There are two types of tactical JRPGs. One type is the unforgiving, tactics-minded, chess-like game where you can lose units permanently and will reset maps hundreds of times just to get through them. These games include Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, and Final Fantasy Tactics (the original one). The other type is the grind-heavy, brute force, wacky, full-scale war game where you build tons of powerful units and steamroller through enemies as you build levels in the four digits range. These games include anything NIS America makes, including Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten
Yes, I’m calling Disgaea 4 video game junk food. It’s not good for you, but it’s so damn mindlessly enjoyable. After you’ve beaten all of the secret bosses and realize that you put hundreds of hours into a game that really doesn’t have “tactics” so much as endless grinding and massive squad building, you’ll feel guilty. And you’ll know that when the next Makai Wars (that’s the Disgaea series, including both the main Disgaea games and side games like Makai Kingdom, Phantom Brave, and others) game comes, you’ll do the same thing.
Once again, the story is about an aspiring overlord in the netherworld, trying to become the ruler of everything evil. This time, it’s the vampire Valvatorez and his loyal werewolf steward Fenrich trying to overthrow the leadership of the netherworld from the prison of Hades. The characters are much less grating than in previous Disgaea games, with Valvatorez leaps and bounds more likeable than the irritating kids from Disgaea 3. Even the whiny little girl and gibberish-speaking monster Fuka and Desco are strangely charming.
For the first time in years, NIS has overhauled the graphics of the series, giving Disgaea 4 the upgrade Disgaea 3 arguably should have gotten. The sprites are all in high definition now, and they look gorgeous. They’re not animated any more smoothly and the designs are the same as the older sprites, but they’re much more crisp and detailed. It’s a Disgaea game worthy of the PS3. If you want to play with the old school graphics, you can use the classic sprites, too.
The gameplay is standard Disgaea, and that’s good. Tons of units, map-altering geo panels, and four digit levels. If you played any of the previous Disgaea games, you know how it works. This time, the twist is the Cam-Pain HQ, a board game system that lets you arrange your units and various facilities to give them bonuses. It’s a fairly deep system, once again combined with a voting mechanic where you have to convince other demons to go along with your plans.
Once again, the big appeal is just how much gameplay you can get out of it. Besides the dozens of maps in the main story, there are tons of brutal bonus maps, randomly generated worlds in each item you can drill into to power them up and get levels, and you can increase the strength of any map to give yourself more challenge. In this case, the challenge is almost always an issue of numbers, grinding up your units to make them powerful. This isn’t Fire Emblem or Advance Wars, where careful planning will make or break your fight. It’s a war of power, and who has the most badass units. Oh, and now there’s a map editor, so you can make your own maps and download other user maps for even more gameplay.
Disgaea 4 is a great, entertaining game that will make you feel ridiculous after you spent hundreds of hours to get every single character and conquer every item world. It’s tactical RPG junk food, and that’s fine. It doesn’t change much, but the changes it does make are welcome, and it presents a satisfying game that, while we’ve all seen it before, is still darn enjoyable.
