Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention – Review

When you think about SRPG’s a number of titles could come to mind, but one particular franchise which has met much success in both Japanese and international markets alike is Nippon Ichi Software’s Disgaea series. With humble beginnings all the way back in 2003 with Disgaea: Hour of Darkness on the Playstation 2, the series has since developed with not only a number of main home console releases, the latest being last years release of Disgaea 4 (My Game of the Year 2011) but also with portable adaptations of the games often resulting in added storylines or added features to draw in those who have originally played the game (Eg. Etna or Axel Chapters). Personally, I have not been a big fan of these Playstation Portable or Nintendo DS adaptations (I still shudder at Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness on the DS), often because they never offered me enough to do another playthrough again alongside limitations which in my opinion kept them from being as good as the original releases. However, Nippon Ichi Software in Japan decided to remaster the original Playstation 3 release of Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice to the Playstation Vita as a launch title, and with the enhanced capabilities of the console have actually made a portable port worthy of the original.

The Storyline

The main storyline has been left unchanged from the original and spreads over eight chapters alongside a bonus epilogue chapter which you can recruit a number of bonus characters from other NIS franchises including Laharl/Etna/Flonne from Disgaea 1 to Asagi who has appeared in almost every game in the franchise since Makai Kingdom. What they have done instead of altering and extending the main storyline, is include four new scenarios giving you control of and focusing on a number of different characters…. but to first focus on the main storyline.

The main storyline takes place in the halls of Evil Academy and despite the main character Mao having never attended a class in his long life, you will spend a good portion of your time in the halls of the academy, if not in the deep layers of Mao’s on heart. Provided you read the storyline blurb above, you will be aware that Mao has taken the title off the so called “hero” Almaz Von Almadine Adamant which has caused him to suffer the slow transformation into a demon. Of course, after this switch is made Almaz finds his personality becoming more demon-like while Mao realizes that this title might just be a hindrance for him as well. The quest to switch their titles back of course leads to a comedic partnership between the two and a number of other characters, each with their own eccentricities, problems and morales. If you are familiar with any other game in the Disgaea series, you should feel right at home with its targeted comedy, jabs at hero stereotypes and breaking of the fourth wall.

In comparison to the other three numbered games in the series, I don’t think it had as much charm, humor and plot as other releases and perhaps because I have already played through the main story on the Playstation 3 version thrice, I found a few moments of the games storyline to be slightly bland but otherwise it was still a solid performing storyline well worthy of a Disgaea title. As well, whilst enjoyable I felt they could have put more storyline within the chapters to make the overall story flow better – as a t least half the battles you face do not have dialogue associated with him which could have been put to better use. What is also interesting is that until the epilogue, there is no presence of characters from previous games to carry over plotlines and detract the games unique characters storylines (Similar to Etna in Disgaea 2 or Axel in Disgaea 4). This is in no way a bad point but it welcomes newcomers to the franchise without having portions of the plot taken over by references from previous games.

These are just a few ramblings however, and if you are new to Disgaea 3 having played any previous game or none at all, it is a solid storyline with moments that showcase why the franchise is eccentic and creative in their storylines.

For those new and old to the game alike, the game comes with additional scenarios which can be accessed post-game, each focusing on different characters while providing additional challenging levels. As the game includes all originally released DLC content from the games Playstation 3 release, you can access the four Raspberyl chapters “The Power of Love Raspberyl” which includes the games entire cast alongside many of the DLC characters over many challenging and different stages. This is not one of the four new storylines however is perhaps the most interesting, giving all the characters a chance to shine in a more comical and less serious plotline than the first.

Recently the Evil Academy has been short on teachers, and it is slowly changing into an unruly place… At this rate, the future of the Netherworld wasn’t looking good, with the young slowly turning bad. Seeing her school slowly declining, Raspberyl decides to become a teacher to lead the students. What will the No.1 Delinquent at the school teach? Love, Passion, and the importance of trust!!

