By now, you all should be quite aware of my freighting love, affinity and devotion to the tactical grid-based RPG series 
known to millions as Disgaea. The first Disgaea (sub-captioned - Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and on the PS2) walked into my life on August 27th of 2003 and has remained my favorite game of all time surpassing the once thought insurmountable Duke Nukem 3D. Yes, it dethroned the Duke. Having played only one grid-based tactical RPG before Disgaea (Final Fantasy Tactics) I was still a noob to the genre. This, however, did not deter me from the inevitable addiction I was about to embark on...and I would never look back.Try these stats out for size:
Total Time Spent Playing Disgaea Hour of Darkness: 150+ Hours
Main Character's (Laharl) Level: Lvl. 12,338 (no lie)
Rocking Chairs Destroyed After Multiple Marathon Session's: 2 (yet again, No Lie)
I invested so much time into that game that it became an everyday routine where I
would have to gain at least (and I emphasize 'at least') 3 levels with my main character. The game was that good, people. The story was witty, hilariously devilish and the voice acting was superb. Graphically speaking, at the time of its release, Disgaea was known as the 2D Sprite game developed by Nipon Ichi and published by Atlus, two Japanese 
companies who catered too the niche market. Basically, the game wasn't all "fansy pansy" graphics; in fact it really was built on a 2D graphics engine with "home brewed" sprites to boast. This isn't to say it didn't have great magic animations or excellent 'team-up' attacks that made you go "wow" for the first time, it just wasn't on par with the Metal Gear Solid's or the Final Fantasy 3D cut scenes. But who cares, it was the game play that hooked you within minutes of playing out the first scenario.Holy Lord...ok, that's enough about the first Disgaea. Now, Disgaea 2:
Cursed Memories (released on August 29th of 2006) was just as intense for me as the first one was. Same amount of hours and credentials, same amount of "wow" moments. The two games have remained the top selling titles for Atlus and have spawned off-shoots in the likes of Phantom Brave and Mykai Kingdom. Though theses titles were not critically acclaimed like the Disgaea series they still did decently well over here in the states.Fast forward to the present... Fast forward to the utter sadness that not only befuddles me but angers me: Disgaea 3 on the PS3. You may be scratching your head thinking "Wait, I thought this would be a glorious day for you Overlord!" Well, it's not. Case in point: I don't have a damn
PS3 nor do I foresee myself getting one until Christmas of this year (as a gift from myself to myself). The game, released today (8/28/08), has already been taged with, "The best in the series yet!" by many of the top-shelf gaming web sites and forums out there. Meta-Critic average is already in the high 8.0's but the kicker happens to be the user submitted scores: a bolstering 9.8! With newly added features such as 3 dimensional battles courtesy of the new Geo Block feature, Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice looks to be the best yet in the series.For me, this is a PS3 selling point. This is the game that will make me actually go out and purchase a brand new system. Metal Gear 4? Nope. Drakes Fortune? Hell's No! Disgaea 3? Damn straight. If you like Grid
Based Tactical RPG's and have never played a Disgaea before, you owe it to yourself to go out, find copies of the first two installments (if you can even find one, they are going for upwards of 70 dollars on ebay right now) and play through each one start to finish. And then, if you have a PS3, you need to pick up Disgaea 3 and set aside a few months to grind through the campaign; trust me...it's worth it! Another big note that should be mentioned is that each installment of the series is it's own separate story line. So technically, you could pick up Disgaea 3 and be able to understand whats going on. However, for us hard core fans, they do toss us in some pretty nice nods (i.e. cameos from past characters).Until I get a PS3....
-GAME HARD-
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