"The Academy lacks an art class, but little else."

Makai Senki Disgaea 3 is the third installment to the Disgaea series by Nippon Ichi Software, a developer known for other titles such as Phantom Brave and La Pucelle:Tactics. Nine years since its founding, NIS brought its RPG games to the North American market and has found rather strong success, enough to continue their overseas venture with the popular (yet still cult-ish) classic. The long-anticipated sequel to Disgaea 2 coincides with a major decision to jump platforms from the PS2 to the PS3, and continues to sell like hotcakes in Japan while leaving many fans overseas endlessly wondering what new surprises and features the company will create next.

Like its predecessors, Disgaea 3's story (synopsis available elsewhere) manages to be lighthearted, while still giving the game a sense of purpose. The jokes are not too frequent, yet are funny and well-timed, while the story itself has its share of serious plot twists and drama as the relationship between Mao and his father is revealed to be much more complex than simple bickering over a broken video game. The diverse cast of characters is an incredible asset to the story's quality, and the pace of storytelling is done very well. Without losing its lighthearted humor and atmosphere, Disgaea 3 manages to deliver a creative and unique storyline that effectively immerses the player in the life of a troubled demon son.

Initially playing the game, it becomes clear that there are three main areas that will be visited over and over: the hub, Homeroom, and battle maps.

The hub is complete with NPCs, shops, tutorials, portals to battle maps, the Homeroom, and catchy background music. Just don't expect to go anywhere else, because that's pretty much it when it comes to walking around freely.

The Homeroom is where you can create and modify characters from hundreds of monster and human classes, pass bills that modify aspects of the game, and "seat" characters next to each other. The neat part of this is that the characters who sit next to each other will become "friends" (aww) and become more likely to work together in the battlefield during combo attacks. Characters can also join clubs where they'll enjoy certain bonuses on the battlefield as well as more interaction with their adjacent classmates. Far from an ordinary SRPG roster, the homeroom is one of the most charming features of Disgaea 3 and delivers hours of party customization.

Battles take place on gridded maps, typical of SRPG games. From a base panel, you choose up to 10 of your characters, generic or main, and send them out to do battle against enemy units. The pace is refreshingly brisk as your entire team moves on a single turn, followed by the enemy's etc.

There are an innumerable amount of things you can do during a battle besides swapping basic attacks. I can't list them all here, but since 80% of the game time is spent in battle, the new ways to fight your enemy are varied and vast, like combo attacks and monster transforming. The geo panels (this time controlled by stack-able breakable geoblocks) are back as well with a variety of effects for the lucky unit standing on top of its color, ranging from a 50% power boost to dying instantly in a violent explosion (yes, you read correctly). It's all good, loud, strategic fun.

Most of the enjoyable challenge in battles comes from maps or armies of enemies in adverse situations that are largely stacked against you. The geoblocks prevent a brute force plowing, require you to navigate around a punishing labyrinth of negative effects, and force the "tactical" element to many stages, as the only thing that remains constant is your 10 character deployment limit. (The enemy can easily deploy three times that amount)

And now, for Disgaea 3's grinding and the leveling system. Well, as it turns out,Disgaea 3 takes the grinding philosophy and abuses it to the point of utter absurdity, past said point of utter absurdity, a few miles beyond madness, and into SRPG legend. Your characters have levels. Your items have levels. Your items have little critters called "Innocents" living in them, and they have levels. Two revamped and new features, the Item World and Academy World, make an appearance along with a myriad of battles and modes (such as all-new Reverse Pirating) that lead to endless improvement in your characters in a polished style that only Disgaea 3 can pull off.

