Not a whole lot has changed on the gameplay front with Disgaea 5, where the game seems to adopt a ‘more is better’ philosophy- if you have played any Disgaea game in the past, you’ll feel right at home with Disgaea 5. You still have your grid based battles, governed by all manner of arcane stats, in turn governed by your level and gear, all of which you have full control over should you be willing to learn the game’s systems. Disgaea 5 does add a new factor into the mix, via its squads system- unlocked automatically as you play through the campaign, Squads let you divide your characters into specialized groups, which leads to highly specialized abilities, in turn ensuring that each member has a role to play- so where one squad is good at obliterating your enemies, another squad can be great at capturing weakened enemy soldiers. Another squad can be good at interrogating those weakened soldiers that you capture, and so on.

Squads address a key point of weakness that a lot of SRPGs suffer from- having a balanced roster of characters in constant rotation. While that is the ideal way to play, most players usually pick favorites and stick with them. Having squads each with specialized abilities at least ensures you will rely upon each team member regularly, if only to call on the squad they are in when necessary.

"Not a whole lot has changed on the gameplay front with Disgaea 5, where the game seems to adopt a ‘more is better’ philosophy- if you have played any Disgaea game in the past, you’ll feel right at home with Disgaea 5."

Disgaea 5 also substantially alters how it handles the Item World, which I suppose I can best describe as a massive, multi part single player Raid. The Item World opens up a few hours into Disgaea 5, and can honestly completely sidetrack you from your campaign progress- you can get lost in trying to conquer the Item World, spend dozens of hours in it without actually going through all of it, and all the while make no actual discernible progress in the story.

The Item World has been overhauled pretty thoroughly this time around. You battle monsters in random generated dungeons, quite like in a roguelike, until you battle a boss ‘item general.’ Once you defeat the ‘item general,’ the process begins afresh. The grind is kept fresh via dynamic events- every few floors, you might get a random drop (via a Goddess who comes and drops it for you), you might get to level up, or you might be able to chase down a rare enemy and engage them in battle for the chance to learn high level moves.

This keeps the Item World compelling, which is great, because the Item World is the best way to actually level up your party, and get good loot. And while your initial reason to venture into it may be to master the game’s metagame by getting the best possible gear, it is compelling enough in its own right that you want to stick with it, sometimes at the expense of the story.

"The story is further let down by its staid presentation- we are now into 2015, and Disgaea 5 is a game developed exclusively for the PlayStation 4, and yet the storytelling still largely relies on textboxes, and static character art portraits."

A lot of that may have to do with the fact that the story really is nothing special- it’s standard anime fare, but in the Disgaea world. Lord Dark Void is trying to destroy the netherworld, and a band of unlikely companions must team together to stop him. That’s the gist of it, and a lot of it includes some cringe inducing interactions between tropey characters, or some highly predictable story developments. The dialog is generally sharply written, and displays a fair bit of wits, especially for the Prinnies, but on the whole, the story practically begs to be ignored, which makes it unfortunate that the game seems to emphasize it far more than previous games in the series.

The story is further let down by its staid presentation- we are now into 2015, and Disgaea 5 is a game developed exclusively for the PlayStation 4, and yet the storytelling still largely relies on textboxes, and static character art portraits. Yes, it’s charming to a degree, but it hinders the already stilted storytelling even further.

Failing to make full use of the PS4’s power seems to be a trend with the game, though. For instance, take its graphics- a true next generation Disgaea would be a sight to behold, especially given the series’ striking and colorful artstyle, but what we have here looks barely better than an extremely high resolution rendition of a PS2 game. Yes, I understand that it’s a niche Japanese game series, made on a budget. I get that. Still, I would have appreciated at least some effort gone in trying to make the game look more, well, modern.

None of this actually matters to the typical Disgaea player, of course- what matters to them is the staggeringly long campaign, the great Item World, the Character World, the online matches, the online sharing of custom levels… there is a staggering amount of content in Disgaea 5, all serving the central, compelling and nuanced gameplay system. It’s enough for Disgaea 5 to grip you, and then not let you go for the next several dozen hours.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 4.

