This game has so many versions i don't even know wich one to start with.
I originally discovered Disgaea thanks to the DS port and i didn't really like because it looked like shit and every move turned the screen black wich was annoying. I was really interested in the characters so i ended up watching that one cursed anime instead.

Anyways a few years later i find the ps2 version and decided to give it another chance, and this time it clicked. It became one of my favorite videogame series when i was a teenager, my top 2 after the SMT franchise, and to be fair it's still pretty high up, top 10 materal at least.

Anyways, don't play this version, get Disgaea 1 Complete or Disgaea PC instead, it's the same game with more content and some more QoL. The only thing this one has that the others don't have is a Tsunami Bomb song they used for two stages because of some really weird collab.

Charming in the very specific ways that late 90s/early 00s parody anime are (think Di Gi Charat or Excel Saga). The game being structured into episodes with goofy preview segments is cute. The characters are well defined and fun to watch blabber about random shit (with the exception of the humans). It's really chill and has a clear unity of purpose in its mechanics and story that few games have. The Innocents and item world systems layer to give the game a soft modular difficulty where you can either engage with them to breeze through the story in like 20 hours or take it slow. If the main game is too easy the post-game offers a massive grind with optional dungeons. Disgaea doesn't overstay its welcome if you don't want it too, which is rare for RPGS which are usually well paced until you have to spend hours grinding to beat the final boss.

I love Disgaea 1, I played it on a whim after finding it on the PS2 in a second hand store and fell in love with the franchise since. The cast and story of D1 are arguably still the best in the franchise to this day.

While I love D1 and the memories I hold with it, Oh my god this game is a nightmare to go back to after playing later enteries. This game is hard, and not in terms of difficulty (It is also really difficult), but in terms of the quality of life introduced in later enteries.

The Item World's random generation is one of the most fun aspects to play with, as it gives a unique challenge every single time you run through it, but any run in the item world can be very suddenly and abruptly screwed over by terrible RNG, the exit being unreachable or enemies just being too far away to kill is a extremely common occurance that set me back hours sometimes. I'd love to say D1 Complete fixes this issue but I'd be a liar if I did.

This is ignoring other QOA improvements made later in the franchise, like making turns go by faster or generally making post game grinding more enjoyable, but fun the first attempt at this you have to give it some level of slack (Again wish I could say D1 complete fixes any of this)

This game set a great foundation for the rest of the series, and even now they love to bring the D1 cast back as much as possible because of how likeable and iconic they are.