The philosophy of “numbers go up and so does dopamine” isn’t anything new in gaming. In the halcyon days of January 2003, Nippon Ichi distilled this premise into a moonshine-strength ichor, then injected it straight into the heart of Strategy RPGs with the launch of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. An irreverent, grid-based slugfest, Disgaea has enough game systems to make Souls-likes jealous. Level 99 isn’t the top of the mountain here though, oh no – level 9999 is the tip of the iceberg, and at any point, you can reincarnate your character into another job class, gain an increased number of base stats, and climb the mountain again.
Don’t like the choices you were given? Engage in local politics by lobbying the Dark Assembly! Don’t like their answer? Fight them all and force your will (and your bill) on through! Is that sword you like lagging behind in stats? Jump into the Item World and modify it (yes, every single item in the game has its own interior world full of surprises). If min-maxing, potty-mouthed, systems-based TRPGs sound like something you might scarf down like a freshly-made soft pretzel (plot relevance!) then jump into the realm of Disgaea and prepare to watch thousands of hours disappear in a Dimension Slash!
Displaced Appalachian is a gamer staring down the barrel of 40 with three kids and wondering if all those afternoons in high school spent min-maxing Uber!Squire Ramza via the level-up/level-down trick in Final Fantasy Tactics was really the best use of his time. You can find him on X under @220stan typically yelling at clouds, arguing that Magnus DID do something wrong, and reminiscing about the military and how kids these days just don’t know how it be.
