It's pretty much the same game as Disgaea PC, but with higher quality sprites. If you never played D1 then you should just get this version.

As an upgrade it's disappointing, it doesn't have any QoL features the PC version didn't have or the cheats from DD2. And even as a graphic upgrade it's a bit disappointing as a fan of the original because instead of remaking the sprites for the generics that had a different design in D1 they just recycled the HD versions of their redesigns.
I don't mind TOO much in some cases like the Thief and Male Cleric since i really like their redesigns a lot more, but it sucks for classes like the Skull Mages who looked a lot cooler in D1.

In a better timeline the original designs would have gotten an update and we would be able to pick wich design we wanted to use.

mechanically this game feels like when you go over to your friend who's really into board games' house and he tries to get you to play this really complex board game with a bunch of rules and systems. i ended up spending the majority of my time trying to decipher and understand how to even begin to play this game efficiently before i could even approach enjoying it. in many ways this game felt like homework because of how often i had to cross reference different guides, forum threads, and general stat sheet spreads. once i got past all of that? the last 10 or so hours of gameplay that remained was fine i guess. i can forgive an early 2000s JRPG/SRPG for being clunky, but i can't lie and say getting to the understanding part was fun. it was a shitload of grinding and oftentimes for a plot and characters i didn't give much of a shit about.

story-wise this game would benefit from either a tighter and plottier narrative, or just make the entire thing an inner journey for laharl. i was mostly on board with the latter, then the game gets side-tracked by "oh no this human wants to challenge laharl!" like four times in a row until we finally get to an angels vs. demon conflict. it's weird to call some of the only external conflict in the game "padding", but what does a character like gordon or jennifer really contribute to the story? the only three characters that get any level of intrigue are, of course, the main trio. why am i supposed to give a shit that jennifer's dad is actually the evil general guy or whatever. i didn't. strongest stuff was in the character establishing and building, so i see hope for future entries to focus on those smaller stake things than to go for the big epic conflict between heaven and hell.

i feel 2.5/5.0 is probably a generous rating considering how little fun or joy this evoked out of me, but it also feels like this is just a game i largely didn't get. maybe it's not for me, but it feels like SRPG in name alone and was more meant to showcase the whole "you can do crazy amounts of damage if you grind your eyeballs out!!". yeah, okay, but can you get me to care about your characters? game suffers from the fire emblem 8 problem of "it's by far in your best interest to just focus on grinding up one character than trying to build up a team of reliable units", and i guess it's on me for wanting something different than that. i'm hopeful future entries will either refine the gameplay system to make it more enjoyable to get to the part of mastering all the different systems and mechanics, or maybe the narrative more compelling with better written characters. either one would make this a much more enjoyable timesink than it currently is.

Grinding is fun. Some classes and monsters have changed due to their sprites being replaced from a newer game. Not really a deal breaker for me. I think the newer sprites look nice. Another down side is the tsunami bomb track is replaced. Those are the 2 biggest downsides. There are a bunch of QoL improvements from the original including turning animations off and being able to stack 900 Statistician instead of just 300. Another HUGE time saver/QoL is that cave of ordeals 3 has higher level monsters in Etna Mode. With the strongest monsters bill passed, in etna mode, the CoO3 monsters are roughly level 4000. While having 900 Statisticians and a leveled cosmic sword, I was able to grind a reincarnated Divine Majin back to 9999 in probably less then 30 mins. I platinumed this game in 80 hours. It probably would have taken me like 300 hours if it was the ps2 version. Very based game. Most of the Disgaea games end up being pretty sappy and the characters can be very annoying but I like this one the best.

Very fun srpg, but dated in some aspects. Level design is good but often very gimmicky. Grinding is required to an extent and is tedious to do so, fortunately you can beat the game without having a ton of leveled units. For this reason as well recruited units are worthless. Healing also gives low experience, making healers hard to level. Fortunately the rest of the game is great. The writing and story is funny and entertaining. The gameplay is a lot of fun, while being a little dated, it still holds up.

