When Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness hit consoles in North America in 2003, Nippon Ichi Software’ (NIS) quirky, anime-inspired title quickly became the game of choice for hardcore strategy RPG followers. Not only was its story charming and interesting, rife with bizarre characters and humorous writing, but it also delivered an in-depth role-playing experience that could take hundreds of hours to complete.

Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days, the PSP port of PlayStation 2’s Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, makes no effort to change the winning formula that made its predecessor a huge hit. However, as other Disgaea spinoffs like Makai Kingdom and Phantom Brave have proven, more of NIS’ unique brand of gaming goodness is never a bad thing.

The story in Dark Hero Days revolves around Adell, a young man who is the only remaining human after the evil Overlord Zenon transforms everyone into demons. Accompanied by Zenon’s daughter, the pampered but malicious Rozalin, Adell goes on a quest to defeat Zenon and restore his world back to normal.

Solid narratives are the heart of every game developed by NIS, and Dark Hero Days is no exception. The characters are weird but endearing, and the plot is engaging enough to keep gamers playing. However, oddly enough, the writing in Dark Hero Days isn’t half as sharp as previous games developed by NIS. There’s a fair amount of NIS’ trademark eccentric humor, but the dialogue isn’t witty or hilarious enough to impress.