I’ve been a big fan of the Disgaea series since the PS2 days, and for a whole host of reasons. These tactics games have two sides to them, which appeal to very different sides of my disturbed brain. There’s the completely deranged story side which features lots of exploding penguins and a ridiculous variety of heroes and antiheroes, and then there’s the stats side. Disgaea games let you level up characters to comically high levels, and are basically made to be broken. Nobody else would dare try to make a game like Disgaea, and Disgaea 7 Complete on the Switch 2 is probably my favourite game in the series.
Whereas many of the Disgaea games feature a whole lot of jumping to different netherworlds for over the top reasons like world domination, Disgaea 7 is set in one specific netherworld. Most of the series’ messed up afterlife universes are full of comically evil characters, but in Disgaea 7’s world most follow the way of Bushido in a delightful samurai twist. This isn’t to say there aren’t ridiculous characters though, like the main duo. The otaku fangirl Piririka squeals with delight at all the warriors of this world, whereas her counterpart Fuji hates all things honourable and is happy to do anything to beat up fools and pay his debts. The two play off each other really nicely, and hilarity and nonsense ensue.
Disgaea games always have a lot of depth hidden under the hood, but especially in early stages they’re fairly straightforward tactics games. You’ll have a small army of characters to deploy in each stage, who you’ll need to move around a grid and command to kill all the enemies. Different classes of character have different skills they can use, with all the standard archetypes present (alongside some less standard ones like Zombie and Mascot). Making sure you’ve got hard hitting warriors, ranged attacking mages and some healers to hand will give you a fighting chance against your foes, as long as you level them up accordingly anyway.
You’ll only get so far into the game though with the basics, and will soon have to master the more outlandish mechanics of Disgaea. One of these is lifting and throwing, which is a novel way of getting around that veterans of the scene will be very familiar with. Pretty much every character can throw every other character in Disgaea 7, and this can be used in many ways to turn the tide of battle. On some stages you might want to combo throwing a particular unit deep into enemy territory to take out a problematic foe, on others you might want to chuck an enemy healer away from its friends so you can bully it. You’re free to experiment with this however you wish, and with the new monster throws that trigger automatically there’s more depth to this system than ever.
The deepest and most thoughtful parts of any Disgaea game though always involve the Geo Panels, and Disgaea 7 Complete is no exception to this. Geo Panels are basically coloured tiles on the floor, and when you place crystals on them that match their colour powerful effects will activate. Often these are really helpful and will grant you massive stat buffs or bonus experience, but many stages are set up with enemy boosting panels that need to be dealt with. You can do this in a variety of ways, but none are more satisfying than breaking a crystal to change the colour of the Geo Panel it’s sat on and damaging the enemies standing there in the process. Eventually you’ll get used to setting off chain reactions with crystals and coloured floors, and the explosion of colour and pain that follows is just magic.
Disgaea 7 didn’t just bring all the classic mechanics back when it appeared on the scene a couple of years ago though, it also added its own features. Jumbify is the main one of these, which you can use to make a character bigger than the entire stage and hugely powerful. It isn’t exactly the easiest thing to pull off, but when you do it feels amazing. Enemies can also Jumbify too, and that’s less exciting to have to deal with.
Disgaea 7 Complete has so many streamlined and improved elements that ensures it’s the perfect game for veterans and newcomers alike, making it easy to recommend for those searching for a top up of tactics. The number of classes is staggering, and it’s a lot of fun testing them out to find your favourites. Demonic Intelligence continues to improve too, meaning that the auto battle options are balanced perfectly so the game doesn’t just play itself. Even the theme and how it’s applied to various systems like The Dark Assembly is cool, and makes the game feel like such a cohesive package.
If you played Disgaea 7 the first time around you probably knew all this already though, so what’s new for Complete? Well for the most part lots of extra content. Masses of new characters can be recruited, many of whom you’ll recognise from decades of Disgaea past. There are loads of bonus chapters to play through too that feature these familiar faces, and even new faces that will be important for the series going forward. All the DLC that ever existed and more can be found stuffed into this tactical bundle of joy and stats, so get ready for hours and hours of lifting and indeed throwing.
Alongside a whole lot of content, Disgaea 7 Complete also marks the first time the series has released on the Nintendo Switch 2. This is important because the last couple of Disgaea games (since the move over to 3D visuals) really struggled on the original Switch. You either had to play in super blurry mode or miserable framerate mode, and it just wasn’t a good time. Now thanks to the added power of the Switch 2 the game looks gorgeous and runs smooth as butter, and it’s such a huge improvement. I can’t wait to play a whole load more Disgaea games on this console going forward, because it’s a perfect fit for the shiny new hardware.
There’s so much to love about Disgaea 7 Complete, but it still has a few tiny issues. Whereas the original release of Disgaea 7 was a little too brutal and required extra grinding, thanks to all the powerful new characters you start with it’s almost too easy. The game feels much easier to break now with dozens of DLC options and fan favourites available from the jump, and it takes away from the fun of the challenge somewhat. It’s also a bit overwhelming how many options you have to choose from at the start of the game, with a long scrolling menu of DLC chapters you can play right from the word go. The added content feels like it could’ve been more carefully fed to you for a more streamlined and balanced experience, but instead you’re just lifted and thrown in at the deep end.
Disgaea 7 Complete is the best the series has ever been, with a wonderful selection of wacky characters, engaging tactics gameplay, and a distinct lack of technical issues. The bar has been set incredibly high for Disgaea games on the Nintendo Switch 2 now, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for The Netherworld going forward.
