It seems
like a life time ago that Etna erupted onto the scene in the first Disgaea
game. From that moment massive number crunching became a way of life for many
console gamers and there have been few games since that are so humorously
twisted and crazy. Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance is the sixth console game
in the series and first appeared on the PS4. The complete addition has now its
way to Switch and as you might expect it has more than enough packed into it to
keep you occupied for hundreds of hours.
As usual
the plot revolves around an overlord trying to take power. This time it is
Seraphina who is the daughter of the king of the Gorgeous Underworld. Along
with a host of other odd overlords she bands together with the mysterious
Killia to try and destroy the evil demon emperor Void Dark who has decided to
take over the entire universe. There are also Prinnies.
It’s another
mad cap adventure with Seraphina fascinated by the fact she can’t use her magic
to charm Killia and the two jet around the universe on a giant space ship which
is used as your hub between levels. Instead of different regions for each
episode you are now going to different realms which adds a nice epic feel to
the game as you try and repel Void Dark.
We could
spend pages talking about all the systems in Disgaea by now and this version
adds even more into the mix. All the previous systems such as the geo-panels
and skill levelling return and work much in the same way as the last version of
the game. There is a new revenge mechanic which raises damage given and reduces
damage taken when a bar is filled by your team being attacked. Overlords also
get special attacks when in the revenge state – these are wide ranging and
include skills like turning into a giant or charming the enemy.
Later in
the game there is also a squad system which allows your team to be split into
different groups and differing effects then being added to the leaders of the
group who take the battle field. The item world is now more ridiculously packed
with things than ever with copious amounts of random events and encounters that
you’ll need more than one lifetime to uncover. There are also side quests to
complete and extra levels that stretch way off into the distance after the main
campaign has ended. This game could literally last you forever and it’s highly
unlikely you are going to see all it has to offer and now you have all the DLC
to get through as well.
Despite
all the systems we found this fairly friendly for newcomers to the series. Each
new element is explained well (and also quite quickly), and there is the option
to skip tutorials for anyone who already knows how they work. It’ll certainly
take a while to get to grips with things but there isn’t an assumption that
gamers will have followed the series all the way to this point so if you’ve
ever wondered about Disgaea this is as good a place as any to start.
One very
good change is a slight adjustment to the geo-panels. As well as being slightly
textured now they also display more information when highlighted. This
information includes what colour the panel is which means colour blind gamers
no longer have to see their best strategies scuppered by a light green block sitting
in amongst the yellow ones. The item world has also had a slight shift with an
emphasis now placed on winning each level rather than just charging to the
exit.
If there
is one slight criticism we have it is that the dialogue doesn’t seem as on the
mark as in the best of the previous games. The exchanges between Seraphina and
Killia never really reach that of Etna and Laharl or Adell and Rozaline. It’s
still very solid and entertaining but just lacking a bit of magic and chaos and
nothing that made as chuckle as much as Valvatorez and his continual battle cry
of SARDINES!
Overall,
Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance keeps the series’ trademark high standard of
quality going. This has to be among the deepest strategy games ever and if
there’s anything with more content outside of an MMO we’ll be amazed. If you
like Disgaea then this is a justification to own a Switch and you can’t really
give a game much higher praise than that and with the ability to now take it
everywhere you go this could become all life consuming in a way little else
can.
Overall
9/10
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