As soon as the short intro is over, players can move about Laharl's castle freely. This is the only time in the game players are not stuck on a grid. The game plays like most other strategy role playing games (SRPG). Once a battle starts, players move characters around on a grid in a 3d battlefield. They can attack; use items or special abilities, even pick up and throw allies and enemies.

There is a ton of stuff in Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness that can distract players from playing the story. Immediately after the tutorial, all of the shops open up, as well as the item world and the underworld senate. Both of these places are totally optional, but of course it is much more fun if you take advantage of these. The senate must be consulted for issues like, getting better and more expensive equipment in the stores, extorting money, creating characters, and all sorts of comical mischief. Any character can go in front of the senate and before any vote is made the senators can be bribed with items from your inventory. If the vote goes well, the measure passes and you go on your way. If the vote fails, the character can try and change the senators' minds by force. Usually this results in the death of the character and a game over since the senators are usually much higher level than the character, but it can be done.

For those of us who have played the original on the PS2, most of this is very familiar. The story stays the same, just with an updated translation, and all of the voices can be played in either English or Japanese including the fights. One of the best things a company can do when making a port is to add content. Most SRPG ports add a couple of character classes, or new characters, but Nippon Ichi has added a whole new story in Etna mode. Once players beat the main story, and receive any of the available endings, Etna mode is opened up. The story is based on what happens if Etna accidentally kills Laharl while trying to wake him. A brand new adventure branches out from there. This is probably one of the best extras I have seen in a port. Other extras, include two different multiplayer modes and a fog of war option. This is where the battlefield is visible only around friendly units, much like a RTS game.

Nippon Ichi once again shows off it's skill in creating a SRPG masterpiece, combining 3d battlefield environments and 2d sprites seamlessly. The characters are well drawn, as are the various weapons used in the game. Most of the environments are well laid out, and players generally do not have a problem navigating them. The item world is the only spot that might cause some trouble with the camera. Since all stages in the item world are randomly generated, occasionally there can be a spot where enemies can hide in a valley that the camera cannot see down. Most of the time, however, this is not a problem.

The story is great, a demon prince whose father dies choking on a snack loses his throne because he slept for two years. The game is riddled with ditzy anime and dark humor. Most of the main characters are your standard run of the mill anime characters - Laharl is the overzealous egotistical nut, Love Angel Flonne is the bubble headed ditz who thinks love will fix everything. This is really the only downside to the game, as most of the characters are rather predictable and are standard cookie cutter characters for Japanese RPGs.

The music Disgaea fits very well in all areas - the castle music has an almost comical feel to it. Players are going to need to get used to some of it, as there is really only a few different songs for battle music. But, the battles move along quickly with short animations for the different skills and spells. Since many players will be spending a fair share of hours in the castle and item worlds, it would have been nice for the music to change from chapter to chapter, however this is a port from the PS2 version and plenty of other new additions were made.

Overall Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness is a great port. It was awesome on the PS2 and now even better on the PSP with Etna mode and the various multiplayer modes. With almost no load times and no slowdown the game is a joy to pick up and put down whenever and wherever. The story is a blast, loaded with dark and witty humor. With the amount of things that can be done in this game, players can keep themselves occupied for hours on end playing it. I spent more than 100 hours playing the regular story mode on the PS2, and now with the alternate story, there is even more to do. All video game companies take note; this is the way you make a port!