Disgaea DS

Synopsis: Tactical RPG, in the same vein as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or Fire Emblem, though leaning much more heavily towards the former of those. (Free-form, side-missions taking priority over the main plot, more emphasis on equipment and level over tactics... that last one's dubious.)

Taken from IM:

Disgaea DS starts off really well, and I put nearly 50 hours into it over the last month, having fun for nearly all of that time. The "Item World" system, in particular, is a delight and a joy, taking the grind out of grinding; though the same could be said of all religions. But most of the game is pretty fun.

So it's a great value for money, absolutely.

But:

The plot degenerates; it starts out wonderfully silly, not taking itself seriously at all, and becomes steadily more "emo" as the game goes on. The humour all but vanishes by about the half-way mark. Annoying. That's my first of two complaints. (Though considering FFTA2, which didn't even start with a good plot, it may be more of a virtue!)

The second - not sure if it's a complaint, as such - just something that makes me unhappy for reasons I don't understand -
I beat the game and looked online, so that I would know if there were interesting things to do and unlock once I'd beaten the main plot.

And... well, it's flipping insane.

For reference, my highest level character was level 80 when I beat the game. Most of my characters were around level 60. This is after I sunk 50 hours into the game.

There are bosses - optional side-bosses, mostly unlockable only after beating the main plot at least once - which are hard to kill with level 2000 characters.

2000.

There are guides to grinding levels and optimizing and ugh.

I don't have to do it, I'm not going to, so it really shouldn't reflect on the game... it's only there for the people who like endless repetition for the sake of illusionary treasures, after all.

But somehow, it still annoys me.

Too Long; Did Not Read: Great game, amazing fun, plot starts out very well though it falls apart halfway through, tons of postgame content/different endings available for those who like grinding, somewhere from 40-60 hours in the main plot alone. For a $30 game. So, get it if you own a DS, enjoy games that are like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (or think you might), and haven't already gotten it. (It came out for the PS1 years ago and for the PSP more recently, so it's only the DS version that's really "new".)

I don't have any screenshots of Disgaea DS - it's a DS game! - so here's some more stuff from Fallout 3. Because you just can't get enough, faithful readers.