Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtuless Review (Switch)

 

Somewhere out there will be someone who has completed all the Disgaea games, and not just the seven mainline titles but the spinoffs and probably Phantom Brave and a host of the others NIS titles. We are happy to be honest and say that isn’t us and we also didn’t make it all the way to the end of this Disgaea entry. But unless we wanted our review to come out next year we had to stop playing at some point. And just in case you think we are tapping out early, the developers claim a 400-hour run time on this one so just go with us here.

We found Disgaea 6 solid, but it struggled to keep our interest in the long run, especially compared to other games in the series. The new look in particular didn’t settle well with us, but we are glad to say that Disgaea 7 is much more visually appealing and consistent in it’s style. This in part comes from the game taking inspiration for its look from the Edo period of Japanese history. This has allowed for a lot of the rough edges and visual clutter to be stripped back and give us something that looks modern, but also keeps the series looking good enough for current systems.

This time the story follows a rich and spoiled tourist girl called Pirilika who has arrived in the universe to take in the unique culture and understand more about their Bushido code. Unfortunately, she finds that the universe has been overrun by demons working for the big bad Shogun Demmodore Opener and has thus lost it. She’s soon joined by a grumpy samurai named Fuji who is drawn to the magical sword she happens to be carrying around in her bag. It turns out the sword is one of seven founding weapons and the two set off to find the rest and overthrow the evil Shogun.

In terms of mechanics, the core ones never really change when it comes to Disgaea. Levels take place across grided environments with characters having different movement, magic, and attack stats. Various obstacles and bits of the map add or take away various bonuses and most levels are completed by either defeating a boss or eliminating all opposition. This is a massive oversimplification of course as every stat of every character can be changed and manipulated in countless ways until you have the ultimate team of heroes ready to march through to the end.

As an added complication, levels often have the series tradition of geo panels present as well. These are coloured squares which are linked to a node which adds effects such as upping attack power or healing. If you destroy nodes in the right order and in the right places, it’s possible to clear all the coloured squares and gain a huge bonus.

Unlike some previous entries Disgaea 7 does a very good job of drip-feeding news systems to you. You’ll start out with very little to sort out aside from the basic battles but as you progress through the worlds more and more shops and buildings will unlock back at your base. There’s a hospital of course and weapon and items shops which are self-explanatory, but you’ll soon get the juice bar to allow bonus boosting of stats and the dark assembly where you can go and try and get new rules implemented, change upcoming levels or a host of crazy other things. There are bonus missions, cheat rooms, squads, and the meta game of the item world, it all seems sometimes like you’ll never get to the end of it all.

For those new to the series, the item world is a series of randomly generated levels which occur when players want to jump inside an item or weapon. For each level you beat the object will get stronger and you can find item world citizens as well which add more bonuses once completed. Considering you can do this with every single item in the game you could lose thousands and thousands of hours here if you really wanted to.

Most games in the series have a sort of gimmick added into them. In the past we’ve had monsters being able to be turned into weapons, tower battles (where characters stack on top of each other) and ridable giant creatures. Vows of the Virtueless brings ‘Jumbification’ into the mix. When a character fills its meter it’s able to grow to gigantic Kaiju proportions. Characters become so big that they don’t even fit on the battlefield anymore. Instead, they stand at the back or to the side and can unleash huge area effect attacks. Giant characters also add effects to the whole battlefield both positive and negative. Of course, this also makes them more vulnerable as multiple enemies can reach the edge of the battlefield and all attack at once.

Overall, Disgaea 7 is up there with the series best. It’s easy to access for newcomers while also being incredibly challenging as you progress to the depths of the game. Mechanics are complex but introduced slowly so that you are never overwhelmed, and the writing is top draw and encapsulates all the humour and quirks we have come to expect. Whether you are new to the series or a veteran this is one of the best games of its kind and it works extremely well on the Switch. Highly recommended.

Overall 9/10

 

Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol 1 Review (Switch)

While Disgaea has gone from strength to strength in terms of releases, a number of other NIS releases have seemingly fallen by the way side. Phantom Brave for instance has remained fairly dormant aside from a PSP and Japanese only Wii release since it first arrived on the PS2 back in 2004. With Nippon Ichi now seemingly looking to revive some of these forgotten franchises through the ‘Classics’ series gamers are getting to experience them again. As well as Phantom Brave, this collection also contains the even more obscure Soul Nomad and the World Eaters and both are well worth looking at. 

Phantom Brave follows the story of a 13 year old girl named Marona who is protected by a phantom named Ash after losing both her parents to an evil spirit some years before. Marona is a young Chroma – a sort of sword for hire, and your initial goal is for her to earn enough money to buy the island she lives on. 