The four new episodes are mostly shorter storylines that focus on a single or set of characters as they set out to do a specific task. These include “Battle for the Test” which focuses on Almaz and Sapphire as Sapphire goes on a rampage to get her aptitude test back, “First Love!? Legend of the Super Delinquent” which focuses on Kyoko and Asuka when they along with Mao and Almaz tail Rasberyl who they believe is suffering from love sickness, “Culture Fair” which focuses on Big Star and Salvatore which the title and characters more or less give away the plot and of most interest “Majin Academy” which introduces the new characters Rutile and Stella but features all the characters and involves Rutile getting some unwanted attention by other demons and the theft of the Dean’s Certificate. All of these four plots are enjoyable and while not being nearly as weighted the same as the main storyline, provides added value to the post-game experience.

The Design

Disgaea 3 was the last game to use the more classic visual designs before they moved to the more modern and detailed designs used in Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten. While they have brought over a couple of design features from this title, the character sprites and locale designs are reminiscent of the original Disgaea 3 release. The visuals however look rather good on the Vita’s smaller screen, and provided you have not had any qualms with designs in any other Disgaea game pre-Disgaea 4 than you should have no issue with what they have provided (Unless you go and compare it to something like Final Fantasy XIII…..). The same can be said for the games opening animation, which being the first thing I saw when booting up the game for the first time…. left me starting on a high note. A few things have carried over from newer releases or otherwise been added exclusively to this game – namely the Bust Up Animations during dialogue which give the character portraits a bit more life to them than originally, new animations and new crossover characters for Tera magic spells to name a few things.

While when push comes to shove the Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita versions in terms of design quality are almost identical, the new additions and remastering gives this release a slight advantage over its predecessor.

The Sound and Voice Acting

All games in the Disgaea series have had strong musical backings in my opinions, with Disgaea 3 not being an exception to this. The music in this game works not because it is masterfully orchestrated or its beautiful tunes…. but because it suits the game perfectly. The games opening theme is an enjoyable track that well suits the theme of the game, followed by music that while occasionally may be overused at points but helps set the theme of the battle or scene being portrayed. With the inclusion of the Raspberyl Chapters which were originally DLC content, a number of tracks for those chapters also help improve the diversity. To highlight a particular track… Tales of Innocent Youth which is primarily used in the “Final Episode” scenes between chapters is easily one of my favourites. Nevertheless, kudos must go to Tenpei Sato and the rest of the team behind this games great soundtrack.

As with the main story and Raspberyl Chapters not being altered, they have also retained the original voice acting which was of good quality – featuring Vic Mignogna as Mao, Laura Bailey as Raspberyl and Johnny Yong Bosch as Almaz to name a few, with most of the games cast doing a solid job in their roles (Michelle Ruff as Salvatore = Thumbs Up!). Unfortunately, there is an issue with a few of the characters voices in the newly included, and thus newly dubbed chapters. Unfortunately some characters such as Kyoko Needleworker have either not retained the same voice actor/actress or have not managed to maintain that same voice therefore it does sound slightly awkward after going through the main game with different voice acting to the newer chapters (Some have rather noticeable differences as well). It is hard to fault NIS America for this as the game is several years old now, but more from a “Getting used to” perspective.

The Gameplay

The gameplay has changed very little from the original release, with many of the same systems and functionalities being maintained which worked really well for the game in the first place. The battles take place using a grid based moving and attacking system similar to almost every other game in the franchise so far (If you exclude Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom). Your main objective is to move around the map (With each character having a certain number of spaces they can move a turn) and defeating all of your opponents on the map using a party turn-based system. Using basic RPG mechanics, each character can equip one weapon (Sword, Knuckles, Gun, Bow, Spear, Staff and “Monster Weapons”) for which each comes attached with associated skills and three pieces of armor/accessories – which need to be factored in with the characters individual HP/SP gauges which once depleted either make defeating stronger enemies a real hassle or removes them from the field entirely with no chance of resurrection.

