We’re lucky that Nippon Ichi decides to keep going with depth even outside the battlefield. Things are just as detailed within your base of operations - the Overlord’s Castle. If you need anything - characters, healing, weapons, or items - it’s all found here. You’d think that having only one location for shopping would be stifling but it’s quite the opposite, thanks to the ingenious Senate system. Our aspiring Overlord-to-be Laharl will often need access to better items, weapons, or character classes. This means conferring with the Senate, which requires mana, which is gained from defeating enemies. The more mana you have, the more you can do in Senate, and the better you can do it. For example, characters you create will be dim-witted and have low stats, but as you chalk up experience and gain mana, you can create characters with bonuses to abilities, and even make new classes. Some actions will require a vote from the Senate assembly, and this is where things get odd. Being that you’re all fair, upstanding Netherworld inhabitants the best way to insure a vote is to bribe senators in the assembly. This will tax your inventories, but if the proposal is important enough to you (such as my fight to get better weapons in the castle shop), you’ll do so gladly. Once you’ve bribed enough members and you feel things are in your favor, take it to a vote. Now, even if a senator loves you, or was just bribed with your whole inventory, it doesn’t guarantee success. So what do you do with a backstabbing senator? Persuade him by force, of course. ^_^ It’s a last ditch effort, but it’s nice to know that even when things don’t go your way, you can bully it to do so - kind of like real-life politics!

The castle also offers assorted twists on RPG staples, such as the nurse who rewards you for getting whipped in battle, or the tutors and various NPCs who don’t seem to care that Laharl even exists. The most intriguing aspect is Item World, where you can choose any item and improve it by entering the item and fighting through levels of a deep dungeon. Essentially your party runs through a marathon of ten randomly-generated floors, which after they can bail out of Item World or continue to dig on through. Every item can be accessed through the World, and enemies known as ‘specialists’ have to be defeated in order to add permanent improvements. After 100 floors, the item has reached its growth-potential, and there’s also added benefits of beefing up your team in crazy, Geo Symbol-filled combat.

What really defines Disgaea is its depth of gameplay, flow of action in combat, and its ability to be truly unique through and through. Laharl, the main character and protagonist aspires to be the Netherworld’s Overlord, king of all demons. His closest sidekick and vassal, Etna, is a devilishly scheming fiend continuously in bouts of praise for her prince, and plots to somehow kill, maim, or overthrow him. Then the Prinny Squad is introduced, a team of explosive penguins who will fight for whosoever signs the paychecks. And then things get really weird…

All things center on Laharl and his plan to become Overlord after the death of the previous king, and his father. Though is seems he was beaten to the punch - as the king passed away, Laharl slept, and the entire Netherworld went to war with each other, demons all vying for control. Seems Etna spent a few hundred years trying to ‘wake’ the prince by means of chainsaw, drill, gun, and mace (of the ball-and-chain variety). So our leader-to-be needs to catch up…no problem. He has the Overlord’s Castle to set up operations from, the Senate to call on, and hordes of admirers just willing to step aside while he takes rightful place on the throne…

Okay; so two out of three isn’t that bad.

That’s where things get underway in earnest, the massively thorough combat and management aspects come into play, and the downright silliest and most enjoyable RPG plot begins to unwind. Disgaea never takes itself too seriously; characters always poke fun at themselves and each other; they criticize aspects of the plot from a 3rd person’s point of view; and segments of the story unfold in episodes, complete with anime-inspired ‘previews’ of the next chapter. In short, if terms like ‘Revolutionary Girl Etna’ or ‘Prism Rangers’ sound familiar and put a smile to your face, you’re going to adore this. Nippon Ichi crafts a tale that is lighthearted and fun, harkening back to an era where not all RPGs were doom and gloom, or wrought with tired plot devices.

Also bringing a tear of nostalgia to the eye is the inclusion of 2D graphics to the forefront. Though all the backgrounds, pyrotechnics, and the like are handled with 3D, every character is hand-drawn and painstakingly animated. It’s not every day you see a sprite express a wide range of emotion with such a small face to do it in. It’s amazing to know that even when portrait art is used for cut-scenes, the squatty sprites keep up the pace, and move so fluidly that, you wonder why more 2D games aren’t being made. The 3D environments do the job but feel rather 1st-generation for the PS2. Washed out textures and clipped polygons feel like sin in a world of Final Fantasies, and Virtua Fighters. Although the over-the-top, flashy team combos and special attacks make up for it. Not to mention those oh-so-smooth sprites.

Speaking of smooth, someone get me the URL for a shop that sells Disgaea’s soundtrack. The musical score floats all over genres, from flamenco dance tunes to cheesy guitar riffs to symphonic scores complete with musical-inspired vocals. It’s strange that music with such variation could fit so right. And don’t even get me started on the sinewy Mid-Boss’s vocal debut; classic! What makes it so perfect is that the music fits the atmosphere - the game never wants you to think too seriously about it, and it shows just as much in the audio department as it does with the plot. It's one of the few games that appears to deliberately do so - and it pulls it off so well.

There’s more left to be said. Much more in fact - but I’ll spare you a novel and cut to the chase. If you are a fan of RPGs, strategy games, strat-RPGs, anime, musicals, old-school games…hell, if you are a fan of good games, you owe it to find Disgaea as soon as possible. It moves like the wind; comes with little notice and when it goes, it’s gone. Catch it while you can.

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