Disgaea: Hour of Darkness



Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is a Turn Based Strategy game released by Nippon Ichi in 2003 for the Play Station 2. It details the adventures of a Noble Demon Evil Overlord (in training!) named Laharl and his quest to fulfill his perceived destiny as Overlord of the Netherworld. He enlists the help of his number-one vassal Etna, a somewhat bubble-headed angel named Flonne, and a host of exploding penguins called Prinnies.

It was later ported to the Play Station Portable as Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, which added several improvements to the game from Disgaea 2, and added a brand-new "Etna Mode" which stars Etna rather than Laharl, accessible after the game is won once, or if a specific button code sequence is entered at the title screen. It was also ported to the Nintendo DS as Disgaea DS, which removed most of the voice acting but added Prinny commentary on most of the cutscenes.

A short anime called Makai Senki Disgaea was released.

For more information on the characters themselves, check out the Disgaea Character Sheet.

This game provide examples of:
"Flonne: Prima Pretty Prippanica!
 * Added Alliterative Appeal: The attacks Flonne and Etna use in Episode 2.

Etna: Fryer Fire Frapparisque!

Flonne: Berry Barrier Balidaire!

Flonne: Durian Dragon Dranyago!"

"Flonne:"Oops, pardon me!""
 * Affectionate Parody: Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth!, of Sci Fi B Movies and TV shows like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Commando Cody.
 * Allergic to Evil: Angel trainees like Flonne sicken and die in the Netherworld without a protective pendant.
 * Allergic to Love: Laharl has a big-time phobia for "happy feelings". One stage uses this against him and cuts his stats in half.
 * All There in the Manual:, which is never stated outright in the game. There are several scenes that make it pretty obvious, however.
 * Supposedly, the artbook confirms that in the Kill Hoggmeiser ending. The game itself doesn't state it, but the background of the credits and the name of the song that plays appear to imply the opposite.
 * American Kirby Is Hardcore: Though none of the actual artwork changes, the voiceacting between English and Japanese gives very large differences in tone of character. Examples include Japanese Thursday being a oddly-cute sounding robot (voiced by a woman) while English Thursday is an instant Badass (voiced by a man). It's then inverted when taking on the Alternate Overlord in Chapter 6 (Afternoon of Darkness); he sounds exactly the same from huge to small in Japanese; In English, he goes from a booming voice, to a multiple-helium-based voice.
 * Apologetic Attacker: Male Healers sometimes say "forgive me" while attacking.

"Aramis: The fists of a Dark Karate master... The legs of the fastest demon in the Netherworld... The brain of Mahogany, a famous sorcerer... The iron body of Hercules... And a horse wiener!"
 * Armies Are Evil:.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: the infamous equippable Horse Wiener scene:


 * Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving/Admiration: After defeating  Laharl
 * Artifact Title: Etna still calls the game by its original name, "Hour of Darkness," in the remake despite the remake's name being changed to "Afternoon of Darkness."
 * Asskicking Equals Authority: When the dark assembly rejects one of your propositions, you can use the "Persuade by force" option and make the senators agree with you by beating them up.
 * Badass Normal: Jennifer is a potent fist user with better resilience than most stages of (demon) brawlers.
 * Barehanded Blade Block: In the trailer for the anime (on the Disgaea 2 disc), Laharl catches the blade of a sword that looks to be the size of his castle with his bare hand. Mind you, said blade was also being swung by Tyrant Baal.
 * Batman Gambit:
 * 1) Seraph sending Flonne to assassinate Laharl's father,, and
 * 2) Etna using Laharl as bait to get the better of a blackmailing vampire and then kicking his ass so hard, he begged to be her slave. Awesome.
 * Battleship Raid:
 * Benevolent Boss: The previous overlord was quite good to work for.
 * Berserk Button: Call Flonne and/or Etna flatchested. Just try it.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Midway through Chapter 6, Laharl gets attacked by a super-powerful Alternate Overlord who is out to steal Laharl's place as King of the Netherworld. He promptly splits into ten copies of himself and hands Laharl and his crew their collective asses. His goof-off retainers arrive just in the nick of time to save him from death.
 * Played with because Laharl suspects that the retainers were hiding in the forest to ambush him but decided to help instead.
 * Big No: Gordon pulls this when he's finally aware that he can't escape from the Netherworld, due to the spaceship that he arrived in being broken into several pieces.
 * Bilingual Bonus: In the English localization, among the voice samples that were not dubbed was that of the Samurai and Ninja classes.
 * Bittersweet Ending: The "normal" ending, gained upon beating the game after accidentally (or deliberately) killing someone in your party, is a huge downer. The "good" ending (beat the game without accidentally killing your own party members at all) is the one considered canon, however.
 * Bonus Boss: Baal, Rozalin, Adell, Priere, and Marjoly.
 * Bonus Level of Hell: Inverted...every level except for the last two takes place in the Netherworld.
 * Boobs of Steel: Jennifer, who's a straight up brawler, although the creatable girl brawlers are otherwise flat.
 * Becomes literally true when
 * Breather Episode: Probably the reason for Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! and company getting introduced right after Chapter 8.
 * Bright Castle: The Overlord's Castle is a gothic version.
 * Captain Space Defender of Earth: Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! is the Trope Namer.
 * Celibate Hero: Laharl, though it seems to be more a matter of his relative youth.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Flonne's pendant, specifically.
 * The Chessmaster: Seraph Lamington. Towards the end of the game, he shows just how intelligent he really is as the game reveals that many of the events in the story are essentially a intricate Batman Gambit to bring peace between Celestia and the Netherworld. Cunning enough to even use the plots of his treacherous renegade second in command to his advantage (and dispose of the traitor). Even his battle with Laharl was part of his plan (how well this works depends on the ending). A rare example of a non-evil chess master.
 * And, by extension,.
 * Chick Magnet: Laharl, at least in the light novels. He manages to attract Etna, Flonne, her sister Ozonne, and Gordon and Jennifer's daughter Jane.
 * There's also Sakura, in an example of Defeat Means Friendship going a little bit too far. Even Pram is hitting on him.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Flonne. Lamington in the first game's manga also has some symptoms of this. "Vulcanus, what's wrong? Do you want to talk to my bonsai?"
 * Cool Gate: The gate in the hub allows you to access various parts of the netherworld.
 * Council of Angels
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Laharl can be very hard to take seriously at first, being a loudmouthed scrawny brat, but as is quickly revealed, he's more than powerful enough to take (and keep) the position of Overlord.
