Trivia / Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

• Breakthrough Hit: Disgaea became a Sleeper Hit for Nippon Ichi in the West, and they would open a publishing branch in the U.S. after the game's release in that territory.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The initial North American PS2 release had a very low-print run, resulting in high prices on the second-hand market. However, the game would eventually receive a second run and a Playstation "Greatest Hits" release, making it more available to players. The later ports and Updated Rereleases would further increase the availability of the game.
• Significant Double Casting: In the English dub Grant George voices both King Krichevskoy, Laharl's father and predecessor as Overlord, and Recurring Boss Vyers (A.K.A Mid-Boss). That's because Vyers is Krichevskoy, brought Back from the Dead by Lamington.
• The Other Marty:
  • The late Bob Papenbrook's voice work as Thursday and Vulcanus were replaced by David Lodge in the Updated Rereleases. His voice work as General Carter was completely untouched, presumably out of respect.
  • For consistency's sake, the same happened to Etna.
• The Other Darrin: Amanda Winn-Lee was the original English dub voice for Etna, Laharl's second-in-command. In all of her subsequent appearances, including later versions of this game, Michelle Ruff took over the role.
• Studio Hop: The original PS2 release was published by Atlus in North America. All future releases of the game were published by Nippon Ichi's North American branch, NIS America, starting with the PSP Updated Re-release Afternoon of Darkness in 2007.
• Uncredited Role: As typical of NIS America, none of the English voice actors were credited for their voice work in the game itself.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Mid Boss was originally going to be a hulking monster who easily cried and Laharl originally had a sister. The designs of proto-Mid Boss and Laharl's little sister would make its way into the anime as two monster guarding the dump Flonne finds Laharl in and Maharl, a demon trying to pose as Laharl's sister, respectively. The idea of Laharl having a sister would later be revisited in Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness through Sicily.
  • Originally, the series was supposed to be a space-set rail shooter series, similar to Star Fox. Several elements from the original idea can be seen in-game, such as the gun turrets from Chapter 13 and the Scout's Geo Cannon ability (the latter of which is called the Dark Cannon in the US version to better fit in with the game's main setting).
• Working Title: According to an unused graphic◊ in the final game, this game was called "Makai: ~Little Prince of the Darkness~"^note  Makai/魔界 literally means "evil world". Often the word is translated into English as "Hell", but it can refer to other places too. The Disgaea series and the other related games translate it as "Netherworld". some point in development.

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