Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless Evaluation

Disgaea has had a little bit of an odd journey as a franchise over the previous couple of years. After the monumental success of Disgaea 5 Full on Nintendo Change, developer Nippon Ichi Software program made some fairly vital modifications to the collection with Disgaea 6, a lot to the chagrin of the collection’ fanbase. Efficiency was tough as a result of transfer to 3D fashions, particularly on the Change; half of the character courses have been eliminated, and the sport design targeted on auto-battling as a substitute of direct management over encounters. For sure, many collection followers (myself included) have been fairly annoyed with these modifications. I’m completely happy to report Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless is a return to type for the collection, bringing again all of the courses from 5 (plus just a few new ones), limiting the auto-battle features, and that includes a solid and story that harken again to one of the best the collection has to supply. Whereas Disgaea 7 isn’t absolutely a triumphant return, it does return the collection to its roots and gives what followers have come to count on from a journey into the Netherworld.

Disgaea 7 is ready in Hinomoto, a brand new Netherworld based mostly round feudal Japan. Hinomoto is a land well-known for its warriors and their bushido code, however it has lately come underneath the oppressive management of the demon Opener, who has outlawed all bushido. Our protagonist duo this time round is Pirilika and Fuji. Pirilika is a demon from one other Netherworld who involves Hinomoto as a vacationer obsessive about the tradition and practices of Bushido (basically a weeabo). Pirilika ropes Fuji, a wandering samurai who has develop into disillusioned with bushido and the warrior’s lifestyle, into her quest to return Hinomoto to the idealized type she imagined. Alongside the best way, the 2 defeat and recruit a solid of kooky characters, equivalent to Yeyasu, a self-absorbed and womanizing noble hiding an immature aspect; Higan, probably the most highly effective warrior in Hinomoto and Yuji’s former mentor; and Ceefore, an aptly named ninja obsessive about blowing issues up. 

Initially, the back-and-forth bickering and comedic rigidity between the solid jogged my memory fondly of the how the colourful solid of antiheroes within the first Disgaea have been consistently at one another’s throats. Sadly, because the story progresses, Disgaea 7 devolves right into a extra typical shonen anime save-the-world-with-friendship plot. By then, the contrasting personalities and rigidity that drove the comedy within the early chapters fade away. Whereas this shift has labored nicely in previous collection titles, Disgaea 7 is unable to execute on a extra optimistic and heartfelt tone with the identical exuberance and sincerity as Disgaea 4, and it loses steam by the story’s finish. Whereas I loved the characters and narrative greater than these in, say, Disgaea 5, I really feel the solid and story have been a missed alternative, particularly contemplating the potential on this new setting. 

On the gameplay entrance, Disgaea 7 is near what I count on for the collection. The beforehand lacking generic unit courses and weapon expertise have returned, and monsters have distinctive weapons once more. Among the extra fan-favorite options from Disgaea 5, like Magichange, are nonetheless lacking, and there are modifications to merchandise and character reincarnation that some could not admire. Personally, I didn’t thoughts these modifications, and there have been some good quality-of-life additions (such because the gachapon within the Netherworld Hospital or stage bonuses for finishing chapters in a sure approach) that have been very welcome. 

Some of the divisive points of Disgaea 6 was the emphasis on auto-battling. Whereas the system did assist you to program all kinds of behaviors for models, I didn’t have a lot curiosity in letting the sport play itself. Auto-battle returns in Disgaea 7, however in a way more restricted type. You may solely use auto-battle on sure accomplished levels, and utilizing it consumes a brand new useful resource known as Poltergas, acquired via finishing levels manually. I discovered this to be a wholesome compromise, permitting gamers to automate a number of the extra grindy points of the sport whereas nonetheless requiring that you simply really play out your turns the primary time round. I’ve to confess that I didn’t use the characteristic a lot, however this refinement of the system permits for some automation with out turning the technique RPG into an idle sport.

The opposite main approach that Disgaea 7 improves upon its predecessor is the visible expertise and efficiency, particularly on Change. Disgaea 6 was a catastrophe on Change, consistently dropping frames and looking out like a muddy, low-resolution mess. Disgaea 7, then again, seems to be nice with refined 3D fashions contrasting properly with the stage parts and backgrounds, and runs at a secure 30 frames per second. 

The largest new mechanic is the Jumbification system, which sees the participant filling up a rage meter via fight after which expending that rage to develop certainly one of their characters into an enormous Kaiju-like monster who towers over the stage. Your blown-up character can then carry out massive area-of-effect assaults that hit a number of enemies and supply stage-wide passive bonuses to your military. The flipside of that is that enemies can make use of this system as nicely, and executives will typically use this capacity to replenish their well being proper earlier than loss of life in an try to show the tables on the participant. Whereas this characteristic initially appeared intriguing, I got here away from the sport contemplating it to be extra of a gimmick than an fascinating wrinkle to the fight. It tended to make boss fights right into a slog, and most of the passive bonuses it granted via sure characters or courses paled compared to others. It merely wasn’t as fleshed out as I might’ve appreciated, and I solely ended up utilizing it when it was obligatory to defeat a Jumbified enemy.

An important issue for any Disgaea fan is the quantity of content material on provide, and Disgaea 7 is not any slouch on this division. The sport options fifteen story chapters, every with a number of levels, and a hefty postgame as soon as the story is completed. There’s additionally the merchandise world that permits you to preserve grinding your characters and their gear to your coronary heart’s content material. Sadly, NIS America is simply localizing the expanded Full model on Change 2, regardless of it being accessible on Change, PS4, and PS5 in Japan. Nonetheless, upon ending Disgaea 7’s postgame content material, I greater than had my fill with the sport, so for those who solely have an authentic Change or solely play on PlayStation platforms, I feel the content material on provide will greater than fulfill even collection diehards.

Disgaea 7 is a blended bag: whereas it addresses most of the points current in its predecessor, it additionally fails to match the sereis’ finest video games it’s making an attempt to emulate. I loved my time with the sport, however I’m left questioning the place the collection can go from right here. Disgaea 7 does what it must, however I really feel the collection has exhausted the idea and brought it about so far as potential and not using a vital shakeup.