 * Cute Witch: Apparently, Laharl's mother was one of these.
 * Flonne could be considered one as well, though she's technically a trainee angel turned fallen angel. Laharl does mention that Flonne is like his mother; though he was referring to her talk of love and demeanor, they may be similar in other ways too.
 * Cutscene Power to The Max: Laharl
 * Deal With the Devil: In an Etna mode chapter break, she offers to beat up bullies harassing a 7-year old kid, in exchange the kid's servitude as a prinny after he dies. Seeing as this is Etna, a nearby prinny immediately objects.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Several allies join your party this way -- Flonne, Hoggmeiser, Maderas, etc.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Laharl makes quite a bit of progress in this direction, but never completely stops being an arrogant brat.
 * Departure Means Death: Angel Trainees cannot survive in the Netherworld unaided for long periods of time. The fourth chapter centers around this when Volcanus steals Flonne's pendant that stabilized her.
 * Difficulty Spike: The game gets considerably harder after you meet the Earth Defense Force army.
 * Disc One Nuke: If by "disc one," you mean "the game proper." It's entirely possible to completely walk over the main game simply by using Laharl exclusively, building his sword skill and having him leveled well past the enemies, with occasional dips into Item World for Level Grinding and building up his items and specialists. Don't try this in the bonus content though.
 * Double Entendre: Done by Laharl three times, which is then lampshaded each time by Etna
 * Not to mention a large portion of Jennifer's dialogue.
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Happens in the manga where Maderas becoming attracted to a beautiful woman, only for Etna to tell him that the woman is actually Vyers in drag!!!
 * Dual-Meaning Chorus:
 * Dumb Is Good: Flonne.
 * DVD Commentary: Spoofed with the "Prinny Commentary" on the DS version, activated with a New Game Plus (which means can be unlocked from the first Mid-Boss fight).
 * Elite Tweak: The point of the bonus portion of the game (which is at least as big as the game proper) is to twink yourself to the max.
 * Enter Eponymous: The second chapter is titled "Enter Flonne".
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Laharl.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Petty theft from Laharl? That's beneath him. He plunders.
 * Also, Laharl freaks out when Jennifer gives him sex-ed lessons along with humans assuming demons as rapists.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "From now on, your name is Mid-boss!" Notably, everyone in the game calls him that after that scene, and his name in dialogue boxes changes as well.
 * Evil Laugh: Laharl.
 * Evil Versus Evil
 * Expy: Aside from having tighter pants and a much prettier face, Mid-Boss' sprite resembles a recolored Alan from La Pucelle.
 * "Failure to Save" Murder: Kurtis' family got killed and he personally holds Captain Gordon accountable for this, even though the latter wasn't involved in this in any way. As far as Kurtis is concerned, though, Gordon didn't do his job as a Defender of Earth and should be replaced.
 * Fanfare: "Anthem of Braves", for Captain Gordon and his crew.
 * Fire and Brimstone Hell: The Sea of Gehenna.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * The Hero: Laharl
 * The Lancer: Etna
 * The Big Guy: Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth!
 * The Smart Guy: Jennifer
 * The Chick: Flonne
 * The Sixth Ranger: Kurtis
 * Team Pet: Thursday; the Prinnies
 * Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Celestia
 * Foreshadowing: When we first see Flonne, she says she wants to be like the flowers.
 * Forgiveness: Laharl unexpectedly forgives Etna for poisoning him in his sleep and using him as bait for her revenge against Maderas because it is what a true demon would do.
 * Fridge Logic: The in-universe Prinny commentator in the DS version makes it its job to lampshade every possible instance of it.
 * Fridge Logic: The in-universe Prinny commentator in the DS version makes it its job to lampshade every possible instance of it.

