Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Some maps in Disgaea contain Geo Panels, which are represented as squares on the floor of the map of a particular color. Colored objects on the map known as Geo Symbols may be present on either Geo Panels or regular, uncolored squares on the map. These Geo Symbols can usually be thrown. When a Geo Symbol sits on a Geo Panel, it gives all Geo Panels of the color it sits on a property, such as making all units on them invulnerable, or decreasing the HP of friendly units on those panels by 20% at the end of each turn. When a Geo Symbol is destroyed on a Geo Panel of a different color than its own, it causes panels of that color to change to the color of the Geo Symbol and damages units on those panels. If another Geo Symbol is on one of the panels when it changes, it too is destroyed, and the Geo Panels begin to change color and properties again, creating a chain reaction. This chain reaction can be of any length that can be supported by the number of colors of panel and symbols on the map, the amount of "chain" gained with each square increasing by one every Geo Symbol. The higher the chain, the more the bonus gauge fills. Some Geo Symbols have the color "clear" and cause the Geo Panels to become regular map squares when destroyed. Removing all of the Geo Panels from a map will cause a blast of energy which hurts all enemies on the map and results in large bonuses for the player, referred to in the manual as the Panel Termination Bonus.

Laharl's castle acts as a hub, allowing the player to access the other locations in the game without physically having to travel between the castle and a desired map. Each episode of the game gives the player access to a new set of maps, which must be completed in order to proceed in the plot. With the exception of the Item World and the Dark Assembly, all maps are accessed by speaking to a dimensional gatekeeper. With few exceptions, maps can be accessed and played again at any time, occasionally with minor changes, such as boss levels, where the boss will be replaced by a high level generic enemy.

Disgaea has only one pair of stores where items may be purchased, consisting of an armor shop and a weapon shop within Laharl's castle. These shops are described in-game as the Netherworld branch of the Rosen Queen Co. The overall quality and types of the items sold in these shops can be changed through proposals to the Dark Assembly. A hospital where characters may be healed in exchange for payment is also present in the same area of the castle and rewards Laharl and company by giving them items when they pay specific amounts of money for treatment.

In order to perform specific actions outside of combat the player must address the Dark Assembly. To create new characters, improve the inventory of the castle store, or unlock new maps Laharl or other members of his party must present a proposal to the Dark Assembly, who will vote on whether they should or should not provide aid to Laharl's party. Prior to voting, senators in the assembly represent their predilection toward the party visually, glowing blue if they favor that character or red if they do not. If they are glowing red, senators can be bribed with items from the player's inventory to sway their vote in the player's favor. If a proposal fails to receive sufficient votes, the player may attempt to pass the bill anyway by choosing to "persuade by force" and attempting to defeat opposing senators in battle.

The proposals available to place before the senate depend on the number of promotion examinations completed by a character; these examinations consist of a battle between a handful of monsters and a single character on the floor of the Assembly. Each proposal to the Dark Assembly costs "mana", which is built over time by individual characters as they defeat enemies in combat. The amount of mana gained depends on the enemy's level.

Laharl's party may also enter the Item World from the castle, going inside an item in their inventory in order to increase its attributes. The world associated with an item contains up to 100 randomly generated levels. Inside the Item World, monsters called Specialists raise the statistics of the item they are in when defeated. Often, the maps are full of Geo Symbols.

Each floor has a gate, a special map square that can be used to go to the next level in the Item World. However, a monster with the unique class "Gate Keeper" will sometimes block the gate. The Gate Keeper must be defeated or forced to move to use the gate and progress through the Item World. Defeating every monster on the map can also allow the player to progress.

Every ten levels has an item boss. The strongest of each type of weapon and the three ultimate items each contain an Item God 2. Defeating these bosses also increases the attributes of the item. The Item World can only be exited at the end of every tenth level containing an Item Boss, or at any other time by using an item called 'Mr. Gency's Exit', a play on the phrase "Emergency Exit". Since many items contain stronger monsters than are ever found outside the Item World, the Item World is often the only way to acquire rare and powerful weapons.

