Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (PS3)

The grind is good and the grind is never-ending.
9/19/2008 6:44 PM | 1 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Geo Blocks, a new type of Geo object that can be stacked to give Geo Panels multiple effects on a single square, now affect the entire game. In previous games, Geo Symbols had to reside on separate panels of the same color to stack effects because of their shape. These symbols also made it impossible to traverse the square they resided on. Now you can have multiple effects on a color panel group and more real estate to walk on.

One annoyance is that block height creates additional challenges in navigation, because the camera is still a pain in the ass. This is most evident in the Class World, which tends to use smaller, randomly generated levels packed with lots of residents buried within the peaks and valleys of stacked blocks. Getting the camera to focus in on a particular enemy or block is frustrating as a result. The camera has always been problematic in Disgaea (and just about every other tactical Japanese role-playing game on the market), so fans can expect more of the same in Disgaea 3.

The skill system has been changed dramatically in Disgaea 3. In Disgaea 2, you learn skills by grinding them to a certain level to unlock new ones. In this game, you unlock skills by hitting a certain level and then purchasing new ones using mana (energy you get from your kills) from a special shop. You will still be able to level these skills up to make them more powerful, but to unlock greater, more powerful forms of each skill you'll have to spend additional mana to "boost" them. In addition to this new wrinkle in the skill system, players will start out with a new active skill called an Evility. Evilities give special "always active" benefits to the user, and higher-level classes get some of the most powerful Evilities in the game.

While this new system is straightforward , diehard Disgaea fans might be turned off by the fact that they have to spend even more time grinding their favorite skills and gaining the additional mana it takes to max them out. Personally, I think the system works just as well as the old one because it gives you the ability to boost a skill with additional power. Boosting is no substitute for a true high level skill, so grinding and raising a skill's level is still an integral part of the skill growth system.

Disgaea 3 also introduces the Class Club System, special social groups that you put characters in to get bonuses or to unlock features within the game. For example, you might join a club to leach mana or experience from other players sitting next you in the classroom or you might join another club to make a special non-player character appear. Clubs are an integral part of the game because they unlock special NPCs and features that otherwise aren't available. However, the real power of clubs beyond all that is that they facilitate the grind. Certain clubs allow you to auto-level a character or gain copious amounts of mana without ever taking them out of the base panel. Clubs provide a free lunch for players who do not want to dirty their hands with certain undesirable but important characters.