Disgaea: A Cursed Retrospective of Darkness in my Memories, Part 2 – Reader’s Feature-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Disgaea 7 wasn’t much of a departure from the norm (Picture: NIS America)

A reader concludes their exploration of the Disgaea series and explains what he does and doesn’t like about the more recent sequels.

Disgaea; the series of strategy role-players where you can grind away literally forever. Like Football Manager but for real nerds. Although, I think even Football Manager has more variety. I wouldn’t know. I’m too much of a nerd. After all, I’ve already written part 1 of this retrospective.

For the past 20 years, Disgaea hasn’t progressed beyond grind levels, tinker with your squad and… that’s it. There are milestones to reach, like seeing all the spells and skills, beating the story, unlocking all the classes, getting any bonus characters that there might be, and perhaps even the legendary weapons and traditional extra-game boss: Baal.

This is all very good value for your money, of course. Yet that’s all it has been for eight games in a row now. That’s seven mainline entries and a direct sequel to the first Disgaea, which, as is typical for them, didn’t seem keen on making any progress – either mechanically or in the story. For example, Adell and Rozalin became an official couple at the end of the second game.

She is also, presumably, the Overlord of that dimension. Yet, according to the ongoing lore, they still both live with Adell’s family. With his parents. And his young brother and sister. In a very tiny house. When she could be living in a palace! I mean, have they even had sex? Are Nippon Ichi living in the 1950s or something? How could anybody in that house tolerate that living arrangement?

Rozalin could be a queen, yet some throwaway line in the Disgaea 6 DLC says that the palace makes her feel uneasy. But what about her money? Shouldn’t she be the inheritor of a vast fortune and the resources to maybe build another palace? It’s as frustrating as it is idiotic.

Then in Disgaea D2, Flonne becomes an archangel. Something that sticks in Disgaea 4. The fifth game turned out to be a prequel to the first game, so all the DLC characters turned out to be anachronistic, but for the last two entries we see Flonne in her fallen angel form from the end of the first game. Which is probably another anachronism, as other angel characters hint at a boss who loves superhero anime (which is likely to be Flonne) – but why are they so allergic to story and character development? If we can’t see how old favourites have grown, there’s no real point to bringing them back in the first place.

Of course, story beats are a minor issue. The last great innovation the series saw was the ability for humanoid characters to use monster class characters as weapons! And yes, that is as cool as it sounds. But it still adds nothing to the gameplay loop. Its inclusion was very welcome but was very small in the grand scheme of things.

The big innovation in Disgaea 7? (Yes, the pun was intended.) The ability for allies and enemies alike to become super-sized! Like kaiju-size! Which, once again, does nothing to vary the gameplay. There is, tucked away in one of the levels, a demon shogi mini-game. Here you use the game’s artificial intelligence systems to try and beat a stage in as few turns as possible using whatever characters you’re given. There are 10 of these, which may sound quite generous but they’re over very quickly.

Which encapsulates the big problem this series has. It flirts with greater sophistication but never fully delivers. And it could. Even with the publisher’s ongoing financial woes, it doesn’t take the budget or development time of Baldur’s Gate 3 to do it. It just takes ideas and ambition.

Let’s start with the Item World. Since at least Disgaea 4, maybe even as far back as D2, there have occasionally been secret rooms that pop up that may feature a load of treasure chests, a legendary item, shops and weird, bonus fights. It’s not enough to stop the Item World getting boring, though.

What if the Item World had less floors but they were all bigger and more diverse? I am not advocating for any more platforming sections! In fact, they should all go, as that never works in an isometric viewpoint. I would like more to explore, buildings to enter, environmental puzzles, secrets galore, and inhabitants to converse with and perhaps do quests for.

Combat would be initiated more traditionally; you see an enemy wandering around and then interacting with them would take you to a battle stage. Yes, this could all go wrong and be filled with banal fetch quests and block pushing. But it all takes is a little imagination and it could go oh so right! Speaking of, why does the Item World barely reflect the item you’re in? It would help to sell the conceit better if a sword item was full of sword castles, a staff item was a magical university or enchanted woods. Or that gum worlds were all… sticky.

And because it’s mainly backgrounds, it shouldn’t be too much work. Yes, it does mean more handmade topography for the stages – but if you have less floors, smarter victory objectives and creative level design then it would be well worth it. Make the Item World genuinely fun to traverse. Please! We’re long past due!

Then there’s all the characters. Not just the main story heroes, but the ones you make yourself. Disgaea 4 had different endings if the right conditions with certain combinations of characters were met. Like, set Artina to Valvatorez’s lover and heal her 10 times or more to get a little epilogue after the game ends. Which is just weak and uninspired.

You could do some social link stuff like in Persona; give gifts, hang out, maybe some kinky BDSM stuff with Etna… It’s okay – she’s over a thousand years old, so don’t you judge me! It wouldn’t even require any expensive cut scenes or voice work! It could be all text and talking heads as the series is so fond of. Regardless, this could unlock extra missions, skills, characters – the whole ball of wax!

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Finally, the one thing Disgaea has been sitting on since the beginning and should always have made more use of: geo puzzles! They should have had a dedicated geo puzzle mode from the very first sequel way back in 2006. It’s such an obvious idea! Like in Clash Of Heroes, have a range of maps that can only be cleared by solving the geo puzzle. Which could range from clearing every block, turning everything a specific colour, or making sure you get the right stat buff to knock out a powerful enemy. And that’s just off the top of my head.

Because at the moment, Disgaea is basically a one-trick pony when the competition, from Undertale and Divinity to Persona and Dragon Age, offers you so much more. And even that one trick is not as competitive as it used to be 20 years ago. Adapt or die, Disgaea – which is it to be?

By reader DMR

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