If Nippon Ichi’s cult Disgaea series has taught us anything over the years, it’s that all other strategy RPGs are, in direct comparison, laughably feeble. While a super-levelled powerhouse in something like Final Fantasy Tactics might brim with pride and expect a cookie after landing an attack for a couple of thousand damage, it’s not uncommon to see Netherworld residents hit so hard that the game has to abbreviate damage figures just to stop the screen getting drenched in number soup.
But as ever, this kind of overkill is saved for the post-game, the domain of the seriously hardcore and the area in which Disgaea (and indeed Nippon Ichi’s hit-and-miss other titles) impresses most. You can see through the superbly written story before even hitting Level 100 without touching any of the optional extras like the Item and Class Worlds or dabbling too much in the bafflingly brilliant Homeroom mechanics (more on all this shortly), but it isn’t until after the main storyline starts to wind down that your quest for those extra 9,899 levels begins. So for now, it’s probably best that we concentrate on the stuff that happens prior to that.
Disgaea 3 is hands-down Nippon Ichi’s finest work to date, building on the firm’s trademark staples of referential, off-kilter humour, tight-as-all-hell SRPG mechanics and Prinnies to create a gaming experience that is nigh impossible to put down. Character relationships and plot developments play out better than they do in many more traditional RPGs, with even stage layouts and squad choices displaying hints of genius and a world of boundless potential respectively. Dialogue is sharp as ever, and its in this fact - that NI pays so much attention to what is, in the long run, such a tiny percentage of the total time you’ll put into Disgaea 3 - that the Japanese developer never ceases to amaze. It draws you in to the point where even weeks down the line when you’re power-levelling to take down an optional side boss, the appearance of any given character can make you chortle as you hark back to some of their finer lines.
And once conversation turns into confrontation, things get better still. While in essence just another great strategy RPG from the masters of the art form, it’s with the little tweaks to the standard Disgaea formula that Nippon Ichi turns a great game into a sublime one. The most noticeable of these is the introduction of Geo Blocks alongside the Geo Panels that gave the original game such a unique spark and while panel-based maps still play out much the same, stacked Blocks that coat entire stages can really change things up. For those new to Disgaea, some maps are covered in multi-coloured floor overlays, each colour tile taking on the effects of any Geo Blocks that lie on the colour in question. These effects range from powering up or multiplying enemy units on them to restricting skills or even movement, although the Blocks can be moved or destroyed to change things in your favour, with the latter option often setting off combos based on tile/Block colours that damage all units on them and grant you more loot when you eventually win. It’s more confusing to explain than it is in practice, trust us. And while the original system added something of a unique puzzle twist to fights, Block-reliant maps take this a step further - groups of coloured Geo Blocks can be cleared by simply tossing another of the same colour onto the clump, doing away with whatever effect (positive or negative) the area once offered.
Speaking of throwing, chucking around allies and parts of Geo puzzles has always been a key element of Disgaea, with the third game now adding a third thing to lob around - the levels themselves. Rather than just being solid chunks of land, a lot of stages now find their height coming from stackable barrels and blocks, all of which can be chucked around in just the same way as everything else. One early level showcases perfectly how this can be used to gain a strategic edge. The usual approach on the level in question would be to form up atop the stacked block staircase before dropping down as a group and laying into the horde of enemies below the next turn. But by instead moving the stacked blocks to create a walkway over the thrall of creatures below, you can make a safe haven from which your ranged attackers can rain down several flavours of death, while at the same time dividing up enemies so your melee characters have less to worry about. The Thief class can even spawn these objects at will, meaning a patient approach can often yield results on even the toughest maps the game will throw at you.
And despite offering more than enough story characters to keep you going, Disgaea 3 wants you to play your way and enjoy doing so. A huge assortment of different character classes can be created, unlocked and raised, covering all the usual bases and even pretty much the entire cast of monsters to boot. There’s been some major balancing going on here though, so now it’s a far more level playing field - you won’t need to resort to powerful magic or sword-users to get you through the harder fights as any well-levelled dude will often be up to the job at hand. By mixing the skills and latent abilities of each class with a good spread of equally varied weapons, the door is flung open to a universe of possibilities, one made even more impossibly option-filled thanks to the addition of the Class World. Going into items to power them up should be no strange concept to those familiar with the series only now, you can do it to your allies as well as their equipment - things like movement, counter rate and stat aptitudes can be beefed up in this way, with the most potential coming from the fact that the Class World can even be used to leech exclusive abilities from other members of your squad. Grab an ally’s offensive spells to give your healer a bit more kick, pass area effect weapon skills onto those who wouldn’t normally learn them, beef up your defences by making sure even your main attackers sport just-in-case healing magic… your characters will end up just as you want them and be unique to you depending on how you raise them.
Having one super-warrior trained up is all well and good but in order to get the most out of your forces, you're going to need to make sure they do their homework. From the classroom, you're able to move your characters around the various seats available, with their position in the room allowing them to team up with nearby characters more frequently or enjoy boosted stat growth upon levelling up if they're front-of-the-class swots. More interesting still is the Club system, whereby several dudes can be assigned to any given club, each of which offers unique benefits to all members – anyone in a club gains its bonuses (be it leeching experience or Mana from nearby students or opening up new options, shop stock or areas) but the leader gets even more perks, being able to use any ally from the same group's abilities when positioned next to them in battle. It's a great new take on the master/pupil mechanics of the last games and one that is far easier to use once you get your head around it. The classroom is also home to the new version of the Dark Assembly, the Homeroom. It serves the same purpose as it always has – allowing you to pass bills to open up new character classes, levels and now clubs – and should be instantly familiar to those who have visited the Netherworld before.
Aside from the strong artistic style, Nippon Ichi’s games aren’t likely to wow onlookers in the way that games like MGS4 or Gears 2 will and Disgaea 3 is no exception. In fact, short of a few hi-res profile pics and some slightly upscaled 3D, there’s little to nothing here that couldn’t be done on the PS2. Pixelated sprites gallivanting about simple 3D backdrops will likely put off all but the most hardcore RPG fans but that’s okay - this is the clique most likely to appreciate and adore Disgaea on its bountiful other merits. It’s never exactly what you might call an ugly game despite this technical simplicity but let’s just say that those looking for a game to show off their shiny new PS3 to unconverted friends won’t be reaching for this in a hurry.
What it lacks in being able to make the PS3 sweat, though, Disgaea 3 more than makes up in freedom, ingenuity, longevity and pure class. It's the kind of game you can chuck on for a 'quick go' but by the time you finally tear yourself away from the screen, you can fully expect to see flying cars, a society underwater and your pretty fine great-great-great-granddaughter looking on in disgust and confusion, at least if Busted's vision of the future is anything to go by. We can't see why they'd lie about that sort of thing, though. There's just so much to do before you even factor in the exciting prospect of DLC (which will unlock even more cameo characters as well as their own new stages to battle them on) that this one game alone could easily tide most players over until the middle of next year. There aren't many games than can rival that kind of epic value for money and as such, there can be little doubt that Absence Of Justice is worth importing for anyone with even the vaguest of strategic tendencies. A sublime example of its genre and another off-its-rocker, out-of-the-park hit for NIS.