You just can’t keep a good Overlord – or in this case, five – down. Nippon Ichi Software’s Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance is on track to release in Japan this March and will mark the series’ debut on the PlayStation 4. That doesn’t mean it won’t have the same tactical role playing we know and love. Check out the latest trailer for the game, featuring voice work from the English cast, above.

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance will centre on five Overlords standing together and rising up against the Overlord Void Dark who is running rampant on the Netherworlds with his one million-strong army. Along with the return of various classes, Disgaea 5 will increase the number of on-screen characters to 100 and see you travelling to various Netherworlds to recruit the Overlords to your cause.

North American and European players will still need to wait till Q3 2015 to play it on PS4 and PS3 so stay tuned for more information.

The game is currently being developed for release exclusively on the PlayStation 4 by Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. who will also be publishing the game in Japan, it’s not yet confirmed who will be publishing the game when it arrives in North America and Europe.

The game will most likely receive a launch at retail and will be available in Japan on March 26th of 2015. The game is set to launch in North America and Europe in Q3 of 2015, though no more specific date is available at this time.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance was first announced officially to the public when it appeared at Tokyo Game Show on September 1st of 2014. This will be the fifth game in the long running turn based strategy game series and is the first new game since Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten launched in February of 2011 in Japan on PS3.

The game was initially in development as a multi platform title, presumably slated to launch on the PS Vita, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. It has since been confirmed by Nippon Ichi Software president, Sohei Niikawa, that they changed this plan and decided to develop a game that could only be made on the PlayStation 4. This helps to explain the game’s PlayStation 4 exclusivity.

Nippon Ichi Software later confirmed that those who purchase the Japanese gaming magazine Dengeki PlayStation would be able to download a trial version of the game, somewhat akin to a demo, that was exclusive to the magazine. This trial was accessible by inputting a code found in the magazine.

The game continues to make use of the grid based, turn based strategy elements found in prior iterations of the series. The 2D sprites against 3D backgrounds return to the game and thanks to the power of the PS4, Nippon Ichi Software’s designers have said that the game can support 100 characters on screen at any one given time.

Story

Thus far, what we know about the story is that it’s one of revenge. A number of Netherworlds have been left destroyed in the wake of Void Dark’s ascension to emperor. He accomplished this feat by using an army of evil demonic soldiers called The Lost.

Rebelling against the cruel emperor, the armies of various underworlds are now turning against to Void Dark to have their revenge.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance remains largely unchanged from previous iterations of the series, such is the fundamentally brilliant nature of the gameplay mechanics. The new features added to the game include enemies actively displaying their resistances to certain attacks when you highlight them on the battlefield, this gives a greater insight into the enemy and the potential tactics the aim to employ.

The game also features a new “Revenge” system that comes into play when you start to loose party members. The “Revenge Gauge” allows players to boost their character’s strengths and stats.

Like other Disgaea titles, characters can team up briefly to execute special dual attacks that dole out increased damage to the opponent, these are known as fusion attacks. One of the more prominent changes is the introduction of new character classes, these include the new Dark Knights that use melee weapons and Maids that use guns. All the other game series classes will be returning.

Just like previous Disgaea games, the player will travel to a number of different underdworlds with the goal of uniting the respective armies and their heirs together under one banner to rise up against Void Dark. The game will also make use of a Weapon Mastery system similar to the first two Disgaea gamesIn Disgaea 3 and Disgaea 4, this was renamed to Weapon Forte.

Characters

Thus far, these are the characters we know about.

Void Dark – Void Dark is the new and ruthless emperor.

Christo – Christo is the overlord of the underworld and is a competent war strategist.

Zeroken – Zeroken fights against the Lost.

Killia – Killia is is the demon protagonist and it is he who seeks revenge against the Emperor.

Seraphina – A princess trying to avoid an arranged political marriage.

Usalia – Usalia is the Demon King of the Rabbit world and she rides into battle on a yellow giant prinny.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.