Speaking of school, the storyline is really entertaining. Some people have complained that it is too out there or just plain childish, but where else can you play as Mao, a demon that is looking to overthrow his father, the overlord of the underworld, because he accidentally stepped on your memory card and erased your video game saved data. Of course the storyline goes deeper than that, but I'll save my full impression for my final review. I do love Raspberyl though, the biggest badass in the underworld, donating her time to those less fortunate.

Although it took me a few hours to get used to (I kept wondering why certain characters weren't gaining levels) I finally got used to the battle system and am actually quite enjoying it. For those uninitiated, the battles in Disgaea 3 are turn based in nature with the player performing all their actions and then the enemy taking a turn. You can select to move each character and attack before moving on to your next party member, but doing so will leave you bored and seeing the game over screen. The real fun lies in creating combos and chaining attacks together. Depending on where your characters are situated, they'll team together and unleash some rather nifty looking special moves dealing massive damage in the process. The likelihood of team attacks varies depending on different factors that I will go into in my final review. Going into battle with the wrong formation ended up being more detrimental then bringing a level 1 character into battles against level 15 monsters.

The battles themselves have so far proven to be exciting, even when replaying some older battles to gain experience. Though I have been finding that there is a gap between monster abilities, where sometimes they'll hit my characters for ten damage, and sometimes I'll be vaporized in one hit by a special attack. As for leveling up, characters gain experience when they defeat a monster and only the character who delivers the final blow gains the experience. There are some exceptions such as in team attacks where experience is divided and in the case of the healing classes of characters who will gain experience through aiding the party. At the end of each battle, bonuses are awarded and extra experience can be given to the entire party, but don't rely on this to level up. I found that taking a single character into some lower level battles levels them up a hell of a lot quicker than when you have ten characters fighting higher level baddies. Delivering the killing blow also gives characters skill points which can be used on acquiring new abilities and upgrading the old ones.

I've saved my impression of the graphics until the end because in a game like this, they are the least important part of the package. The sprites themselves look very much last generation and I can't help but wish they took a page out of the beautiful character design of Odin Sphere. The backgrounds are all richly detailed which makes the low-res sprites stand out even more. The animation though kept reminding me of Xenogears, so I guess we're talking some seriously dated visuals. The character portraits are nicely done if you're a fan of anime-style visuals and when they show some of their over the top expressions, I can't help but smile.

Those of you who have finished the game already are probably wondering why I haven't mentioned Homeroom and the item customization system. I haven't had a chance to really sit down and learn the ins and outs of these features; I've been trying to level characters and get through a chunk of the story before opening up yet another layer of the game. Trust me though; I will be spending countless hours with this game. While a bit overwhelming with everything it throws at you, the features of Disgaea 3 are a bit like the game itself. Take a step back, look at all your options and plan a strategy, that way you'll get the most out of your experience without losing your head.

As you can tell from above, there is a lot to talk about with this game. Stay tuned for my final review where I'll talk more about the story, sound design, character classes, the additional features, and whether or not Disgaea 3 is worth the 100 hours it asks you to sink into it. Maybe my review will be as long as the game!