Actual Disgaea review TBD on the PS2 entry.
Fun game, but a disappointing idea of what a "Refine"'d or Complete edition should be. Assets are reused and classes are swapped with modern variants, voice audio seems to remain crunchy, and since this is blatantly built upon the PC edition, there are not many QoL changes that aren't just what you'd expect for a game coming from later on in the 2000s compared to the earlier side. Additional action voices, making postgame units NOT just be Monster classes and some other balancing nitpicks would really make this game great for everyone to indulge in, but alas, NIS chose to do the mechanical minimum, perhaps out of laziness or perhaps out of preservation. There certainly could've been much more added to be on par with the other Complete ports, but as it stands, D1C is just Disgaea PC with an "HD" texture pack, really. Cool to replay, but I'm not sure if there's anything explicitly worth playing this over the PC version in terms of QoL since I haven't touched the latter. Disgaea on the go is very nice for item world runs, but the postgame is probably the shortest in the series as I've killed max Prinny Baal in record time. Apparently Mobile has a cheat shop that isn't in the console version for whatever reason. Get it if it ever goes on sale.
Etna Mode, while super short, is very fun. Some of the English VA can be corny as hell but her newer VA is always a treat.

3 years, 3 disgea games. And i think it has ran its course. i really enjoyed 5, but disgaea 6 was fairly disappointing. With 1, all the ingredients that made a good disgaea game are present with this being the first game in the franchise, but it ultimately felt its age such as the tedious grinding. the visuals were improved to my understanding with the Complete version, but the charm wasn't enough to make this trudge that worth it.

i honestly will always have a soft spot for disgea 5, and while this may be the last disgaea game, i tip my hat to this pretty well rounded jrpg franchise, and the game where it all began.

I remember being only around 8 years old and my cousin visited my house one day holding this game in his hands and he asked if he could use my PS2. And I was definitely intrigued by him playing it.

I was impressed with the 2D anime sprite art style, the characters interacting with each other, the sound effects, and the music was fucking amazing. But as soon as I put the controller in my hands I had no idea what in God's name I was doing. I wasn't used to JRPGs, especially ones like this, I just mashed buttons like if I was playing Kingdom Hearts, and I also slapped weapons onto characters that were never meant to use them.

Despite how awful I was at the game, I wanted to actually learn more about it and get invested in it, since these types of games remind me of when I used to watch my older brother play through Final Fantasy VII and X. As I started learning the game, I became obsessed with it.

At first, Disgaea 1 looks simplistic by today's standards with how much the franchise has evolved. However deep down at its core is a very complex title that stands out from most other games, and it is one of the most criminally underrated games I've ever played. This game is so complex in its gameplay systems that it serves as the standard for the future of the franchise.

[GAMEPLAY]

Normally I like to talk about the story before going into the gameplay, but Disgaea is mostly known for its batshit over the top gameplay and mechanics that never shy away from how ridiculous it is, so I'll start with that first... There's gonna be a lot to talk about here so bare with me.

This is a Strategy RPG like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, but there are insane factors to Disgaea that actually makes me prefer it a lot more. You can have up to 10 characters move around on the battlefield in a grid shaped fashion. Every character can move and attack once per turn, however if you move to the wrong spot accidently, you can push Circle button to move back to your previous position.

If you position multiple characters (up to 4) to attack a single enemy, they team up to execute an all-out attack that deals more damage than a regular attack. Characters can also execute Special Skills using SP.
Some are weak, others are much more powerful.

Special Skills are learned depending on what weapon the character is wielding. There's Sword, Axe, Spear, Bow, Gun, Fist, and Staff Skills. Every character have different efficiencies for each weapon type, and are ranked from S to D.

Flonne for example has an S ranking for Staves, an A ranking for Bows, a B ranking for Guns, and a D ranking for Fists and Axes.

This is important because the higher the rank, the faster the character can gain Weapon Mastery levels.

