indeed! Mao is your everyday average boy genuis, with an insanse amount of EQ and a reputation for not attending a single class at all, he's evil academy's number one honor student. But, as with all boy geniuses, he has a high goal, and that is to defeat his father, the overlord. Whats his motive? To avenge the game consoles his father accidentally broke!Of course to beat the overlord is no easy task, so he ensues help from a hero! Let the tale of ridiculous proportions begin!!
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| All in a day's work for Almaz. |
First off, I will mention that the gameplay is very much like previous Disgaea games, and its still very addictive after all these years. You start every battle at a base panel, where you deploy your units out from the base panel to defeat surrounding enemy units. The battle ends when either the enemy units have all been defeated or you run out of units to deploy from your base panels, while the field does not have any of your units left. Battle is simple enough, with the action of you placing your units where you want to and attacking enemies within range. Then, you execute them, and all at once, your placed units will all attack the enemies they are assigned to.
Of course, there are tons of flashy moves in Disgaea 3, and you can chain them together. Each class or character has skills unique to them, and most are area attacks that take up multiple panels. Unleashing many of these at once can be really satisfying to watch. Whats more are the team attacks that you can pull off, if two or more well acquinted characters are next to each other, they can unleash some devastating attacks. More crazy stunts include the ridiculous throw mechanic, which works just like previous games. There are also geo blocks, a new feature in the third installment. These encourage more stragetic gameplay, as these blocks can grant stat boosts, stat drops or other status effects. All in all, theres alot going on, and battle enthusiasts will love it!
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| Oh Mao you hipster! Because eating eggs with salt and pepper is too mainstream. |
As with all Disgaeas (and most NIS games), grinding in the game pays off very well. Though it might seem tedious to get your characters to level 3000, but when you finally pull it off, its satisfying as hell to see your characters do over 6 digits damage. But of course, why the hell would you want to grind your characters to level 3000? Whats the motivation? Post game content of course! There is a shit load of post game content, so much that it puts games with tons of post game content like Kingdom hearts, or Yugioh titles to shame! You can easily get over 100 hours with this game(like me) because of how much stuff is there to do even after the game is completed!
With the number 3 slapped on top of the Disgaea name, there has to be something different in stall for players right? Of course there is! Meet the classroom system. Its similar to the original in many ways. Here you get to see all your characters, generics and monsters included and speak to them for some funny dialouge. Not only that, this is where you create your characters, hold topics or open up new places. Its like the dark senate in many ways, but way more awesome. As usual, the number of classes and monsters you can create is insane, so go all out!
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| Unfortunately, you have to grind like mad to be able to see this kind of numbers. |
The biggest problem of the game! Everyone saw this coming, Im sure. Its not that big of a issue to me (I actually enjoyed it), but the one thing that makes everyone go mad in Disgaea, is the ridiculous amount of grinding you have to do. Especially post game, the difficulty of stages escalate quickly, and you have to train like crazy to keep up with the times. The other flaws are pretty minor, but they do matter. The first being the graphics, they are pretty bad. Like, PS2 bad (at least Disgaea 4 has HD sprites, but it sure took NIS a long time for those). The other one, which is pretty annoying, are the camera angles. You can only rotate 4 times at 4 directions, but sometimes, map designs get so bad and confusing, its very hard to even see even when you rotate the camera like crazy.
I enjoyed the game very much, but giving it an 8.0 or above just doesn't seem right. Still, I can very well recommend this to every Disgaea fan. Much of what you know and love is still in there! Newcomers may have a hard time at first, but if you get to the stage where your characters can do crazy moves and deal tons of damage, a smile will soon spread across your face. It may not be the best of games when it comes to tutorials, but you'll probably get the basics after one or two tries, so its not too bad. Sick game! Now to get Disgaea 4!
Happy gaming!
