Disgaea 5: Alliance of Revenge Review

Disgaea is a series I will always hold to my heart, from the moment I put the first game into my Playstation 2 and grinded to my heart's content. Anyone who loves to kill monsters endlessly for hours on end to get to level 9999 will know what I'm talking about with this series. With each iteration, Nippon Ichi has always added various game mechanics that kept players, including myself, glued to their TV and handheld screens.

Enter Disgaea 5, the latest entry in the series, marking its debut on the Playstation 4. You play as Killia, a mysterious demon who is out for revenge against Void Dark, a ridiculously strong demon that has been conquering and destroying the various Netherworlds in the Disgaea universe. He is joined by a crazy cast of characters that all have their own reasons for joining in his campaign to put a stop to Void Dark.

The main story in Disgaea 5 is a bit serious this time around, at least from the beginning, which is something that wasn't always the case in previous entries. There are still bits and pieces there for comedic effect, especially the skits that can happen in your base in between battles, but it's a pretty serious tone overall throughout the main story. There are a few twists and turns, but nothing that probably can't be seen coming up by the keen eye.

As for the characters, they are all pretty thought out, with decent personalities, especially once you find out their reasons for going after Void Dark. However, be warned that they tend to have pretty one-track minds and those personalities can get a bit super annoying here and there. The only issue I have found with the English voices is with Killia, who has a rather set monotone voice pretty much throughout the game; the rest of the cast is great, with Seraphina and Usalia being among my favorites.

One of the biggest debates in regards to Disgaea 5 will come from the graphics, with many people thinking that the game could have been made easily for the Playstation 3 or Vita. I can't say for sure, but looking at the game as I played through it, Disgaea 5 is certainly gorgeous. The sprites have been in HD since Disgaea 4 on the PS3, but they are the best they have ever been. They are crisp, the backgrounds are great and the animations are fluid, with no slowdown encountered.

Of course, the main draw of any game is going to be the gameplay, with Disgaea 5 being no exception. The core gameplay is still there, but it has been streamlined a lot in the past few entries. For those who haven't played a Disgaea game before, it is a turn-based strategy role-playing game that takes place on grid-based maps. You have a hub world, where you can do all sorts of stuff, like make new characters, delve into items to make them stronger, and a lot more.

From this hub world, talk to the NPC in charge of the dimensional portal to be able to go to any of the maps you've unlocked for battle. These battles are turn-based affairs, where you input all of your characters' commands and perform those actions in the order that you input them, then the enemies will get their chance to do the same. Defeat all of the enemies on any given map to complete it.

There's nothing different from this perspective, as this basic battle system has remained intact since the very start of the series. However, Nippon Ichi has added a bunch of things to the game that refine and streamline the gameplay, making the game much easier to handle, but also adding another layer of complexity to it.

Anyone familiar with the series knows about the Item World, where you can dive into any item, which contains a completely random dungeon. As you delve deeper, you will power up that item and make it stronger. While the Item World remains relatively unchanged, there was one slightly major change to it. Instead of being able to blow through it by simply going to the portal that leads to the next floor, you will be required to clear all of the enemies in order to level up the item.

One of the biggest changes comes from Chara World, which was similar to the Item World in previous games where it appeared. Now, it is a board game and functions completely like one, with you moving about by throwing dice. The main objective of the Chara World is to make it to the goal, which requires you to do it in 20 moves or less. Of course, you have items and there are spaces on the board that can extend this, but there are enemies in the way and other space that can hinder your progress.

It's a great addition and definitely one that can break up the monotony that happens sometimes when grinding characters ad nauseum by clearing the maps in the game. One of the few minor complaints, despite there being items in the game that can extend the number of turns, is that limiting the entire premise to turns can be counterproductive to trying to take your time and clearing everything the board has to offer.

Another new addition to the game is Quests, which as the name suggests, are things that require you to do certain things, like get a class to a certain rank or kill a specific number of a certain enemy. While this mechanic could be largely ignored, some of the items you can get might prove useful. Also, the class unlocking feature is restricted to Quests this time around, meaning you are stuck with what you start with if you don't decide to do them.

There's a large variety of features and improvements regarding gameplay in Disgaea 5 and definitely too many to list, causing this review to inflate to bigger proportions than needed. Disgaea games are known to be long, as the main story is largely considered to be a tutorial of sorts to the postgame content. While I haven't gotten too far into the latter, the main story will last you a good 30-40 hours or even more, if you tend to get distracted by everything else like I did.

Disgaea, as a series, has been known for their wacky humor and longevity. While the latest entry does take a more serious tone during the main story, you still get the traditional humor one might expect here and there. Nippon Ichi is a developer that knows how to improve their core gameplay mechanics, while introducing new ones that keeps things fresh. As a fan of the series, this is a definite must-have and I definitely recommend it for newcomers alike.