When you get to a certain Weapon Mastery level, you gain a new Skill.

And for staves, leveling up your Weapon Mastery not only increases spell damage, but also the casting range. But for Mage classes to learn new spells, they need to level up themselves.

There are also weapons exclusively for Monster classes (like Succubi and Zombies), however they don't gain any Weapon Mastery, instead Monsters learn Skills from leveling up, however they can still learn magic spells. Also, Monster classes can only use Monster weapons.

Your Skills also level up independently. As they level up, they cost more SP but they can deal more damage. And leveling up Spells increases both the range of the spell, and the amount of targets you can hit with the spell at once.

There are also Skills that are exclusive to certain characters, and they gain even more as they level up.

Mages are fucking overpowered and I will explain why.

Star Mages are the best mages, because they get Star magic. There are three types of elemental magic: Fire, Wind, and Ice. Every character have resistances and weaknesses to each type of magic.

If a character has a Fire elemental Resistance of -50%, that means they take 50% MORE damage from Fire Skills.

However, Star is non-elemental. Which means that it's not possible for characters to tank Star magic damage. And magic can't be blocked unless if the spell actually misses. This makes Star magic insanely strong.

Though you will need to get a Red, Green, and Blue Mage to a certain level before you unlock the Star Mage but it's pretty early on. I don't recommend using the Prism or Galaxy Mages because their spells aren't very good.

Also, the game has a mechanic called the Mentor/Pupil system. Basically, you can create characters in this game from a place called the Dark Assembly. Anyone in the party can create characters. The creators are the Mentors, and the characters they create are the Pupils.

You need Mana for this, which is gained from killing enemies.

Mentors are able to learn any Skills that are learned from their Pupils (except UNIQUE Skills).
Flonne doesn't start off with any magic spells aside from her unique healing ability. So let's say I wanted her to learn healing and fire magic.

Basically, you have Flonne create a Cleric class and a Red Mage class (the gender doesn't matter), then once in battle, you have Flonne stand next to the Cleric and the Fire Mage, then you have her cast the spells they have learned until they reach Level 1 and viola, Flonne can now permanently cast Fire and Healing magic.

This means that you can make Flonne into a fucking BEAST of a Mage, since she specializes in magic.

You want Laharl and Etna to learn magic as well? Can do! Anyone can learn magic.

(But you still need to level up the Mage itself if you want to unlock those stronger spells.)

This mechanic essentially allows you to build your party however you want to. The possibilities are staggering. Though don't get too carried away with it and I will explain why.

First off all, once the Mentor creates the Pupil, they are stuck with it. ONLY Mentors can learn Skills off of the Pupils. No one else. So if you want Flonne to learn magic but then you also want Laharl to learn magic, you gotta make more Mages with Laharl.

Every character also have Equipment Attributes. What are those? Basically, it's a percentage next to the characters stats.

You've got ATK (Attack Power)
DEF (Defense)
HIT (Hit Accuracy)
INT (Spell Power)
SPD (Evasion and Stealing Efficiency)
RES (Spell Resistance and Spell Restoration Power)

Each of these stats have percentages next to them. Each percentage represents how much a character's stats increase when equipping items.

For example, here is the Ronin class's Aptitudes:

HP - 100%
SP - 70%
ATK - 110%
DEF - 100%
INT - 70%
SPD - 100%
HIT - 100%
RES - 70%

If a percentage is at 100%, that means the character gains normal increases when equipping items that boosts that specific stat.

However, since the SP percentage is at 70%, that means the Ronin gets a 30% decrease in stat boosting when equipping any items that boosts her SP.

But since the ATK Aptitude is at 110%, that means the Ronin will get an extra 10% in her ATK when equipping anything that boosts it.

This means that characters have definite strengths and weaknesses in certain areas. These Aptitudes can make the difference between a useful character and a shit one.

There are Monster specific classes, and all of their Aptitudes are 100% by default, though they can only use Monster type weapons.

