Entertaining cast, quirky humor, immersive battle system. Nippon Ichi is on to something.
Story:
The actual story portion of the game, while I found thoroughly enjoyable is a little short for me, but in its defense I would like to say that this isn't really what the game is about. A story about a demon prince named Laharl, and his quest to become the overlord of his domain after his father (the previous overlord) dies. With his "loyal servant" (and I use the term servant lightly) Etna they encounter demons in contention for the overlord title, angels, humans, and some very strange situations along the way. The story, while not long, is entertaining and if you ask most people the game is loved in part for its humor.
Graphics:
If you've read any of my other reviews then you know I how I feel about graphics in a game. For those who don't know, I don't care what graphics look like, this game is partial proof of this. The graphics of the game aren't anything spectacular, but they are good enough for the purpose of the game. Again this isn't where the game's strong point is.
Battles:
This is one of the biggest things the game is known for. A total of 10 members of your party are allowed on the field at one time, with the ability to switch them out, should the need arise, by getting them to your base panel. Its a turn based system, that puts a lot of emphasis on team work. Team attacks can occur when an attacking player is surrounded by 1-3 of his teammates. If 3 people are surrounding a character in a "T" formation then its possible for all 4 characters to attack that enemy at once in a little team attack scene. The ability to do team attacks depends on the relationship between the character attacking the enemy and the supporting characters around him. For example: You have Laharl with a sword equipped, and has 2 other people equipped with a sword and one with an axe. He would have a higher chance of team attacking with the swordsmen than with the axe-wielder. There is also the teacher pupil system that increases the likelihood of team attacks.
Next there are chain attacks where one person targets the enemy, then another targets the same enemy, and another, and another, etc. This is a good way of building up attack power and using effectively is one of the keys to this game. Depending on your character you will have different skills, and different weapon proficiencies (A mage uses a staff better than a warrior, and a warrior uses a sword better than a mage). Exp is distributed to the character who gets the final blow on the enemy so its a little tedious trying to level people up. There is also the bonus gauge which, depending on the actions you take, fills up during the course of the battle. At the end of each battle you get prizes depending on how much you fill the gauge up. To fill the bar up quickly chain destroying things called geo panels.
Geo panels are special colored panels on the map you are on, when geo symbols are placed on geo panels, all panels of that color get the ability of the symbol. Example: A red geo symbol with ATK +50% is put on a blue panel, so all blue panels now have the ATK +50% ability on them. Now if you destroy the red geo symbol on the blue panel then 2 things happen 1)The geo symbol is gone so no more power up 2)All the blue panels now turn red. If a red symbol is destroyed on a red panel, then the power up just disappears.
There is more to the battle system than this like throwing enemies into each other to level them up, chain destroying geo panels, but you can find that stuff out if you get the game.
Gameplay:
I would like to point out that I put the learning curve at 1-2 hours if you haven't noticed. Depending on how deep you want to dive into the depths of the game, it could very well be more. The game does a pretty good job of starting you off, but learning the intricacies take a bit of time. Now that that's out of the way.There are a two features that really make this game stand out:
1) The Item World - You enter an item and fight through randomly generated dungeons in order to make the item you enter stronger. There are special monsters called "Specialists" that enhance certain stats (STR, DEF, MAG, HP, fire resistance, give poison attr to a weapon etc.). After fighting these specialists in the item world they are available to be transfered to new items and combined with similar specialists to become stronger. This helps extend playing of the game
2) The Dark Assembly - Even in a world of demons they still need permission to do certain things. By going to the assembly you can create new characters, take tests to make more proposals available, increase inventory of your stores, and much more. In order to get things going in your direction you will have to bribe some of the senators with the items in your inventory, or you can take the direct approach and beat the #@!! out of anyone who disagrees with you. Really either way works, but its a little difficult to fight senators in the beginning of the game.
I've given you a bit of an overview of what to expect from this game, there is tons to do in this game, and I'm sure it'll keep people entertained for over 100 hours, a lot more if you're a real SRPG fanatic. So pick up the game if you see it and good luck trying to get to level 9999, it takes awhile.