Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten (Premium Edition) - Playstation 3

I bought the premium version of this game recently on the Deal of the Day on Amazon for $35 and feel that the price of admission was justified. If you can find this game at a similar price please go ahead and purchase it, you'll be getting more than enough play for your buck. The following are my impressions of this game after a good two weeks.The Positives:- One thing I always look for in any game is depth, meaning potential for longevity, replay-ability, and creativity. This game is chock-full of all three. As a Turn Based Strategy game I feel that this is up there with the best I've played (FF tactics, Tactics Ogre, and an old Genesis favorite Shining Force). If you've played those games then this game will be familiar territory. I have never played a Disgaea game before but I got a handle on this game pretty quick, the only exception is do not expect an attempt at a dramatic tale told like in FF/Tactics Ogre/Fire Emblem, etc, it's all about childish and sophomoric humor, which I'll let each individual to judge the merits of.- The main play mechanics that create depth are the following: Throwing, Geo Blocks, the Senate, Item World, CampaignHQ.- Throwing adds a new dimension because it allows stacking of characters one atop the other; a workaround for characters with short movement range since you can pick them up with another character and chuck them across the field; and other wackiness like throwing enemies into your entry portal so that you can later discipline and subdue them for your own benefit.- Geo Blocks are a puzzle element, each block is associated with a color and certain maps will have colored panels that have either positive or negative effects when you move onto them, or when your enemies move onto them. Suffice it to say, it involves strategic throwing, destruction and navigation around said blocks and panels to create positive effects, decrease negative effects, and causing bonus chains to start. It's all very complicated but explained quite well in the tutorial levels.- The Senate is great, it is a game mechanic that allows AI figureheads in the game to vote Y/N for new effects in the game, even mundane things like increasing the level of purchasable weapons and armor. What's great is that if your connected online, other players can send their characters into your game and vote in your senate polls, usually with the intent of getting you to bribe them with your items so they vote favorably. This is all, once again quite complicated, but is nonetheless quite fun and brings a new dimension to the game.- Item World is a great way to grind in this game. These are maps that are not part of the story and allow you to visit the internals of your items. By navigating through an item's world you can level up said item. This also leads to a huge negative, see comments below.- CampaignHQ is a peripheral map (think World Map mixed with a strategic Board Game layout) that opens up and expands as you beat each story map. It allows you to erect buildings that allow for character bonuses as well as work with the Senate and other non-battle related stuff. The game explains it better than I do.The Negatives:The negatives of this game are not many, however some of them are incredibly annoying and leads to the imperfections of this game.- The camera is really hampered by the art design. The characters, except the story characters, all look alike and it's really hard to tell ally from foe. The only discerning thing is the color of their life bar, which isn't helpful when the map is cluttered with characters and blinking colored panels.- The existence of Geo Panels which are colorful and blinking on certain maps totally impede one's ability to see their characters' movement range.- The Item World, while extremely fun, and good for grinding and discovery new items and class types early on, is also is a pain in the behind. You can't save in this world and you can't exit out of this world until every 10th floor. I find it time consuming to slog through 10 floors without being able to save. I guess this is really meant for the end game perhaps, but by that time why would I want to grind and or level up any more items? You don't have to beat all enemies in these floors unless the block the exit of the floor, but even then you won't be able to level up your characters.- My final quarrel with this game is not mechanics related, it's the simple fact that after awhile, and I'm only two weeks in, you realize that this is pretty much a collecting game. Since the story topic is so forgettable and the main characters are so weird, there isn't much to care about besides leveling up and getting more items. I think this is the sentiment of most reviewers of this game. What I have realized is that the play mechanics of this game can only apply to a weird and comedic storyline, because unlike Fire Emblem or FF Tactics, characters in this game can't die, they will be treatable after each level victory. If these mechanics were in a serious setting it wouldn't make sense. Although I gave this game high marks for depth, it may very well be that I was fooled by the facade and once I beat the story mode I may never play again.

Overall, this is just more glorious Disgaea. (If you haven't already, by the way, play the first in the series. It's available on several platforms: PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS.) The characters and the story from the original, in my opinion, are still the best. But of any of the sequels, Disgaea 4 comes closest to matching the appeal of the original's cast and plot, especially your starting cast members, Valvatorez and Fenrich. And in regards to gameplay, Disgaea 4 keeps up all the best traditions of its predecessors and adds in a few more.So, in general, I love the game and recommend it.But for the benefit of readers familiar with the series, here are a few critical points that I feel are worth mentioning:Detracting from the telling of the story are a few obnoxious character voices in the English voice track. Other reviews I read suggest playing the game with the Japanese voice track in order to avoid the occasionally jarring English voice acting. I agree: I plan to switch mine to Japanese and leave it there after I've finished the story in English once.Regarding patches to this title, NIS seems to assume that most of its player base will have access to high speed connections. They are probably right. However, for the handful of players still stuck with slower Internet speeds, getting any patches for the game will be a laborious experience. Version 1.12 (released January, 2012) was a whopping 1300 MB download, and Version 1.13 (also released January, 2012) was a whopping 1700 MB. In terms of storage it's a relief to know that each new patch overwrites the old ones; that's 1700 MB of game data on your PS3, not 3000 MB. But, again, for slow connection speeds these scorched earth updates, which cannot be performed as background downloads, will each be a difficult pill to swallow.That said, you don't have to update to the latest version to play the game. Refusing to update only prevents you from using Network features, which I occasionally want to turn off anyway.Network features are cool: Senators from other players' games show up in your voting sessions, pirates from other players' games show up in your item world, and you can play on custom maps built by other players.But they are also a bit annoying: Level 9999 senators will show up and skew the vote if you don't bribe them, power-leveled pirates will show up and smash your party to bits (although you can set some loose caps on the levels of Network pirates that can appear), and Network features introduce a little bit of extra loading time. For example, the Item World contains a special map called Summit Hearing that loads up a bunch of other players' senators into one room. The game hangs a little bit as it loads that room, and the first time it happened I wondered if my game had frozen. Fortunately, if you get sick of them they aren't hard to turn off.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Disgaea franchise, it is a turn based tactical RPG much along the same vein as Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem. Your team of 10 characters, made up of your choice of feature characters or customized characters, take turns moving about a battlefield unleashing attacks and spells upon each other. The game has a sizeable main plot, but the amount of time you can spend playing this game is virtually unlimited as the game can randomly generate new levels for you to play infinitely and your character will only reach 'maximum level' if you play this game far, far more than anyone should play any game.For those of you familiar with the series, Disgaea 4 lives up to your expectations. It has the same sense of humor, colourful characters, and customization of the rest of the series. The Magichange system is back from Disgaea 3 but improved to make it more of a useful and viable option. Monsters have also been expanded by allowing two of them to 'fuse' together to make giant sized monsters. As an added bonus, you get to see many of the characters from previous Disgaea titles show up and join the team, though most of those appear after the main plot finishes.

Here's a fun game, if you've really liked the Disgaea games in the past. It has the same strategic gameplay, ridiculous amounts of levelling, and same cornball humour that has made the previous titles what they are. There are a few new additions, though nothing revolutionary, just, you know, more of the same kind of Disgaea gaming. If you liked the previous games in the series, you'll love this one. Also, HD sprites!

Tolles Spiel

Great box set, fun game you can soak hundreds of hours into, any fan is NIS or Disgaea will NOT be disappointed in the slightest

If you like the series you'll like it.