"Etna: "Flonne, whatcha doing?"
 * Fun Size: The trio is often drawn this way on promotional artwork.
 * Gainaxing: Jennifer's sprite has a very noticeable "bounce" to it as she walks. Also, whilst most characters stand still when it's not their turn, the Kit-Kat and Succubus monsters, well, don't.
 * It's even worse in the anime where the camera does a close-up of said bounce at least once per episode.
 * Marjoly also won't stand still when she's idle. Priere has similar treatment to Jennifer.
 * Gag Penis: And you can steal that sucker and equip it!
 * God Is Good: Plays out similarly to the Anti-Hero part of the description on the trope page... with tragic and awesome results.
 * Goldfish Poop Gang: Mid-Boss.
 * Graphics Induced Super Deformed: Compare proportions of characters in-game and in cutscene portraits.
 * Gratuitous French Phrases: Mid-Boss loves using "moi" in place of "me".
 * Greek Chorus: The Prinny commentary in Disgaea DS.
 * Green Aesop: When Jennifer asks Laharl if he's really not planning to invade Earth, he replies, "Earth is that planet where humans foolishly pollute their own environment, right? Why would I be interested in that?" To further drive the point home, the Prinny commentary in the DS version adds, " Man, that's harsh. It's pretty much the end of it, if a demon says that about you."
 * Carter justifies invading the Netherworld because mankind needs a new home when Earth becomes uninhabitable. Laharl's response? "Clean up your own damn mess!" You can't get more direct than that.
 * Grey and Gray Morality: The player character is a Card-Carrying Villain and none of the adversaries can claim to be completely good.
 * Guile Hero: Lamington.
 * Gun Fu: One of skills a character can learn from using guns is basically made of this.
 * Ham to Ham Combat: Laharl and Captain Gordon, DEFENDER OF EARTH!!!, Laharl and Midboss, The Prism Rangers, Vulcanus... you know what? Just about every fight in the game.
 * Heavy Sleeper: Laharl, who at the beginning of the game spends two years taking a ten day nap!
 * Hello Nurse: Jennifer.
 * Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Etna loves doing this during most of her chapter previews, particularly the one for episode 6. Laharl and Vyers provide snark.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Played straight by Laharl for promotional images and cut-scenes. Being a humanoid character, however, the player can choose to equip him with any weapon. In fact, he's one of the few in the first Disgaea to be highly proficient with multiple weapons.
 * Hey, You: How Laharl refers to Flonne for a whole chapter after meeting her. She rips him a new one for it later.
 * Hopeless Boss Fight:
 * Horse Wiener: And how.
 * Hub Level: Laharl's castle acts as your base of operations.
 * I Know Karate: Jennifer does. Hilariously, the Art Book even goes so far as to say that this makes her stronger than Gordon.
 * I Made Copies: In episode 5 Maderas sends a challege to Laharl to contend for overlordship on the back of a embarrassing photo, he threatens to scatter copies of set photo all across the Netherworld if Laharl does not comply.
 * A Lighter Shade of Black: Laharl the wannabe Evil Overlord vs. an Omnicidal Maniac.
 * Killed Mid-Sentence: At one point, Flonne steals Etna's role of providing a wildly inaccurate preview of the next episode.

