Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (魔界戦記ディスガイア, Makai Senki Disugaia) is a tactical role-playing game developed by Nippon Ichi Software, initially released on January 30, 2003 for the PlayStation 2 in Japan. While the game was mostly published by Nippon Ichi Software/NIS America themselves, other publishers include Atlus, Koei (Koei Tecmo), Square Enix, Sega, Ubisoft and even Sony itself.

This is the first game in Nippon Ichi Software's current flagship franchise: Disgaea. It was one of the various tactical RPGs that the company made during the 6th and 7th generation.

Plot
"King Krichevskoy, the mighty ruler of the Netherworld... His long reign came to an abrupt end as the news of his death spread throughout the dark land. Ambitious demons rose one after another to seize the opportunity, and thus began the age of turbulence and anarchy."

- Opening Monologue

The game is set 2 years after King Krichevskoy (Laharl's father)'s death. During these 2 years of vague throne, turbulence and anarchy, Laharl was sleeping during the said time gap, but Etna suddenly wakes him up in violent ways. After discovering that his father died, it's finally his chance to be "the" heir to the throne and become the netherworld's supreme overlord.

General

 * 1) Create your own army, with a big variety of humanoids and monsters (only a maximum of 10 can be dispatched):
 * 2) *Unlock more powerful variants of the same unit by training and leveling it up (at a certain point).
 * 3) *Unlock more humans and monsters by progressing through the game.
 * 4) *Each unit class has their unique skills, spells, advantages, weakness, etc. But only humanoids can have extra moves by holding weapons (sword, spear, axe, fists, bow & arrow, pistol and magic staff).
 * 5) *Each weapon also got their own special moves. But those are only available when the user earns more experience while using the weapon.
 * 6) *Some important characters for the story will also join your army.
 * 7) Crazy, funny and, yet, complex gameplay mechanics.
 * 8) *Level up to absurd amounts of stats. Up to level 9999!
 * 9) *Almost everything can level up: Characters, Weapon Knowledge, Skills, Items, Hospital (item withdrawal), Customer Rank, Bonus Gauge...
 * 10) *The Bonus Gauge gives you HL (in-game's currency) and up to 10 rewards (including more HL, bonus EXP, items, weapons and armor).
 * 11) *Geo Panels can give you power-ups (…and/or limitations), but only if you're on the same color-marked floor that the Geo Panel is.
 * 12) **You can destroy these panels, eliminating the effects. If the colors of both color-marked floor and Geo Panel are different, all floors marked with the same color will change to the same of the Geo Panel. Performing the maximum Color Change Combo will damage all enemies and may maximize your Bonus Gauge!
 * 13) *The Dark Assembly gives exclusive power-ups to an unit, and also allows creating another new unit "as a pupil".
 * 14) First ever appearance of Prinny, a penguin that makes comedic goofs and says "ッス" ("dood" for English) in every quote. The funny tone of the character made him be Nippon Ichi Software's mascot, but he's not as popular/fan-favorite as Etna...
 * 15) A plot divided into 15 chapters which can take over 100 hours (including trainings, objectives and, obviously, grinding) of gameplay.
 * 16) At the end of every chapter, an anime-esque next episode preview will appear with Etna speaking. Which is part of the game's humor.
 * 17) The grinding is not very repetitive. You can level up your units by redoing previous stages, going to the Item World, doing the Promotion Exam (only one character), "persuading by force" the opposing senators for a topic, etc.
 * 18) Isometric graphics. That style allows a good view of the content on the map.
 * 19) Epic and awesome soundtrack, composed by Tenpei Sato.
 * 20) Impressive amount of offered content in only one CD-ROM, for the PlayStation 2 version. Everything in just 700 MB!
 * 21) *The game received more content on the PlayStation Portable. Including more guest characters, the Japanese voices option (at least for the PAL region) and an alternate story with Etna being the protagonist. Considering that a basic UMD (900 MB) was used, the port doesn't have much visible downgrade. That's great!
 * 22) No FMVs (neither an opening!). Probably due to the decision of putting the game in a CD-ROM (Japan and PAL regions only), rather than DVD.
 * 23) Because of it's cheap technical specifications, this game is one of (if not the) easiest to emulate perfectly with minimal lag and hardware usage on both PCSX2 and PPSSPP. And believe or not, playing on these emulators are more affordable than the PC version itself. (see Specific BQ no. 1 for more info)
 * 24) 100% uncensored for all region locks.
 * 25) The English dub is as good as the Japanese dub.

