Since Disgaea: Hour of Darkness in the early 2000s, the Makai Senki Disgaea (or just, Disgaea) series has served as Nippon Ichi Software’s flagship franchise, which they as a development studio have used to foster their audience, style and quirky comedic sense. While the Japanese development team continued to push out success after success, and even adequately expanded their earlier releases effectively through ‘Portable’ and ‘Complete’ editions, this combo of successes was brought to an end a few years ago with Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny. To me, this was an attempt at pivoting to the new generation of gaming gone wrong. From a poor attempt at transitioning from 2D to 3D models, to performance issues, to what some could perceive as a mobile gameifying of core elements – for the first time getting through a Disgaea game was a challenge – and not in a good way. Now in 2023, Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless was the make or break for the series… and did they deliver? Yes… yes, they did.
It is evident from the first few minutes that the development team took learnings from D6 and incorporated them into D7, in addition to mitigating the awful performance issues that remained present to come extent in the console ‘Disgaea 6 Complete’ collection. From altering the visual style so it meets a happy balance between D5 and D6, bringing back many beloved character classes and introducing a few new ones, and returning features that were likely removed in the first place to ‘streamline’ the experience – many of the decisions made were wise ones, and those ‘new’ features still retained such as the ‘auto-battle’ system were reined in, so as not to cheapen the experience as much. Pretty much, if you loved Disgaea 1 through 5 and have been hoping that Nippon Ichi Software took a step back with Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless, I can ecstatically say they did. Oh, and the level cap? The traditional 9999… not 9,999,999.
If you have watched any promotional material for Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless, you will know that they have gone with a feudal-era Japan theme, or specifically to say, a group of Netherworlds known as ‘Honomoto’ which are themed after the aesthetic style and warped values of the era. The story follows a rag-tag group of demons and other entities, led by Fuji (A demon from Hinomoto who falls very comfortably into the Disgaea protagonist camp) and Pirilika (A rich Hinomoto otaku), with the pair seeking out the founding weapons – seven legendary weapons that can form bonds with wielders and grand them access to devastating levels of power. What starts as a hunt quickly escalates, as they recruit new allies (typically following a 1-per-chapter approach, at least at the beginning) and begin to go up against the corrupt Shogunate of Hinomoto. The narrative is your standard Disgaea affair, a solid foundation complemented by comedic banter, conflicting personalities and the occasional fourth wall breaking. it doesn’t push the boundaries too far, and these characters are probably not as memorable as those of the first few games, but there is more than enough enjoyment that comes from their journey.
Combat is your typical Disgaea affair – you use your mix of story and custom-created characters to take down the opposing foes on a grid-based tactical RPG map, considering your available units, lay-of-the-land and accessible skills to determine how you complete each stage. There are once again a lot of stats to keep track of and variables that will determine how successful you are, and flagship mechanics such as Lifting/Throwing, Elemental Magic, and multiple different weapon types (Eg. Knuckles, Sword, Spears, Axes, Guns, Bows, Staffs, Monster Exclusive Weapons) which have their own associated skills and skill levels, and geo panels, all of which mean that no two battles are exactly alike. While it is a case of ‘if you have played one Disgaea game you typically know what you are getting into’, there is a solid variety of challenges, from thick waves of enemies defending a boss to throwing out a much more overpowered enemy at you to provide an added challenge. If there was one comment I could make, which I felt they have done more and more since Disgaea 4 onwards, is that they have perhaps been a little less adventurous on the level design front, and the battles are more about brute strength – for better or worse – more often than not worse in my opinion.
While some combat systems have not returned, such as magichange which allowed characters to wield monster allies as weapons, Disgaea 7 has its own set of features that shake up the standard formula. The big one, accessible to pretty much every character, is the ability for the player and enemies alike to Jumbify their character. Through jumbification, a greatly enlarged chosen character can take one of the cardinal positions of the field (North, South, East or West), imbue the field with their innate special abilities (including giving everyone the Prinny ability to explode when thrown!) and attack large swaths of foes at a time. Similarly, a few characters (associated with the founding weapons) are able to build up a Hell Gauge during battle, gaining access to special abilities that are useful when in a pinch. While none of these abilities are mandatory, having been at the end of an Item World run with only one party member alive, it was a saving grace for a solid half hour of work.
