Video Game Review: Disgaea Infinite
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Type: PlayStation Portable game
Format: UMD
Length: 4 - 8 hours
Content rating: T for Teen (ESRB)
Review rating: 5.5 out of 10
Written by: Kenneth "Link1986" Russey
Another Prinny game for the PSP, dood? Totally sweet dood!
When I first got the opportunity to play Disgaea Infinite, I was a little hesitant. I mean taking an SRPG lovers' best title and turning it into an interactive graphic novel is not the best recipe for fun. Luckily for you I did play Disgaea Infinite and had a pretty good time playing it too.
It all starts on the night of the full moon when Etna is expecting a special pudding of which only 100 are made each day from Amazombie, the mail-order department of RosenQueen's telephone shopping network. Young prince Laharl finds out about this pudding and decides he will eat this for himself. Unfortunately for some reason Laharl explodes and blames the Prinnies for tricking him and as a result he reduces the Prinnies salaries to nothing per day. Thus starts your adventure as a nameless Prinny accompanied by a magical watch named TickTock who possesses characters to prevent all the Prinnies' salaries from being cut.
After spending about six hours playing Disgaea Infinite to get all fourteen endings (which if you know what you’re doing can be done in two hours), and listening to the fully-spoken dialog, I can’t help but feel that at the end of the day the only people who will really enjoy this game are the hardcore Disgaea fans. This is not to say that others can't easily enjoy this game and have a laugh, but with in-jokes and endings that only make sense when they are put into a greater context, the game can only be fully appreciated by those who are already familiar with the Disgaea universe.
This game gets 55 out of 100 points and this is how it achieved that score:
1. Fully-spoken dialog by most of the original cast. (They still haven’t gotten my original Etna voice actress back.) Good 10 points
2. Being able to skip past previously read dialog. Good 10 points
3. Explains why the cast from Disgaea shows up in other Disgaea, and non-Diagaea games. Good 10 points
4. Not really a full game because of a VERY small amount of actual interactivity. Bad 0 points
5. Game is quite short. Bad 0 points
6. Only a really big Disgaea fan will love this. Neutral 5 points
7. The lines which the Prinny makes the other characters say are funny as Hell. Good 10 points
8. Sadly Prinny does not get enough opportunities to change what the others say. Bad 0 points
9. There is little replay value beyond getting all the endings. Bad 0 points
10. The game's introductory price tag is very acceptable at only $20. Good 10 points
A digital copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.