27-May-2004 Some people use extreme sports to push themselves to the limit, hurling themselves out of planes and into shark infested waters with rotting porpoise meat strapped to their arses.
Playing Disgaea might not be as physically demanding as base-jumping off the Space Needle, but it'll certainly give your grey mattera thorough drubbing. In fact, it's one of the most hardcore strategy games you're everlikely to play.
It's guaranteed to put your brain to the toughest test, with the risk of your noodle overloading and starting to dribble out of your ears.
Dilated Pupils You control demon lord Laharl and your own personal army of pupils in a battle to regain control of your beleaguered Netherworld. Battles are fought on 3D grids, with varying terrain, massive gaps to cross and all sorts of crazy anomalies that affect your legion in all manner of mental ways.
You can create an almost limitless number of pupils, but only ten can be called out at once. Creating a balanced squad is a massively complicated process of checking individuals' character strengths, as well their assigned jobs and even their proficiency with the multitude of weapons and items available.
And that's just for starters. Individual weapons and items can be upgraded by entering the Item World and proving your worth by battling bizarre monsters. The longer you survive, the higher your item's level advancement.
Labour Of Love The missions themselves are long and tough, and you'll need to get to grips with managing your items and pupils early on if you're to get anywhere at all. As tough as it is, Disgaea is also stupidly addictive. Sure, sometimes you have no clue what's going on as it's just too damned impenetrable, but over time you slowly come to understand the subtle nuances of battle and character creation.
In fact it's so satisfying when this happens that you feel an almost religious awe embrace you as you realise how bloody clever the game is. It's safe to say that this is a pretty niche title, but if you're able to see past the PSone-quality background visuals, you'll find months and months of incredibly deep and rewarding strategising here.
The best of its type on any console. Not for everyone, of course, but it's easily the best strategy title in a very long time. Shame about the crap visuals, though.
There's plenty of original stuff to set Disgaea apart from its console strategy brothers. The most useful new feature is the ability to throw allies around the arena to cover lots of ground in one turn, but there's a lot more to experiment with besides. Be sure to study each square and character carefully for hidden enhancements or abilities.
Etna carries the explosive Prinny character on her shoulders ready to lob at an unsuspecting foe
Aligning your warriors alongside each other in different formations can unleash major special attacks
Destroy multiple Geo Symbols to create massive chains of damage to the corresponding squares on the grid
Make sure you check out each Geo Symbol’s specific characteristics before you destroy or move it
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