Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless (Switch) Review
Release Date: October 3, 2023
Publisher/Developer: NIS America/Nippon Ichi Software
Platform: Switch (reviewed), PlayStation 5/4, Steam
Price: $59.99
Disgaea continues it’s unique and quirky blend of beautiful animation, voiced storytelling, and strategic roleplaying in Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless. In a Netherworld realm similar to traditional Japanese culture, the code of honor has been eroded. The story begins with Fuji, a warrior who does not follow any code of bushido, and hates any sort of empathy or caring. He finds himself entangled with Pirilika, a spoiled rich girl who fawns over the traditional bushido code like samurai are part of a boy band.
Disgaea’s recent rereleases over the past few years have allowed strategic RPG players to have plenty of entertainment. Newer entries have added more and more to the series, which is known for letting stat numbers blast beyond logical comprehension. This attitude is enhanced further by a new feature called “jumbification,” where a character grows to a board-dwarfing size. Basic attacks become area effects, and new abilities can turn the tide of battle. Players can reincarnate characters (and weapons!) that keep some of their stats into different job classes (or weapon types), allowing you to mix and match stats to your hearts content. There are 45 different job classes to train and combine to make your perfect army. With programmable AI, you can take on story battles with granular AI editing and support, or set up teams to fight in ranked online battles.
Disgaea 7 has the obvious main characters, but it also has generic combatants that you can customize to your liking, making the game have a lot of replay value on top of the already robust and lengthy storyline. You can mix it up by challenging yourself to take the weakest characters possible to victory or even play the game trying to master with a solo character instead of a team.
Base gameplay is similar to those familiar with the series, and graphics are beautiful and clean with lots of awesome and over-the-top actions and special effects to give you that awesome sense of power the series is known for. Crafting the perfect team of denizens and maxing out their stats is amazingly rewarding. The 3D character models started in Disgaea 6 are clean and beautiful and evoke the art style the game was known for when it was in two dimensions.
Overall, “More Disgaea” is what you’re getting here. If you’ve been with the series for seven installments, the developers are doing just what they are supposed to by offering a more intense version of what you are used to. It makes me wonder what they could do from here...but I’m sure Disgaea 8 will be even more insane. There’s a demo available on most online stores the game itself is available on. I think my biggest concern in titles like this is how there’s already plenty of DLC available. With seven available story DLCs at $7.99 apiece and plenty of outfits and such, I often wonder what could have just been left in the game.
SRPG fans definitely have a winner with the Disgaea series, and 7 definitely holds the pedigree. There are plenty of other Disgaea titles available for the Switch (and other current systems) to keep you blasting into the millions of damage for hours upon hours.
Pros:
-More Disgaea
-Jumbification is a fun process and feels powerful
-Online leaderboards let you show off your team in Artificial Intelligence controlled battles
Cons:
-The big numbers and levelling can mean a LOT of time involved, which some people may not have
-DLC story bits already when the game isn’t even out yet
Special thanks to NIS America and Nippon Ichi Software for providing a code for review!