The humour and art style is very much in keeping with other Nippon Ichi games though it is perhaps a little less full on than when Etna appears in Disgaea. This is a PS2 game at heart and there is little chance of disguising that. The menus now look lovely and HD but level textures look decidedly muddy, sprites are pixelated and it is hardly a graphical tour de force. That said it looks a whole lot better in handheld mode. Soul Nomad is set up in much the same way.

There’s also a bit of a clunkyness to it but on the whole the Switch controls work well for both games. Once you have got used to the controls it’s clear that Phantom Brave remains a really good game and the depth of the thing begins to come to light quite early on. It shares a fair bit with Disgaea in terms of it being a turn based RPG and in terms of classes and skills levelling but there are key differences that the game is built around. The most obvious is the fact that you no longer have the grid system and instead everything is done with range circles. This really took us some time to get used to and to be honest it seems an odd design decision that doesn’t really add anything. 

A more significant and important difference is the summoning system which is the games whole ‘thing’. Instead of lining up characters to take into battle your game will revolve around Marona summoning phantoms to aid her. Marona confines phantoms to objects which then come to life for a set period of time. For instance, if you want a tough fighter then confine them to a rock to give them strength and defence bonuses. Mages are best confined to plants as that boosts their magic ability. The options are long, complex and incredibly deep. The catch is that after a set number of turns the phantom will turn back into the original object and not be summonable again. This means that if you aren’t careful you won’t be strong enough to down the enemies and complete the level.

The range of classes you can summon is huge and then you can give them all sorts of weapons and objects as well. You can also give phantoms bonuses by confining them to objects which are receiving environmental bonuses. There’s the whole being able to pick up and throw things off the map as well but we suspect your head is already spinning enough.

If Phantom Brave isn’t hard core enough then Soul Nomad will push you that little bit further. The game revolves around the idea that your hero is bonded with this crazy super powerful being. You can draw on this beings power to overcome enemies but if you sue it too much then ‘Gig’ will overpower your body and cause chaos again.

As well as this risk/ reward element the game also focuses more on a sort of squad system where when you engage in battles you fight as a team instead of one on one. It seems to be where some of the ‘room’ mechanics have stemmed from for later Disgaea releases with part of the research element of the game about setting up new rooms that allow different formations and bonuses depending who is in which slot. Perhaps even more so than Phantom Brave, Soul Nomad will take hours upon hours to truly understand the nuances of.

Overall, Phantom Brave and Soul Nomad are both showing a bit of age in their presentation and control scheme but put that aside and both are good games. Phantom brave in particular has got to be one of the deepest and most rewarding games out there. It’s a massive level grinding dream which is easy enough to get into but will take hundreds of hours to master. There is also a stupid amount of secrets in here and it would take the most dedicated of fans to see everything both games have to offer considering you get all the extra content included from the various releases over the years as well. Even if a lifetime of grinding doesn’t sound like you it’s well worth giving this if you are a Disgaea fan or someone who is into strategy games and wants to take on something a bit different.

Overall 8/10

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny Review (Switch)

Just when you think you’ve cleared your Switch backlog here comes the next version of the everlasting time sink that is Disgaea. It’s pause for thought that someone out there may have spent a large portion of their waking life playing Disgaea games. 1, 4 and 5 are already available just on the Switch and multiple versions of all the games span all the way back to the series debut in 2003 on the PS2. It’s a testament to the quality of the series that such a niche genre has had consistent Western releases for so long. And we’ve played all of them.

This time the story focuses on a lowly but arrogant zombie named Zed who’s realm and way of life is threatened by an unnamed God of Destruction. However, Zed has the unique ability of Super Reincarnation which means not only that he cannot permanently die, but also that each time he does he comes back to life stronger. Naturally, Zed sets out across the Netherworld to defeat the menace and win the day. As stories go we found it to be solid but perhaps not as weirdly humorous as some of other games. (But then how can you beat a vampire that shouts SARDINES! As Prinny’s charge into battle).

It’s an intimidating series, but Disgaea 6 is the first game in the long running franchise to put in real allowances for newcomers with numerous things now in place to try and placate the ‘grind’. It’s impossible to go through every system without effectively creating a hundred point list but some of the more obvious thing include – experience being able to be shared with non-fighting characters, an adjustable cheat menu, auto-battling and game speed-up systems. But don’t let this put you hardcore Disgaea fans off because these new systems have actually been built into the makeup of the game with level caps being raised to 99999999 and the Dark Assembly and other options available to add twists onto just about everything.

The auto-battle system can also become like a meta game in itself. Much like games like Final Fantasy 12 you can programme your team with all sorts of detailed instructions meaning taking the time to properly prep your team will likely become an obsession for many players before they try and beat the levels from a more managerial setting.

