Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is the first game of the Disgaea series. The game was developed by NIS and originally published by ATLUS. As the game is ported from the PS2 to the DS, expect some technical downgrades. With the 3DS having a limited screen, it allows for extra strategy to use when planning your moves. The story sets the series formula of overthrowing overlords, defeat big evil enemies and then everyone lives happily ever after.
The main focus is on Laharl, a prince from the netherworld who strives to gain more and more power. Each chapter has a map with its own tricks and designs that you have to work your way around to defeat enemies. The status effect blocks function the same as before with other Disgaea games.
The graphics were kind of fuzzy and the pixel style hasn’t aged well either. Most of the songs came back to the game some didn’t make a return as Atlus owns the rights to the music and oddly not NIS. The vocal part of music is no longer there due to the downgrades but it still sounds mostly faithful to the original.
The characters in the game are insufferable. Laharal is a very ignorant, arrogant, and an impulsive psychopath who treats just about everyone he encounters as garbage. Etna was very annoyingly whiny and constantly demanded everyone pay attention to her looks and treats everyone very poorly. Flonne is an incredibly naïve, overly optimistic character who is very preachy about her beliefs.
The dialogue was pretty hammy even by series standards and the voice acting was just plaing bad. Cutscenes were unskippable and so was the credits; something which is now is very outdated even by jrpg standards.
Like in other disgaea games, you can purchase items and the more items you purchase, the better quality stuff you’ll get. One of the items in the game is Bat Soup which you can eat to restore your health and SP Points. You can also level up items that you have in your possession.
It can be sluggish at times with its gameplay but otherwise, it is a pretty good port.
It gets 3 out of 5.
Fans of Disgaea series would enjoy this game. Kids would find entertainment from the wacky characters and story in the game as well so if you have any kids and you want to keep them occupied and encourage their critical thinking go ahead and pick this game up.