Disgaea 6 Complete is no different in this regard: the numbers go up. They have to. It’s the basis for the entire franchise. Out of all the games in the franchise so far, Disgaea 6 Complete makes its “big numbers” the most blatant “big numbers” of all. Just going through the first fight will give your characters enough experience points to level up several times, and it just keeps going from there. This is all in service of Disgaea 6 Complete’s big new gimmick: Super Reincarnation. Before I get to that, however, let’s take a quick look at the story, just so that all the nonsensical words I throw out start having some semblance of meaning.

"Out of all the games in the franchise so far, Disgaea 6 Complete makes its “big numbers” the most blatant “big numbers” of all. Just going through the first fight will give your characters enough experience points to level up several times, and it just keeps going from there."

Much like all other Disgaea games, Disgaea 6 Complete focuses on a God of Destruction. This time around, the God of Destruction is said to be the strongest one that the franchise has ever seen, and our protagonist—a lowly zombie named Zed—has taken it upon himself to kill him. Despite just being a zombie—or rather, thanks to the fact that he is just a zombie—Zed has the uncanny ability to just never die. Instead, death causes him to undergo Super Reincarnation. In story terms, this means that Zed ends up stronger every time he dies. In gameplay terms, Super Reincarnation allows you to reset Zed to level 1, all while keeping all of his techniques and stats gained by leveling up previously.

Considering just how much fun Disgaea stories end up being, I’m hesitant to say much more about Disgaea 6 Complete’s story. It’s a lot of fun, and the writing is as clever as it has ever been. The first few minutes alone were enough to make me chuckle a number of times, from just breaking the fourth wall by mentioning enemy levels, to conversations with Cerberus, it’s all pretty funny. Thankfully it’s not just all jokes all the time. Disgaea 6 Complete also has serious moments and character motivations where the comedy takes a back seat.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the ‘game’ part. Like I said earlier, Disgaea 6 Complete, more than any of its predecessors, is all about making numbers go up. The level cap for every character is 99 million, and you’re encouraged to hit that level cap multiple times on the same characters through Super Reincarnation. Every single item has its own randomised dungeon that you can enter to grab special buffs that can then be applied to other items you own. Disgaea 6 Complete is truly a dream come true for every min-maxer out there. I’ve always loved the Disgaea franchise for this kind of nonsense, and Disgaea 6 Complete does not disappoint in that aspect.

"With its switch to 3D, Disgaea 6 Complete has a lot of the charm in presentation that its predecessors—and especially Disgaea 5 Complete—had. The character models are all pretty low in the polygon count department, and while that can often lend itself to great art styles, Disgaea 6 Complete fumbles in its execution."

Super Reincarnation is an interesting mechanic. It essentially acts as a level reset, but depending on the type of Super Reincarnation you choose, it has the potential to make your character much stronger at level 1 than they were at level 9000. Not only does it allow you to keep your leveled up stats and abilities, it also has the potential to give you more stat points to raise. It sounds pretty stupid on the surface, but Super Reincarnation is actually a clever way of throwing in something like the “Prestige Level” system from a Call of Duty game into an RPG while having a reasonable in-universe explanation for it. Super Reincarnation is encouraged, and should constantly be something you strive to do for all of your characters. The real puzzle is figuring out the right time to do it.

That’s not to say it’s perfect. With its switch to 3D, Disgaea 6 Complete has a lot of the charm in presentation that its predecessors—and especially Disgaea 5 Complete—had. The character models are all pretty low in the polygon count department, and while that can often lend itself to great art styles, Disgaea 6 Complete fumbles in its execution. Something about its 3D character models just feels off in the way they animate, and I much prefer the high quality 2D sprites from earlier Disgaea games. Ultimately, you can see that this is the same problem we had with the original release of Disgaea 6 on the Nintendo Switch, but thankfully, the PS5 version of Disgaea 6 Complete didn’t suffer the performance and frame rate issues of the original Switch release.