• Laharl (ラハール, Rahāru) is the son of King Krichevskoy, who plans on becoming overlord after his father's death. He is incredibly arrogant, and he always tries to prove that he is the strongest demon in the Netherworld. He becomes physically sick when hearing optimistic sayings, especially "love", and when he sees attractive women.
• Etna (エトナ, Etona) is the leader of the Prinny squad, and one of the few vassals who remain in the Overlord's Castle after King Krichevskoy's death. She serves Laharl, though in a very sarcastic and insincere manner. However, she slowly changes her attitude after Laharl spares her in spite of her betrayal, and becomes more loyal to him (she finally accepts Laharl as an Overlord after he helps a young demon to find his pets), even though she retains her sarcastic nature. She is very abusive toward the Prinny Squad, often using excessive violence and fear to keep them in line.
• Flonne (フロン, Furon) is an Angel Trainee sent on a mission to assassinate Overlord Krichevskoy. After learning that her target is already deceased, she becomes determined to follow Laharl and determine if demons truly are incapable of love. She is very innocent and naive, though she is deeply devoted to Lamington and the concept of spreading love to others. She is obsessed with tokusatsu series
• Captain Gordon (ゴードン, Gōdon) is the 37th Defender of Earth, sent to the Netherworld to stop a potential invasion. Gordon has a great sense of justice, but is dim-witted. He is also blind to the true intentions of others, and never realizes when he's being tricked until it's too late. However, his sense of justice constantly motivates him even in the darkest hours.
• Jennifer (ジェニファー, Jenifā) is Gordon's beautiful sidekick. Jennifer is a rather attractive woman, and she often jokes around in a very flirtatious manner. Her intelligence and technical knowledge surpasses most scientists, having created a fully functioning robot at the age of five and earned her Ph.D. (according to The World of Disgaea, she obtained all possible Ph.D.s) at the age of ten. Disgaea 3 mentions that Jennifer had solved the BSD Conjecture, a supposedly unsolvable theory, when she was six years old. She is also skilled at martial arts, specifically kung fu.
• Thursday (サーズデイ, Sāzudei) is an "All Purpose Robot" (physically resembling Robby the Robot) created by Jennifer. He is very focused on bringing about justice, even to the point of breaking down. He also seems to be very calm when dealing with various obstacles and can be very sarcastic at times. Thursday usually begins or ends his sentences with 'blip beep'.
• Kurtis (カーチス, Kāchisu) is from Earth, and he views himself as more worthy of the title of Defender of Earth than Gordon. After a traumatic experience that cost him over 70% of his body in addition to his wife and daughter, he becomes a cyborg. He later changes his mind about Gordon, and sacrifices himself to save him. He returns as a green Prinny with cybernetic parts in heaven, and continues to protect Earth in that form.
• Vyers (バイアス, Baiasu) is a flamboyant demon interested in becoming overlord of the Netherworld. He has the self-given title of The Dark Adonis (ビューティー男爵, Byūtī danshaku, lit. Beauty Baron), though Laharl deems him unworthy of the title, and compares him to a mid boss, calling him Mid-Boss (中ボス, Chūbosu, lit. Medium Boss) for the rest of the game, much to Vyers' dissatisfaction. He speaks in a cultured tone, and incorporates multiple French words into his speech. Vyers tends to be very conceited and overly confident in his own abilities. He sees Laharl as a rival, though Laharl doesn't return the sentiment.
• Seraph Lamington (ラミントン, Raminton) is the leader of Celestia. He is very mature and calm, and he never raises his voice or harbors any vindictive thoughts or emotions. He willingly performs evil and underhanded actions, and he is willing to allow fate to punish him.
• Vulcanus (ブルカノ, Burukano) is a full-fledged angel of Celestia, and he is an archangel, who serves Seraph Lamington as the second-in-command. His ideals and methods are much more extreme compared to others, and he has a hot temper that differs from other Angels. He holds demons in contempt and believes that humans are too stupid to live without the guidance of angels.
• General Carter (カーター, Kātā) is the adoptive father of Jennifer and the acting leader of Earth. Under the guidance of Archangel Vulcanus, he sends Gordon, Jennifer, and Thursday to act as a beacon for the Earth forces to invade the Netherworld for colonization. Despite his good intentions for Earth, Carter is willing to sacrifice many lives to achieve his goals.
• Big Sis Prinny (姉御肌のプリニー, Anegohada no Purinī) is a pink Prinny, who acts as a mother-figure to others. She does not speak like other Prinnies, notably leaving out the word "dood."
• Hoggmeiser (ゼニスキー, Zenisukī) is the former vassal of Krichevskoy. Upon Krichevskoy's death, Hoggmeiser steals huge amounts of treasure from the Overlord's castle, and builds his own mansion with that fortune. He has a son named Porkmeister.
• Maderas (マデラス, Maderasu) is a vassal of Krichevskoy, who is exiled after stealing Krichevskoy's black pretzels. Maderas is one of the many demons competing for the throne. He uses memories stolen from Etna to force her to work for him.
• Baal (超魔王バール, Chō Maō Bāru) is a legendary overlord sealed by King Krichevskoy a number of years before the start of the storyline. Known as the Lord of Terror, he is a large demon that uses large swords to attack. After being defeated, he is reincarnated as an "Uber Prinny", which only growls and causes explosions with every attack.

