A Promise Unforgotten- A Franchise Matures

We cap off a month of Disgaea by looking at the fourth, but not the last game in the series, Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten.

Image taken from gamefaqs.com, by user leonia19.

Absence of Justice- A Franchise Leaps Forward, Stumbles a Bit

The year was 2008, and though the Playstation 2 was still selling, the fact of the matter was that the Playstation 3 was on the market, and it was hungry for new games. For the first time in over a decade, Nintendo was taking a commanding lead in the Console Wars with their Wii, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 was selling strong, but was losing ground thanks to the many hardware problems that had been plaguing the console, most notably the Red Ring of Death. Still, this was a new age for console gaming, where new features that were previously the exclusive realm of PC gaming were suddenly becoming the norm for all games: downloadable content, online play, online socialization, and the ability to upload information to the internet. NIS released their latest game with all these features in mind, and that game was Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice.

Image taken from gamefaqs.com

Cursed Memories- A Franchise Grows

The year was 2006. Though the next generation of gaming was just around the corner, the PS2 was still dominating the gaming scene. The JRPG, though far from dead, was no longer the critical darling it once was, with games like GTA: San Andreas, Halo 2, and God of War proving that the JRPG was not the only genre that could tell cinematic stories. Still, Nippon Ichi Software, riding high on the success of their game Disgaea, were releasing several Strategy games that combined in depth combat with a story told humorously. Games like Makai Kingdom and Phantom Brave were giving the company a good reputation among gamers, showing that Disgaea 1 was no flash in the pan. Still, a sequel was inevitable, and three years after the original, Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories was released.

Image taken from Gamefaqs.com

The Hour of Darkness- A Franchise is Born (Part 1)

The year was 2003. The Playstation 2 was the biggest seller in the world, Nintendo was going through it's toughest time yet, and the XBox was catching up to the PS2 with a plethora of games, including a little game called Halo. The PS2, however, was still reigning supreme, and as far as RPG's were concerned, it was home to some of the best games in the genre, including the latest Final Fantasies. On that year, a little gaming company called Nippon Ichi Software, or NIS, was releasing a new game that used 2D sprites. This game company was, until that year, known in Japan as the makers of a cutesy series of SRPG's called Marl Kingdom. Outside of Japan, they were nobodies. That all changed with the release of a little game called Disgaea: The Hour of Darkness, hereby referred to as Disgaea 1.

Image taken from the game's Wikipedia page.

Spoilers Abound!!!

Announcement- December will be a Month of Disgaea

Just like last year, this December, every Saturday or Sunday I'll be uploading a blog entry analyzing the Disgaea series. For those of you who don't know, Disgaea is a Strategy Role Playing Game series, somewhat under the radar in comparison to, say, the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest series of games.

Why am I doing this? Well, mostly, because I am a Disgaea fanboy. I admit it, and I am not ashamed of it. I am a Disgaea fanboy, through and through. In fact, I could go a step further and say I'm a NIS fanboy. So yeah, I am going to be analyzing a series of video games most people have never even heard of. Such is my sad but fulfilling life. Anyway, here's the schedule:

December 6-7: Disgaea 1
December 13-14: Disgaea 2
December 20-21: Disgaea 3
December 27-28: Disgaea 4

For the record, I'll be using the original PS2-PS3 releases of the games as my basis for analysis, for the simple reason that they are the ones I've played. I am aware there have been re-releases, but since I've not played them, I cannot comment on them.

I hope you'll be joining me on this analysis!