The most common criticism to grinding is that with beefed up levels, there's no point in paying attention to strategy. There are two reasons why this assertion is false. One, it's very unlikely that anyone will have the ability or even the desire for grinding until the final boss is defeated and the story is complete (unless you're the kind of chap who jacks his Bulbasaur to 99 before going to Veridian Forest). And two, there are many maps and activities in the game that, in order to complete efficiently (or even to complete at all), strategy is still needed. These scenarios include navigating a maze of instant death panels, enduring a gauntlet of invincible magic users, or finding the best way to pirate a level with a time limit. The strategic element in Disgaea 3 is a very healthy improvement from previous games, where you really could just bust through with brute force. However, this game still manages to remain fun and challenge, regardless of whether you choose to grind excessively or not.

The graphics of Disgaea 3 are not far from what you would expect after looking at the first two games. However, an immediate observation stands as follows: the sprites are not impressive at all. They're colorful and animated, but not sharp, and not of respectable quality for many, especially since this is the 3rd title in the Disgaea series (and on a new platform at that).

This doesn't pose a hindrance to gameplay though. You're not going to be confusing units with each other (most of the time), and the sprites are still detailed enough to show flips, spins, and arm motions in mid-air, adding to the flair of attacks, which are as fancy and outrageous as ever. The environment graphics fare a lot better than the sprites, with running lava and water, complex architecture, and interesting designs.

But meanwhile, the woes for graphic-junkies and possibly even fans of the anime-styled artwork continue. All of Disgaea 3's plot scenes are comprised of either characters rendered in 2-D artwork "talking" to each other with a few variations, or the sprites walking around in the in-game environment. This can become monotonous and ineffective at times, especially as a story-telling tool. A character asks "Why are you crying...?" and we are forced to, yes, imagine that the sprites on screen are indeed crying. That... that really doesn't help the drama there.

It's truly a shame that the only animated cutscene in the entire game is the catchy opening musical number. Whereas Disgaea 2 had a couple of animated scenes, Disgaea 3 seems to have taken a step back from this venture by having only one. What a cowardly step back from what could have been a staggering improvement.

One of the most frequently repeated axioms, "Graphics don't trump gameplay" is said so often in defense, but what is the acceptable minimum? What is reasonable to expect from a game that's been doing it thrice for five years now? If anything is reasonable, I doubt it would be an opinion that expects one aspect of a game to completely cover another one's faults. No, the praising of Disgaea 3's graphics for putting needless stress on its gameplay to deliver, repelling potential buyers, and subsequently limiting the developer's room for growth is something that needs to be changed, if Disgaea is ever going to see a larger future in the mainstream market.

On a lighter note, the soundtrack for Disgaea 3 is composed by the talented Tenpei Sato, and the music is nothing short of spectacular. Wacky, over-the-top tunes play during classroom brawls, orchestral music during boss fights, guitar riffs during intense duels, and a piano concerto during a fierce war inside a conflicted demon's heart. Sweet.

Most of the game is voiced, and the voice actors are very skilled. All of the characters, including Mao, are voiced excellently and bursting with personality. The generic characters also have lively personalities easily recognizable by their shouts and one-liners during battles. On a game with so few animated cutscenes, NIS did well to compensate with outstanding voice actors.

It can then be summarized that everything you do in this game is towards one of two ends, advancing the plot and leveling up enormously with grinding and the game's other new features. Doing the former shouldn't take you more than 20 hours, while doing the latter is easily going to take you up to 100+ hours. With downloadable characters and maps coming on the PSN, the game is subject to further expansion all the time. There's a pretty big game file to be had here.

If, like me, you believe that Disgaea 3 is your level-grinding paradise on earth, there is a huge amount of fun awaiting you in an addicting game whose graphics seriously belie its depth.

Pros
+Quality storyline
+Quality voice acting
+Excellent soundtrack
+Addicting and creative gameplay
+Modes and features adding to its predecessors
+A myriad of post-game activities
+Promising downloadable content
+A definitive SRPG in the genre

Cons
-Story feels somewhat short
-Unimpressive character sprites
-Complete lack of animated cutscenes
-Occasional repetitiveness

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/08, Updated 08/18/08

Game Release: Makai Senki Disgaea 3 (JP, 01/31/08)