Flonne: Oh, hi Et...


 * Gunshots*"

"Vulcanus: It reeks of evil.
 * Knight Knave and Squire: Laharl is the Knight, by Underworld standards at least, Etna the Knave and Flonne is the Squire.
 * Knight of Cerebus: As soon as General Carter shows up, the plot takes a turn for the serious.
 * Knight Templar: Vulcanus, living proof that Light Is Not Good.
 * Large Ham: Mid-Boss is one, as is Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth!, who apparently has No Indoor Voice. Vulcanus counts, as well.
 * Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The Prism Rangers, Thursday, and Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth!
 * Lethal Joke Item: The Horse Wiener. Even Laharl is afraid of it, though justifiably. How would you block it, dood?
 * Living Weapon: Longinus, the sentient spear who teaches you about weapon skills and mastery.
 * Lord Error-Prone: Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! again.
 * Love Freak: Named for Flonne, who was very fond of talking about love and kindness, in contrast to Laharl and Etna, who are both demons and have no use for that stuff.
 * Magikarp Power: Flonne again. She starts out really weak, but if you assign Mages and Skulls as apprentices to her, she can learn magic abilities that surpass just about any other character you can create.
 * In the sequels she goes beyond Magikarp Power and well into Game Breaker territory, toeing the line to One Man Party - and with some HP twinking she really can be.
 * Make It Look Like an Accident:
 * Mini Dress of Power: The girl mages.
 * Mood Whiplash: In Episode 7, you have to bring back Aramis' zombies (including the one with the Horse Weiner). Episode 8 is a Tear Jerker in which even the battle music is depressing. In Episode 9 we meet none other than CAPTAIN GORDON, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH! . (Yeah, it's just fun to say.)
 * Multiple Endings: At least eight endings not counting the general Game Over screen.
 * The Good Ending, which is canon: Reguires you not triggering any other ending.
 * The Normal Ending: Requires one or more team kills.
 * Item God 2 ending: Requires you to have defeated the Item God 2 at the bottom of a level 40 item.
 * Dark Assembly Ending: Requires passing at least one hundred bills by force by the final level.
 * Flonne Tragedy Ending: Laharl decides to go through with killing Hoggmeiser but Flonne stops him with lethal force. Requires fifty team kills by the end of the third chapter and choosing to kill him.
 * Maderas Ending: Maderas is killed instead of recruiting as well as Flonne when she tries to stop it from happening. Laharl follows before too much time passes. Requires one hundred team kills by the end of the fifth chapter and choosing to kill him.
 * Human World Ending: Laharl takes a side trip before confronting the final boss and takes over the Earth instead. Requires unlocking the Human World map and defeating the last level.
 * Mid Boss ending: Vyers defeats you in battle and decides to just run with it.
 * The Napoleon: Laharl, according to official sources, is about 4'3". The ridiculously oversized scarf he wears is an attempt on his part to mask this fact.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: Parodied with Etna's implausible next episode previews at the end of each chapter..
 * Noble Demon: Laharl, after some character development, in the anime and in the canon ending. He's still a brat, though.
 * No Experience Points for Medic: You'll need to give them a bow or use the pupil system to level up.
 * Noob Bridge: If you've never played the game before, the first battle with Mid-Boss can be incredibly difficult because it's the first level where Geo Effects play a large role, as well as being the first level where you're supposed use the throwing mechanic. If you forget that you can toss your troops to the Geo Effects rather than trying to get there normally, most of your team will be dead before you get a second turn.
 * Noodle Incident: Episode 5 gives us the "embarrassing picture". All we ever know about the picture is Laharl's reaction to said picture and that it's something Flonne never expected Laharl to have done.
 * Just before that, Etna talks to Flonne about how some guy pissed her off so in response she "kicked him right there".
 * Norio Wakamoto: The DS version opens with a gloriously hammy "NIPPON ICHI SOFTOWEAHHH PUREZENTSU", and the rest of the narration just needs to be heard to be believed.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: . It's also spoofed when, after an incredibly serious scene where he chews out General Carter and informs him he's cruising for an Ironic Hell, he then congratulates himself for being awesome.
 * Obviously Evil: Parodied to hell and back with Vulcanus, once the party meets him, and even moreso with Prinny commentary on.
 * Obviously Evil: Parodied to hell and back with Vulcanus, once the party meets him, and even moreso with Prinny commentary on.

Prinny: So do you, dood."