But you might think that this lacks strategy right? The game does offer a number of systems which differentiate the playing field and provides a challenge to those who want it (and in turn, those who don’t want them as most of these features are non-optional). The games geosystem is back, where the battle stages can be littered with different coloured cubes for which each can have a positive or negative effect on the tide of battle, but provides a good challenge. Later in the game you will end up with enemies standing on +50% Def, Enemy Boost or +10% Level spaces which does provide challenges for those who do no grind – along with positive stat spaces being placed in areas that might leave you innundated with enemies. This is but one of the systems which really turns the game from being a simple tactical RPG to a more complex one. Considering the variety of challenges, you should have a good balance to make the game challenging, but not impossible. For long-time players of the series however, while it is well balanced, you might be inclined to up the enemy strength a bit before going in, as at the default normal strength, they lack that little bit of added challenge Disgaea 1 and 2 seemed to provide.

Apart from the main storylines gameplay, you are presented many other game modes both during and after it. While the levels during the storyline are more structured, you have the ability to enter individual items or characters in order to access the Item World and Class World respectively. These modes involve maps being randomly generated, filled with random enemies, geoblocks and map designs which while being challenging at first allows you to level up the item, learn new skills for your character or improve the stats of both. While the Class World is pretty straight forward, the Item World is the one area you might be spending more of your time in during post-game. These levels have numerous things to do such as finding hidden stores that sell save icons, game music, trophies and a number of items usable in-game, improving the stats of your item through innocents spread throughout them and in the higher levels – having Pirate Ships invade which you can later capture and then invade your other items for added bonuses. Provided you can put up with the randomly generated worlds which can be quite challenging at times, there is a lot on offer in terms of battling – improved again by the presence of other game modes which you will unlock progressively including the X-Dimension and Land of Carnage for those who want an even greater challenge.

The games main base also offers a number of options to you. As with every other game, there is the Aye/Nay system which allows you to propose improvements such as forming new clubs, creating new characters, unlocking new store items etc to the student body “Homeroom” and appeal to them to pass such motions with bribes. The system has been present in every game and while being simple in design adds a bit of extra challenge while allowing you the freedom to set what items are in the campus’s stores etc. Keeping with the school theme, they have also gone with allowing students to join clubs, which while being named after demonic clubs give you added benefits such as the ability to gain extra EXP from sitting in the corner of the classroom, the ability to jump higher in base to getting special treatment with the nurse. These clubs are also what determines what monster party members you can Magichange with (Monster transmogrifies into a weapon for a certain number of turns granting special skills)… therefore meaning the better the benefits with the club – the less potential magichange partners.

The game also comes with a number of gameplay improvements which do for the most part not impede what was initially in the original release. As this is a Playstation Vita release, they have chosen to include both front and back touchscreen support to control the camera within the game. UNLESS you are used to the console and don’t have a tendency to hit the back touch screen accidently, I would strongly recommend disabling this feature at first as I found myself struggling with the camera at times due to this. Another major inclusion is the Honor Quotent system, which tracks your game improvement as well as how far you travel while playing the game with GPS functionality which grants you slight in-game bonuses such as cheaper items in shops and boosts. The game also includes a new Data Shop which is basically a standard means of checking your stats, stats of other gamers and stats of everyone combined. You might be wondering this, however while the game does include all DLC content released for the Playstation 3 version of the game, not all the characters are available at once, instead will progressively unlock as you do things such as complete the main game, bonus chapters etc meaning you might save $50 but you will have to work just a little bit to unlock all the content.

In terms of replayability, the value of this game depends on your play-style, but as someone who is already familiar with the game it took me around 14 hours to complete the main storyline, however if my time on my Playstation 3 save file is anything to go by…. you could easily go for well over a hundred hours to unlock all the content, or otherwise replay the game to unlock the games many hidden endings.

While I may not have been all that impressed with the previous ports of Disgaea games, I must admit the Playstation Vita port of Disgaea 3 far surpasses the original Playstation 3 release and comes in at a price that I feel is quite reasonable for the amount of gameplay you get (and considering the price of all the DLC content in the Playstation 3 version). While it may not be Game of the Year worthy material as Disgaea 4 last year, if you are after a fun SRPG… Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention is an addictive and fun option now on the market! (Did I mention that they have retained (For those who are interested), the original releases powerlevelling methods?)

Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: B+
Design: A-
Music/Voice Acting: A
Gameplay: A
Replayability: A-
Personal Opinion: A
Overall Score: A