Disgaea 4 (PS3) Review

Posted by Trace Aber on 10.13.2011

The only game that taught me the power of sardines...


Game: Disgaea 4
Genre: Tactical Role Playing
Players: 1
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software
Rated T for Teen

The Disgaea series of games have been known for its ridiculously deep gameplay and the crazy storylines that typically take place within them, and eight years after the first one we now reach Disgaea 4. The biggest change to the game has little to do with gameplay at all – everything is now done in full HD sprites. Of course, they refined all other features to the point where Disgaea 4 may wind up being the best game in the entire series.

Our story centers on former Tyrant, current Prinny instructor and vampire, Lord Valvatorez. Due to some silly promise, Valvatorez lost his powers but has found refuge inside tiny tin cans of sardines. Valvatorez promised these great sardines to the most recent class of Prinnies, but couldn’t fulfill that promise thanks to the evil Corrupternment (the Netherworld’s government) enacting a policy to exterminate all Prinnies. Finding himself out of a job, and more importantly, his promise unbroken, Valvatorez, his sidekick Fenrich, and a colorful cast of characters embark to save the Prinnies and take down the Corrupternment once and for all. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be too emotionally invested in the storyline at any given point, but it’s lighthearted and funny enough to where you’ll still be interested.

What the game lacks up in serious storytelling it makes up in terrific gameplay. Disgaea 4 is a grid-based strategy RPG that has you moving around a map to take out enemies. Each character has a specific movement limit they can take per turn, and they can also attack using their standard weapon or a special attack that uses a certain amount of SP to perform. Teamwork is extremely important in Disgaea 4, as two characters adjacent to one another are more likely to perform a devastating combo attack to take an enemy out.

Every battle consists of much more than just moving and attacking, however. When two characters are next to one another, one of them may lift the other up and throw them to a better position. This can be done with both enemies and allies. This comes in handy when you need to quickly traverse a map, reach a higher point, or if you want to get an enemy away from you. Monsters in the game also have their own unique abilities, such as being able to fuse with one another to create a giant monster or change into a weapon when combined with an ally non-monster unit.

But, of course, there’s more to it than that. When you enter a map you’ll notice there are different colored panels throughout. These are called Geo Panels and they tend to have special attributes such as “no ranged attacks” or “double XP.” You can use these to your advantage by throwing monsters on geo panels such as “half ATK.” You can change what powers the geo panels have by moving and destroying Geo Blocks, with each one having its own effect. Understanding the laws of geo blocks and geo panels will not only make the game much more engaging, but much more exciting as well. Let’s say you throw a green geo block on a red geo panel, and then destroy the block. All of the red panels will turn to green and take the effect of the green block from there on out. Any enemy or ally who happens to be on a red panel during this transformation will take damage, and you can actually chain combos upwards in the thousands if you play your blocks right, which is a great way to fill your combo bar. The combo bar goes up to nine levels and grants extra money, experience and items based on your overall level score.



Those are the basics of battle, but with each level you learn something new. It may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but thankfully the game comes packed with tutorials to explain everything to you in a nice, effective and simple manner. Granted, it does leave you left with a lot to figure out on your own, but experimentation is half the fun when it comes to playing Disgaea 4.

In between battles you’ll be spending a lot of time at your home base. This is where you buy weapons, armor and items, learn and upgrade your skills, heal, visit the item world, and much more. The stores keep a track of your spending habits in the form of a customer rank, which grants you access to better quality items as it increases.

Skills are upgraded through the Evility story and are purchased using mana. Mana is gained by making the final blow on an enemy while in battle. Skills are determined by the weapon type the character uses, and are unlocked as you level up. Each skill can then be upgraded using more mana, which increases the damage done, but also increases the SP as well. Evilities can also be purchased here, which are effective in upgrading certain stats of your character permanently. These can be expensive early on in the game, but considering there’s a buff for every stat it’s useful to purchase an evility or two for each character.

