With 116h on record, couple weeks spent on end-game content, getting emotionally involved in the story, we definitely need to turn on the “Nerd alert” warning !
But Suzanne, what happened ?! let’s dive into the topic !
I’ve played 2 previous games from the series, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Disgaea 2 plus 2 other games from Nippon Ichi Software Yomawari: Night Alone, and Hotaru no Nikki on Vita. But by far the game I personally enjoyed the most was Disgaea 5 for switch.
You might be hesitant at first to try the Game, and you might feel like you need to play the previous versions, but no worries ! Disgaea 5 is This same universe, but completely new, amazing story ! The amount of information in Character Screen alone might be overwhelming, but if it’s not something stopping you, you’re in for a lengthy and amazing journey !
So let’s take a look at Disgaea 5 from Nippon Ichi Software !
Gameplay/Mechanics
Since it’s a turn-based strategy game, this section will probably be the lengthiest.
Like in most games, there are main and side quests that you can complete. They usually involve killing specific enemy, getting rare item, or finishing stage/map multiple times.
Unfortunately, there are so many mechanics in the game itself, that It’s hard to describe them all, and I don’t want to make “tutorial” out of this review. I will glance over some of the more important ones, and leave some of the things for you to discover 😉
I’ve divided this section to Battle system, Leveling up/Improving your character and End-game content.
Battle system
Revenge and Overload mode.
When you receive attacks from an enemy, your Revenge Gauge will increase, which is the meter to the left of your character’s face in the bottom left. Once it has been completely filled, that character will automatically enter Revenge Mode
- the character’s Critical Rate will now be 100%;
- the SP cost of skills is reduced to 1
- you will take 25% less damage.
Some of the more important character instead of “Revenge” go into “Overload” mode, and they are able to use very powerful skill available once per turn. Each Overload character has their own unique Ability.
As in most games from the genre, each spell has their own type of range.
Same goes for throwing. Character can stack on themselves in type of a tower, and every character has their own Throw range. However, if you try to stack Prinnies, they explode upon throwing.
Magichange is a mechanic exclusive to Monster-type character, and when close to Human character, it allows them to change to weapon and equip themselves to one of the slots
One human character can have max of 2 Magichanged creatures, and it lasts for maximum of 3 turns.
Leveling/Improving your character
Early into the game you’re introduced to Squad and interrogation mechanics where you can put members to specific party with different effects/abilities attached to them. To level up squads, you basically interrogate and “feed” some of the more lack-luster units. As a personal tip, The absolute first thing to upgrade is the Interrogation Squad, the rest is up to you.
Just to give you a little bit of understanding of what we’re dealing with here, here’s the full list of Squads available In-game :
| Name of Squad | Funcion |
|---|---|
| Capture Squad | Enables Use of Capture |
| Interrogation Squad | Enhances the use of the Interrogation Room. |
| Innocent Aid Squad | Enhances the Innocent Farm. |
| Skill training Squad | Able to use the leader’s special skills. |
| Boot Camp Squad | Gain a portion of the EXP earned by the leader in battle |
| Channeling Squad | Gain a portion of the Mana earned by the leader in battle. |
| Relief Party | Allies in the Base Panel recover every turn. |
| Supply Depot | Able to use items from inside the Base Panel. |
| Alchemy Squad | Able to create items through alchemy. |
| Flatty Squad | Enhances the stats of assigned flat-chested members. |
| Giant Kille Squad | Will become giant for 3 turns when dispatched. |
| Asagi Fan Club | Enhances Asagi’s stats based on this squad |
| Hunter Team | Increases Innocent rate,and eases subduing them. |
| Foot Sotdde Squad | Enhances the stats of assigned members by size of squad |
| Cyber special squad | Increases accuracy based on the number of assigned members. |
| prinny Squad | Assigned members will be treated like a Prinny |
| Defense Outpost Squad | Able to earn EXP and Mana without battling. |
| Dark Assembly Squad | Attend the assembly as a Senator. |
| item Adventure Squad | Something good will frequently happen in the Item World |
| Support Group | Activities in the Chara World become advantageous. |
| Research Support unit | Supports the activities of the research squad. |
| Life Support Unit | Enhances operations in the pocket Netherworld. |
| Abillity Squad | Able to learn Evilities during battle. |
| Elite Four | Earn less EXP but increase growth rate. |
| Curry Connoisseurs | Able to make original Curries |
We can customize our Character Build with various Classes, Sub-classes, Evilities, Items and increase our stats with :
- Chara Word – Board like game where you can power up your characters in various ways such as increasing stats and aptitude
- Item Word – It’s a place to raise level of your weapon and equipment. You progress in it by clearing or skipping floors, but you can only gain item levels by clearing floors. There are various other mechanics in the item word like Level Fish or a Level Sphere and Route Administrator
End-game content
Disgaea 5 is this type of game, where 90% of the “Good Stuff” is after beating the main story.
Number crunching, maxing Subclasses, Team Compositions, Increasing stats and passing bills in Dark assembly is where the game shines.
For all the Diablo III, Monster Hunter, Path of Exile fans out there, you just need to try this game out. It’s the most enjoyable and satisfying end-game grinding you will experience.
Story
Funny and humoristic story that will put smile on your face, well – refined with lots of adorable and relatable characters, and story that doesn’t feel prolongated or drawn-out. Unfortunetly one of the most common complaints is that character are very cliche and stereotypical.
You have the muscle-head type of guy, the “wannabe”, the “brain of the group” etc, and that might me a little bit boring to some people. However, even the most common character-stereotypes put in a good settings with decent story can be interesting.
Graphics and Audio
Classic RTS top-down view with saturated, lively colors, characters have very unique silhouettes, and shape language.
All classes have particular shape-language attached to their story/race and where they come from, which is a huge Pron for word building. This kind of details are always nice to see.
In terms of Audio, absolutely amazing, mostly instrumental music fitting the mood and situation in the game itself. If you are fighting the boss, you immediately know it.
Conclusion
To not spoil absolutely every detail of the game, I left some of the mechanics and elements of the game unsaid for you to discover. I’m trying to write this reviews for people who want to decide wherever or not to buy the game, or people that beat the game and want to know my opinion on it.
Now, let’s try to conclude what we know.
Pros
- Enjoyable and satisfying end-game griding
- Great, funny and light-hearted story
- Adorable design, shape language, colors, Graphics in general
- A lot of in-game mechanics to learn , and every one of them feels useful.
Cons
- Not a good game for someone who’s unprepared to learn tactics, team composition, stats and mechanics. If you don’t like such complicated games, it’s probably not for you.
- Sometimes too staple and stereotypical characters. if you’re thinking of buying this game for the story alone, I wouldn’t recommend it
- Pretty lengthy Game with 90/100+h of end-game content, and around 20-30h of story
- Not something for people who don’t like grinding.
Overal Score : 9.7/10
Initial release date: March 25, 2015
Artist: Takehito Harada
Series: Disgaea
Genre: Tactical role-playing game
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4
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