Let’s talk about DLC, because ultimately, that’s Disgaea 6 Complete’s main selling point over its original release. Disgaea 6 Complete packs in all of the DLC that the game got since its original release on the Nintendo Switch. This means that in true Disgaea fashion, just about every major protagonist from previous games will be available to add to your party, be it Adell and Rozalin from Disgaea 2, or Killia and Usalia from Disgaea 5, they’re all here. The only catch is that to add them to your party, you have to partake in a special fight that will likely test your tactical capabilities. Considering the absurdity of the Super Reincarnation system, however, it becomes surprisingly easy to take on these special characters relatively early on, and even out-leveling them is a real possibility. It is somewhat disappointing to see the protagonist of Disgaea 2 go down in 2 hits.

"Our other major problem with Disgaea 6’s original release also still exists: the number of possible character classes for additional party members is considerably lower than its predecessors, giving build variety a major hit."

Our other major problem with Disgaea 6’s original release also still exists: the number of possible character classes for additional party members is considerably lower than its predecessors, giving build variety a major hit. Classes for both humanoid characters as well as monster characters have been severely cut down. Sure, it doesn’t hurt the absurdity of Disgaea 6 Complete’s game balance, but I personally found it a lot of fun to figure out how to use some of the goofier character classes. It’s sad to see that I can’t make an entire party out of nothing but Maids and Wrestlers anymore.

So… does Disgaea 6 Complete’s inclusion of the DLC content make the game any better than its original release? Not particularly. The absurdity is still there, so that’s still good. The DLC doesn’t really do much to remedy other issues, however, like the downgrade in art style with the shift to 3D, or the rather lacking options in character classes. Despite all of this, Disgaea 6 Complete is still a good time. The writing’s genuinely funny at times, Super Reincarnation is a clever mechanic that makes level grinding less of a chore and more of a minor puzzle to solve, and most importantly, the numbers go up, and they can go up higher than ever before.

This game was reviewed on PS5.

This is mainly due to strong sales of Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, which launched last year for the Nintendo Switch in North America and Europe. Repeat sales for past titles in the series also helped. Nihon Falcom titles, which NIS America published, did well with Ys 9: Monstrum Nox contributing to its profit growth.

The company is currently forecasting net sales of 6,378 million yen ($49,883,466) for fiscal year 2023, which closes on March 31st, 2023. However, it’s projecting final profit to be down by 26.5 percent year-on-year at 935 million yen ($7,312,800). It currently has Disgaea 6: Complete coming to PS4, PS5 and PC in June while The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero launches in September for the West on PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Currently available for Nintendo Switch in the West, Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is the first fully 3D entry in the series. Its story is about a zombie named Zed who embarks on a journey to take down the God of Destruction, using Super Reincarnation to enhance his strength. Various new features are also introduced like a level cap of 99,999,999 along with auto battles.

One can also use Retry and Replay to tackle tough fights again. For more details on Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, check out our review here for more details.

Though a release date hasn’t been confirmed for the West, pre-orders are currently available for the limited edition on PS4 and PS5. For $110, you get the Deluxe Edition, a hardcover art book, Steelbook, four art cards, the soundtrack on two discs, a cloth poster and a collector’s box.

Originally released for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch in January 2021 for Japan, Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny would launch exclusively for the Switch worldwide in June 2021. As such, this will be the first time that PlayStation fans in the West can get their hands on the game, while also serving as the PC version’s debut. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

The story focuses on Zed, a zombie that’s looking to take down the dreaded God of Destruction. Zed isn’t completely helpless though – he can use Super Reincarnation to become stronger. The series’ absurd level cap has also been increased to 99,999,999 with players capable of dealing over one quadrillion worth of damage. Features like Auto (which plays battles automatically), Retry and Replay have also been introduced.

Though Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny has had some positive reviews, it’s not without its downsides. As our official review points out, the new graphical style doesn’t look great and performance issues are common on the Switch. Don’t go in expecting as much content or mechanics as Disgaea 5 Complete either.

