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Saturday, May 20, 2017

Episode 33: Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance – the Eyeliner of Evil Returns

Episode 33: Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance – the Eyeliner of Evil Returns
Platform: Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 
PS4: JP March 25, 2015. NA October 6, 2015. EU October 16, 2017.
Switch: JP March 3, 2017. NA: May 23, 2017. PAL: May 26, 2017.
Difficulty: Easy at baseline, but the difficulty level is adjustable
Pricing: $49.99  

Review
[The Lost join Team Rocket]

The Good
  • It’s a Disgaea game! Turn based, tactical combat! Zany hijinks! RED MAGNUS! RED MAGNUS getting shot by Seraphina! SARDINES—wait, no, wrong Disgaea game.
  • The characters are really what make the game. The storyline itself is fairly straightforward—Stop Void Dark from taking over/destroying all the Netherworlds while also finding out why Killia hates him!—the characters are what bring the game to life. I was skeptical of Killia at first. He can come off as boring and bland at the beginning of the game, but he grew on me. His being a calmer character helps balance out the over the top party members like RED MAGNUS.
  • Lightning disagrees with me, but I’m glad that the developers simplified some of the mechanics, like the mana shop. Disgaea 4 got a little overwhelming with everything that the game had and everything that you had to do to get new skills and boost your character’s existing ones.
  • But I’m not always against new systems! I really like the Netherworld exploration that Disgaea 5 added, giving players the ability to choose characters to blast off into netherspace and investigate different netherworlds. It’s a good way to use some of the millions of extra characters you can end up having in these games.

The Bad
  • The mini scenes immediately before and after a battle had a tendency to drag on. Especially once you have you have all of your party members and they all have to get in a line supporting/agreeing with the others
  • The Killia versus evil Killia talks got a little old and repetitive, but did pay off.
  • Getting the DLC characters right away broke the early parts of the games, since they were way stronger than any of the characters—including your main ones.
  • The toning down of the early item world levels. If I’m going to the item world, I’m expecting a challenge, not a bunch of levels I can clear in one go while only getting one character out of the base panel.
  • I miss the giant geoblocks the last game had. Throwing them at each other and watching a whole chain of them explode was deeply satisfying.

The Ugly
  • What Red Magnus does to the toilets of Gorgeous.
  • Void Dark’s obsession with his sister.




[Who wouldn't love Red Magnus?]

The Lowdown: If you like strategy games and wacky humor the Disgaea series is for you! Disgaea 5 is also a pretty good entry point to the series. You don’t need any knowledge of the past games for this one’s storyline to make sense and the developers have simplified some systems that were getting pretty bloated in Disgaea 3 & 4. The downside to this simplification is that the early item world levels are pretty boring. This game—and the Disgaea series in general—is especially recommended to people who enjoy grinding their characters to absurd levels of power. 
  
Music Credits
RPG Roundup Theme Song: “Video Game Theme,” J. Arthur Keenes Band. Creative Commons Attribution License.
Disgaea 5 OST