Disgaea 6 Complete (PlayStation 5) Review
Release Date: June 28, 2022
Publisher/Developer: NIS America/Nippon Ichi Software, Inc.
Platform: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), PlayStation 4, PC
Price: $59.99, currently on sale at $39.89 until 4/27/23
Disgaea is definitely a divisive franchise. For a hardcore Tactical RPG player, there are so many minute systems and huge numbers to crunch through that they can spend forever in it. The biggest detriment is how long forever can be, with character levels butting right up against a billion maxed out, and plenty of side quests and special events to take on. When you can enter a dungeon solely for the purpose of levelling up the individual potions you have in stock, you know you are in for a grind. This will either draw in or scare away a player, depending on how much you are into crunching numbers and boosting stats.
Disgaea 6 tells the story of Zed, a zombie that’s been locked in battle with a God of Destruction for who knows how long, but he’s determined to destroy him. He’s tried and failed in the past, but a zombie always comes back. Disgaea 6 comes back as well, this time in a complete edition with all the sidequests and such that were available as DLC in the original game. Sadly, even the complete edition is not without DLC, though it is relegated to boosts and the like to get you closer to maxing out your billion-level characters.
Disgaea 6 has been out for a while, starting on the Switch in 2021 as the first Disgaea release in six years. It was ported to the PlayStation in 2022. The complete edition released middle of last year. Some fans of the series were disheartened with the transition to 3D character models, which lacked some of the spirit of the hand-drawn style and ended up limiting some of the classes that were available. Now that it’s on PlayStation, the limitations of the graphical engine of the Switch are eliminated, and the graphics are consistent and beautiful.
The insane amount of leveling available, as well as the plot-centric focus on leveling and the myriad of post-game content, means that you can level several hundred levels in the first few hours. You also have to level to hit some of the more difficult battles, but it can feel like theatrics at times, as you could just divide the leveling and all the numbers by 100 and still have an efficient game system. There’s even an “auto battle” mode to push for levels instead of you playing, much like in an EA Sports style game that lets you simulate a season of boring games to prepare for the big ones.
If you want to play Disgaea 6, the complete edition is definitely the way to go. The upped graphics on more powerful systems, tweaks to fix miscellaneous bugs, and overall quality of life improvements are greatly appreciated. Fans of the series’ quirky characters and classic animation may push you to try earlier entries in the series first. Much like Final Fantasy, you don’t have to play all the games to appreciate them, and no matter where you start you will have tens to hundreds of hours to play, particularly if you want to max out everything. Disgaea 6 is an excellent start as it has all the improvements that have been made through the series, and plenty of humor and excitement abound.
Pros:
-Classic Disgaea style tactics
-Insane leveling and power trips
-Complete Edition offers all previous download content
Cons:
-3D style is different from previous games in the series
-Some of the traditional things in the series are muted (humor, classes, storyline) compared to others in the series
-Still offers downloadable content to boost leveling, feels like a free to play model in that.
Special thanks to NIS America and Nippon Ichi Software, Inc for providing a code for review!