UNIQUE characters like Laharl, Etna, Flonne, Gordon, Jennifer, and Thursday cannot increase their Aptitudes. All of them by default have Aptitudes of 100% in every stat.

Other characters that you create in the Dark Assembly are different.

As you level up a class, you unlock Tiers for that class. The higher the Tier, the more the Aptitudes can go up, and the Weapon Mastery ranks can go up as well. However, if you want to upgrade to a higher Tier, you have to Transmigrate the character, which means they start back at level 1 with 0 Mana, but they get to keep all the Skills they learned.

You can also Transmigrate any class into another one. Wanna turn your Star Mage into a Nekomata and have all her spells carry over? You can do that.

There is a method for getting the character to level back up quickly but I'll get into that later.

The classes in this game are fucking insane, this is one of the main reasons why I prefer this over FF Tactics. There are tons to choose from, and you unlock more and more when meeting certain requirements.

There's classes like Magic Knights, Ronins, Martial Artists, Martial Artist Nekomatas (my personal favorite), Succubi, Zombies, Dragons + Dragon Zombies, Reapers, Gargoyles, Ghosts, Golems, Thieves, Clerics, Archers, Ninjas, Angels, Warriors, Pumpkin Heads, the list just goes on.

This game allows you to build your own waifu army. You can name them whatever you want to as well.
The customization in this game is so fucking good. It holds up so damn well even though Disgaea 5 has the most polished gameplay in the whole series, but there is a reason why I think Disgaea 1 is the best game in the series and I'll talk about that later.

The Dark Assembly is basically a courthouse in Hell (since these games take place in Hell), and you get to vote on bills. Bills such as:

- Getting access to more expensive, powerful items in shops

- Making the enemies stronger

- Unlocking Belts, Shoes, and Glasses in shops (these are very damn good for boosting stats, stock up on these)

- Increasing your counterattacks and movement range

- Unlocking the Cave of Ordeals (best place to level up in the game)

- Gaining triple EXP for the first enemy killed

To unlock more Bills you have to pass Promotion Exams in which you have the character fight against some enemies. And they grow in strength with each exam.

Once you select a Bill, the Senate will vote on it. If it gets denied, you can either retry the vote, or you can convince the Senate to reconsider their denial with brute force. I'm not fuckin' joking.

Because that's how politics work in this world lmao. Though you probably won't be doing this until much later in the game, because some of these senators are very, very high leveled. If they voted Nay, prepare to get the living shit kicked out of you, you might as well just off yourself.

Every time you visit a shop, the items they sell change every time. And the items can have different stats and Innocents (I'll get into that). So if you don't see any items you particularly want, just leave the shop and re-enter it. Buying stuff will increase your Customer Rank, which will unlock the ability to pass Bills for stronger items.

And now to talk about the Item World and the Innocents, and these are just even more layers to the insane customization this game has.

The Item World is a place consisting of randomly generated stages. Every stage is random in layout, enemies, and their placements. It's completely RNG, which is very unique. The Item World is used to level up your equipment and gain Innocents. Yes, you can also level up equipment.

Every stage has an exit portal that you must reach to progress to the next floor. Every 10 floors has a boss stage, but you can skip the boss and head straight for the exit. The more floors you progress through, the more the item levels up and gets stronger, however, the enemies increase in level as you keep going.

Also, you cannot leave the Item World unless you either reach the exit of a boss stage, or you use an item called a Mr. Gency Exit. And these can only be obtained if you beat the boss stage.

If you do leave early, the item will still level up depending on how many floors you progressed. And if you decide to go back in at a later time, you will start off at the floor you last left off.

The stronger the item is, the stronger the enemies, but the enemies also get even stronger as you go deeper, so be careful.

There are also some times where an enemy will be standing on an exit portal and won't move. You have to kill them. But if they're too strong for you, there's a little trick I know, and that's taking a Martial Artist and using their very first skill Triple Strike to push the enemy off the portal so you can go through it.