Specific

 * 1) Each re-release attempted to take advantage of the platform they're on. Like the stylus (Nintendo DS), mouse & keyboard (PC), touchscreen (Android & iOS), etc.
 * 2) Starting from the DS version, Pleinair Allaprima is no more the Dark Assembly's commander and she will join your army.
 * 3) *Also, Adell and Rozalin from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories will join you.
 * 4) The PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS versions have graphics fully updated to the style seen on Disgaea 4.

General

 * 1) The graphics are on par with an early PlayStation title, giving a sensation it shouldn't be released on the PlayStation 2. Compare the graphics with, for example, Valkyrie Profile.
 * 2) Once you enter at a stage, you cannot return to the castle until you win. If you lose, it's game over.
 * 3) *That's problematic if you do a Promotion Exam at the Dark Assembly, because, instead of sending you back to the castle with no reward, you'll get a game over. And you'll lose every unsaved data. That is a harsh punishment!
 * 4) *If you lose in any stage against Vyers (the "mid-boss" Dark Adonis), the game goes directly to a bad ending, rather to a game over screen. Meaning that you'll have to wait 7 minutes for an unskippable cutscene and a non fast-forwarding credits/staff roll, which can be annoying.
 * 5) The Item World sections are totally random. That's a problem because there is a rare probability of having a combination of certain Geo Panel effects (Invincibility, No Lifting, Silence, etc.), which can make the section become unwinnable.
 * 6) If there is no solution to circumvent and if you don't have a "Mr. Gency's Exit", you have to quit/close the game, losing all the unsaved data.
 * 7) The power-ups locked behind the Netherworld's Senate requires both strategy and luck to be unlocked, and explaining how it works can be very "tl;dr".
 * 8) Laharl (the protagonist) is unlikeable, as he acts more like a generic and disrespectful brat, rather than a prince (if King Krichevskoy also managed to act like this). His unfitting and weird appearance (clothes) certainly didn't help.
 * 9) The consumable items, specially the MP recovering ones, are mostly reminiscent of gross-out value, which can be unsettling for some.
 * 10) The word "dood" is not a very good translation for "ッス", said by Prinny at nearly every end of quote. It's somewhat nonsensical.
 * 11) It received 5 updated re-releases (PSP, DS, PC, PS4/Switch and Mobile), but all of them suffer with both upgrades and downgrades. This makes game's quality inconsistent between platforms, making it hard to pick which is the best one.

