Disgaea 7 Complete review for Nintendo Switch 2

Nippon Ichi Software released the first of the Disgaea games back in 2003 with Disgaea Hour of Darkness. An over-the-top story about a demon whose dad was the ruler over the underworld and died by choking to death on a dark pretzel. What followed was an over-the-top adventure that got increasingly ridiculous the farther along you went. The first game was so popular that it was released multiple times on multiple systems, and each game’s story got increasingly, outrageously weird. Disgaea 7, the latest mainline release, was originally released in 2023 on multiple platforms, but now it’s available for the Nintendo Switch 2 in Complete form.

The complete edition was released on October 10^th of this year and included all current DLC for the price of the original game. The game starts out just as weird as the first game, a girl named Pirilika takes her family spaceship to the underworld of Hinomoto. Now Hinomoto is famous for its bushido-like warrior culture, but when Demodoor Opener takes over the government, it becomes anything but honorable. Enter Fuji, a demon who is so self-centered that he is allergic to empathy. Pirilika convinces him (with lots of money) to be her bodyguard while she works to restore the way of the bushido to Hinomoto. Oh, I forgot to mention that Pirilika is the head of one of the biggest clothing companies in the universe.

Like the other Disgaea games, this is a strategy RPG. Battlefields are laid out in a grid; players move characters around on the grid and use attacks and special abilities to complete objectives. Most often it’s to kill everything else. If other characters are next to an attacking character, they can join in on the attack increasing the damage. It is very disappointing that they got rid of the attack animations from previous games that showed the other characters joining in, with some really crazy attacks. Instead, in this game, the animation plays as normal except right before the attack, each character that joins in gets highlighted by the game.

Players can bring 10 characters with them onto a battlefield. Each battlefield has different rewards available if completed with specific conditions. Some range from male characters only, to finish the map in 3 rounds, to monster characters only, etc. When a condition is met a reward is given at the end of the fight.

Outside of fights, players can explore the main hub of the game. This would include item shops, the netherworld hospital (to heal characters), the dark assembly, the item world and even a bounty board. You can also hire new characters from the hub, choosing a gender and class for each character. The more money you spend on hiring the better the character.

The dark assembly is basically the senate. When a bill is selected to vote on, the assembly is called. The bills can range from better equipment in the item shop to permanent buffs on characters, to reincarnating a character. A random selection of senators is added to the assembly. Each senator has an amount of influence; this is the number of votes that senator has. Before the vote players can check on the leaning of the senator. Just because a senator is leaning yes doesn’t mean they will vote yes. At this point they can be bribed before the vote. This is mainly done using items. Once the bribing is done a vote occurs and the measure is passed or dropped.

If the measure is dropped, there is still hope you can force it through by fighting the senators. Be careful though, many times the senators are higher level than you. If you manage to beat them all the measure still passes.

There is a lot to explore here, a lot of returning stuff, like the dark assembly and item worlds, and some new stuff like the quest board, this is the new way of unlocking character classes in the game.

Disgaea 7 doesn’t rewrite the script for game play, the characters are just as wacky and bubbly as the previous games, the strategy is very similar from game to game as well. The story is about as over the top as most anime stories get. The main character is bubbly almost to the point of annoying, some of the other characters are aptly named. For example, there is a character who really likes explosives named CeeFore. Even some characters from previous entries make appearances.

They have changed from sprites to 3D characters in this game and I think it takes some of the charm out of the series. The models look good and fluid, there isn’t anything wrong with them, I just prefer the look of sprites for this series.

There is a ton to do here, more so than most strategy RPGs. I’ve known players to spend well north of 200 hours on the first game, let alone it’s sequels.  For the most part, the Disgaea series is worth it.

Overall, if you have played the Disgaea games before, 7 won’t bring much new to the table. Its zany over-the-top characters are colorful, and fun. Spending hours leveling up characters and items can be a bit of a chore, but it’s also a part of its charm. If you have played Disgaea before, you will find a lot of comfort in this game, and if you have not, this is still a good entry to get started on. If you find you enjoy this one, I suggest picking up Disgaea 1 Complete to see how it all started!

Note: NIS America provided us with a Disgaea 7 Complete code for review purposes.