You Should Play… Disgaea 3

Disgaea games are great! Each lasts hundreds of hours at a time for those who are truly dedicated!  Disgaea 3 was the first installment in the series to get a next-generation update when it released on the PS3 a few years ago. Of course, it doesn't always look like a next-generation update (far from it, actually), but it sure looks a lot better on a high-definition television than your average PlayStation 2 game. And it plays great too!

Where Disgaea 3 truly manages to take advantage of its new platform is with its downloadable content, which got started in earnest in the December after its initial release. Fans like me were pleased to see old standbys like Disgaea 2's Adell and Overlord Priere from La Pucelle: Tactics putting in appearances, even if I did have to pay to access them.  Thankfully, aside from the classic characters, there also was a downloadable side story floating around starring Raspberyl, the story's heroine. That add-ons alone add  quite a few hours of gameplay to an already lengthy (to put it mildly) experience.

The game itself really loses nothing in the translation to the next-generation. That is it to say, it's a lot like its PS2 predecessors. It's just as amusing as before, starring as it does a high school demon named Lord Mao who happens to be plotting revenge against his father while attending (or more likely, not attending) classes at the Maritsu Evil Academy. Usual elements like the hubs make their return; as do the graphics, oddly enough. Much criticism has been heaped on the sprites, which lack every bit as much detail as before, even though they happen to be in high-definition. Final Fantasy XIII this is not, though it's not like anyone was really expecting that anyway.

Overall, Disgaea 3 is about as nichy as you're ever going to get, and NIS is happy to provide just that. How do you get explain to the average player that not only do items have levels, but that there are tiny creatures inside them called Innocents who have levels as well? I really have no idea. And that's only really scratching the service of a game where you can customize almost anything about your characters, weapons and monsters.

But while I call Disgaea 3 nichy, I do believe that it fills the sort of niche that needed filling on the PlayStation 3 in its early years. Games like Disgaea are the kind of games that offer a catalog of depth, something which consoles like the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation 2 have in spades. While downloadable PSN and XBLA titles have filled in admirably, none of them have the ridiculous sort of depth that you'll find in your average Disgaea title. And to my knowledge, none of them have exploding demonic penguins either. In my book, that makes Disgaea 3 a winner.

So why do I recommend it? If your PS3 has been collecting dust on your shelf, alone and forgotten, a game like Disgaea 3 is pretty much the cure. No doubt there are legions of Disgaea fans locked in their rooms at this very moment, their play clocks in the hundreds of hours as they try to plumb every last secret of this game. Seriously, if you want an RPG with enough depth to keep you engaged over a VERY long period of time, then Disgaea 3 is it.

It's definitely not mainstream in any sense of the word. Viewed from a distance, its learning curve is like a vertical cliff face that rises to the point of Mount Everest. It's definitely not as bad as it looks, but the lengthy list of features is enough to make newcomers understandably nervous. Dedicated RPG fans like me live for that sort of thing though.  And even those who find the mechanics daunting will find something to love in the trademark writing.

It's probably not for everybody. Most strategy RPGs aren't, actually. But for those with the time and the inclination, Disgaea 3 is a rare treat in a world where most of the games of its ilk never make it out of Japan in the first place. It certainly deserves a place in your library, if for no other reason than the fact that there certainly isn't much else like it in this generation of consoles. So yeah, GO GET IT!

Remembering… Phantasy Star Online

Like the Sega Dreamcast itself, Phantasy Star Online was ambitious and ahead of its time. As common-place as the massively-multiplayer online genre is today, ten years ago dial-up internet connections and offline-only home consoles meant they were confined to PCs. However, Sega could make that leap thanks to what was considered the first true online service for a console, and with respected studio Sonic Team behind it, Phantasy Star Online quickly became a fan-favorite and the perfect showcase for the platform.

However, in part of the Phantasy Star series there were a number of departures from the norm.  For one, it offered real-time instead of traditional turn-based combat, making it far more compatible for online play. Similarly, instead of a linear story and quest lines, players would enter dungeons set in lush open forests, caves, mines and an ancient spaceship, with narrative handed out occasionally between missions. While the game was billed as an MMO, the fact that a limited number of players could only play in the same instance meant this actually wasn't the case, but that didn't detract from what was otherwise an engaging and true online role-playing title.