Specific

 * 1) The optimization on the PC port is abysmal. It's hardware demanding, even on the lowest graphics. This is ridiculous and unacceptable for a game with graphics subpar for the standards of the console it was first released.
 * 2) *Just to have an idea, it's very likely to reach almost 100% of hardware usage on a computer with an AMD A10-7850K APU and 8 GB of RAM, just on windowed mode. The framerate loss is severe, and it's even worse on fullscreen and/or if there are lots of particles (sprites) at the same time.
 * 3) *Very noticeable aliasing, specially for the 3D models (only the characters' dialogue portraits looks good). Yet, worth saying it again, the framerate is even worse when this happens.
 * 4) *For some reason, there are graphical glitches with the shadows. Every time when you change the graphics configuration, the shadows may mess up really bad.
 * 5) *The PC version of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories has a solid 60fps at 1080p resolution on the same hardware.
 * 6) The NTSC-U PlayStation 2 version is on DVD-ROM, rather than the cheaper CD-ROM used in the Japanese and the PAL regions. This is likely due to the inclusion of both English and Japanese voices, and two [youtu.be/qB_9QTvqtzI exclusive] [youtu.be/rcBfdFn0sU8 soundtracks.]
 * 7) *Some characters were left undubbed from JP to EN. Although none of those have dialogues for the game's story, anyways.
 * 8) *The PAL version only includes the English dub.
 * 9) *If you wonder why none of the re-releases (not even Disgaea 1 Complete) features both "exclusive" soundtracks, that would be because Atlus (the NTSC-U PS2 publisher) had the rights to use, and Nippon Ichi Software had problems with the acquisition.
 * 10) The Nintendo DS version is technically downgraded, due to the said hardware's limitations.
 * 11) Grunts, kiais and war cries during battle in the English dub, for some reason, sounds poorly edited (high pitched or bad quality audio) on NIS America releases.

Tips

 * 1) Play the PSP version. It has fewer problems and more faithful to the original PlayStation 2 version. It is the first to include an "Etna Mode", about what would happen if Etna accidentally killed Laharl in the very beginning.
 * 2) If you prefer the English dub, you can also play the original PlayStation 2 version. The English dub was done by Atlus, but when the rights moved to NIS America, some changes were done in later ports (like the said one in BQ no. 4).
 * 3) *Some characters, like Etna and Vulcanus, surely sounds better on NIS America's re-releases, but only for cutscenes. But BQ no.2, unfortunately, destroys the charm...
 * 4) Always enter in the Item World with a Mr. Gency's Exit, if you want to exit there normally (only one use per item). If you enter without a Mr. Gency's Exit, you must skip or complete 10 floors in order receive a message to go back, which can somewhat become very boring.
 * 5) If you want to unlock a power-up from the Netherworld's Senate, always purchase lots of cheap items at the Rosen Queen Co. and save the game before the attempt.
 * 6) *While giving an item, always target the highest leveled senators and try to always give an item with a Must have! affinity. This will make the "Persuade by force" easier.

Reception
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness' success (it even got a "Greatest Hits" reprint on the PlayStation 2.) made Nippon Ichi Software ambitious enough to make a new IP (since Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and Jigsaw Puzzle). It is currently the company's flagship franchise, with Prinny being the mascot of the whole company.

As of 2021, after the first game, the Disgaea franchise have spawned: On Metacritic, most of the versions of the first game got a "Generally favorable reviews" score. The highest score went for the PSP port, with a metascore of 86. The lowest went for the PC, with a 74 ("mixed or average").
 * 5 updated re-releases/ports of the first game (this article);
 * 5 independent mainline sequels;
 * A direct sequel called Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness;
 * A visual novel spin-off called Disgaea Infinite;
 * Two hack 'n' slash spin-offs featuring Prinny as the protagonist;
 * A gacha mobile game called Disgaea RPG;
 * An anime adaptation and some mangas and novels.

IGN awarded the game with the Best PlayStation 2 Game No One Played and ranked the game at 45th place of Best RPGs of All Time.

Trivia

 * 1) Just like SNK with their Neo-Geo brand and The King of Fighters series, many characters from other Nippon Ichi Software games also appears on the Disgaea series. In this game, for example, Priere (La Pucelle: Tactics), Marjoly (Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure) and, for later ports only, Zetta (Makai Kingdom) makes a guest appearance for the plot.
 * 2) *Speaking of Priere, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is her first ever appearance in the NTSC-U and PAL region locks, and her true game La Pucelle: Tactics would only be released later. This is the same thing that happened with Marth, Fire Emblem's first installment's protagonist, which would later debut for the NTSC-U and PAL releases of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
 * 3) It's "limited edition" NTSC-J and general NTSC-U cover art is one of the earliest and, yet, official examples of a Grand Theft Auto cover parody meme. While both Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City already existed in 2003, that's a good trivia to talk about.