The wealth of systems we have come to expect from Disgaea are all still here. So the lifting, geo symbols, team system, teams attacks and character creation systems remain. It looks like the occasionally seen system that allows monsters to be turned into weapons is absent though. The particular gimmick of this game (aside, from the speed up systems), is that of mounted units and large monsters. Mounted units have greater movement and combat reach and the oversized monsters are incredibly strong and can attack multiple panels at once. It’s an interesting dynamic to add to levels which can often feel condensed and cramped and certainly adds another level of both attacking and defensive strategy.

So far so good, but the problem is we really struggled to engage with Disgaea 6. It just seems a little off in places and it’s hard to really identify why. The most obvious aspect is perhaps the new 3D look of the game. We’ve always had an issue with the colours being used in Disgaea (geo panels especially), but the added detail to levels seem to serve to make them cluttered and it’s really difficult to see colour dependant objects on the map. At times we were even struggling to find the cursor. Non-colour-blind gamers out there may well feel differently about this of course. To us it just looks a bit too busy.

The other thing that stands out a bit is how strangely the characters move - especially in the base area. It just looks really odd. It’s like frames of animation are missing and when you jump it feels like Zed has no weight to him. The base area is also incredibly cramped together which obviously means less wandering around but also less grandeur and opportunity for flourishes in what should be your super evil lair. Again, it’s not a big thing but it just didn’t feel quite how Disgaea should.

Overall, the mechanics of Disgaea 6 are as strong as ever and all of the new additions are both welcome and integrated brilliantly. The story and overall visual design may not be quite as inspired or anarchically crazy as before but that is somewhat of a minor point. If you like Disgaea then here’s another time sink for you and if you’ve never played it before then this is a great place to start. Just because it’s not our favourite Disgaea ever (SARDINES!), doesn’t mean it’s still not better than almost every other strategy RPG out there. You’ve finished the other three Disgaea games on the Switch now anyway right D00D?

Overall 8/10

Disgaea 4 Complete + Review (Switch)

We are big fans of the Disgaea series at Retro 101 and have been more than happy to dive into the ‘complete’ versions of the games as they arrive on the Switch. Disgaea 4 always had a lot of personality so we were excited to have a reason to return to it once more.

This time around the plot revolves around a Prinny trainer by the name of Valvatorez, a once powerful tyrant who has renounced much of his power based on a promise he made many centuries ago. A noble demon, he never breaks a promise and when a group of Prinnies are taken away by the government for execution he leaps into action to save them. Why you ask? Because he promised them some sardines for tea and they were taken before they could eat them. Yes. Really.

Of course as things progress it gets much more complex than that and before you know it you’re on a mission to overthrow the powers that be with a bunch of rag tag companions, failed demons and several Prinnies. It’s possibly the maddest plot yet and it’s beautifully written and funny throughout with a lot of fourth wall breaking, several of the characters believing they are the main hero and one thinking they are the end of game boss.

Imortanly, the game is easy to see on the Switch screen. Graphics are smooth and while that removes the pixel style of previous games it certainly helps out with knowing what is going on. You can also pan and zoom around the battlefield easily which gives you all the angles you need.

The standard systems are still in place so if you’ve played Disgaea before you’ll know what to expect. There were new systems introduced here as well such as tower combat given more flexibility and monsters being able to morph together to create bigger monsters or turn into special weapons for human characters. You can also place special buildings on a game board then place characters around them to gain special effects such as gaining experience from the head of that building. The more levels you complete the bigger the board gets and the more buildings you can place (after senate approval of course).

While it’s not too tricky to pick up for fans of the series it’s not massively newcomer friendly. With a fair few systems added to what was already there it means there is a huge wealth of stuff to take in. There is a very short tutorial section but you’ll have to do a lot of playing around to see how things work if you want to really get into the meat of the game.

The levels don’t exactly ease you in gently either. While enemies are generally of a manageable level the layout and design of stages is somewhat advanced. Very early on we were taking on intricate patterns of Geo Symbols which in previous games haven’t appeared until quite some way into the game. By world three we were already facing strings of snipers and archers placed out of reach on panels that allowed double shots and health recovery.

There are certainly very few levels where you just rock up with your squad and hit the enemy until they disappear. This isn’t of course a bad thing but we can certainly see how it might be too much for newcomers. While we’re on the subject there really needs to be a colour blind filter implemented in some way as well. Having so many different Geo Symbol colours is fine but it’s impossible to identify what panel is what when it gets so crowded with different colours and characters.

Small issues aside this is a highlight of the Disgaea series. It has the more flexible difficulty curve of Disgaea 2 while having a sense of humour and quality characters that rival the original game. If number crunching, levelling and bizarre characters are your thing then there isn’t anything out there better than this. It’s certainly going to last a very long time as well with all the additional content included. If you aren’t shouting SARDINES! Within a week of play we’ll be amazed.

