Video Game Review: Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny

Disgaea 6

NIS America

Genre: Strategy Role Playing Game

Nintendo Switch

Disgaea 5 came out over half a decade ago in 2015 and is possibly the best game in the series from a gameplay perspective. The gameplay was nearly perfected, with enjoyable combat filled with big numbers. With how fun the last entry was, expectations are high for Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, an entry that is full of new ideas for the series.

Fans of the series will feel right at home with Disgaea 6. It’s still much of the same game, with tight tactical combat, the series’ signature humor, and all of the gigantic numbers one could ask for. The new storyline focuses on Zed, a zombie who wants to topple a god. The story and the characters that occupy are all self-aware, giving Disgaea 6 all the parody one would expect. The story and dialogue aren’t spectacular, but it’s entertaining enough and will get a few laughs out of the players before they finish the 30+ hour story.

The first new thing in Disgaea 6 that will pop out to experienced players is the transition from 2D to 3D. The grids that the characters are battling on are now full of 3D models, which may or may not appeal to longtime fans. If this is your first Disgaea game, you aren’t likely to lose anything, as the models do look great. They are full of color and have tons of personality. Fans of the franchise might miss how clean and detailed the 2D models were. It’s certainly not a negative change, but it kind of feels like Disgaea 6 loses a little of its identity during the transition.

The gameplay is exactly what you would expect from a Disgaea game or even any strategy RPG. Players can direct their characters to move, attack, defend, use items, and a few other things as they try to eliminate the bad guys. The combat isn’t especially strategic, as a little grinding can overcome absolutely anything. In fact, grinding is highly encouraged by the game itself. A few actions can be programmed and players can easily just let the AI do everything else if the characters are strong enough. The ability to auto through Disgaea 6 kind of emphasizes just how important the grind and numbers are.

Despite how much the game can play itself, it’s still quite fun. The customization is rewarding since in most situations the AI can’t just do it all by itself. Players can upgrade their characters in tons of ways, and the multitude of items as even more ways to grow.

The quality of life changes to Disgaea 6 makes this one of the most accessible games in the series. A lot of the menus have been cut, making the entire experience feel more streamlined. The auto-battling itself is a quality of life addition since it makes grinding so much more tolerable. Reaching the level cap and maxing out all of the stats is made much easier than it ever was before. As such, post-game content is much quicker to achieve, which certainly isn’t a bad thing. Auto battle is completely optional, so hardcore players can just ignore it if they prefer.

As accessible and streamlined as Disgaea 6 is, it’s also possibly the most flawed game in the series from a performance perspective. I’m not sure if it’s the 3D models, but the game runs painfully slow sometimes. Some battles just crawl at a boring pace, making the game much harder to recommend than its peers. The animations also don’t look great, which is likely a side-effect of the studio learning how to animate their new 3D models. Whatever is causing the flaws, Disgaea 6 feels like it is pushing the Switch to the max. It’s really a shame because the game doesn’t look like it’s all that physically demanding.

It’s full of shortcomings on the technical side, but Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is still a blast to play. For every streamlined quality of life addition though is a frustrating moment. This is far from the best Disgaea game in the series, but you can do much worse when it comes to strategy roleplaying games.