Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Into Liquid Sky

Pure immature fun with a story. You will like the comic mischief and the spell effects along with the sound track and voice acting. I simply cannot think of anything wrong with this game other than the visuals.

GameReviewer

A brilliant masterpiece in every sense of the word... Simply put, you must play this game if you have even the slightest interest in the strategy role-playing genre.

netjak

The best game I've played this year.

GamingWorld X

The translation is natural (hats off to Atlus on that point), and the sense of humor that Disgaea carries is unrelentingly brilliant in both languages... A fantastic game that's worth every penny.

Next Level Gaming

A test of your strategic skills. From the tactics-based fighting, to the persuasion of the Dark Assembly, to the creation of characters, every aspect requires you to consider how your decision will affect you down the road.

IC-Games

Both complex, yet brilliantly simple, deep but immediately playable, and long-term habit forming whilst retaining the ability to kill you in seconds. It makes heroin look like sherbet dip.

IGN

The most amazing thing about Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, though, is just how incredibly fun it is. Humorous, entertaining, and different from just about anything else in its category, we aren't afraid to say that it's one of the best PlayStation 2 titles this year.

GamingTrend

There's just so much to do, so much to unlock, with and an incredibly deep battle system and an interesting story line, there's plenty to keep you coming back for more. "Final Fantasy Tactics Advance" take notice: you have competition.

Firing Squad

This is a game for people who take great joy in leveling their characters to the point where the peons the game throws at you are hardly capable of touching you, let alone killing you. The impressive thing is that the game manages to be engaging to that type of player without becoming a game where you have to keep track of every tiny stat on all of your characters.

GameShark

The game is funny. REALLY funny. It makes fun of itself, of typical Japanese RPG conventions, even of Heaven and Hell. Disgaea is the best game of its type to come along in a long while.

games(TM)

Disgaea is without doubt the defining moment in turn-based strategy. Not since Dark Cloud 2 has a game offered so much in terms of optional further play, and we'd seriously question whether any other title will dare brave this lofty plateau of life-emaciating gameplay. [Jan 2004, p.108]

GameCritics

Creeps into your life under the simple guise of a game and soon dominates your every waking (and occasionally sleeping) moment. It's like being possessed in The Exorcist or like a pod person in Invasion of the Body Snatchers—you still look like you, but you're sort of a shell of your former self because all of your faculties are focused on the game.

TotalGames.net

It's engrossing and amazingly, imparts a deep, genuine love for numbers.

Eurogamer

Although its strength lies in depth, longevity and gameplay rather than in artistry and atmosphere, it still deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with ICO in the rankings of "the best games you've never played".

NTSC-uk

It is quite possible to complete the game without understanding classes, geo blocks, assembly ranks and item world, but in doing so you will miss out on the very thing that makes the game hugely intoxicating.

Edge Magazine

The micromanagement is on a previously unimagined macro scale and yet is accessible and coherent enough to draw you in, making hours of concentrated playtime pass like minutes. [Dec 2003, p.101]

Game Informer

Has amazing attention to detail, thrilling battles, and a great story to boot. Snatch it up quick before it disappears like all other Atlus classics before it. [Sept 2003, p.108]

Computer and Video Games

The best of its type on any console. Not for everyone, of course, but it's easily the best strategy title in a very long time. Shame about the crap visuals, though.

XGP Gaming

This game can be summed up quite simply: If you love tactical RPGs, then you will love this game.

Armchair Empire

What we have here is a game that follows the norm in basic premise as to what we’ve come to expect from console strategy RPGs, but twists it just enough to play a little different and still be very fun.

GameSpy

I thought I had totally burnt myself out, playing for over four hours a day for over a week. I wondered if it was possible to ruin a game by playing it too much. But 60 hours in, I still want more.

Game Over Online

The near limitless play potential makes this game a godsend for obsessive, compulsive fans of this style of play, and the ocean deep gameplay ensures that there is always something new to do.

Game Revolution

Disgaea can be on the tough side, and the 'game over' screen will come up often, but with the Item World, the ability to continuously develop new characters from a pool of 150 and characters that can level up in four areas, the advantage is on your side.

Play Magazine

Amidst these new gameplay twists and smart quirkiness, though, Disgaea's greatest strength lies in its foundation of traditional strategy gameplay; little to be called revolutionary, just good, solid fun. [Sept 2003, p.68]

GameSpot

This is one of those games that could literally last you a couple of hundred hours if you let it, and if that sounds exciting rather than just plain scary, then by all means give the game a shot.

AceGamez

With an involved and engaging RPG element, it sticks out above titles like "Final Fantasy Tactics" as being the best around.

Deeko

While I found the in-battle graphics to be a bit bland and the musical score a tad bit dull, the gameplay is solid.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

An extremely robust and flexible item-creation system, and one that offers hours upon hours of gameplay beyond the main story. [Sept 2003, p.100]

Total Video Games

It’s a game that has almost unlimited replay value and depth, whilst the tutorial section does an admirable job of introducing you to the genre if you’re new to this type of game.

GamerArchive

Perhaps if it had the graphical accompaniment, and the in depth storyline that it deserves, we could be looking at a game that will be remembered as fondly as "Final Fantasy VII."

Village Voice

Combine chess, manga, Dungeons & Dragons, and corrupt politics, and you can imagine the new season of Everybody Loves Raymond, I mean, this game.

G4 TV

Disgaea's loose, unorthodox gameplay, plus its tongue-in-cheek attitude, is just what the genre needs.

GameZone

A great strategy game. The game will appeal instantly to anyone who has played "Final Fantasy Tactics," the "Ogre Battle" series, or other strategy games for the Playstation 1.

GMR Magazine

One of the only meals in town for a PS2-owning strategy fan, but it's the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet. [Oct 2003, p.72]

Electronic Gaming Monthly

Atlus separates the men from the quivering, weeping boys with one of the funniest, deepest, and downright dastardly RPG's you'll ever play. [Oct 2003, p.150]

Adrenaline Vault

Disgaea’s visual and aural components may be somewhat dated, but the gameplay suffers from no such ailment.

GamePro

While it's not for casual folk, the battles are so addictive that hardcore gamers may never need another strategy RPG ever.

Xequted

Overall, with a few points taken off for conflicts between graphics and gameplay, Disgaea is pretty fun.

GameNow

While Disgaea sure isn't as elegant and polished a game as "FFTA," it's definitely fun. [Oct 2003, p.58]

PALGN

If Disgaea: Hour of Darkness was a person, they would have a red hand stamp labelled "Insane" and would be locked up in an asylum cell.

Boomtown

I’ll briefly abandon my objective viewpoint and daringly say that I love Disgaea. But I can find very little to strongly recommend about it.

PSM Magazine

It's Disgaea's wacky persona and challenge that will win over hardcore genre fans in the end. [Oct 2003, p.40]