In Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness we have the same wonderful and hilarious game we enjoyed on thePS2, but with some valuable new additions.

For those who never crossed paths with this inspired title before, Disgaea is perhaps best described as a turn based squad strategy game. If I tell you it uses similar game mechanics as Final Fantasy tactics, or Ogre battle, maybe that makes more sense but it still doesn’t quite portray this game’s unique style.

You’re Laharl, son of the previous ruler of the underworld, who has died, and now you have to re-conquer your empire as… well, you were sleeping while your old man died and underworld went to pieces. On top of that, Flonne (an angel) will come to your realm and will try to show you the Power of Love (and I’m not talking about the Hughie Lewis and the News song. Or the Jennifer Rush one. Or The Everley Brothers, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Luther Vandross, Captain Snesible, Joe Simon or Dee-Lite ones). Oh, and I almost forgot. Your right hand, Edna, is a mischievous bitch with aspiration of killing you.

Sound appealing? And you haven’t even seen the hilarious dialog yet!

Disgaea is one of the most fun, addictive and well written games of the PSP’s entire catalog. The combat system is quite complete and features some great twists while keeping brilliantly simple play mechanics at its core. The situations, especially Flowne and Edna’s dialog, are quite simply awesome and some bosses, like Mid-Boss, or the Colour Rangers are utterly hilarious.

The game takes place in an isometric view, where you have to place your squad appropriately and meet the various quest conditions to pass the stage – normally (but restricted to) defeating all enemies. To accomplish this, you have your normal attacks, special attacks and magic, but Disgaea went one step further and added a variety of combo attacks, support, and chain reactions.

If you place various attackers on a single enemy – let’s say we surround a guy with four of our own - your guys can attack one after another, adding some damage for each attack. On the other hand, if we have our attacker surrounded by his mates, his colleagues will ‘support’ his attack, even making additional attacks and adding extra damage to the strike. This is a great addition to typical turn-based strategies which adds an extra dimension of possibilities to a well placed, and well commanded, squad.

The maps include special zones that are controlled by a coloured item. When a suitable item is inside the zone, it gives those tiles a special effect: for example, we could get extra defense in a blue controlled zone, or extra attack on a red one. But they also combine colours, so a zone with a red and blue items would be a purple zone with yet another different effect. This is really cool and useful, and expand the possibilities exponentially once players learn how to use these fully to their advantage – including the new chain reaction function.

It an item on a special zones is destroyed it’ll start hitting all tiles on the zone for a small amount of damage, but if one of these tiles contains another item it’ll start a chain reaction of destruction and can wipe out an entire map when used correctly.

The people in our squad are recruited from the races of monsters that are defeated, so we will end up being able to create dragons, zombies, ghosts and more. The classes we are allowed to enroll are based on the levels of our current troops so, for instance, we’d be able to create ninjas assuming we have fighters and warriors over level 10. The Dark Assembly will also define how good our comrades can be, as we will have to convince the Assembly to let us train more proficient people. One of the best aspects of the entire game, this is achieved by one of two methods - bribe or fight!

As usual for Nippon Ichi software, the design of the characters is superb, making use of a brilliant manga-esque style. The sprites are incredibly expressive and funny; the likes of which we’ve not seen since Final Fantasy 6. The monsters are equally amusing and well designed, and although some of the scenarios could have had a bit more of work they fit the game mechanics very well.

The main plot (as on the PSP we have an extra ‘Edna mode’) is well scripted, with great comical situations with decent sounds and great tunes, but as often happens with this kind of game, the music and effects tend to repeat a little too much.

We also have a pair of mini-games or subsystems that add a lot to the game’s depth and value, including a character creation option (although not lead roles).

Many gamers will be wondering whether Disgaea is worth buying if they already own it on the PS2, and the answer really lies with their own personal gaming habits. Anyone who already owns this game will appreciate its value, and if your PSP is used during the commute or at work, an extra copy of Disgaea is a must have.

Those who don’t already own it, should do – this is a game that supports Sony’s finest consoles supremely well, and your collection isn’t complete without it.