Outside of the digital download space, it’s almost impossible these days to find a developer willing to flip the bird at convention and make absolutely no attempt at leveraging the technological advances of the latest generation of hardware. This is generally a good thing, with new technology should come new experiences. But what we often get are highly commercialised games that need to appeal to focus group A, B, C and D, so the publisher can recoup its investment in those extra shiny graphics, THX certified sound quality, and uber physics engine. But Nippon Ichi is one developer that routinely bucks the trend in this respect, making lo-figames on the cheap that have an unparalleled depth and left-field attitude. Its latest iteration in the Disgaea franchise wouldn’t look out of place on a PSone, yet its intricate gameplay could keep you busy for much of the PS3’s proposed ten-year lifespan.

Now, if you’re familiar with genre stalwarts like Fire Emblem, Ogre Tactics, and Shining Force, you’ll generally know what to expect from Disgaea 3. Yep, we’re entering tactical Japanese RPG territory, folks, so anyone with a burning hatred of stats, anime and quirkiness might as well move on to the next review. Disgaea 3 follows the template of its predecessors, feeding you bite-sized portions of story, before dropping you into a turn-based battle where you control a party of characters. After that you’re whisked back into a hub area, where you can buy items, spend experience points, and generally fiddle with your party’s stats in order to make your own tailor-made awesome fighting force. Where Disgaea 3 really differs from its peers is in its layer upon layer of customisation options, and uncompromisingly complex battle system.

For instance, not only do you create different classed characters to join your party, you also have to decide which other characters they work best with on the battlefield. In addition to having a bewildering array of items to make your characters stronger, you can actually enter inside each item, fight its residents, and level it up. And you don’t have to wait for the best weapons and armour to appear in the store, you can petition, bribe and battle an assembly of NPCs in order to get them whenever you want.

Some changes have been made to the series’ formula since its last outing, but nothing of boat-rocking magnitude. In fact, despite the ever-streamlining predilections of Western RPG developers, Nippon Ichi has probably come out with the most ‘hardcore’ iteration of Disgaea yet. In terms of new features, you’ve got Evilities, which can be bought with Mana. Evilities enable you to further customise your characters, letting you choose from a plethora of bonuses, like a 20 per cent boost from health gained in healing spells, or resistance to poison effects. Alongside this is the much welcomed ability to buy special moves – rather than learning them while levelling-up – and the classroom feature that lets you arrange your teammates seating positions, in order to dictate which of them fight more effectively together. Throw in the ability to link special moves, and a feature that lets you turn monster characters into weapons, and you have enough new content to keep things fresh, but familiar, for Disgaea veterans.

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