Disgaea: Hour of Darkness sits high on the list of games that inspired me as a kid. I remember reading a review for it in a copy of GamePro and seeing a reviewer describe it as “Final Fantasy Tactics meets Nightmare Before Christmas”. I had never needed anything so badly before in my life. When I finally got it for my Playstation 2, I was losing nights of sleep trying to grind my way to level 9999. Even after almost 150 hours, I wasn't able to make it very far in the juicy (for the time) post game.

 

For perspective, my most recent forays into the multiverse of netherworlds and demons was in Disgaea 5 on Playstation 4. This made revisiting the barebones systems of the OG...kinda jarring. Still, I had a blast accomplishing simpler goals without having to interact with any of the complex systems of the newer Disgaea entries.

 

Gameplay in Disgaea 1: Complete consists of navigating a hub area with shops, a healer, and gatekeepers to the many different stages. After traveling to a stage, combat begins on a grid-based map and you’re allowed to summon 10 units to put the hurt on the enemy’s team. These 10 units can be swapped out as long as they haven’t executed an action. However, if one dies, the amount of units you can have on the field will drop to 9. After choosing your units, you will queue up spells, abilities, or items to use for your turn and your enemies will do the same. You can then choose to end your turn to progress the battle.

 

With combat being grid-based, different spells and abilities target different numbers of tiles in different areas of effect. Hitting an enemy you otherwise couldn't touch with a long area of effect spell is oh, so satisfying. Special attacks and abilities also all have some of the most entertaining, over the top animations that I’ve seen in the genre.

 

Disgaea 1: Complete’s looks fantastic. I appreciated the updated sprites, even if they sometimes make some of the low-res environments look a little worse. Because of the update, certain sprites were lost and replaced with ones from newer games such as the thief, cleric, and fighter classes. This was bittersweet for me because of how much I love and miss the old Treant sprite.

 

After the first cutscenes, my gamer instincts kicked in and I felt the visceral urge to jump. I was immediately reminded that this sexy feature wasn’t added until the second game. This revelation lead me to realize just how small this game's hub is, and then I started to think about how small every map in the game is. Of course, I only mean small in comparison to the sprawling, often frustratingly big maps introduced in later Disgaea games. In its hay day, nobody was doing it like Disgaea Hour of Darkness. It’s nice to see how far the team’s come by building onto the original formula.

 

I would consider the first Disgaea’s story to be the strongest and most tolerable in the series. Most of the story is ridiculous and silly, like when the party is in a state of panic over an enemy possessing a powerful weapon known as the Horse Weiner. There may be some typical trope-heavy drama, but there aren't nearly as many overly dramatic dips in the story as there are in later Disgaea games.

 

Disgaea 1’s climb from the main game to the first meaningful post game encounter is long and unpleasant. Here’s where some of modern Disgaea’s bloat acts as a nice padding. The random event floors in the item world, squads, and even the universally despised Chara World bust up the monotony of grinding a bit. That is, until all of those things are required to progress farther into the postgame. You will spend a lot of time repeating the same map for little reward until you’re just barely able to make it out of the Cave of Ordeals at around level 1000-ish. Unless, of course, you exploit the monster capture system and get a level 9999 monster before you’re halfway done with the main story like I did.

 

While building my Baal takedown squad this time around, I was able to see what I think the fundamental flaw of Disgaea is. At its worst, it's a thankless grind with little regard for the 'S' in SRPG. Say you've completed the main campaign with a level 70 unit leading your team. Your introduction to post game content will be a stage with fodder units to destroy over and over again until that character gets to level 1000. At this point, maps will begin to trade interesting Geo Effect puzzles for a handful of über-powered enemies for you to stack your units on and pummel. If you can't overpower these baddies, it's time to go grind your stats and equipment so that your skills will hit for a few thousand more points of damage. Your reward for grinding is always a new goal post to aim for while doing the same thing you just did for hours on end. And well..that’s it.

 

At its best, Disgaea 1: Complete is a fun, over the top strategy RPG with loveable characters and hours upon hours of content. I can recommend this remake to anyone who's ever been interested in giving the series a shot. There is still plenty of challenge in the main story as well as an unlockable secret game mode with its own alternate story. I had a great time revisiting the Overlord's Castle and I'm excited to see which direction the series takes when Disgaea 7 releases next year.