Video Game Review: Disgaea 4 (PS3)

Story

Disgaea 4 is a truly new take on a strategy action JRPG. Ripping a page from Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics, this game still manages to set itself apart from those, and other games in its genre. The story takes place with you under control of a sardine loving vampire by the name of Valvatorez and his devoted, werewolf steward Fenrich as you try to gain control of the Netherworld. Throughout the story you will encounter many unique characters and creatures both hilarious, and incredibly annoying. Although downright ridiculous at times, the story gets quite deep and has many interesting twists that keep the player interested. This coupled with an extremely unique gameplay makes Disgaea 4 a nice breath of fresh air from the conventional strategy RPG.

Gameplay

The strategy in this game is incredibly in depth with almost limitless character customization. Weapons are upgradable past level 100, attributes upgradable to 999,999,999 and the level of your character able to reach level 9,999. With all of these upgrades available, you can spend hundreds of hours playing this game and still not get everything. You can create humanoid demons or monster demons which adds another layer of strategy. The monster demons are able to morph together and transform into weapons for use by the humanoids. The non-monster demons may lift other characters and hold monsters as weapons. This along with other elements in game makes it a superb strategy.

Music

The music is unique and fits with the story well. It is incredibly variant and everyone who plays it probably has a different favorite song. There is just one small issue. Whenever you go to your base to shop and choose what you want to do, the same song will play over and over and over until you earn the ability to change it much later in the game. This isn't an incredibly large issue but after you beat the game, you will be in your base a lot. So this may cause some headaches for those who plays 6 or 7 or 10 hours at a time.

Art

The anime styled art scheme is incredibly well done and well colored. Not once do you get sick of seeing the same place over and over because the areas are so different, and you will be visiting different ones so often for so many reasons, it will never be a problem. The only reason a person may have a quarrel with the visual design of this game is because different angles may be blocked off by certain landmarks and it can occasionally be difficult to see what is going on. Although these problems are so few and far between they aren't really an issue.

Overall

Even with minor kinks here and there this game accomplished exactly what it set out to do. Be an over the top, strategy JRPG with a hilarious story, unique and interesting characters, and gameplay that will last you hundreds of hours. Along with the fact it only costs $19.99 online as of the date of this review, it is a must have for anime lovers, strategy lovers and people who just have alot of time on their hands. However if you are looking for a strong, interesting, in depth story, this game may not be for you. It won't replace all of the other games in your collection but as far as strategy goes, it cannot be beat. I give it an 8.7 out of 10.


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