Disgaea 4 Complete+ (Switch) – Review Minus

Thank you to NIS America for providing us with a review code! A Demonic Political Bout is about to take place! PhantomZ2 dives into the depths of the Netherworld to fight the President in Disgaea 4 Complete+ for Nintendo Switch!

It’s time to go back in time with the Disgaea series, but this time within familiar territory. Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten is the fourth main entry of the franchise and the second title that was on the PlayStation 3. With being a fan of the franchise, I approached NIS America about reviewing the second return of this game – yes, the second. Disgaea 4 Complete+ is the ultimate version of the game as it takes the original game, that games DLC, and Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited on the Vita and compiles them into one game to be enjoyed on the Nintendo Switch. So with thanks to NIS America for the review code, let’s not waste any more time, let’s head into the Netherworld once again for Disgaea 4 Complete+!

STORY:

There once was a powerful Vampire Tyrant that traveled across the Human World and sucked the blood of those that feared him. However, after a promise that resulted in the loss of his fearsome power, he changed his path and became a Prinny Instructor. The smart, but silly Prinny Instructor Valvatorez and his right-hand werewolf steward, Fenrich, work hard to keep their Prinnies in line! How so? By promising that each will get a Sardine for completing their final lesson. However, after the final lesson occurs, the Corruptement, the militia commanded under the Netherworld President, kidnaps the Prinnies and plans to destroy them to decrease the Prinny population! But, with Valvatorez’s promise at stake, and with the number of promises he keeps making, this small scale Prinny problem leads into a full-on political usurpation of the Netherworld!

Along the way, you’ll meet many faces, new and old. Fuka Kazumatsuri, a middle schooler that failed to fully become a Prinny after death and thinks this entire situation is a dream. DESCO, a monster that wishes to become a supreme Final Boss! Death Emizel, the rascal son of the President. Axel, from Disgaea 2, who is now acting as a Prison Warden in Hades! There are lots of characters, playable and non-playable, that you’ll encounter each chapter that will not only make the journey more intense in scale but flavorful in comedy.

Returning to Disgaea 4‘s story was just as fun as it was a few years ago. Some jokes from the past now hit a bit harder than before, given our own real wold social climate, thus making the game a lot funnier. However, there is also the downside of character traits becoming a bit grating. Fuka constantly stating how she thinks she’s in a dream gets annoying after a few chapters and I don’t remember finding Emizel’s voice annoying before, but I do find it to be a tad bit annoying to hear now. However, overall, Disgaea 4’s story is very comedic, silly, but intense in the normal Disgaea fashion that I love.

GAMEPLAY:

Those that are familiar with the standard Disgaea playthrough may already know what to expect, but I’ve still got to go over it for the Level 1s watching. Disgaea is a JSRPG – Japanese Strategic Role Playing Game. Each level has its own layout with the goal of defeating all the enemies on the board. Many levels will also have Geo Blocks causing different effects (EXP +50%, Enemy Boost x3, Warping, Cloning, etc.) to come into play for you to fight your way through or strategically get around by destroying different Geo Blocks in a chain reaction. In regards to the story, each chapter is set within a certain area and then there are several stages you’ll have to complete before fighting the boss of that chapter and proceeding to the next.

While you’ll have a growing team of main characters, you’re able to create a new character of any of the available classes and customize their equipment any way you like. To continue with some of the Disgaea staples, each stage rewards you based upon how much you’ve filled the Bonus gauge. Defeating enemies will earn your character that dealt the killing blow some Mana, which can then be used for Senate Hearings and more. The Item World is also still here to level up any weapon and make them more powerful by fighting through randomized stages.

While these are Disgaea staples nowadays, I’ll address some mechanics separately from the norm this time around. Originating from Disgaea 2 Dark Hero Days, Magichange returns! Magichange allows a monster class to transform into a specific type of weapon to be used by a Humanoid unit. For example, Catsabers turn into guns but Desco can magichange into a sword. Magichange is also expanded for Disgaea 4 specifically through Fusion! If two monsters of the same class fuse, they become a bigger monster! Also, a Mega Monster can Magichange to become a Mega Weapon.

Evilities from Disgaea 3 are back! These are abilities that you can learn at the Evility shop by spending mana. While each unique character has a Special Evility unique to them, you can customize what evilities you have equipped to prevent a character from taking less damage from Fire elemental attacks and things of the sort. Evility shops are also the place to power up your skills outside of just leveling them up from consistently using them.

Fitting into the political theme of Disgaea 4 is the Cam-Pain HQ. Here you can set your characters onto a map-like grid and the closer characters are to one another, the better they work in Team Attacks. However, through placing Evil Symbols on the map, those within the specific layout of the Evil Symbol will gain special abilities or effects. Some Evil Symbols will allow for those near it to gain more EXP in battle or for a support attack to react if two allies are near the same target enemy.

There are a lot of elements that build Disgaea 4 into a very strategic game and while setting these up and even just arranging your characters’ equipment can be a bit annoying, it all makes the game for fun in the long run. That goes for having to travel through the Item World as there will be times where you need to grind to close a level gap. Some of the things that make this game Complete+ are certain features like the Cheat Shop returning from Disgaea Dimension 2, where you can increase the percentage of EXP, Mana, and HL gained and also the strength of enemies to make the process of grinding faster! Also added, for the first time, is auto-saving, so now you never have to worry about remembering to save after completing a stage.

PRESENTATION:

There isn’t too much to say in regards to presentation because Disgaea games, while all somewhat different in aesthetic, they do indeed all look great. However, sometimes Disgaea 4 doesn’t fully dive into conveying a more political atmosphere when it’s time to get down to battles. The character classes are all the Disgaea standards, so I think I would like to see variations of designs that are meant to cater to the aesthetic being presented. Maybe have humanoid classes wear snazzier attire?

Takehito Harada, one of my many artistic influences, still provides nice character designs. While he always does a great job with the main player character designs (not so much with Killia), I really like the designs of the new Professor and Android class. The HD quality sprites are still great, as they were first introduced in Disgaea 4 on the PS3, but I wish I had the option to choose the SD style of sprites as in the original version of the game.

While I don’t remember too many tracks from the game this time around, there are still some amazing pieces coming from Tenpei Sato. I love the main theme, Last Engage, for how cool and powerful it sounds while also serving as a somber theme for Valzy’s story. This game’s version of You Go Girl! is very cute and rhythmic, while also accompanied by some silly vocals that accompany Fuka’s character. The best track overall is Sparking, in its normal iteration and arranged iteration. This track is very soothing and melancholic with its violins, but the guitar turns it into a very powerful and encouraging theme.

FINAL VERDICT:

Now, I do want to address the title: Review Minus. I never got the chance to beat the original game after my PS3 broke, and after getting it repaired AND losing all my save data – that opportunity has been shot further into the future. In addition, I asked NIS America for a review copy of a JRPG later than usual and with school also in the way, I wasn’t able to beat this game nor did I get the chance to reach the extra story added from the Vita version. So when I return to Disgaea 4 in a possible future Disgaea retrospective, I’ll give my full thoughts on every inch of this game and the rest of the main series.

However, with what I experienced twice, I’d definitely say to give Disgaea 4 Complete+ a purchase. While the $50 price may be a bit much with the PS3 original going for $20, having all the DLC, added story content from the Vita version, some aspects from Disgaea 5 and is on a portable console, definitely makes the price worth it. And just a message to NIS America, I’d love to see you guys bring Disgaea 2 and 3 to the Switch next.