"Etna: "Ha ha ha ha", MY ASS!! *gunshot, beating sounds*"
 * Oedipus Rex: Laharl's relationship with the former Overlord, King Krichevskoy. It also doesn't help that the UST between Laharl and Flonne starts creeping up when Etna mentions that she acts an awful lot like his late mother.
 * Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Jennifer earned a PhD in every subject by age 10.
 * Only Sane Man: Lamington.
 * Only the Pure of Heart:  can touch Flonne's pendant (which harms evil) without being punished. He says that "the heavens wouldn't punish such a pure heart as mine". This is foreshadowing, as
 * On the Next: Subversion; Etna's chapter intermission interludes have absolutely nothing to do with the following chapter.
 * Overrated and Underleveled: pulls a Big Damn Heroes and joins your party... at level 50, at a point your party should be level 60 (150 is easy at this point if you try). This makes him pretty ineffective on the monsters you were "saved" from.
 * The scene actually spoofs itself - 's Big Damn Heroes moment is instantly undermined by his newfound status as a Prinny, and nearly gets laughed off the stage by the heroes before they finally accept his help.
 * Peninsula of Power Leveling - Several. Which is natural, given the insanely high level cap. One level in particular is peppered with Succubi and Kit-Kats, and aside from one square at the far end of the map, everyone is invincible. So the trick becomes to lob the monsters onto one another, creating one much stronger femme fatale which can be trapped in the single vulnerable square and whittled down.
 * An even more effective one is in the Cave of Ordeals - though you have to be pretty high-leveled already just to make it there. There are no invincibility squares, but the entire map is covered in a "+50% EXP" Geo Effect, and the nine monsters on the map (already of a class that grants the highest experience per level) are arranged in a convenient 3x3 clump for efficient disposal. Happy slaying!
 * At the highest levels (mostly useful for embarking on a career of making maxed-out Divine Majins with 185,000 stored levels; not really that useful for regular play), Beauty of Evil. It can be cleared in 45 seconds if you're properly prepared, and in so doing, provides the highest XP-to-time ratio in the game. Since this is Disgaea, players have gotten BoE runs down to a mathematical formula for maxing out your characters as efficiently as possible.
 * Pet Monstrosity: Episode 7 involves helping a kid find his pet zombie. Etna also kept zombies as pets when she was a child.
 * Picnic Episode: Episode 10.
 * Poke the Poodle:
 * Power Levels: "Oh, come on! Level 4000?"
 * The Power of Love: Subverted. When a massive AU overlord decides to off Laharl and snatch his throne, Flonne claims that the Overlord can't win, as he lacks the enough Love (TM) to defeat them...just before she, Laharl and Etna get their asses massively handed to themselves.
 * The Power of Friendship: Towards the end of the game, a force field needs to be broken past, the happy-go-lucky Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! and his team are ready to go with this, Laharl and his crew (sans Flonne, who's even more enthusiastic than Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth!) all sound like they're being made to go take Piano lessons or something.
 * Flonne actually has a special technique called "The Power of Love". It's a healing technique, naturally.
 * A very important point the game, the main plot actually revolves around this.  wanted to see if angels and demons can love each other and co-exist. The whole reason why Flonne was sent to the Netherworld was so she could develop a bond with Laharl and Etna. Then,   pretends to kill Flonne to see the reaction that that bond has created; he almost ends up dead for it in the canon ending and did end up dead for it in the alternate ending.
 * Rage Against the Heavens: Laharl's plot to rule the Netherworld in Disgaea eventually extends to Celestia . Possibly subverted, as Celestia
 * Rapid Fire Interrupting: Captain Gordon, DEFENDER OF EARTH!'s infamous interrupting Etna in the end of Episode 9. Which ends with...