Every item also has a rarity, and there are three types: Bronze (Common), Sliver (Rare), and Gold (Legendary). The higher the rarity, the farther you can go in the Item World with it.

If I remember correctly, the Common items only let you go to Floor 30.

Rare items let you go to Floor 50.

And Legendary lets you go to Floor 100.

When you reach the 100th Floor you encounter the Item God. This is a boss that is insanely powerful but has some amazing items to steal. Some of the best equipment in the game can be found on these Item Gods, but what the items the God has is dependant on the item you have been leveling up (I could be wrong about this, it's been a while).

So about the Innocents, basically they are extra perks that boosts stats or add bonuses to the character. For example, a Statistician is an Innocent that increases EXP gain. The Armsmaster Innocent increases Weapon Mastery gain.

This is very important, because leveling up Innocents adds a huge multiplier to the character's growth.
A single level 300 Statistician (the max level) increases EXP gain by 300%. So if you wanna get to the max level which is 9999 (no joke), then you need to grind for these Statistician Innocents.

And if you wanna level up your Weapon Mastery levels faster, you need to grind for Armsmaster Innocents, and the highest level those can go up to is 1900.

Statisticians and Armsmasters are two of the most important Innocents.

So how do you get these Innocents and level them up?

Well, many items have Innocents on them. Just look for any item that has the Statistician. The stronger the item, the higher the base level of the Innocent. Then you take that item into the Item World. Then you try to find an enemy where the game pans the camera over the enemy and you see a box that pops up that says "CHECK."

What I usually do is enter on Floor 1, and if the enemy doesn't spawn, I go back to the castle and try again. But when you do see the enemy, you kill it, and then you gain the Innocent. You will know it's been subdued because the text is blue instead of black. When the text is blue that means you can transfer the Innocent onto other items.

Also, once an Innocent has been subdued, you can't encounter it in the Item World again. You need to get a different item with an unsubdued Innocent on it.

So to level up the Statistician, you need to kill the same Innocent in the Item World, transfer it onto the same item, then you combine the two Innocents together, and that's it. The Innocent grows in level.

This is mandatory if you want to get into those insanely high levels so you can fight the post-game bosses.

Christ Almighty, this is the first game in the series, and yet there is so many ways to customize your characters that just writing about it is making my head spin. There's just so fuckin' much to talk about here.

But that's why I love this game so much along with the excellent story.
I love the micro management, I love the grind, I love seeing numbers go up, I love seeing my characters get overpowered. This is the kind of shit I geek the fuck over, especially since the numbers are fucking insane.

This has some of the most addicting gameplay I've ever seen in a game, and yet it still pales in comparison to Disgaea 5. These games are best known for their grindy natures, but you'd want to do it if you want to finish all the post-game content.

The max level is 9999, and you can deal damage in the millions which is just insane.

[STORY]

So after that visual novel of a review on the gameplay I can now express my affection towards the story. The narrative to this game has made me feel many things. It has made me laugh, and it has made me cry.

The humor in this game is fuckin' hilarious at times, there are a lot of instances where the jokes made me burst out laughing. Whether it's from the interaction of the characters, to the dialogue, these characters always put a smile on my face.

And that's because Laharl and Flonne are two completely different types of people. Laharl is loudmouthed, short-tempered, cynical, selfish, and hates to talk about his personal problems, but he is still just a kid who shows signs of weakness. Regardless, he is a really funny character. A lot of his lines do crack me up cause of how snarky he is at times.

And Flonne, is one of the greatest fuckin' characters in the history of this series, dead ass, she's my favorite character in this game. Sweet, caring, adorable, selfless, nerdy, but is just as vulnerable as Laharl and Etna are. I absolutely adore Flonne, she is one of my most favorite video game characters. Even when the situation doesn't call for it or when no one asks, she shows affection and kindness towards other people. She is the most wholesome being.

At times she does get frustrated at Laharl because of how rude and mean-spirited he can be, but watching these two develop throughout the game is a lovely thing.

