Demonic JRPG Disgaea has shed its price for the weekend on Steam, letting everyone play for free until July 28. A weekend doesn't give you much time to sink your teeth into what is an impossibly huge game, but it should be enough to help you decide if you want in for the long haul. 

The series only started to make its way over to PC a few years ago, after spending decades on consoles and handhelds. If you're not au fait, they're tactical RPGs where you recruit a ragtag army of demons and assorted pals, nurture them and then get in thousands of tactical brawls. The max level is 9999, but even after that you can still make your characters stronger. It's big. 

One of the more peculiar features is how you go about empowering items. Every item you find has a level, and you can level them up by hitting up the Item World and its randomly generated dungeons. And no matter where you're fighting, battles have plenty of neat quirks, like being able to pick up, stack and throw allies and enemies. 

We're onto Disgaea 5 now, but the first one still holds up and boasts one of the better plots. And while there have been plenty of improvements over the years, the original is still a rich, complex time-killer. 

If it tickles your fancy, Disgaea is also 70 percent off until July 30. It's free to play until July 28, 9 pm BST/1 pm PT. 

Dood! Disgaea PC now available on Steam. It features all the goodness of the famed strategy-RPG series that debuted all the way back in 2003, enhanced with PC-specific upgrades like an improved UI and textures, support for keyboard and mouse, Steam achievements, cloud saves, badges, and trading cards, and all the content from the PSP game Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.

That's the good news. The bad news is that it's not be the most elegant PC port ever. We took it for a quick spin, and it doesn't look great. Resolution can't be adjusted beyond selecting full-screen or windowed mode, and enabling v-sync locks the game at 30 FPS. Given that the movement speed of your character is dependent upon the framerate, that's potentially problematic. The screen below, which we captured in our gameplay session, isn't going to win any prizes either, but it is after all a port of a port of a PS2 game from 2003.

The Steam forums seem divided on the issue, with some users reporting significant problems and others saying it runs flawlessly. Playing the game on an AMD-based PC may be a factor, and disabling SSAO may improve things somewhat as well.

The bright spot in all of this is the Steam refund policy, which means you can grab Disgaea, take it for a spin, and get your money back if it is in fact a train wreck. Have you tried it? Let us know how it goes in the comments.

Disgaea PC: Digital Deluxe Dood Edition, which includes Disgaea PC, a digital art book, and the Disgaea PC soundtrack, is now available for pre-purchase on Steam for $20/ 15. In other good news, the Disgaea PC release date has been nailed down to February 24.

The PC edition of Disgaea was confirmed last year by a Steam listing that noted PC-specific enhancements including an updated UI and textures, support for keyboard and mouse, and Steam achievements, badges, trading cards, and cloud saves. It will include all the content from Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, and as the new trailer demonstrates, will feature strategic combat, over-the-top battle animations, and at least one reference to a horse wiener.

Ditch the melodrama and angst, the narrator says. Disgaea lightens the mood with humor, attitude, and general ridiculousness.

I'd have to say that it looks like he's not kidding. If you're not familiar with Disgaea, you can find out more about how it rolls (although not Disgaea PC, because for some reason it's still not listed) at Disgaea.us.

The classic Nippon Ichi strategy RPG series Disgaea is coming to the PC in February of 2016. Like its PlayStation predecessors, the PC release will offer character levels as high as 9999, damage in the millions of points per strike, the randomly-generated Item World, and "a zany story set in the Netherworld, where the notions of good and evil are reversed."

"Two years after the death of his father, Overlord Krichevskoy, the demon prince Laharl awakens to discover that the Netherworld is in turmoil," the Steam listing explains for the benefit of those who aren't familiar with the game and/or series. "With unlikely allies, his devious vassal Etna and the angel trainee Flonne, he must battle his way to supremacy to retake the throne and become the next Overlord."

Disgaea PC will feature a number of PC-specific enhancements, including an updated interface and textures, support for keyboard and mouse as well as controllers, and Steam achievements, badges, trading cards, and cloud saves. It will include all of the content from Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, a PSP version of the PlayStation 2 game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, which was released in 2006.

Don't know Disgaea? Find out what you're missing (except about the coming PC release, because it's not mentioned) at the Disgaea Portal.