It's not exactly that they can't afford to. It's that 3d doesn't suit the Disgaea series.

Most SRPG's are sprite based and it's because it's what has worked best for that genre. Most other franchises moved to Hand held platforms to avoid people complaining about that. Final Fantasy Tactics for example started on console but every game in the series since has been on a hand held. It just doesn't work in 3d. The only one I can think that was in 3d that worked was Valkyria and that as because it had a big twist in the game play and wasen't like a normal SRPG.

Also the sprites are part of Disgaea's charm. If they were to do 3d they would not be able to capture that look and feel the sprites have and it would more then likely turn off alot of fans. And for a company already having problems with money at this point that's not exactly a smart move.

Look at the 720p video when you get a chance. It looks like this game *finally* has HD Sprites! The animation frames also seem a bit more detailed, which is a definite plus.

What a difference (720p). I don't see why people are complaining about the graphics. The HD sprites are beautiful. Nicest I've seen since Odin Sphere/ Muramasa. The environments are much cleaner and larger too.

A couple of NISA's more recent games have been in 1080p too. I suspect that's on account of them not using graphically intensive engines. So this could potentially look even nicer when released.

Those graphics were slick and full of cuteness! If you disagree, you're just an angry person! :)

in EU we needed to wait much longer to get a trophy patch than in the US ^^ It was almost uncertain if we ever get a patch! XD

Right, I forgot about that, but wasn't there something about restarting the game if you wanted trophies? I didn't go hunting trophies in Disgaea 3 anyway

No, the trophies were retroactive.