Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice

When a game advertises they have a Penguin (Prinny) that explodes when you throw them, you better take it seriously. Disgaea so far has been the best strategy RPG series with more levels, characters, weapons, moves than any other game.
My first SRPG was Final Fantasy Tactics and the sequels dissapointed me to no end, no other game had the fun of that game till Disgaea.

Disgaea 3 offers what the first two give and tons more, you still have the story mode and Item World (a game in itself seriously) "hero" units, demon units, monster units who you can name and pair up. Though now you're in a school of demons, a school of chaos, innuendos, sarcasm, explosions, lazy teachers and students sure to fail and be happy about it.

Now when you create a character their chance of team attack will be based off where they're seated in the class with another character.

There's more "hero" units in this game than the other Disgaea games with their own unique look on the netherworld (Hell) more demon units and monster units to make even bigger teams, more insane attacks, and even more damage. (the game has characters doing over 9 million damage!

Now you can merge special moves instead of just team attacks, buy moves with mana and special buffs to help your character. You can lift your entire team to make them toss fireballs at a enemy, or use "Tower Swing" to fling them around the level while your characters act like a giant whip. Another interesting combat addon is Magichange, where you temporary turn a monster unit into a weapon to give your character boosted stats and new moves only when they're "fused".

Rant rant rant, it's a great game with only one real flaw, the sprites are not in HD and it's on PS3, some of the sprites have been ported from Disgaea 2. But they did make more frames of animation for the classes they did "port" but there's also a lot more classes and characters and some redone all together. And honestly it's not about the graphics in this game, it still looks awesome but might have been more at home on PS2/PSP.

The game is easily over 150 hours, you could spend 250 I'm sure it depends on if you're willing to level your characters up to 9,999Lvl. Which could take a while since you can reincarnate characters to 1Lvl to buff their stats with benefits. To add to the game length you can jump into an item and go through levels inside. That may sound weird but it's what you do, you can go inside of a sword, stick of gum, axe and there's levels inside where when you beat them, the item will get better/stronger.

Seriously you like turn based RPGs this one is amazing.

Disgaea 3 overall is a fun game to anyone who is into strategy role playing games. The game play is pretty deep with quite a bit of micromanaging your characters which can sometimes be a pain. Also with a level cap of 9999 you can get into some pretty tedious level grinding. The graphics are sprite based which may seem odd on a PS3 but it goes well with Disgaea 3 and it doesn't detract from playing the game, so to those looking for bleeding edge graphics may just want to pass.
The voice acting is very well done, and the english voice actors have really convincing voices that fit with the characters in the game. Any fans of anime and such may notice some of the voices are familiar to them, I recognized a couple unfortunately I can't recall from what show though. You also get the option to switch to original Japanese language for a more authentic feel, but the to me the english voice acting was more entertaining.

This is my first Disgaea game and I'm pretty happy with it. I was skeptic at first about purchasing it but since I've started playing it, I have had no regrets. This is a solid strategy RPG game and I think most Disgaea fans will enjoy it.(From what I've read and hear anyways) Although I haven't played many SRPGS, I found this game pretty accessible with all the tutorials and help available.

The gameplay: I suppose it feels like most SRPG's, and there's nothing wrong with that. The menus are easy to understand the commands are not confusing. Players should be able to pick it up and play without much trouble. This is a long game. I've put in almost 20hrs and have barely touched the tip of the iceberg. Max character level is 9999 and there are so many possibilities with what you can do. I'm still learning about them myself. You're definitely going to get your $50 worth from this one with its length.

The Graphics: I don't really have much to say bout it except that this is not a game that depends on its graphical prowess to show its true colors. The environment is 3D-ish but the character sprites are 2D. It does display in 1080p if your television set is capable and the game looks pretty crisp. The animations and special effects are a treat, but don't expect too much from the graphics department.

The sound: The voice acting could be corny at times but both English and Japanese are available to choose from and can be swapped anytime during the game. The music fits the theme pretty well and adds to the experience. I got the OST with the game but haven't really listened to it.

Overall: A solid game that previous fans will love and some newcomers will be pleasantly surprised with. I know I was. Although I think it is true that Disgaea is not a game that will appeal to the masses. If you are not sure about this title, I'd recommend picking up any of the previous ones on the ps2 if you can find em, to try it out.

Disgaea 3 was the first game in the series I played, and if you've never given the series a look and are hurting for a turn-based and/or strategy/RPG title for the PS3, you might want to give it a look. The story was interesting--some weird inside jokes I didn't get--and the gameplay was fun. While the graphics were fairly dated, they're apparently a small improvement over the previous incarnation in terms of the visual effects and the animated sprites. Yes, I said sprites.

I'm fond of strategy games and RPGs where you've got a lot of control over character development, and there's more control over what your characters can do in this game than any other I've played. Items and characters can be powered up through "Item" and "Class" worlds, and characters can "reincarnate" as other classes.

However, a lot of the hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay here are made grinding your characters and items up to ridiculously high levels (9999 is the cap, but it's not at all necessary to reach it to finish the game) through simple random dungeons. The "geo effects" stat modifiers on certain squares helps add tactical depth, but even so some gamers--even RPG players--will be after a more visceral sort of thrill.

The music is solid. The Japanese voice acting is above-par for a video game; like many RPGs designed largely for a Japanese audience, the English dialogue is almost painful to listen to. Turn the audio to Japanese and the subtitles on to make the hurting stop.

The developer, Nippon Ishi, made a solid effort but should raise the bar for the next title. It was fun, and I'd probably get the next game, but it's like they don't care if their series is meant for a rabid in-crowd or more accessible.

This game takes a lot of the boring grinding out and replaces it with new, fun concepts. Academy world is a blast, as is the new dark world and Land of Carnage. The classroom system and clubs make leveling up weaker characters a snap and helps prevent the age old "only one powerful character" problem by allowing you to level up a team of five+ at a similar pace. The dialog is somewhere between the quality of Disgaea 1 and Disgaea 2, which is a good thing. Overall, on a scale from 1 to 10, I'd rate this game as "awesome."