Then there’s the item world, which allows you to level up any item in the game by “entering” it and going through randomly generated levels. You can either clear the board of enemies, or you can simply run to the portal to the next level. After every five levels you will be asked if you’d like to continue leveling up the item itself, or finding Innocents, which boost up stats of items. Random events also occur and typically send you to a random mystery room; sometimes this is a good thing and other times it’s a bad thing. You can think of the item world as almost an entirely separate game as you could easily sink hours and weeks and days and months into it if you so desired.

The last major area of importance at the home base is the senate HQ, where some of your most important decisions are made. This takes place on a separate screen called the cam-pain board, where you place your party members in individual squares on a grid. Each level you beat adds one open space to your board, though you’ll want to do more than simply make a character for every slot. You can fill these spaces with Evil Symbols. These symbols give certain stat bonuses such as “10% exp shared among all members” within the symbol, each of which has its own range. Members who are placed next to one another on the cam-pain board are more likely to work together in battle as well, adding a whole never level of complexity to the pre-planning required for each level.

You can also call the senate and vote on a variety of different bills. These range from adding more expensive (and thus better) items to the stores, fighting weaker (or stronger) enemies, adding new character types, and unlocking new evil symbols. Calling a vote on any of these topics uses mana, and you lose it regardless if the bill gets passed or not. Thankfully, you can “persuade” (aka bribe) members of the senate by giving them items such as candy or liquor. I prefer to give them all liquor, but I’m old-school like that.



There are limited online capabilities within the game as well. Senators from other people’s games can fill a seat on some of your bills, and you can send a character to do the same. These senators typically require a bribe and won’t be satisfied until you give them one. You can also create your own maps and share them. These maps are also helpful when it comes to grinding your lower level characters. You can even engage in online pirate battles! Unfortunately, these pirate battles are automated and require no work on your part. Still, it’s a step in the right direction…I guess.

As extensive as all that sounds, there’s still even more to discover and explore in the game. And once you finish the main storyline, which will take the average player anywhere from 45-60 hours (depending on how much you enjoy grinding), there’s a plethora of things to do post-game. New features open up as well, such as the ability to turn fused monsters into weapons and carry two weapons, so there’s always something to do in the Netherworld.

Graphically, the game looks better than ever with 2D high definition sprites and extremely colorful and unique backgrounds. Every move (and special skill, fusion, transformation, etc) has its own animation, most of which are worth watching and all of which are done very well. The music varies depending on the mood and atmosphere, so some levels will be made much more intense while others will have you questioning your sanity (especially if it’s a long battle and you’re stuck with a particularly goofy song). Voice acting is pretty good, and while you have some annoying characters (what game doesn’t), the voices seem to fit well with their characters. And for those looking for a bit more culture in their gaming life, the option to switch over to Japanese voices is present.

Pros
-Best Disgaea game yet
-Extremely deep combat system
-Tons of classes to create
-Seemingly endless amount of replay value
-Geo Panels and Geo Blocks keeps gameplay fresh
-Rare case in which the post-game may be better than the core game
-Great tutorials for teaching you the basics

Cons
-May still be overwhelming for some players despite tutorials

The 411
There’s almost nothing bad to say about Disgaea 4 outside of the fact that it’s not for everybody. But if you long for more games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, you owe it to yourself to check this out. The game features a fun story, memorable characters, a ridiculously deep battle system, hundreds of hours of gameplay, and so many little quirks and nuisances that I can’t do anything but recommend this game. I know it’s not for everyone, but everyone should still give it a shot…you just might be surprised.

Graphics	9.0	Everything from the character sprites to the animations are beautifully done
Gameplay	9.5	The battle system in top notch and there's never a dull moment
Sound	8.5	The voice acting is very fitting for each character and the music does a great job of setting the atmosphere
Lasting Appeal	10.0	Theoretically, you could play this game forever. Even if you only play the main story you're still getting 40-60 hours, which is damn good. But even if you play the game for hundreds of hours you'll still be discovering new things
Fun Factor	9.5	Maybe it's because I'm a stats nerd (at least in video games), but I haven't had this much fun playing a game in quite a while.
Overall	9.5   [  Amazing ]