Disgaea 5 Complete Review

The Disgaea series is one which divides opinion; you’re bound to either love it or hate it. A cutesy mix of Japanese wackiness and tactical battling makes it a very distinct flavour of game. My first foray into Nippon-ichi’s flagship franchise was a few years back, when I reviewed the Disgaea Triple Play Collection for Invision. In that review I praised the content on offer in the pack, but warned that some players might find the mechanics difficult to truly comprehend as newbies to the series.

When reviewing that collection, I also felt somewhat discombobulated in terms of entering the world and story. Luckily, Disgaea 5 does a much better job at introducing it than previous entries. The Disgaea series is set in a depiction of hell, where morals are reversed. Split into a variety of different dimensions or netherworlds, each is ruled over by an Overlord; a powerful demon who controls the hordes of that dimension. Each Disgaea is standalone, but this one feels instantly more accessible as both your hero and the characters you encounter begin out of their depth. No prior knowledge is required for the story, which introduces world concepts slowly and spans a large number of different dimensions. It all starts as you encounter Killia (a mysterious wanderer and your main character) and Sera (Overload of Gorgeous and rich brat/seductress archetype), who reluctantly begin to travel together. They amass a team of rebels to combat the demon emperor Void Dark, who is swiftly conquering the entire Underworld, and comedy hijinks ensue.

I don’t know why, but I get a real Star Wars vibe from Disgaea 5. You are a mysterious warrior with a hidden past who pulls together a team of rebel misfits to combat an evil empire and incredibly powerful emperor. Between missions, you spend time in the “pocket dimension”; which looks a bit like a space station of sorts. What results from this is a wide-ranging, universe-spanning adventure full of interesting interactions and varied worlds which pulls together a lot of what made previous games compelling. Whilst the story isn’t going to win any prizes and the majority of characters follow JRPG archetypes, it’s a compelling entry point to the series for newbies.

The gameplay itself is an interesting mix of zany tactical combat and menu-based number crunching. Combat is loosely turn-based on an isometric grid. You choose up to ten characters to take part in each battle, which come from your base-square. Each turn, every character on your team can both move and take an action; and there are a huge number of actions to choose from, from standard attacks to magical spells and powerful skills. You can probably guess how these are used – with a points system! Abilities range from the traditional to the zany, with my favourite being the Resident-Evil-styled “Resident Undead”, which sends up the zombie shooter genre in hilarious style. You can execute actions without ending your turn, which add an extra level of tactical thought. For example, you could move your fighters into an arrangement perfect for healing, heal them, and then move them to attack positions for a second execution. It’s incredibly interesting, even if it can be disorientating at first. Luckily the tutorial introduces systems and concepts slowly, so it never pushes you too far.

Much of the gameplay is what you would expect from this genre, but Disgaea has some interesting mechanics which really set it apart. Characters can lift and tower up with each other to attack as a force in a variety of ways. Sometimes you literally slap your enemies with your allies and sometimes you even use the tower as a fishing rod to dip the enemy into a magically appearing river and catch a fish.

You can also use this mechanic to move your squads across the map more quickly by literally throwing towers of people. Again, it’s something which takes a little time to understand, but it’s a unique part of Disgaea which adds to its charm.

The story guides you down a linear path of battles, but each can be repeated for levels and equipment. Yes, Disgaea does include a fair deal of grinding, but the variety of abilities keep each battle fresh. There is also a huge number of different classes to recruit customisable units from, so levelling each to master rank will take a fair while. If you get bored of the story, you can enter your equipment through the Item world; randomly generated dungeons which you can use to edit and evolve any item you possess to ludicrous levels. You can even enter an item which you found within an item within an item; just don’t think too hard about it.

I’m not going to go into or mention every single mechanic in the game; there is so much content in Disgaea 5 that it would take an age to explain everything, but their introduction is staggered so that your knowledge of what you can do slowly builds. I haven’t even touched on Monchange, the Chara world, Interrogations or innocents! There truly is a cornucopia of options, which makes the game endlessly re-playable. Are you getting fed up with the speed of the grind? Use the dark assembly; also known as demon bureaucracy simulator; to open up the cheat shop, and boost the amount of EXP you earn. Can’t be bothered to play as a Gunner or Maid just to unlock the Pirate class? Set Killia to level up the Maid class and Sera to level the Gunner and bob’s your uncle. (Arr Jimlad!) It’s a compelling mix of different elements which allows the freedom to choose your own way to play. You could, in theory, ignore entire mechanics and still succeed, but there is a lot of joy to be found in playing with the levels of systems within systems and manipulating the world to make the most powerful teams you can.

Now, this version of Disgaea 5 is special in more than one way. The original was released on PS4, and received a variety of different DLC packs to embellish on the already huge amount of content. All of this is included in the pack on Switch, so you almost immediately have access to a huge variety of extra characters and short adventures. Each of the extra episodes take place in the setting of a previous Disgaea, eventually bringing characters from previous games into your roster. Whilst these will be much more interesting to long-time fans and are somewhat of a canonical headache, it’s nice to be able to learn about previous stories through the short episodes. Most aren’t as fully voiced as the rest of the game, but they are a fun addition regardless.

In terms of design Disgaea 5 is flawlessly executed, with beautifully cartoony graphics, excellent sound design and surprisingly good voice acting. For me however, the clear benefit to this version is the sheer portability of the Switch. I always struggled to really find the time to play Disgaea on console before, as it often felt a bit slow to play on a big screen, and in my hectic schedule I often wanted to just relax in a comfy position. On the Switch I’ve felt compelled to play Disgaea as much as possible, and it really brings out the best from the game. The cartoon aesthetic really pops out on the Switch’s screen, and the ability to suspend and return to it somewhere else is incredibly useful. This element makes it the kind of game you can jump into for as short or long as you like; whether on the bus, in front of the telly or on the toilet, and return to whenever you like. I’ve noticed some slowdowns in the item world when playing in handheld, but being a turn-based tactics game I didn’t find it an issue.

This is, overall, the definitive version of Disgaea 5. Whilst it may not look quite as crisp on the big  screen as on the PS4, the portability of the Switch version and sheer amount of content makes it an epic value preposition. The game itself is a wonderful jaunt throughout the Disgaea universe which introduces and expands on the lore in equal measure. It’s a great experience for both new players and old, which will delight and confuse in equal measure. If you’re looking for an incredibly deep tactical RPG with a bunch of personality and weirdness, Disgaea 5 Complete is an easy pick.