 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Inverted. Cool blue-haired Laharl has an extremely short temper, while fiery red-haired Etna is calmer and (usually) more rational.
 * Refuge in Audacity: That Zombie boss at the end of Episode 7. You know which one we're talking about. "A horse wiener? Now, that's dangerous!" indeed. Jennifer sure loves her Naughty Tentacles, too...
 * Regal Ringlets: The Archer unit has this hairstyle. Later incarnations would change to Mega Twintails.
 * Restart At Level One: Laharl from his oversleeping.
 * This is also a game mechanic: units get bonuses to their stats when reincarnated (although their skills suffer a small penalty) so they are much more powerful the second...or third...or fortieth time around.
 * The Rival: Kurtis. His initial class is explicitly stated as "Rival".
 * Robot Buddy: Thursday.
 * Rounded Characters: Each of the three main characters got a great spectrum of emotions, possesses a wide variety of personality traits that that can be categorized as virtues, flaws and idiosyncrasies, struggles with internal conflict, learns and grows from their experience, got backstories and motivations that reinforces their behavior. Even the masterminds behind the plot get their fair share of hidden depth as well.
 * Say My Name: All up and down the final chapters of the first, mostly by Captain Gordon, DEFENDER OF EARTH!:
 * Thursdaaaaaaaaaaaay!!
 * Jennifer!! Jenniferrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...!!!!
 * Kurtiiiiiiisssssssssss!!
 * Flonne! (Laharl and Etna both yell Flonne's name at least twice apiece in the scene leading up to the final battle. Laharl gets one more in the good ending)
 * Prince!! (Title, not name, but close enough. Etna, in the good and normal endings, when Laharl is going to )
 * Scripted Battle: Etna plays with this by scripting the tutorial battle to make you lose, to show the player what NOT to do.
 * Shoo Out the Clowns: Lampshaded in the DS version: During the New Game Plus, the Prinny commentary stops during really emotional scenes, usually prefaced with something to the tune of "I'll shut up for awhile." It's back as soon as the dialogue turns goofy again.
 * At the end of chapter 13, Etna's 'next episode' preview is completely serious and accurately describes the upcoming event, instead of the goofy and wildly inaccurate scenarios she usually predict. The others find this utterly terrifying.
 * When you encounter Vyers at the entrance to Celestia, Laharl calls him "Dark Adonis" instead of "Mid-Boss" as usual, recognizing that the guy may be more than he seems.
 * Shout Out: Has its own page.
 * Smug Snake: Maderas.
 * Succession Crisis: The first half of the game.
 * Symbol Swearing: Thursday.
 * Take Me Instead:  desperately tries to invoke this in the endings.
 * The Man Behind the Man:.
 * Theme Naming: Laharl, Etna, Lamington, Vulcanus, Vesuvius, Yasurl and Krichevskoy are all related to volcanoes (lahar, Mount Etna, Mount Lamington, the Roman fire god/Vulcano, Mount Vesuvius, Mount Yasur and Kliuchevskoi, respectively). Also the prinnies = plinian, a type of eruption.
 * This Is Unforgivable!: Mid-Boss says this after Laharl gives him his new nickname.
 * Laharl after Etna's spell bounces off Flonne and burns up his hair.
 * Torpedo Tits: The Prinny commentary jokes that when Jennifer is kidnapped, this might have been done to her.
 * Transformation Sequence: Subversion - in the battle with the Prism Rangers, Etna shoots both Blue and Yellow into non lethal KOs, leaving Red to fend for himself.
 * Tsundere: Laharl comes pretty close to the textbook definition, when he finds Flonne's pendant, and when he follows her to Celestia.
 * is is ridiculously Tsun to everyone but, if you read her diary, shows she has a pretty soft spot for
 * Unexplained Recovery: in the main ending of Etna mode.
 * Unknown Rival: The sassy demon Vyers, whom the protagonists unflatteringly refer to as Mid-Boss.
 * Unwitting Pawn: Everyone is a pawn of Sereph Lamington. The most awesome part of this was that said gambit involved a three link chain of Xanatos Suckers (Gordon to General Carter to Vulcanus to Lamington).
 * Updated Rerelease: Afternoon of Darkness and DS are the same as Hour of Darkness, with a few new features.
 * Verbal Tic: Thursday's "BEEP BEEP BLIP BEEP", and the Prinny's "Dood".
 * Weird Moon: The red moon.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Laharl's ideas on what to do after becoming the overlord:
 * Winged Humanoid: Flonne, though outside of one of her attacks, in which they spread out and grow, she's never seen actually flying with them. Etna also has wings, and in Disgaea 2, demonstrates that they actually grow to 3 times their normal size to allow for flight. Official art and a cutscene in Disgaea 2 also reveal that Laharl has a pair under the cape -- and they're absolutely tiny.
 * With a Friend And A Stranger: Laharl, Etna, and Flonne.
 * With Catlike Tread: When Flonne infiltrates Laharl's castle, she loudly provides sound effects.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In chapter 4, Maderas does this to
 * And near the finale,
 * You Never Asked: For most of the game, Jennifer is relegated to being The Smart Guy, Fan Service, and cheering from the sidelines. Once she's Mind Controlled and uses her Kung Fu skills on the main cast, Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! asks her why she never told him about that before. He Never Asked.
 * And near the finale,
 * You Never Asked: For most of the game, Jennifer is relegated to being The Smart Guy, Fan Service, and cheering from the sidelines. Once she's Mind Controlled and uses her Kung Fu skills on the main cast, Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! asks her why she never told him about that before. He Never Asked.