Overall 9/10

Disgaea 1 Complete Review (Nintendo Switch)

It’s been a long time since the first Disgaea game graced European shores and turned a large number of the population into obsessive number crunchers with an eye for multi-coloured squares. Since Hour of Darkness we’ve had five more entries into the mains series and countless spinoffs on the handheld platforms. Now, the original Demons are back in ‘complete form’ and ready to remind us just how difficult the original was.

Disgaea complete essentially adds in all the content from the various versions of the games. So you get ‘Etna Mode’ (an alternate version of the game where Etna accidentally kills Laharl whilst trying to wake him up) and a few additional battles (We couldn’t quite work out if the DS content was in there though). It also looks very crisp and lovely in its new HD guise. It is a bit of a shame that the direct sequel D2: A brighter darkness was not included though.

Story mode is really only a small portion of the game and follows Laharl who awakens to find his father has died and his kingdom has been taken over. What follows is the demon lords quest to reclaim his crown. The bulk of the game though is found in the Item World (A dungeon world within items), with its randomly generated levels and the addiction of the seemingly never ending levelling process – you can level up anything, if it is counted as an item in the game, no matter how obscure or weak it starts off, you can level it up so that it becomes fantastically powerful and capable of trouncing all those who stand in its way. You will visit here often as even a few levels in you find characters woefully understrength.

The game does involve grinding but it really depends on how you play – if you are strategic about it then it won’t involve too to clear the main story. After that, it really is a mad loop of levelling up, gaining new skills and transmigrating characters – this is essentially a reincarnation process where they start at level 1 again but have better stats and keep some of their skills from their previous incarnations. 

Each stage allows you to deploy 10 units to conquer and berate the enemy with, the best tactic as always is to start throwing your units around the map (as well as monsters into one another – they level up as you throw them and the experience multiplies exponentially. This is also useful when attempting to persuade senators in the Dark Assembly… simply throw them into one senator whilst making sure they still agree with you). This can be awkward to line up correctly sometimes but when it pays off it really is a great feeling.

Mana is gained each time you slay an enemy on the battlefield, this can then be used to create even more powerful characters and to petition senators within the Dark Assembly to do things such as approving new classes, levelling up enemies along with the weapons and armour available to buy in the shops, extortion is even possible – although you’ll have to be quite strong in order to be able to pass that through as a law!

Along with the Lifting and throwing mechanic, combos and apprentices are the Geo Symbols.  Many of the levels have coloured squares adorning the floor. These relate to coloured triangles set somewhere around the level, each of which gives a different effect to the square. These can range from giving extra experience points to causing physical damage or even making you (or the enemy), invincible. Not good for anyone with colour blindness but it means you have to be careful what you are doing and plan ahead. The symbols sometimes move around as well which adds even more to deal with.

Destroying the geo symbols can set off a chain reaction that destroys all the squares and damages anything standing on them. If in the process, you destroy another symbol then you can get a domino effect which zooms around every colour square and ends in a huge explosion of colour. This results in a massive bonus to your end of level score (Another system in play), and can give you extra treasure.

Overall, the first Disgaea game still has a lot to offer. The sequels have added more systems to add to the complexity but the characters and story are at their finest here. It serves as a great entry for newcomers as there are less mechanics to worry about while experienced players may well have forgotten how challenging it is and want to dive back in to prove themselves. The fact you now have it on the go rally helps as well. While it’s true more could have been done here (maybe add the option to remix systems from newer titles, add the sequel D2 or other Disgaea games, smooth out the difficulty curve etc.), you are getting a serious amount of content for your money with a shiny new look and we can’t really criticise that.

Overall 8/10

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance Complete Review (Switch)

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

Phantom Brave PC Review

While Disgaea has gone from strength to strength in terms of releases, Phantom Brave has remained fairly dormant aside from a PSP and Japanese only Wii release since it first arrived on the PS2 back in 2004. With Nippon Ichi looking to test its franchises in the PC market the game has been given another lease of life and if anything it’s even more complex and hardcore than Disgaea. 

It follows the story of a 13 year old girl named Marona who is protected by a phantom named Ash after losing both her parents to an evil spirit some years before. Marona is a young Chroma – a sort of sword for hire, and your initial goal is for her to earn enough money to buy the island she lives on. 

The humour and art style is very much in keeping with other Nippon Ichi games though it is perhaps a little less full on than when Etna appears in Disgaea. This is a PS2 game at heart and there is little chance of disguising that. There is a blurring filter and the menus now look lovely and HD but you are still going to be stretching and scaling the picture with effects to fit modern displays rather than the game being rebuilt from the ground up. Level textures look decidedly muddy, Sprites are pixelated and it is hardly a graphical tour de force. 

The interface is also clunky. If you’re not using a controller there is a quite counter initiative mouse and keyboard system in place. You may be able to move characters with the mouse but you can’t for instance then use a scroll wheel to cycle through options. It took a while to get used to. Save yourself the hassle and just use a controller.

