As I mentioned in an earlier post, NIS America was nice enough to entrust me with an advanced copy of this year’s holy grail of video game software: Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice. I think I had been looking forward to playing the game for a full agonizing year (further accentuated by 5 months in Japan) when I finally slipped it into my PS3.

For a review of this magnitude, I’ll try and organize it by important elements.

Battle System:

When it comes to the battle system in Disgaea 3, it’s all about customization. The clever stage where the player may customize their army is Maritsu Evil Academy. Here you can do all the typical Disgaea preparations for war such as buying and equipping weapons and armor, healing the party and accessing portals to story maps, item world etc.

Abilities can also be purchased and upgraded with mana earned from battle and equipped to the player’s liking. This is especially important to note for players who like magic users: increasing the effect area and strength of magic requires active upgrading. As you can probably tell, mana is extremely important in strengthening an army. In the game’s early stages, you won’t be able to get enough of the stuff.

Homeroom is another very important element of customization at Maritsu Evil Academy. Homeroom is where characters can create other characters or pass bills by paying mana. Characters can then be assembled into clubs and have their seats arranged.

Clubs and seating both grant bonuses to characters in different ways. A Warrior and an Archer in a club would gain an increase in their combo attack percentage. If the two units sit next to one another, the percentage is further increased. Members of certain clubs also get bonuses like additional mana or exp gain. These bonuses may also be dependent on seating (sitting in a corner grants the character 25% more EXP, etc.)

The leader of a club is granted stat bonuses if his or her subordinates have higher stats. I love this system, because it brought my Thief and Mages up to speed with the rest of my team. Also, a leader may learn abilities (Ice, Heal, Braveheart, etc.) from subordinates if he or she stands next to them in battle.

Another new feature I love is the ability to link special abilities. By having 2 characters perform special attacks against an enemy in succession, a new fusion ability will trigger. These abilities deal much more damage than the two units attacking independent of one another.

In addition to linking special attacks is Magichange, which is when a monster unit will turn into a weapon temporarily for a human class character. It is important to note that both characters must be in the same club and the monsterclass character needs to have learned the magichange ability.

Doing so allows for some cool skills to be used and also grants the wielder both characters’ Evilities. My Sabercat and Fight Mistress pal it up frequently. The only drawback is that if she gets killed, so does my poor Sabercat.

My only complaint with the battle system stems from the new ability system, which no longer involves weapon mastery. Since characters don’t become more proficient at wielding their weapons–only performing skills–you will hardly ever want to perform normal physical attacks. Physical attacks cause very little damage compared to damage from a skill.

In the early stages of the game, you will be spamming the same 1 or 2 skills ad nauseum. Being able to combine skills and using monsterclass characters helps shake things up a bit though.

Presentation:

A lot of people were surprised at first when they heard that Disgaea 3–a 2D game–would be for the Playstation 3. It is my belief that a lot more can go into a game besides the addition of a third dimension, and Disgaea 3 maxes out that second dimension.

The character designs of artist Takehito Harada, the music of Tenpei Sato and the story are all elements that make for a great game on any system.

One awesome advantage of the massiveness of Blu-Ray discs is that both English and Japanese voice overs are included on the game. This includes voice acting for the story sequences and now in battle sounds as well. For the previous versions it really bothered me that the two didn’t always match up, especially when Japanese was selected.

The biggest advantage to having Disgaea 3 on the PS3 is the option of downloadable content. Right now in Japan it is possible to download the following familiar (and not so familiar) faces:

Adell Rozalin Taro Hanako Kogure Souichirou (From Hayarigami, huh?) Nekomata Monsterclass

There will be more downloadable content in the future, so if the characters in Disgaea 2 don’t do anything for you, be patient. Personally I wouldn’t mind some characters from Phantom Brave (I know my girlfriend is hoping for Putty), but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Extras:

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice is like 3 games disguised as one. The main story is the first game, complete with 8 different endings. The Dark World is another game, and then there is still the Land of Carnage, House of Ordeals and a load of other sidequests both challenging and rewarding. I won’t reveal the others for spoilers sake.

Your playtime is pretty much limited by your attention span, but don’t be surprised if your hours break into the triple digits (as it is, I have logged over 300 hours with that last two games.)

Story:

The absurdity of the demon world is part of what made the Disgaea series so popular. What’s bad is good and what’s good is revolting. Maritsu Evil Academy is no exception. Here honor students are encouraged by faculty to battle one another for supremacy. Anything to keep them from going to class!

Classes are seemingly non-existent, or are a wholly consuming trial of one’s endurance. The later being the case for a mysterious home-economics course…

The game’s main character, Mao, is a typical demon with some otaku undertones. His goal is to defeat his father, the Overlord, who accidentally stepped on his Slavestation Portable, causing his 14 million hours of playtime to be lost.

Is NIS making fun of us? Probably, but it’s all in good fun.

How can Mao get the strength to defeat an Overlord? By emulating the Heroes in his comics and games of course! Mao’s loyal butler Geoffery attains a herodar (hero radar) and tracks down Almaz, the game’s bumbling would-be hero. Convinced that Almaz is a true hero, Mao forcibly switches titles with Almaz only to discover that his Hero abilities are somewhat… lacking.

Switching titles back proves more difficult, and requires Mao and his subordinates to go on a quest to open his heart–a feat rarely accomplished by demons.

Like all true Disgaea titles, the story is bittersweet. While it is filled with laughs, you will also find yourself feeling… emotions. How undemon-like! Don’t be afraid. That is just the side effect of a quality story, not one of Mao’s experiments.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice will be officially released tomorrow and should appear in stores on the 27th by the latest. It’s retail price is set at $49.99, but you can find it at Play-Asia for $49.90 here.

Lastly, I again wish to thank NIS America for kindly giving me an advanced copy of the game. I have loved every minute of playing the it, writing the review, and working on this blog. Here’s hoping that this is only the beginning!

Related Entries:
Disgaea 3 Doublejump Book Guide Review
Three Disgaea 3 Pre-Order Options
All other Kotowari posts relating to Makai Senki Disgaea 3 can be found here.