A port for the PlayStation Portable named Disgaea Portable (魔界戦記ディスガイア PORTABLE, Makai Senki Disugaia Pōtaburu) was released in Japan on November 30, 2006. It was later released in North America on October 30, 2007 under the name Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.

Afternoon of Darkness features extras over the original, such as a 16:9 format to take advantage of the PSP's widescreen display. There is also a mode that focuses on Etna as the main character. In Etna Mode, Etna kills Laharl by accident while trying to wake him in the beginning of the game and thus becomes the main character. There are some extra boss battles such as Overlord Zetta from Makai Kingdom and Rozalin and Adell from Disgaea 2. There is, for the first time, a multiplayer mode available through Ad-hoc connections. This features multiple modes such as a "Defeat the Leader," "Capture the Flag," and the original "Battle." In the Multiplayer mode, each player also has access to "Geo Cubes" which give different effects to the battlefield. Other new additions include a music shop, which allows the player to listen to the game's various songs and even change the Item World theme, and a record keeper, which keeps track of various bits of information such as ally kills and obtained items.

In addition, Afternoon of Darkness includes a option to turn off battle animations. Most of the silent Japanese cut scenes now include voice acting. However, when set to English, the scenes that were originally silent in the PS2 release are still silent. To reflect Etna's recent voice actor change, her lines have been re-recorded to match Michelle Ruff's portrayal of Etna in Disgaea 2 and the anime. One notable omission is the theme song "The Invasion from Within" by Tsunami Bomb. As Atlus was the publisher of the original PS2 version and arranged for the licensing of the song, and NIS America (Nippon Ichi's American branch) published the PSP port themselves, they did not retain the rights to use the song and did not renegotiate for them. Also missing is the song "One With the Stars" which, like "The Invasion from Within", was added in the original PS2 release by Atlus.

On March 5, 2008, Weekly Famitsu reported an official announcement of Disgaea DS (魔界戦記ディスガイア 魔界の王子と赤い月, Makai Senki Disugaia Makai no Ōji to Akai Tsuki, "Netherworld Battle Chronicle Disgaea: The Prince of the Netherworld and the Red Moon") for the Nintendo DS.

On March 7, NIS America released a statement on the North American release of a new edition of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness for the Nintendo DS titled Disgaea DS. The game would be a port of the PSP version, and would include multiplayer gameplay and Etna Mode. In order to fully utilize the Nintendo DS' capabilities, several key improvements will be made to the user interface and game system.[27] However, many features from the PSP edition were dropped, including the option to toggle between English and Japanese dialogue, and many additional voiceovers, probably due to the limited storage capacity of the DS game card. Disgaea DS was the only Disgaea game released for a Nintendo system (and until the release of Disgaea PC, the only release on a non-Sony platform), until the release of Disgaea 5 Complete for the Nintendo Switch in 2017, 9 years after Disgaea DS's release.

The Nintendo DS version contains the following additional features:[28]

• Geo Cubes – A new addition first found in the PSP version, Geo Cubes are magic items that add more depth to multiplayer battles. They can be used to enhance abilities, summon monsters, or to attack the enemies.
• Demon Gadgets – Randomly generated items that appear on the battlefield. Units can power up by acquiring these gadgets. Some demon gadgets can level up a unit by 30 levels at once.
• Unlockable Characters – As well as the unlockable characters from the original Disgaea, Adell and Rozalin from Disgaea 2 are unlockable as hidden bosses within the Cave of Ordeals, as well as the Dark Assembly guide, Pleinair. Overlord Zetta also debuts as an unlockable, playable character.

Disgaea DS was released in North America on September 23, 2008, through distributor NIS America[2] and in Europe on April 3, 2009.[3]

A version of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, including the added content in Afternoon of Darkness, was released for Microsoft Windows via Steam on February 24, 2016, retitled as Disgaea PC.[31] The initial release was panned by critics on launch due to its many bugs, which included persistent crashes, save file loss, and poor performance, even on high-end PCs.[32][33] A patch was released soon afterwards that fixed many of the bugs.[34] Another patch was released for the game later that added the four characters previously exclusive to Disgaea DS.[35] Players who bought the game during the 2016 Steam Summer Sale would also earn free in-game cosmetic items for Valve’s first person shooter game Team Fortress 2.

A version of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, including the added content in Afternoon of Darkness and Disgaea PC, was released for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on October 9, 2018, retitled as Disgaea 1 Complete. Some elements of the game were updated, including adding new higher resolution sprites in the same style as Disgaea 5, changing character art images with the Disgaea 5 artstyle, as well as retroactively replacing some generic humanoid and monster classes that did not appear since Disgaea: Hour of Darkness with classes that do appear in later games in the series. An iOS/Android port was released on the January 31, 2020 worldwide.