Clunkyiness aside there is a really good game here and the depth of the thing begins to come to light quite early on. It shares a fair bit with Disgaea in terms of it being a turn based RPG and in terms of classes and skills levelling but there are key differences that the game is built around. The most obvious is the fact that you no longer have the grid system and instead everything is done with range circles. This really took us some time to get used to and to be honest it seems an odd design decision that doesn’t really add anything. 

A more significant and important difference is the summoning system which is the games whole ‘thing’. Instead of lining up characters to take into battle your game will revolve around Marona summoning phantoms to aid her. Marona confines phantoms to objects which then come to life for a set period of time. For instance, if you want a tough fighter then confine them to a rock to give them strength and defence bonuses. Mages are best confined to plants as that boosts their magic ability. The options are long, complex and incredibly deep. The catch is that after a set number of turns the phantom will turn back into the original object and not be summonable again. This means that if you aren’t careful you won’t be strong enough to down the enemies and complete the level.

The range of classes you can summon is huge and then you can give them all sorts of weapons and objects as well. You can also give phantoms bonuses by confining them to objects which are receiving environmental bonuses. There’s the whole being able to pick up and throw things off the map as well but we suspect your head is already spinning enough.

Overall, Phantom Brave is showing a bit of age in its presentation and its mechanics in terms of controls are a little clunky. That aside this has got to be one of the deepest and most rewarding games out there. It’s a massive level grinding dream which is easy enough to get into but will take hundreds of hours to master. There is also a stupid amount of secrets in here and if you had this and Disgaea PC you’ll probably not have time to play anything else in your lifetime (You get all the PSP and Wii content as well so get ready for the long haul). Even if a lifetime of grinding doesn’t sound like you it’s well worth giving this a try as it remains unique and how many games can say that?

Overall 9/10

Disgaea PC Review

Written By Natalie Houghton

It may be slightly late to the JRPG PC party but Disgaea PC is here and struts in up a veritable bag of mixed feelings. Touted as the ‘definitive edition’ which is quite a big claim, it has prompted ire from numerous fans of the series as it hasn’t quite managed to live up to this lofty aspiration.

At this point in time, there are still many issues with this buggy version of the game, said issues may be fixed and I know that it is developer Nippon Ichi’s first foray into the slightly discombobulated world of PC gaming but honestly why, yet again is a PC game released in such a shoddy state? I have numerous questions all along the lines of  ‘was it not thoroughly tested?’ ‘Are there no standards on Steam anymore?’ and ‘Why is there no option to change the resolution?’ I could probably write an essay on the subject of poor sub-par ports of PC games… I’m looking at YOU Tales of Symphonia. In this case, the developer does appear to be listening and there have been a few patches which have fixed some issues (I could actually get the game to run on my laptop after a few patches which initially didn’t even start up). 

For reference I played the game on two PC’s, one desktop (i5 6600K, 16Gb DDR4, 8Gb Radeon R9 390) and one slightly older laptop (i5 3210M, 8Gb DDR3, Geforce GT 640M). The game was flawless on my desktop and horrendous on my laptop so I managed to experience both sides of the same coin. 

Disgaea PC is essentially a port of the version which was originally released on PSP. This means that the ‘Etna Mode’ – an alternate version of the game where Etna accidentally kills Laharl whilst trying to wake him up is available, however Plenair from the DS version of the game is not included. 

Interestingly enough, it is possible to play the whole game with a mouse as long as you have a fairly dextrous and precise hand. Playing with a keyboard is fine but it feels slightly awkward. I’d recommend playing with a controller if you have one – if you’ve ever played the Playstation versions of Disgaea then this works in exactly the same manner - queue nostalgic breeze.

If you’ve never played Disgaea before and don’t mind giving it another whirl and you’re lucky enough to have a PC that runs it without any issues then this is worth a go but if you played Disgaea the first time around and enjoyed it enough then I probably wouldn’t bother. It is the same deep grid-based strategy game that it has always been, complete with likeable characters, amusing banter and gazillions of levels to be gained.  

Story mode is really only a small portion of the game, the bulk is found in the Item World (A dungeon world within items), with its randomly generated levels and the addiction of the seemingly never ending levelling process – you can level up anything, if it is counted as an item in the game, no matter how obscure or weak it starts off, you can level it up so that it becomes fantastically powerful and capable of trouncing all those who stand in its way. 

The game does involve some grinding but it really depends on how you play – if you are strategic about it then it won’t involve much grinding to clear the main story. After that, it really is a mad loop of levelling up, gaining new skills and transmigrating characters – this is essentially a reincarnation process where they start at level 1 again but have better stats and keep some of their skills from their previous incarnations. 

Mana is gained each time you slay an enemy on the battlefield, this can then be used to create even more powerful characters and to petition senators within the Dark Assembly to do things such as approving new classes, levelling up enemies along with the weapons and armour available to buy in the shops, extortion is even possible – although you’ll have to be quite strong in order to be able to pass that through as a law!