As mentioned above, Auto-Battle is back, for better or worse. Thankfully it is not possible to cheeze the game by playing the entire game using it, and has a few requirements placed around it. Firstly, is that you must complete a level before using auto-battle on it (once unlocked in Chapter 4), and furthermore, you must use a limited currency known as Poltergas which is accumulated by playing the game manually. So, I would see it more as a way of level grinding instead of game grinding. Would I argue the system would be better off omitted…. probably. But at least the temptation to use it isn’t there as much. This also feeds into a newly introduced Ranked Battle mode, where you can auto-battle against the parties of other players around the world, using ‘Demonic Intelligence’ to automate the actions of your characters during these automated battles. The limiting factor? It is hard to test this mode when the game hasn’t been released yet, so something to look forward to – with NIS America committing to offering different stages in each season of ranked battles.
Item World makes a return, allowing you to dive into your favourite weapons, and through clearing randomly generated stages, level them up even further. However new to Disgaea 7 is Item Reincarnation, allowing you to reincarnate your items into another, similar to what you have been able to do with your custom characters for some time now. It adds an extra level of sophistication around making each item your own and allows you to access weapons, equipment and items that have different traits and abilities to what you might find on stages or in stores. Of course, you can choose to mostly bypass Item Reincarnation if you would prefer, and this feels like a feature for those who like to min/max every facet of their characters. With ranked battles being a thing now, there is finally a reason for min/maxing to take place.
From new features such as being able to explore areas you have cleared, to returning features such as Squads granting members different perks, Disgaea 6’s Juice Bar allows you to accumulate a separate store of EXP/Mana/Stats to divvy up between party members however you want, and the cheat shop allowing you to tailor the difficulty and experience settings how you want – there are a lot of well-interwoven features that provide a rich experience, without the imbalanced jank of Disgaea 6.
Probably where Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless is lacking. Not necessarily for those who like to push things further, such as the Carniage Mode and traditional super bosses which do take some time to work towards. But much of the fun around unlocking bonus characters is limited to only a few story missions, with many of the normal figures from past games being relegated to downloadable content. Unfortunately however, unless they are directly from a past Disgaea game, they will not make an appearance – such as the ‘Badass Freakin’ Overlord Zetta, Pram, Marona/Ash, etc. Given Nippon Ichi Software has been on a bit of a renaissance in recent years, re-releasing many of their older games, would have been a fabulous opportunity to bring them into 3D.
As mentioned above, the performance improvements and another pass at adapting what was originally 2D sprites into 3D character models made all the difference, with Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless being a delight for the eyes. Extra effort has gone into the little details as well, from the creative skill cutscenes to wonderfully detailed character portraits. Plus the UI is smooth and slick and feels appropriate for a ‘current-gen’ Disgaea game.
While there appears to be a distinct lack of Tenpei Sato this time around, the soundtrack helmed by Takeshi Matsumoto is pretty impressive, suiting the tone and themes of the game well. The song ‘Eternal Battlefield’ in particular, is one of my highlights for D7. Furthermore, whether you go with the English or Japanese voice acting, you cannot go wrong in my opinion – both being of great quality.
After more than a few setbacks in their sixth numbered instalment, Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless hits back and shows that the long-running SRPG franchise still has much to offer its fans. The game beautifully balances visuals between Disgaea 5 and 6, and reintroduces beloved features while also continuing to innovate and allowing players to control almost everything about their gaming experience. But most of all, it is an enjoyable tactical RPG experience with a unique feudal-era Japan backdrop which serves as a foundation of much humour, and a story you want to follow through to its conclusion. Whether you are in it for the base experience or are in it for another several-hundred-hour grind fest, these is much for you in Disgaea 7.
Acknowledgment: A PlayStation 5 review key was provided by Nippon Ichi Software America to facilitate this review.
Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless will be available in western markets with native versions on the PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch starting 3 October 2023, published by Nippon Ichi Software America and distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Bandai Namco Entertainment Australia.