The premise of the new game follows another God of Destruction, this one the strongest ever known or seen across the realms, who is practically unstoppable and nigh on unpredictable. However, the game informs us as soon as the threat of this God of Destruction has been set up, that this God of Destruction has already been defeated. By the most unpredictable hero at that, a zombie named Zed. From there, we get into the story of how a simple zombie managed to topple the strongest yet God of Destruction, which comprises the bulk of the game.

The story and storytelling remain charming and quirky, with loads of the type of snappy dialog and sharp writing that has made these games so consistently successful over the years. The game has some fun with its own premise, and Zed makes for a delightful narrator of his own adventures, particularly since he keeps subverting expectations with his recounting of how things went down several times over. If the charm and humor of the series is what you play Disgaea for, you’ll be happy to know Disgaea 6 delivers on that front.

"If the charm and humor of the series is what you play Disgaea for, you’ll be happy to know Disgaea 6 delivers on that front."

It’s elsewhere that the game seems to have suffered, and most of this seems to come down to the troubled development cycle discussed earlier. This is most apparent in the switch the series has made to 3D models over sprites, and how they have impacted things across the board. A very obvious example is Special Attacks now being canned animations that cut away from the field, with the only visual effect for them that you see on the field being the number representing the attack’s effect (whether damage or heal or buff or otherwise). It’s obvious in the amount of classes that are gone – presumably because NIS simply could not have them done in time or with the money on hand. Even obvious attack animations feel far more generic and less exciting than you might remember. The game’s attempt to counter this is to make the numbers on screen bigger – so the new level cap, for example, is 99,999,999, up from 9,999 in older games, and damage scales up to ridiculous numbers as well. But the law of diminishing returns kicks in, and effectively, soon enough, a 99999 damage attack just feels like a 999 damage attack in an older game.

There are cutbacks elsewhere too. A lot of systems from the older games have been removed, which in some cases leads to some great streamlining, but in many others, leads to a lot of the depth that fans in the series may be used to being removed. Things like automatic heals after each battle are not something that I’m going to complain about, particularly since they keep the focus squarely on the actual core gameplay – but on the other hand, seeing all monsters use generic weapons, or seeing equipment aptitude gone, does remove some elements of planning and build minmaxing that fans of the previous games may have enjoyed.

To Disgaea 6’s credit, it does add in a lot to the mix even where it removes a bunch – the most intriguing feature it has is the auto battle, which allows players to thoroughly program how your party members react to the flow of battle to a ridiculously granular degree. You can spend forever playing with these. The amount of depth and wealth of options available to players is ridiculous, and the flexibility with which you can program AI routines for your party puts anything similar that I can think of to shame.

"More than anything else, Disgaea 6 feels like a transitional foundation for future games in the series."

There’s a whole bunch of other changes – outright removals, as I have noted, but also new additions, as well as changes to existing systems. All of this leads to a Disgaea game that is very different playing from the past few ones that we have gotten, while still retaining the distinctly dense nature of those titles (albeit a bit less so). I think if you’re just looking for a systemically packed strategy RPG, Disgaea 6 still fits the bill. It still has a lot going on, and a lot of its changes are even for the better. And QoL elements it adds, such as the auto battling and battle repeat features, which can help literally automate grinding, are absolutely for the better for compulsive min-maxers. Even with the changes it brings to the table, many of which are likely to be divisive, I think there is a lot in Disgaea 6 for fans to like.

What is undoubtedly a dramatic step down, however, is the visual presentation. Disgaea games are not technical showpieces – which is what makes Disgaea 6’s poor Switch performance that much more puzzling. The game simply does not look good on the Switch. Some of this has to do with the blandness of the 3D models over the livelier sprites of the older games, but even otherwise, on a purely technical front, Disgaea 6 suffers. The default mode presents acceptable picture quality, but the framerate can suffer; you get a performance mode, where the framerate is steady, but the game, somehow, ends up looking worse than Disgaea did on Vita, because of how much resolution suffers. There’s a balanced mode, which is a compromise, but it ends up neither looking nor running too well. It’s just a shame overall, because even for a game like Disgaea, where how it looks isn’t really the point, 6 can look distractingly bad a lot of times.