Each stage allows you to deploy 10 units to conquer and berate the enemy with, the best tactic as always is to start throwing your units around the map (as well as monsters into one another – they level up as you throw them and the experience multiplies exponentially. This is also useful when attempting to persuade senators in the Dark Assembly… simply throw them into one senator whilst making sure they still agree with you). This can be awkward to line up correctly sometimes but when it pays off it really is a great feeling. 

I played Disgaea a long time ago, back on the PS2 originally (I’ve never played the PSP or DS ports) and I had hoped that this would be a fresh re-invigorating lease of life for this title considering how the gameplay hasn’t really aged at all but alas it wasn’t to be at this point in time. 

Ultimately, Disgaea PC is a sold tactical RPG mired by a terrible port. 

Second Opinion by Gareth

While I agree with most of what Natalie says here I think she is being somewhat harsh. The game still runs along nicely enough to overlook the rough edges and even now the humour and level of depth available are not easily found elsewhere. That said I didn’t have half as many issues as Natalie did with actually running the game. It may not be as polished as the more recent Disgaea games and there is a lack of options but it’s still very enjoyable and quite unique compared to the mass of PC strategy games out there

Natalie’s Score 6/10 (would easily be an 8/10 if the port were not so bad)

Gareth’s Score – 8/10

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance Review (PS4)

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 the first for the PS4 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.

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.

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 PS4 and you can’t really give a game much higher praise than that. 

Overall 9/10

Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited Review (PS Vita)

We are big fans of the Disgaea series at Retro 101 but the Vita version of Disgaea 3 never really gave us the levelling bug that other games have in the past. It lacked a bit of personality and was somewhat cumbersome to control (and to see). This port of Disgaea 4 promises to fix all that with some refined graphics, better control and an all-round better storyline.

This time around the plot revolves around a Prinny trainer by the name of Valvatorez, a once powerful tyrant who has renounced much of his power based on a promise he made many centuries ago. A noble demon he never breaks a promise and when a group of Prinnies are taken away by the government for execution he leaps into action to save them. Why you ask? Because he promised them some sardines for tea and they were taken before they could eat them. Yes. Really.

Of course as things progress it gets much more complex than that and before you know it you’re on a mission to overthrow the powers that be with a bunch of rag tag companions, failed demons and several Prinnies. It’s possibly the maddest plot yet and it’s beautifully written and funny throughout with a lot of fourth wall breaking, several of the characters believing they are the main hero and one thinking they are the end of game boss. 

The game is now much easier to see on the Vita screen. Graphics are smoother and while that removes the pixel style it certainly helps out with knowing what is going on. You can also pan and zoom around the battlefield a lot better which gives you all the angles you need. That said, it did takes us a while to work out exactly how you were meant to do it by pressing square and both shoulder buttons together without it just flipping out the camera everywhere (hold square down first).

The standard systems are still in place so if you’ve played Disgaea before you’ll know what to expect. There are new systems as well with tower combat given more flexibility and monsters being able to morph together to create bigger monsters or turn into special weapons for human characters. You can also place special buildings on a game board then place characters around them to gain special effects such as gaining experience from the head of that building. The more levels you complete the bigger the board gets and the more buildings you can place (after senate approval of course).

While it’s not too tricky to pick up for fans of the series it’s not massively newcomer friendly. With a fair few systems added to what was already there it means there is a huge wealth of stuff to take in. There is a very short tutorial section but you’ll have to do a lot of playing around to see how things work if you want to really get into the meat of the game. 

The levels don’t exactly ease you in gently either. While enemies are generally of a manageable level the layout and design of stages is somewhat advanced. Very early on we were taking on intricate patterns of Geo Symbols which in previous games haven’t appeared until quite some way into the game. By world three we were already facing strings of snipers and archers placed out of reach on panels that allowed double shots and health recovery.

There are certainly very few levels where you just rock up with your squad and hit the enemy until they disappear. This isn’t of course a bad thing but we can certainly see how it might be too much for newcomers. While we’re on the subject there really needs to be a colour blind filter implemented in some way as well. Having so many different Geo Symbol colours is fine but it’s impossible to identify what panel is what when it gets so crowded with different colours and characters.

Small issues aside this is the best Disgaea for some time. It has the more flexible difficulty curve of Disgaea 2 while having a sense of humour and quality characters that rival the original game. If number crunching, levelling and bizarre characters are your thing then there isn’t anything out there better than this on Vita. It’s certainly going to last a very long time as well. If you aren’t shouting SARDINES! Within a week of play we’ll be amazed.

Overall 9/10

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories Review (PS2)

Nippon Ichi has unleashed some of the most obsessively addictive Playstation 2 titles the platform has ever seen. Tactical RPG’s of the highest standard and polished in every tiny detail seem to flow from the developer at will. Now the franchise that stated the European love affair with the team returns with what is possibly the most lavish title of them all, and yet it is also arguably the most accessible.

