Endless Afternoon
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness is quite possibly the longest PSP game ever made. It's also awesome.
Published: November 4, 2007
What makes it all even more impressive is that the game runs flawlessly on the PSP -- even better than it did on the PS2, if you can believe it. A silky framerate, perfect analog controls and hands-down the best load times you'll probably ever see in a PSP game (we're talking title screen to playing the game in about five seconds or so, and transitions between levels, shops and so on are all but instantaneous)... the game is an astonishing accomplishment by Nippon Ichi, utterly trouncing the other SRPG offerings on the system in every way. Even the game's textures have been smoothed a little, making it all look like a painting, and thanks to the PSPs screen size and the game's resolution, all of the sprites look absolutely fantastic. This literally is the PS2 game on your PSP, made even better with marked improvements.
Unfortunately, none of those improvements were carry-overs from Disgaea 2. The camera angles are locked, meaning it's possible to end up with enemies in areas that would be impossible to see. Had the game added an option to make blocking objects transparent or even a tilt function (sorry, zoom doesn't do anything when a big ass column is taking up the whole view), it would have been much nicer. Other things, like healers not gaining experience for healing (you have to use 'em to kill weak enemies to properly level up), just made me long for Disgaea 2's refined battle system all the more. They're extremely minor things, but it really is hard to go back.
What really floors me about how seamless all of the game's loading and general zippiness is, is the fact that that includes full voice acting during most cutscenes. The music, voices (including tons of new voice work during Etna's story) and sound effects are all pulled up along with the menus and graphics more or less instantly once you're in the game, and it just blows my mind that NIS, of all companies, would be the one to raise the bar like this. Granted, nearly all of the game is likely running in memory to begin with, but it's still a fantastic accomplishment. Good work, guys.
This is important, though, because the audio in the game is one of its strongest plusses. All of the voice work, from brash Laharl to scheming Etna to innocent little Flonne, all the way down to the smallest of characters (and of course the Prinnies, dood!), sounds fantastic. The music, a sort of mix of cheery, bubbly little tunes and adorably gothic notes just fits the game perfectly. Thanks to some absolutely killer localization and writing, the characters in the game end up being one of the best reasons to experience Disgaea's story.
I honestly can't recommend Afternoon of Darkness enough. It is everything a SRPG should be, filled to the brim with a staggering amount of gameplay, a great story with absolutely insane characters, killer gameplay that all SRPGs would do well to copy, and with the PSP version, runs, looks and plays better than the original version. Yes, there could have been some improvements (I can only assume NIS is saving those for the PSP port of Disgaea 2, but they honestly could and should have been added here with all the other additions that went into the game), but these are minor complaints and the game as a whole is a near-flawless execution of an already fantastic game. Go buy it. Hell, go buy three copies just to get people sucked in.