Strategy RPGs on the next-gen consoles have been surprisingly rare, but when I heard about Disgaea, my interest was peaked. But could it possibly compared with the classic Final Fantasy Tactics? While I wouldn't say this game surpasses it as a whole, it has many new innovations and features that create replay value that is literally infinite.

The plot starts out with a demon prince named Laharl in his struggle to gain the throne of the Netherworld. It develops over time, though, and I won't tell you any spoilers. I can say, however, that Disgaea's cutscenes are some of the funniest I've ever seen with surprisingly good (and sometimes appropriately cheesy) voice acting. Too bad there's not much animation.

Battles are either story based or randomly generated (more on that later). Story battles can be revisited after they're beaten, although any boss characters you fought will be replaced by a high level monster. Actual combat has many new ideas that add to the strategies you'll need to concoct. You can throw enemies or even comrades for extra distance on the field. If you position your fighters side by side, they can even do a team attack. Also, unlike Tactics, characters don't take their turns one at a time. Instead, each side moves all of its characters, decides what attacks/items/magic they'll use, then chooses to "Execute" them and sit back while all their battle decisions are carried

out. It really speeds up gameplay, and it's easier to wait for the CPU to issue commands to its entire force all at once rather than to sit through each unit one at a time.

Even better is that items can be leveled up. By going inside the item, you fight through a randomly generated dungeon with up to 100 floors to power up your items. This is where the infinite replay comes in. No item dungeon is identical no matter how many times you play. And the special effects that are given to colored tiles on the floor can really make you rack your brain so you can use them to your advantage.

If I have to

complain about this game (other than the dated graphics, which some people would mind more than others), it would be about the leveling system. In FFT, units gained experience when they performed actions. In Disgaea, however, units gain experience when they kill enemies. You can imagine how difficult it is to level up a priest character this way. By the end of the game, I had a level 100 swordsman and a level 30 cleric. It's annoying to have to slowly whittle down enemies for your healers to finish off just for some piddling little amount of experience. Other than that, I don't have any complaints. There's tons to discover. Go to it!

Score: 8.75/10