The wonderfully absurd story revolves around a curse placed on the realm ruled by the Overlord Zenon. Zenon has cursed all the inhabitants of the world and now they have all turned into monsters, except for our dashing hero Adell. Adell’s family (now monsters) try and summon the Demon lord to them but instead end up with his Daughter. From this point on the story goes completely insane as Adell sets off to find and kill the Overlord and lift the curse on the land.

On your journey you will encounter creatures and characters that only the wonderful scriptwriters at Nippon Ichi could possibly create. The story is absolutely ridiculous but in a truly wonderful way and there is so much personality in almost everyone you meet you can’t help but push forward to see what awaits. This game at times is hilarious; you have to wonder what sort of strange twisted genius came up with it.

The action follows pretty much the same flow as before with the player’s team being deployed on a map split into squares. The colour coded squares return- these can be used to create various effects by having different nodes dropped on them. Once destroyed these nodes then cause a chain reaction that will destroy all the coloured squares leading to massive combos.

Crucially and helpfully the way characters gain experience has slightly changed. Before characters gained experience by damaging and defeating enemies. This meant that healer characters and characters that use support magic had to be shoe horned into attacking positions and combo’s in order to stop them falling behind as the warriors in the party level up. Now as well as dealing damage characters gain experience from using skills, so support characters level up in a more natural way.

A number of other features have now been streamlined and improved. The Dark assembly where you must go to create new characters and pass new laws that allow new features is much easier to understand and use. Bonus awards from levels now contain more experience meaning there are far fewer level up walls in the title, which is one of the most welcome additions.

Entering the item world (where you battle through up to one hundred maps to level up items) is much the same as before. Only now it contains more features, such as space pirates, seedy bars, more item specialists and the demon court. The demon court is an interesting though not vital new addition. Here characters can go and be sentenced for crimes they have committed. With each crime the character builds up a criminal record and gains new items depending how bad they have been.

There are a number of new character classes and skills available allowing more customisation for players willing to dig into the near endless depths of the title. Players can create a large number of characters to use but as only a limited number can be placed on a map so it pays to keep groups small as anyone not used quickly falls behind in the levelling up stakes, meaning you have to replay levels to get them up to speed.

 The new option of killing and resurrecting your characters in a new class is interesting. The idea is that if you are lucky characters will keep some or all of their skills from their previous incarnation and now be able to gain the new abilities of the new character class. The game even tells you it is possible to create a character with every skill, should you have the time and the obsessive compulsive disorder to do so. However there is always the very real risk that character will forget some or all of their previous skills leaving you with a slightly stronger but unskilled reincarnation.

As far as tactical RPG’s go there is no company to rival the skill level and passion of Nippon Ichi. It is clear they really care about what they are producing and continually polish their titles to the smallest detail. Disgaea 2 is a little easier than the first game due to the welcome omission of so many frustrating level up walls but still contains stupid amounts of extra things to do which those with any kind of life outside of gaming will never see.

Though easier the game is still fairly long, probably setting in at around fifty hours. Putting a time estimate on how many hours you would need to put into the title to complete everything is both pointless and a little scary to imagine, but we dare say that someone out there in a very dimly lit room will be attempting it. Disgaea is a joy to behold, you can dip into it for a short time or lose several years of your life in a sessions and that is one of the many wonderful things about the title. It is both the most complex and most accessible title in the genre and a must for anyone who is looking for something a bit different, an epic adventure or a life long love.

Overall 9/10

Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention Review (PS Vita)

The Disgaea games are now well known for their massive depth, crazy characters and ability to steal hundreds of hours away from the most dedicated players. Each of the main games has had a version for portable systems and Absence of Detention is the Vita’s debut Disgaea title.

Disgaea 3 follows the story of an Overlord’s son Mao as he tries to overthrow his father. In twisted Disgaea fashion this means that our anti-hero is seeking out how to become a ‘real’ hero as only a real hero could vanquish an Overlord. Queue lots of in-jokes and obscure humour and one very odd script.

The game is set in a demon high school where missing lessons is the right thing to do and anyone who attends class and completes work is treated as the bad kid. Aside from the setting, pretty much everything is here that you would expect. Systems have been changed to fit the high school theme (such as the home room being used to build character relationships and the court to build new characters replaced with the school ‘committee’), but it’s all there and a fair bit of it is now a touch more streamlined.

One of the biggest changes is that you can now buy skills for characters with money rather than wait for them to level up. Characters can also be directly assigned as master and apprentice more easily and relationships can be improved by moving characters chairs together in the home room. It’s a bit strange to start with but does give series veterans something else to play around with and think about.

