Disgaea 6’s wit, narrative and gameplay carry the game beyond its run-of-the-mill story
- Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
- Publisher: NIS America
- Release date: 28th June 2022
- Genre: Strategy RPG
- Platforms: PlayStation 4/5, Switch, PC (Steam)
- Reviewed on: PS5
- Game Supplied by: Publisher
Disgaea 6 Complete Review
Even though I have played through an awful lot of JRPG series, Disgaea has always eluded me. I knew coming into this review that the game is more of a strategy RPG than anything else, and even though I wasn’t expecting much, I was surprised by the small size of the install, especially considering its full retail RRP. Despite the small amount of storage this game requires (4.4GB for the PS5 version), it most certainly punches above its featherweight proportions.
There are two main reasons for this: the deep gameplay mechanics, and the superb voice acting and narrative the cast get to play with. These two elements alone carried me through the game at a quick clip.
The story itself is nothing special. You play as a zombie called Zed, who is accompanied on his journey by a zombie dog called Cerberus, to once again defeat the God of destruction. The game sets up the ending from the start, as Zed proudly announces he’s already defeated the God of Destruction; the game is that journey. It isn’t a deep story, and in fact, it’s a little too simple, even though there are a few nice reveals along the way during the 30 to 40 hours it takes to complete. However, the witty laugh-out-loud narrative from the vast cast of characters you will meet will bring the game to life. Without them, this would have been a very dull game indeed. The Disgaea series is known for its fun characters, so any previous fans certainly won’t be disappointed here.
The relationship between Zed and Cerberus grows on the player as they banter back and forth like an old married couple, and I would argue that Cerberus himself is a bigger star than Zed, the lead protagonist. The addition of characters that join you, including those from missions you partake in from the included DLC, just adds more hilarity and character to the group.
One of the other areas the Disgaea series is famed for is the quirky, colourful, fun and cute graphics. With the game install being so small, do not expect Tales of Arise levels of detail or magnificence. Be that as it may, what you do get amounts to what could be described as a full colour manga on screen. During cutscenes, the game is text-heavy, but it has excellent hand-drawn character stills on display to show who is talking. The combat dungeon settings are nothing more than elaborate grid-based playing fields, but they are covered with hand-drawn environmental detail. For example, one setting might be within a volcano, so it has blackened floors, cracked by the heat, and red hot lava trying to burst out from beneath. Other settings see you within towns and villages or upon hillsides. It’s not the type of game that specifically needs ultra detail, and each area was at least eye-catching if a little sparse of any real interest.
The other area the game shows its lack of budget was in the cut scenes during combat and combat itself. When members on your team are in a battle and make an attack that uses spells, the game then lets the player watch a small and brief cutscene of the character winding up for this attack. The detail is flimsy at best, but again they are always colourful moments and exciting to watch, despite the lack of definition. A warrior getting angry, grabbing a big boulder, and smashing it down on an unwilling enemy never got old!
The most complex aspects of the game are certainly the combat, ranking up and levelling up systems, alongside the myriad of other little things you can do from the hub world to increase your team’s strength before going into the next battle.
As you can see from the above screenshot, you can upgrade Zed to a dizzyingly stupid level of Hit Points, and you’ll need to do so to be able to defeat the final boss. The normal Disgaea staples of mechanics are at your disposal to upgrade. These are: Clearing levels to progress the story and meet new characters to join your team; Collect money and equipment to become stronger for the next level; Lift characters and items on the battlefield to reach enemies; Special attacks when they are upgraded; Character creation to boost the numbers in your team; and Team Attacks where members adjacent to each other will join to deal extra damage.
The above are all set on a grid-based battlefield. Each team member can only move a certain amount of tiles per round, but each attack, especially when upgraded, can reach enemies further away or across wider areas.
