i remember when i first started the game, i just sat there for five minutes listening to the lobby theme and being like. yeah, this is gonna be one of those video game songs i hear 3-5 years down the line and just start crying. and i was right :)

a 4.5 star rating might be a little high for this game tbh, but i really love it. the beautiful spritework, over the top attack animations, and funky ass soundtrack makes this game feel super unique, and i really enjoyed unlocking new classes, customizing my units, and constantly finding new ways to grind faster or improve them.

completion of a game like this is daunting, but this game was meant to be 100%ed. the only other time i've felt such an immense satisfaction from completing a game was with disgaea 4 - but even though the platinum on this one was challenging, for the most part it's not bullshit. there's always something new to learn to speed up the process - reincarnation, grinding for evilities, optimizing your trips through the item world... sure, not everything in this game is a win (chara world sucks but than god its not really required) but just playing around with this game's mechanics and improving your units feels great.

the story is pretty bad and none of the main characters stuck with me other than usalia (you probably won't even end up using the others in your playthrough tbh). but if you're into these kinds of games you probably don't care about that stuff anyway. i think if you're looking to get into disgaea, this is a great place to start.