The final takeaway from Disgaea 6 is decidedly complex. It’s not a slam dunk, obviously, and it’s a distinct step down from Disgaea 5 Complete in a lot of ways. But it’s also not the total misfire many fans were afraid it would be. There’s a lot here that works, and works really well, and more than anything else, Disgaea 6 feels like a transitional foundation for future games in the series – if NIS is still around to make them. I’d say it’s most comparable to titles such as Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, Monster Hunter Tri, or Disgaea’s own 3, which at the time made the jump to HD, all of which had to make some pretty big jumps for their series, and ended up losing a lot of what fans had liked about their predecessors. Those games, including Disgaea 3, ended up being the foundation for several great, beloved by fans, entries in their respective franchises that would follow.

Hopefully, Disgaea 6 can be that for its series. There’s a lot here that’s very good, and NIS seems to be on the right track – they just need to be able to build on it. In the here and now, Disgaea 6 itself is good for what it is. It’s not going to be most people’s favorite entry in the series, to be fairly honest, but it’s still a good, addictive, and deep SRPG that should manage to keep people engaged for a very long time.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny sees players stepping into the shows of Zed, a zombie from the Netherworld who must take down the God of Destruction. Featuring a completely new visual style (with 3D graphics being a first for the series) and the new progression mechanic known as Super Reincarnation, it attempts to mix things up for the long running franchise.

In case you’re curious but still skeptical, a demo of Disgaea 6 is also available on the Switch eShop, so you can go ahead and check it out to get a taste of what the game has on offer.

Nippon Ichi Software’s Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is out next month but before that, Nintendo Switch players can try out the demo for free. It recently went live on the Nintendo eShop for North America and Europe, and offers the first two story chapters to play through. Check out the demo’s trailer below.

Any progress made in the demo will also carry over to the full game. Digital pre-orders are also live for the title on the eShop. If you own other NISA-published titles on the Switch like Disgaea 1 Complete, Disgaea 4 Complete+, Disgaea 5 Complete, Langrisser 1 and 2, The Caligula Effect: Overdose, Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3/4 or The Alliance Alive HD Remastered, you can avail of a 10 percent discount.

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is out on June 29th for North America and Europe on Nintendo Switch. It’s available for PS4 and Switch in Japan (check out the first review from Famitsu here) but will be exclusive to Nintendo’s console in the West for the time being. Stay tuned for more details on the title in the coming weeks.

Nippon Ichi Software’s turn based strategy RPG Disgaea 6: Destiny of Defiance launched in Japan for PS4 and Nintendo Switch earlier this year, in January, and was generally met with solid reception, keeping in line with how the series’ new instalments recently go. A western release has been scheduled for the game for Summer 2021 for some time, and now we know exactly when to expect that.

In a video recently published by NIS America, Nippon Ichi Software president Sohei Niikawa – who was also in charge of Disgaea 6’s scenario and production – confirmed that the game will be releasing in the West on June 29. As previously announced, its western release is exclusive to the Switch, even though the game is available in Japan on PS4 as well. Additionally, those who pre-order the game or buy it at launch will also get four free bonus characters – Adell, Rozalin, Girl Laharl, and Asagi – and their respective stories.

You can watch a pretty meaty chunk of gameplay footage from the RPG through here.

Disgaea fans always expect the series to deliver engaging and mechanically deep tactical role playing gameplay, and though Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is going to make some changes of its own (especially as far as visuals are concerned), it sure seems like the combat and gameplay are still going to have a lot of the familiar strengths of the series.

Nippon Ichi Software have been releasing new trailers for the upcoming RPG at a pretty regular clip of late, and its newest trailer is a beefy one. At over seven minutes long, its primary focus is on showing off the gameplay, with particular focus on combat and various different characters. The trailer itself is in Japanese, but there’s a lot of footage to look at here, which series fans will surely be interested in. Take a look below.

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny will launch for PS4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan on January 28, a couple of days from now. Meanwhile, it will also be releasing in the West as a Switch exclusive this Summer.