Disgaea PC

Disgaea is a tactical role playing game. Battle gameplay takes place on a map divided into a square grid. The player controls a squad of humanoid units and monsters, which each occupy a single square of the grid and do combat with a group of enemies. Depending on the character and attack selected, the player will be able to deal damage to a specific enemy unit or a designated region of the map. Combat ends when all enemy units or all of the player's units are destroyed.

Humanoid characters may lift and throw other units across the map in order to allow allies to move further or force enemies to keep their distance. This even allows the player to capture enemies by throwing them into the base panel; these enemies then become allies, and can be used on subsequent maps. The chance of capturing an enemy in this manner depends on several factors. Failure to capture the enemy will result in the death of all characters inside the base panel, and the enemy will survive.

The story of Disgaea opens with Laharl rising out of an open coffin in his room. Etna, one of the castle vassals, is standing next to him, surrounded by various weapons. She explains that he has been sleeping for two years, far longer than he intended, and his father, King Krichevskoy, has died. Laharl vows to reclaim the throne, and, after consulting with Etna and his other vassals, goes to Vyers' castle.

After defeating the demon Vyers, who refers to himself as the "Dark Adonis" and is renamed "Mid-Boss" by Laharl, he meets Angel Trainee Flonne. Flonne had been sent to the Netherworld by Seraph Lamington, the ruler of Celestia, to assassinate King Krichevskoy (who was already dead). Shocked by Laharl's lack of grief at his father's death, the eternally optimistic Flonne joins Laharl's party to determine if demons are capable of feeling love. Observing them in secret is the paranoid Archangel Vulcanus, who interprets Flonne's actions as treason and is convinced that she is plotting against him.

Disgaea's North American release allows the player to select either English or Japanese for the audio and soundtrack. The song "The Invasion From Within" by Tsunami Bomb was licensed for the English audio track by Atlus due to its organ opening and fast pace, and is only played when English is the selected language. The option to select the language is not present in the European release of the game, because the European release used a lower capacity storage medium that the Japanese version also used (CD instead of DVD).

Souhei Niikawa and Yoshitsuna Kobayashi, the game's producer and main programmer, have explained the intended humor of Disgaea; they give the example of Captain Gordon being a satire of American comic book characters. Episodes of the game are separated by previews, parodying such previews at the end of anime series episodes. Most of these have voice-overs by Etna and do not accurately reflect the plot of the next episode; one of the characters calls these previews Etna's fantasies. The game is also filled with Prinnies, penguin-like creatures that explode when thrown.

In the PS2 category of IGN's The Best of 2003 awards, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness won "Best Game No One Played", and won Reader's Choice and runner-up awards for "Best Strategy Game". Hyper's Daniel Wilks commends Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness for its "brilliant strategy and being huge and funny". The game received a score of 8.5/8/7.5 from Electronic Gaming Monthly, and the magazine's Shane Bettenhausen said, "Here's an instant cult classic—Disgaea is so creative, challenging, and funny that it totally deserves the attention of RPG gamers". However, he noted that its "rewarding gameplay and quirky humor beneath a coating of antiquated visual grime. There isn't much here that couldn't have been done on PS1".

In the PS2 category of GameSpy's Game of the Year awards, it ranked ninth out of ten, and won "Strategy Game of the Year". During the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Disgaea for "Console Role-Playing Game of the Year", which was ultimately awarded to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.