Disgaea 6 Complete

Video Game Mini-Review

The Disgaea franchise has long been the flagship series for Nippon Ichi Software and its North American publishing subsidiary, showing the latest innovations they have brought to the newest generation of consoles and pushing the boundaries with comedic plots and memorable characters. At least that was true until Disgaea 5. Despite indications that the Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny was originally developed with PlayStation hardware in mind, Nippon Ichi Software America made the decision to only release the game on the Nintendo Switch – rather than the multiplatform offering in Japan. While the reasoning behind this is unknown, it may have been seen as a kick in the butt for long-time supporters on the PlayStation consoles. Yet the bigger issue was its overall performance. While the game again had solid foundations, it suffered from frame rate issues and a general lack of smoothness that has always been present in the series, and I felt hampered the experience considerably.

A year after the game’s release on the Nintendo Switch, NIS America has finally released Disgaea 6 Complete, a compilation collection native to the Windows PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 comprising of both the base game and all previously released character DLC. The game is still the same at its core, once again resorting to its addictive turn-based battle system, higher level/stat numbers than ever and the controversial inclusion of auto-battles. Furthermore the game’s 3D art style is present, although does look arguably better on higher definition hardware. Disgaea 6 complete is overall a competent instalment in the series, and if you can ignore some of the ease-of-access features that are there to give more instant gratification and quicker progression for those who wish it, it is Disgaea you know it at the end of the day. However complaints about the game not having a trademark “major feature” like magichange or swaths of online functionality of its own, nor retaining some series staples still hold true which keep it from being as good as its predecessors.

Playing on the PlayStation 5 version of Disgaea 6 Complete vs the original release was like night and day comparatively, with many of the performance issues resolved and the game running how a Disgaea game should – smooth and lag-free. Plus, features such as the in-game trophies system now have a purpose, when you can actually obtain and show them off. My only other qualm which I feel has hampered all previous Complete editions in the Disgaea series is their implementation of DLC characters. Starting up the game and getting access to a full arsenal of powerful characters (albeit at scaled levelling) takes away from the authentic experience, and having them unlockable through incrementally unlocked sub-chapters, or even slightly altering them to fit into points of the story, would be better to make their inclusion more seamless.

The big deciding factor to whether you should purchase Disgaea 6 Complete or Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is whether the greater price of the former is worth all previously released character DLC and performance improvements. In my opinion, they are, but if you are new to the series you may find yourself wanting to nab yourself some of the cheaper earlier releases – as they are more imaginative, have some arguably more iconic characters and offer hundreds of hours of gameplay at a budget price.

6.5

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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