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Disgaea 4 offers some tweaks and improvements from its predecessors but the core gameplay and mechanic stays the same. If you didn't like any of those, you won't like 4, but if you haven't tried this game genre (FF Tactics, Ogre Tactics) I'd definitely give it a try, it's very unique.
Now is Disgaea 4 worth it or could you just pop in your Disgaea 3 disc and not miss a thing? The answer really depends on how much the tweaks matter to you. Here are the ones I felt were most important:
Graphics: They updated all the sprites and animations so the characters look really sharp, nothing revolutionary but the artistic feel is improved.
Characters: I didn't particularly like the characters in 2 or 3 but I think 4 has a very nice group of characters whose chemistry might end up rivaling that of Laharl and friends. The story is still pretty over the top and plays a minor role in the game but the jokes are less forced than 2 or 3. Voice acting is top notch.
Monster character improvements: They made monster characters a bit stronger now. (I never used them before 4 in my core party). Monster characters can fuse together to make a giant version, they have 3 evility slots instead of 2 for human characters, when they magichange they confer their evility bonuses to the wielder. Capturing monsters is also more interesting, you torture them to have them join you or give you items or gil. I think they also took out queuing 2 weapon skills together into a combo (introduced in Disgaea 3).
Story maps: Story maps had more puzzle elements to them. Obviously if you overlevel, you can just steamroll everything, but if you want to put a minute of thought into planning the fight, you can do that too now.
These last 2 were important for me.
% progress: As someone who likes to get everything, there is now a form that tracks everything you've encountered and compares them to the rest of the Disgaea playing crowd. It tracks things such as items owned, endings found, levels cleared, special skill animation seen, etc. It's really awesome for a game as deep and complicated as this.
Online connectivity: This adds a little variety to the game as you can download pirates, senators and maps from other users which really beats seeing the same pirates for the 100th time 100 hours in. You can also see how other people customized their characters and see how yours match up to theirs. When you upload your creations to the net, you can give them a preset AI command (you don't actually control them) to have your pirate ship help the other player or mess with them. I have a pretty strong senator uploaded that, if a player forces a bill to pass, will seek out another senator and fuse into an uber senator and duke it out, they can be bribed and they'll bring the bribed items back to your game (You can give them your old gear if you are nice like that). This feature is not game changing but it sprinkles in some variety to the zillionth randomly generated minion. You can also challenge other players in deathmatches where you both control your characters.
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I will admit up front that I am a Disgaea fanboy. I bought two copies of the original on the PS1, and I bought it again on the Nintendo DS when it came out, and have hundreds of hours on both versions. I also have Disgaea 2 and Disgaea 3, although I find less to brag about there than I do the original. Disgaea 4 though is an entirely different story.
The Changes
One of the first things you will notice is that there is a smaller amount of classes available in this game compared to Disgaea 3, and I count that as a good thing. D3 tried to be "PC" and have both a male and female version of as many classes as possible, meaning you'd get a male Gunner and a female Gunslinger, which were still basically the same class. While some classic classes don't make a return (no angels, no EDFs), there are new ones to compensate (including one that is very much like an upgraded EDF), as well as classes from the previous two titles like Beastmaster and Sorcerer. Geopanel and Geoblock mechanics have not been touched, nor have the classic tagteam attacks. You still gain mana from kills that has to be spent on learning skills/evilities, boosting your skills, etc, and the classroom club mechanic from 3 returns in an upgraded (and not nearly as annoying) format as well. The biggest change/upgrade comes with monster characters. The ability to magichange into weapons returns, but is now accompanied by "fusion" which lets you merge two monsters into one super monster for that one battle, as well as being able to duel wield magichanged monsters. You can even fusion and then magichange for some truly ridiculous combinations.
The Characters
The original Disgaea hit a very rare balance with its characters and story, a balance that (for this reviewer) D2 and D3 simply could not live up to. Disgaea 4 gets things back on the right track. All of the characters are extremely well voice acted, none of them are grating in the way D2/D3 characters were (I'm looking at you, Tink), and all are as over the top fabulous as the original cast. Some characters will make you think you won't be able to stand them at first glance (Fuka) end up being very well done, while others are just love at first site (you're not human if you don't instantly fall in love with Desco as the cutest final boss ever made). Like the original, everyone has substantial character growth over the course of the game, and all of your favorites are either available now after beating the main story mode (like Etna and Flonne), or will be made available in the future (Pleinair is confirmed as being future DLC).
The Plot
Without giving anything away, the main plot is again much more in line with the original Disgaea than the sequels. Your mission is to overthrow the Netherworld President (this game's version of the Overlord), with some twists thrown in after you do to kick things up a notch. The more convoluted twists and turns of the sequels are gone, letting the game focus more on it's central story and character development. More interestingly for me though was how the roles of demons, humans, and angels have been fleshed out. Instead of simply existing as three different worlds, Disgaea 4 weaves them all together in a method reminiscent of Monsters Inc. where the Netherworld is fueled by Human fear, but the demons are tasked with being the stick to keep humanity on the right track (while the Angels are the proverbial carrot). Heaven and Hell can't exist without the humans, and the humans can't properly exist without Heaven and Hell keeping them balanced. Its all very well done.
Should You Buy This?
In a word, yes. As I've said, I bought at least one copy of all three previous games, and this one is on equal footing with the original. Great characters (I think Valvatorez may have almost displaced Laharl as my favorite main character), good story line, and all of the polished gameplay in one package. Plus if you get the deluxe package you also get a mini artbook and a magnetic Fuka figurine (the figurine and the base are separate pieces, with magnets that snap them together). I never finished 3 because I got sick of the characters and the plot, I didn't find 2 all that wonderful either, but 1 and 4 are like wonderful bookends. If you only play one game in this series, make it Disgaea 1 (the PS1 version, with the good voice actress for Etna). If you play only two, get 1 and 4 and you can safely ignore the middle two.