Although there were a limited amount of areas, familiar MMO tropes such as side quests, high value weapons and armor kept players returning to grind their way to better equipment. A unique aspect was the MAG, a robotic sidekick not unlike Sonic Adventure's Chao creatures that could be fed items and evolve into different forms, offering new attacks and support abilities. While it was possible to play solo through dungeons, working with others was always desired, especially against the screen-filling bosses, such as the memorable dragon that topped off the end of the forest area. Communicating between players was also surprisingly straightforward despite the lack of voice chat, with a variety of e-motes and shortcut phrases at hand that easily broke down language barriers.

Much of the game's content was also accessible offline, adding AI-team mates to help out in battle, and allowing the same profiles to continue their game online. As desirable as this feature was - especially since subscription-based broadband was rare at the time of release, and so playing online could run up costly bills - it also led to one of the title's downfalls. As game saves were saved locally, it was ripe for hacking and duping items, making high level equipment and super-powerful MAGs easy to create using the right tools, and later share online, spoiling the prestige value of owning valued items that many MMOs depend on.

The game's success, especially in Japan and Asia, led to a number of follow-up expansions and sequels that provided more content. At the end of the Dreamcast's lifespan, Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 added more areas, features and gameplay balances, and from there the series jumped ship to both GameCube and the original Xbox, platforms which both offered more reliable broadband connections. A third episode featuring new card-based mechanics was released on GameCube, while a fourth expansion - with unique crater and desert environments, items and enemies - was released exclusively on Windows PCs in Japan.

From there, the franchise's fortunes have become mixed; the official servers for most versions were closed within a number of years, and follow-up Phantasy Star Universe on PC, PS2 and Xbox 360 failed to capture a solid fan base or critical response in the same way the original did. Several spinoffs for handhelds Phantasy Star Portable and Phantasy Star 0 have performed reasonably well, but all eyes are on Phantasy Star Online 2, which is designed to be the true successor to the Dreamcast original set for release sometime next year.

While Phantasy Star Online wasn't particularly groundbreaking or inspirational in gameplay, its simplicity and timing in the market couldn't have left more of an impact on its players, so much so that a small online fan base using private servers still exists today. How many other long gone consoles still offer that level of dedication?

Notable Quotable #2

 “What I really wanted to explore was how these tiny beings, the hero and his companions, would grow, and whether they would be able to embark on their adventure. That’s why I think that if I were to sum up this title in a single word, I would say that it was ‘embarking’. In the initial part of the game, the hero and his companions set out on their journey, facing the future in an unfamiliar world, and I wanted to describe the way they progress."

-          Tetsuya Takahashi (creator of Xenogears, the Xenosaga series, and Xenoblade Chronicles), describing what he hoped to achieve with the creation of Xenoblade Chronicles.

Also, as a side note, I was able to finish The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword last night.  All in all, the main quest took me 35 hours to complete (and it was a GOOD 35 hours indeed).  I didn’t like the Silent Realm segments at all, there were a few too many fetch quests, and I absolutely abhorred anything that had to do with catching bugs/birds and flying the loftwing.  Apart from these minor hiccups though, I think that Skyward Sword is a remarkably well-designed adventure with some superb boss encounters (the 4^th dungeon boss in particular is absolutely amazing).  The fact that the origins of Link, Zelda, Ganon, Impa, and the Master Sword are all revealed was a nice little bonus as well.  I’m always glad when a Zelda title goes out of its way to add something new to the series’ mythology.

In my opinion, Skyward Sword is a long, well-designed adventure that does much to redeem five years of motion controlled shovelware. When I look back on it, I think I'll mainly remember its combat -- not something I've ever said about a Zelda title in the past. Whether that's enough to push it into the upper echelons of the franchise is for history to decide. But for me, it is most definitely one of the best console titles to come out of Japan this year.