Etna is great as well. Just like Laharl, she is short-tempered, mischievous, snarky, cynical, and really funny because of how much of a smart ass she is.

I love Gordon, Jennifer, and Thursday as well.

They're parodied as what Americans think of as the average superhero crew. Gordon in particular has a heart of gold, but he is so dumb at times that it just makes the game even funnier, another one of my favorite characters.

Jennifer is very caring of her allies and Thursday is very 3-Dimensional for being a combat robot. Again, they have some really funny moments as well.

Considering how differently these characters are from each other, their interactions and how they grow to trust each other is what drives the narrative.

This is essentially a comedy mixed with a JRPG. But it does have its serious moments as well. When the situation calls for it, the music will kick in just to set off the feels. Some scenes get pretty damn heavy. The ending of the game in particular actually made me cry a lot because of how touching it is. I really feel the change in the characters in contrast to how you first meet them.

This game takes place in the Netherworld (Hell essentially). Laharl and Etna are Demons, and Flonne is an Angel, which is why they are so different from each other in terms of personality. Gordon and Jennifer are humans. Demons by nature are rude, cynical, and like to do selfish things, but there is still a sense of morality.

The universe of Disgaea consists of the three worlds: The Netherworld, Celestia (Heaven), and Earth. There are times that these three worlds cross paths with each other which shows the player how each world is indicative of the personalities of the the people that live there, or so that is what the characters like to believe and tell each other.

The game doesn't really follow one single, very long streamlined story. Each chapter is different from each other in terms of plot. A good chunk of the chapters are about the daily life of Laharl and his friends, as Laharl tries to make a name for himself as the heir of Overlord, like a slice of life. But it all connects to an overarching plot.

You do know the goals of the characters, but each chapter focuses on building towards those goals. It picks up as you keep playing. The development of the characters is done really well.

The storytelling in this game is so charming and memorable that it's the reason why I say it's still my favorite Disgaea game in the series.

Disgaea D2 and 5 has the best gameplay and animations ever in this franchise, but from a story perspective, the first game takes the cake.

[BEST VERSION]

The best version you should play of this game is either the Complete Edition that has come out for PS4 and Nintendo Switch or the PC release. Because they updated the menus and the 2D sprites to look like the ones from the newer games. They look pretty gorgeous.

The only thing that sucks is that the attack animations, stage graphics, and the cutscenes were not updated. They're only just at a higher resolution. And this was really damn disappointing to me, cause I was actually expecting a full on remake.

Regardless, this the best version to play. Because unlike the original PS2 version (Hour of Darkness), the HD releases have more cameo bosses and playable characters from later games, it has the Etna Mode, which is an extra story mode focusing on Etna (unlocked after beating the main story), and it has quality of life improvements like being able to skip the attack animations, being able to skip cutscenes, and if you want to quit the stage or if you get a Game Over, you will get sent back to the castle instead of being booted back to the main menu and having to reload your save file. This also makes grinding go by so much quicker.

So if you want to pick up this game, go for the version called either Disgaea 1 Complete or Disgaea PC.

[FINAL THOUGHTS]

This game is my childhood, and it takes me back every time I play it. I get really emotional talking about this game because it reminds me of when my brother was still around playing JRPGs and my younger self would sit there being fascinated by them...

This game is a masterpiece. It's one of the best games ever made, and yet it's so underrated, and maybe that's cause of the popularity of Fire Emblem and FF Tactics. I implore you, if you like Strategy RPGs, play this game. It's one of the most unique experiences out there. It's the game that got me hooked on this series and the genre in general.

But I also recommend you play Disgaea 5 as well. I'd say that's the second best in the series. The story in that game is great as well, it has the best gameplay in the whole franchise, and it has the most utterly batshit, mind-blowing attack animations I've ever seen in a game, it just shits on other games in that regard, it is ridiculous. If you thought Disgaea 1 was advanced in its gameplay, fuckin' oof, because Disgaea 5 is like a College Chemistry Exam in comparison.

10/10