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i'm so glad i'm retired, because if i wasn't, i'd loose every single job i'd ever get because of this game! my ruitine: i wake up, eat breakfast, clean house (2 hours), play disgaea(1 hr) do yoga and shower(2hrs) play disgaea(6 hrs). it's all i can think about!!! my daughter plays it with me in between her homework and martial arts. this is alot of video game time for me as i used to only log 1 hr or so a week. this game is the best! the story is top notch and the voice acting is incredible. there's always something to level up, modify, equip, new skills to learn, it's paradise for someone who doesn't want to spend alot of money on games. this one will definately keep my daughter and i busy for the next year or so. by that time, we'll have bought a ps vita with disgaea 3 for when we move to japan in december. definately buy this game. i just don't see how you could possibly go wrong in doing so.
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I bought the premium version of this game recently on the Deal of the Day on Amazon for $35 and feel that the price of admission was justified. If you can find this game at a similar price please go ahead and purchase it, you'll be getting more than enough play for your buck. The following are my impressions of this game after a good two weeks.
The Positives:
One thing I always look for in any game is depth, meaning potential for longevity, replay-ability, and creativity. This game is chock-full of all three. As a Turn Based Strategy game I feel that this is up there with the best I've played (FF tactics, Tactics Ogre, and an old Genesis favorite Shining Force). If you've played those games then this game will be familiar territory. I have never played a Disgaea game before but I got a handle on this game pretty quick, the only exception is do not expect an attempt at a dramatic tale told like in FF/Tactics Ogre/Fire Emblem, etc, it's all about childish and sophomoric humor, which I'll let each individual to judge the merits of.
The main play mechanics that create depth are the following: Throwing, Geo Blocks, the Senate, Item World, CampaignHQ.
Throwing adds a new dimension because it allows stacking of characters one atop the other; a workaround for characters with short movement range since you can pick them up with another character and chuck them across the field; and other wackiness like throwing enemies into your entry portal so that you can later discipline and subdue them for your own benefit.
Geo Blocks are a puzzle element, each block is associated with a color and certain maps will have colored panels that have either positive or negative effects when you move onto them, or when your enemies move onto them. Suffice it to say, it involves strategic throwing, destruction and navigation around said blocks and panels to create positive effects, decrease negative effects, and causing bonus chains to start. It's all very complicated but explained quite well in the tutorial levels.
The Senate is great, it is a game mechanic that allows AI figureheads in the game to vote Y/N for new effects in the game, even mundane things like increasing the level of purchasable weapons and armor. What's great is that if your connected online, other players can send their characters into your game and vote in your senate polls, usually with the intent of getting you to bribe them with your items so they vote favorably. This is all, once again quite complicated, but is nonetheless quite fun and brings a new dimension to the game.
Item World is a great way to grind in this game. These are maps that are not part of the story and allow you to visit the internals of your items. By navigating through an item's world you can level up said item. This also leads to a huge negative, see comments below.
CampaignHQ is a peripheral map (think World Map mixed with a strategic Board Game layout) that opens up and expands as you beat each story map. It allows you to erect buildings that allow for character bonuses as well as work with the Senate and other non-battle related stuff. The game explains it better than I do.
The Negatives:
The negatives of this game are not many, however some of them are incredibly annoying and leads to the imperfections of this game.
The camera is really hampered by the art design. The characters, except the story characters, all look alike and it's really hard to tell ally from foe. The only discerning thing is the color of their life bar, which isn't helpful when the map is cluttered with characters and blinking colored panels.
The existence of Geo Panels which are colorful and blinking on certain maps totally impede one's ability to see their characters' movement range.
The Item World, while extremely fun, and good for grinding and discovery new items and class types early on, is also is a pain in the behind. You can't save in this world and you can't exit out of this world until every 10th floor. I find it time consuming to slog through 10 floors without being able to save. I guess this is really meant for the end game perhaps, but by that time why would I want to grind and or level up any more items? You don't have to beat all enemies in these floors unless the block the exit of the floor, but even then you won't be able to level up your characters.
My final quarrel with this game is not mechanics related, it's the simple fact that after awhile, and I'm only two weeks in, you realize that this is pretty much a collecting game. Since the story topic is so forgettable and the main characters are so weird, there isn't much to care about besides leveling up and getting more items. I think this is the sentiment of most reviewers of this game. What I have realized is that the play mechanics of this game can only apply to a weird and comedic storyline, because unlike Fire Emblem or FF Tactics, characters in this game can't die, they will be treatable after each level victory. If these mechanics were in a serious setting it wouldn't make sense. Although I gave this game high marks for depth, it may very well be that I was fooled by the facade and once I beat the story mode I may never play again.
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Disgaea 4 is a great strategy rpg. It takes everything from past disgaea's and builds upon that successful formula. For those looking for a fire emblem-esque game, look elsewhere. Disgaea 4 is not nearly as streamlined and linear as fire emblem or final fantasy tactics. There are many ancillary parts to Disgaea. One example is the item world. The item world is a feature back from the original Disgaea where you can go into randomly generated battlefields up to level 100. Imagine now all the random weapons found and the possibilities for trying to achieve "completion." It's a bit staggering and for me, is one of the reason's Disgaea 4 is not a perfect game. Too often the narrative is sidetracked by all the extraneous stuff. If you like massive amounts of SRPG content and don't mind taking detours in the story to level up items for hours at a time then you will love Disgaea 4.