Learning the strengths and weaknesses of each character is required to strategically place your team in the right spots. It’s important to have a strong grasp of the area each attack (or buff/heal) will cover, so you can get into a rhythm and system of who to place where without over-thinking. For example, the healer is best set at the middle or back of the team, so that when upgraded her reach to each player in need is never too far. Enemies however can also target anyone within a line directly in front of them which could reach a healer you put near the back. There is always something to think about, and each battle was not only interesting in learning what works well, but it encourages experimentation in how you might play. This is where the game excels, as no two levels, and even repeating the same one, are the same. It’s a simple idea pitched perfectly within this universe.
Another feature to consider is that the battlefield can have different coloured crystals that affect the enemies’ strengths in different ways. Destroy the crystals, and that buff then disappears.
The new gameplay mechanic is reincarnation. If Zed dies, and he does quite often, it’s not a worry, as very early on you gain the ability to super reincarnate. This reduces Zed’s level back down to 1 but gives the player the ability to upgrade Zed’s stats so that he is now stronger. It’s very much how a roguelike game would work, but without a lot of the pain.
The other great feature is the auto-battle feature, which is an odd thing to claim as great. This can be used not only for levels you have already completed but also for new levels too. The beauty of this is the game does a pretty good job of being sensible and simply plays out the entire level for you, while you sit back and watch. You can interrupt and join in at any point, but it does save a lot of time for anyone who wants to progress and rank up quickly. Go back a few levels, put the auto-battle on, and sit back and relax, watching all the lovely items and money come your way without having to do anything. When you have acquired a lot of money and items the hub world has many ways for you to spend them, all of which pretty much do all they can to upgrade your team.
In the hub world, there are numerous stations, where you can upgrade your team, exchange items for rewards, access levels and much more. The most intriguing of these stations are the Cheat shop and the Dark Assembly;
The Cheat Shop allows players to tweak their experience of the game how they wish. I left everything on default and didn’t have any issues with the difficulty, but you can change parameters with no penalties which is great for accessibility.
The Dark Assembly is an area where players can also do the same sort of thing, but at a price. Here you can bribe council members to vote for things you want so that the player can, for example, get more exp next battle. The bribes have a percentage chance of succeeding, however, it was sometimes difficult to gauge if the investment into trying to bribe councillors with money or items was worth the cost for what you were proposing, especially if the first time of asking your proposal was rejected.
When you put all these aspects together for the gameplay, it’s quite easy to see there is a huge depth to each system, and it’s quite hard to recommend what works well to others, as with so many variations of how to progress, upgrade and to get stronger, no one idea can be argued to be better than another. Herein lies the main hook of the game, with its staggering amount of options for the player to enjoy; Nothing felt like it was a wrong option. Everything I did to upgrade felt meaningful. Combining that with the many different ways to play the combat within the levels will have fans of the game playing late into the night, and even playing the same levels over and over, just to see what works best!
Finally, the in-game audio is excellent with some great background soundtracks. They vary in type and speed and most befitted the scene you were in. My favourite was the laid-back Jazz music (I don’t even like Jazz) within the hub world, which gave a superb chill-out vibe while you think about what you are going to do next.
The sound effects during the battles were basic but serviceable and did convey a lot of energy for big power moves, but the star of the audio was undoubtedly the wonderful, hilarious, and surprisingly varied and emotional voice acting. The actors sounded like they had a lot of fun delivering their lines, and each voice added to the game was most definitely unique. A mad scientist, a laid-back dog, a king who sometimes rolled his R’s, it’s great to sit back and listen to.
Summary
Not many games make me laugh out loud, scratch my head, and tinker with my team and set up as often as Disgaea 6 did. I repeated sections over and over again, just because I could, and also because it was so much fun.
Although the game is only 4.4GB and has very limited graphics, arenas and actual content, the depth of the gameplay systems and the wonderful, superbly voiced narrative more than make up for the small size. Overall it was a pleasant, but not thrilling experience, and certainly a great way to try the strategy RPG genre.
