Review by: Cole Jones

Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days is yet another PlayStation 2 SRPG adventure crammed onto the PSP with impressive results. On top of its massive main game (which can take 35-150+ hours depending on your dedication), it includes a handful of new playable characters, classes and items; brings over the Magichange system found in Disgaea 3, and boasts an all-new "Axel Mode" that tells the backstory of the lovable dark hero-turned-washed-up actor.

In case you haven't invested hundreds of hours into the series, Disgaea 2 is a strategy RPG that presents a zany tongue-in-cheek take on the Netherworld with monsters, overlords, and explosive Prinnies to boot. As Adell, the lone noble human in his village fighting to save his family, your quest is to take down the evil Overlord Zenon and rescue your family with the help(!) of his reluctantly summoned daughter, Rozalin. Just like most every other Disgaea game, this is done by interacting with folks in the village hub, creating and fighting for new demons and monsters in the Dark Assembly, and hopping between story battles and the item world to work your characters up to level 9999. Since each character's items and attacks can be leveled up as well (and momentarily fused between monsters and humans via Magichange), part of what makes a game like this so satisfying is watching your characters dish out billions of damage as the hours progress.

While all that might seem a bit excessive at first -- and believe me, it is -- Disgaea is also a game that can be enjoyed casually. Once you get a hang of the grid-based battle basics, you'll find the fights to be fun, fast-paced, and involve a lot of strategy whether you stick to the story or let your OCD run wild.

Since you can carefully position several characters for combo attacks, "Toss" and catch your characters to sneak them about the map quickly, and (now) utilize the Magichange system to turn a nearby linked monster into a weapon for a human, there's many ways to improve on every battle. With that said, hardcore fans are undeniably the target audience for any Disgaea game, and vets might be interested to know that D2: Dark Hero Days introduces an exclusive "Magichange 2" system that allows you to fuse not one, but two monsters to a human. This little upgrade allows you to deal tons of damage and disperse EXP equally amongst all three characters, but the real bonus comes from the third monster's special attacks (like Prinny Barrage and Prinny Bomb) that can do absurd amounts of damage for a couple of turns.