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NISA Event 2008 – Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice hands on

By Michael | June 6, 2008 at 3:33 am

Disgaea 3, probably the most anticipated game announced at this year’s press event, has finally had some light shed upon its dark demon heart tonight. Scheduled to be released on the PlayStation 3, August 26, Disgaea 3 is the latest iteration of the Nippon Ichi’s flagship strategy RPG franchise.

Disgaea 3 will be focused around a new character who is working his way up to the number one honor student in the Demon Academy and while much of the core game play remains unchanged Disgaea 3 will have many game play enhancements and additions. One of the more notable and significant new features is the addition to Geo Blocks. Geo Blocks function in much the same way as tiled color floors did in previous Disgaea games. However, instead of being in 2D on the floor they stack vertically, adding a new dimension to the game. Players will be able to destroy these blocks, creating a chain effect with like colored adjacent Geo Blocks. Other changes to the battles system include new skill enhancements techniques such as monster combination skills, in which a character will merge and take over a characteristic of the other, and multi-character combo skills. In addition, Disgaea 3 includes over 270 customizable characters and 40+ randomly generated Class Worlds

Some people have questioned why NIS would develop Disgaea 3 on the PS3 without significantly upgrading the graphical experience. NIS America stated the current environment on Sony systems is quite difficult for smaller game developers, because of this they are exploring new possibilities with other systems, as witnessed by their upcoming DS lineup. According to one employee, NISA sees the PS3 release of Disgaea 3 as a way to test the waters without devoting an overabundance of their time and resources on a mostly unproven system for the brand of niche games.

One of the most interesting aspects Disgaea 3 will provide is taking advantage of the PS3 network through downloadable content. A variety of new content for Disgaea 3 will be made available for download, ranging from new stages, characters, and even brand new chapters in the story. There is currently no announced price point or release date for when the first wave of downloadable content will be available. NISA has stated that it plans on releasing new content monthly, though the duration of this pattern is unknown.

NISA boasts that with Disgaea 3 the developers have tried to create an SRPG that players can literally play for millions of hours. With the classic Disgaea gameplay and humor, current fans should be excited to once again embark into the twisted world of Disgaea where penguins explode when thrown and angels make terrible assassins.

Topics: Disgaea 3