Battles and levels are pretty much what we have come to expect. You pick your team and fight in a grid based arena until you prevail or the enemy does. It works as well as it always has and the transition to the Vita’s smaller screen doesn’t bring about any noticeable issues. There is a zoom function in place when things get a little small and you can also rotate the battle field which means you can always tell exactly what’s going on.

On initial release on the PS3 there was some criticism of the graphics but we are pleased to say that they look perfectly fine on the smaller Vita screen. There are times when things can be a bit small (especially in the hub areas), but nothing you can’t solve with some simple touch control zooming. Characters and monsters are still easily identifiable and you should always know who is attacking who and with what.

The main draw to go through the Disgaea experience once again is the plot and for those who engage you’ll find a suitably crazy plot with a host of unique and unhinged characters. We wouldn’t say it’s a series highlight but it’s certainly good enough to keep fans going. The biggest problem is that the characters aren’t as likable or interesting as those in other Disgaea games so it becomes more about the battles than the tale being told.

As a starting point for Disagea on the Vita this is a good enough attempt. The few tweaks made to the console game, like the touch zoom, are welcome and the games style fits fairly well onto the system. There are minor issue such as the needing to zoom perhaps a bit more than you should but it’s nothing that derails the experience. If you’re looking for some portable strategy then you won’t find anything with more depth than this. 

Overall 7/10

Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness Review (PS3)

It’s been a long time since the first Disgaea game graced European shores and turned a large number of the population into obsessive number crunchers with an eye for multi-coloured squares. Since Hour of Darkness we’ve had three more entries into the mains series and countless spinoffs on the handheld platforms. Now, the original Demons are back in a direct sequel to Leharl, Etna and Flonne’s first adventure.

This time Leharl must fight to prove himself the true overlord of the demon realm whilst also working out what on earth is happening with all these celestial flowers springing up all over the place. Many a twist and turn ensues (which we won’t spoil here), and as usual it’s a crazy and unhinged plot but then this is Disgaea so what exactly were you expecting?

It’s fair to say that a direct sequel, to a hardcore game, in a niche genre that came out almost ten years ago is likely to have a fairly dedicated audience. As such you probably know if you’re going to buy this or not already. For those that haven’t come across a Disgaea game before we will try and explain how it works. At its heart is a turn based strategy game. Your characters emerge from a demon portal and move in squares across a gridded battle ground. You use menu commands to get them to attack, use items or activate special skills. However, there is so much depth to battle and so many systems at work that it simply boggles the mind.

Along with the Lifting and throwing mechanic, the partnering mechanic, combos and apprentices are the Geo Symbols.  Many of the levels have coloured squares adorning the floor. These relate to coloured triangles set somewhere around the level, each of which gives a different effect to the square. These can range from giving extra experience points to causing physical damage or even making you (or the enemy), invincible. Not good for anyone with colour blindness but it means you have to be careful what you are doing and plan ahead. The symbols sometimes move around as well which adds even more to deal with.

Destroying the geo symbols can set off a chain reaction that destroys all the squares and damages anything standing on them. If in the process you destroy another symbol then you can get a domino effect which zooms around every colour square and ends in a huge explosion of colour. This results in a massive bonus to your end of level score (Another system in play), and can give you extra treasure.

The amount of characters you can create is truly staggering. To do this you need to go to the dark assembly room (much like in other Disgaea games), and use mana won from battles to create a new character. These can be human or monsters and new options constantly open up based on creatures you are defeating or characters in certain classes continually levelling up. The dark assembly can also be used to alter the game in certain ways, such as making better weapons available or only allowing Prinnies onto maps. Some of these bills require you to go into the assembly room and bribe the court in order to get them passed on a vote. Certain options such as making the game harder can now be accessed via an in game cheat shop.

The other thing Disgaea is known for is the item world. Any item or weapon in the game can be entered and by clearing floors of monsters within it makes it stronger. There are also ‘innocents’ within the items that can be defeated. This allows for special powers and super stat boosts to be added. The item world could theoretically last forever and we can’t even imagine how long it would take to max out an entire teams gear and weapons. For the super obsessed it’s unlikely you’ll be playing much else for the next few years if you want to take on the task.

The major addition to the many systems since the first game is the ability to mount creatures. Now human characters can ride monsters on the battle field. This allows for the use of different skills while the ridden beast will take damage rather than the user. This allows for a weak character like a healer to ride around on a dragon with much less chance of them being killed. It also allows slow moving characters to ride speedy monsters around the battle field. It’s an addition that works well and offers even more options when taking on the hordes.

Disgaea D2 represents a game that fans will love. It’s a combination of great characters, a wild story and a number of small but beneficial refinements to the tried and tested formulae. Newcomers to the series may well be completely overwhelmed but for anyone who wants yet more Disgaea action this is about as fine-tuned as it gets right now and it shows there is still a lot of life left in the franchise.

Overall 8/10