Disgaea 4

[fatbatch]

It looks and plays like the earlier games. It's silly and amusing but with hints of seriousness, even sadness, to come. I'm playing it without using the senate as it has made previous first runs too easy. There will be lots of power-ups to exploit when the story is done. Another few hundred hours of this before anything else takes my attention.

[MartyG]

I'm about 20 hours in now, and yes it plays like the earlier games, perhaps even a little bit too much. It does look pretty much the same, although switching between the retro and new graphics modes you can see that the high-res sprites are a substantial improvement. The story in this one really isn't holding my interest that much, Nippon Ichi have yet to better the original story in my eyes.

There are a few new (and some annoying) new geo-block status types, such as lose HP/SP for walking over them. A few new mystery rooms in item world, a different way of doing the Home Room classes (although it amounts to the same thing).

The new features aren't as useful as I'd hoped. The map editor really is pretty limited with what it can do, and it restricts you to using characters in your team, rather than being able to use any of the characters you've got unlocked. The rewards are for a new type of points that can be spent on more block options and decorations for your maps. You can upload your creations for other people to play, but all the top rankings are unreachable due to the game being out for so long in Japan.

So really, I don't think the game offers that much over any of the previous games, other than the higher-res sprites (at least so far, there maybe other hidden unlockable gems). It's the same old Disgaea with the same tried and tested formula - but that does at least mean that the grinding and lvl 9999 chase is as engrosing as ever, it just loses a little something by not trying to do very much different.

[Party boy]

Only 2 posts for the latest in such a great series? Is it my imagination or have NIS only made Disgaea games since Disgaea 2, or was it Disgaea 1 even? I'll defo get this at some point.

[MartyG]

NIS did La Pucelle: Tactics on PS2 which was prior to Disgaea ( and the Marl Kingdom series prior to that ), it's worth checking out although it's a little more clunky than the refined Hour of Darkness. There was a review for it on the old NTSC-UK.com until the archives went astray. Also worth taking a look at Makai Kingdom and Phantom Brave, though I don't believe NIS have really managed to eclipse the first Disgaea title.

I need to get back to A Promise Unforgotten and finish the story off, the trouble is I didn't find the story that compelling, and despite playing as well as all the others in the series, it's plays the same as all the others in the series. Having ploughed over 120 hours in to Hour of Darkness and 80 odd in the other two, I didn't find there was enough new stuff to keep me that interested.

Still a solid game, but NIS really do need to come up with a fresh premise for Disgaea 5.

[Kaido]

I've got this in my chrimbo list, hence the lack of contribution, but I'm a massive NIS fanboy.

Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom are my high points since Disgaea 1...
low point being Hyperdimension Neptunia, which says a lot about the state of their creativity recently

EDIT: (oh wikipedia lists them as publishers not developers on it, apologies)

EDIT: In fact, if by some bizarre coincidence someone noteworthy is listening, please make Phantom Brave 2 / Makai Kingdom 2 as a sequel instead of Disgaea 5, if you have to make sequels at all, as they have better game mechanics!

[Bassman]

I was given this (UK release) for a Birthday Present last week (Monday), a game I had to patiently wait for (I usually import the US release to get the game early).

Unfortunately Amazon had matched the Gamestation Offer (now over I presume) on Skyrim, which I ordered on the previous Saturday after breakfast. Amazingly the game arrived on my Birthday and managed to receive the majority of my attention (well over 50 hours between two unfinished saves).

On this game, I am now at the end of Chapter 2 . No sign of the Class Workld yet (had to check the 'net on that one). I need to do some serious levelling as I am having some problems with Boss strength (maybe I just like to one-hit them).

Best character is a Lv 21 Red Mage (currently working on a Star Mage to get the Prism and subsequently Galaxy Mages unlocked). Patiently awaiting the Class World (I think you need a Lv100 character and a reincarnation for that to happen) so that I can give my Mages Espoir and Heal spells.

Whether it is just Skyrim or "more of the same", I am not that into Disgaea 4... hopefully yet!.

[Kaido]

I'm about 20 hours in now, and yes it plays like the earlier games, perhaps even a little bit too much. It does look pretty much the same, although switching between the retro and new graphics modes you can see that the high-res sprites are a substantial improvement. The story in this one really isn't holding my interest that much, Nippon Ichi have yet to better the original story in my eyes.

There are a few new (and some annoying) new geo-block status types, such as lose HP/SP for walking over them. A few new mystery rooms in item world, a different way of doing the Home Room classes (although it amounts to the same thing).

The new features aren't as useful as I'd hoped. The map editor really is pretty limited with what it can do, and it restricts you to using characters in your team, rather than being able to use any of the characters you've got unlocked. The rewards are for a new type of points that can be spent on more block options and decorations for your maps. You can upload your creations for other people to play, but all the top rankings are unreachable due to the game being out for so long in Japan.

So really, I don't think the game offers that much over any of the previous games, other than the higher-res sprites (at least so far, there maybe other hidden unlockable gems). It's the same old Disgaea with the same tried and tested formula - but that does at least mean that the grinding and lvl 9999 chase is as engrosing as ever, it just loses a little something by not trying to do very much different.

I'm about 20 hours in too, and this is absolutely spot on! They've extended the mechanics without breaking anything (good) or changing anything drastically (bad)

If I could have skipped Disgaea 2 and 3 and jumped straight from 1 to 4 I would have thought they'd nailed it.