Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice

Rating Teen Genre role-playing Publisher NIS America

Once again NIS fans are summoned back to the Netherworld to witness another amazing SRPG adventure unfold.  In the likeness and stylings of Disgaea 1 and 2, Phantom Brave, La Pucelle Tactics, Makai Kingdom, and Rhapsody; this powerhouse of a title strides forth in bold tactical role-playing force and sits ready to become your latest obsession.  “Yeah, yeah, so why play this Disgaea when you’ve already felt the wrath and greatness of its predecessors?”  Because this little number raises the bar, and not in a simple next level or next play-through kind of way; it raises it to a next-hyper-diminsion-ultra-neo-henshin kind of way.  “But I’ve beaten all the othersm so what can be so different?”   Well, the good people at Nippon Ichi Software saw fit to cram this game so full of extras and additional content the ‘average’ die-hard gamer might just be a little intimidated by all the digital bells and whistles.

As a close follower of the series myself the first of several times my jaw hit the floor was when I saw a mage cast a spell and deal 900,000,000 damage, that’s NINE HUNDRED MILLION DAMAGE.  And you thought your characters were tough.  But shear soul-crushing numbers aside; Disgaea 3 is a whole ‘nother ball game with a fresh and not-so cut and paste plot, interesting new characters and motivations, as well as intra-school politics mixing it all up.  Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice is set in a massive Netherworld plane made up on endless maze-like school buildings known as the Netherworld Institute, Evil Academy where the Overlord is dean, demons are professors, and the most evil students get to bear the badge of Honor Student.  With delinquent students attending classes and doing homework, its is up to real Honor students to go out and make real high-scoring trouble for the rest of the academy.

The main character of this upside-down styled title is Mao, Number One Honor Student and only son of the Overlord.  With the aid of his gentlemanly manservant Geoffrey, Mao plans on usurping his father by becoming the only thing that can kill an overlord… a Hero.  With this strange and ambitious plan in mind, Mao set out from his room to find and defeat a Hero, steal his title, and then slay his father for accidentally destroying his thousands of hours of save data for his favorite video game.  Some motivation.  Terribly entertaining plot aside, it’s the new abilities and elements of the game that will really have PS3 gamers drooling.  With new team attacks, even special abilities can be used in conjunction with multiple attackers.  The old days of stacking and chucking characters has now become an even more deadly arrangement allowing for each character in the totem to get a hit on whoever is within range.

The good old days of senate votes and the obligatory beatings that followed are now sent before the student assembly for votes like starting a new club and the lovingly abused Prinny Day.  The politics of the main character’s Homeroom now play a big part in party composition and cooperation.  Character’s desks can be arranged next to other players granting bonuses as well as improved buddy-buddy stats.  One of the more amusing system builds is the MagiChange maneuver which takes a teammate and transforms them into a weapon for the remainder of the fight, each being different based on weaponer and weaponee.  Preferred forms to me were the Prinny Gun and Prism Ranger Blade.  Perhaps the hugest change to the gameplay itself is the Geo Block addition.  Yes, the days of simple 2-D geo panels are behind us now, only the massive Tetris-esque future of Geo Blocks looms.  These stackable, destroyable effect cubes now shape the way a level is played, adding a new, more complicated gaming factor.  The old randomizing levels such as Item World and Class World are now more evolved, hosting not only your old buddies the Pirates, but Time Patrol as well. 

With two hundred and seventy different customizable characters, each with their own class world, and a realm of over TEN THOUSAND different stages await you, the players.  If you have never taken up an SRPG then give Disgaea 3 a try, it is the most accessible and possibly the best one to date.  See you in the Netherworld, and don’t forget to wait for the bell so you can be late.