Yes, it is time for another Prinny entry – and obviously it is Disagea 5: Alliance of Vengeance. Naturally developed and published by Nippon Ichi, Disgaea 5 was released in 2015. This is the only one of the later titles that I don't have any kind of 'collector's edition' for.
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The setting of Disgaea 5 is the darkest in the series. An omnipotent Overlord named Void Dark has coined himself the Emperor of the Netherworlds. Those that oppose him will be just destroyed. And after that, his no 2 servant, the Corpse Overlord Majorita will resurrect the dead into zombie slaves, serving Void Dark forever.
However, a small group Overlords come together, all with longing for vengeance against Void Dark – hence the game's title. This unintentional rebellion is led by Killia – a mysterious and deadly demon living only for the vengeance – and Overlord of Gorgeous Underworld Seraphina, who refused the arranged marriage to Void Dark.
And naturally as the story goes, a delightfully bizarre cast of characters joins the team.
It wouldn't be a Disgaea title without Prinnies and they are here, though not in as central role as in the previous title. The most prominent Prinny in the tale is the mysterious Yellow Prinny, the servant of Usalia. Both are introduced with a tongue-in-cheek mystery plot that I don't want to spoil.
Besides that, as usual Prinnies are here for comic relief, but are used really well to move the plot forward in few places.
As I've gone over Disgaea gameplay basics in detail in the past (see Disgaea 1 and Disgaea 4 for details), I'll just cover what is new or different.
Part 5 adds quite a lot of stuff to the formula. The most prominent twist comes from the most of the main cast being Overlords – you know, those super-powerful beings that most of the past characters have strived to be?
This comes into play with the Revenge Gauge. It's what you think it is, an aggro meter that goes up when the character or its ally takes damage or falls in battle. Once maxed out, there's a two turn window to initiate the Overlord skill. Every character has wildly different skills with unique tactical uses. For example, Zeroken can create four shadow clones of himself that effectively up your character count from 8 to 12. The clones don't make as much damage as the real Zeroken, but are great for aggroing enemies and being free meat shields.
Outside of combat, there's tons of new stuff as well. There's a whole board game for boosting characters beyond the typical RPG levelling, separate quest board, a new squad system, more dynamic enemy capture and interrogation mechanic and a Netherworld exploration system. The last one is a fantastic little side feature, allowing you to send spaceships to explore uncharted Netherworlds. No need to ask which one is my favourite.
I already mentioned the game's darker tone and I do mean it. The earlier games are more like surreal adventures featuring anti-heroes, but Disgaea 5 is a proper revenge tale of wronged folk banding together to take down some truly evil villains. And I do mean evil – the story beats related to the Corpse Overlord Majorita are beyond dark and some of the stuff she pulls off would make DOOM 3's Malcolm Betruger go 'that's surely too much'.
I don't mind that change-up as it is a sure-fire way to keep things fresh – but I can imagine some fans of the generally more care-free Disgaeas getting weirded out by it.
That said, Disgaea 5 is a fantastic entry in the series and of course if you're already into the series, it's a must play.
Oh, I must leave you all with this piece of Prinny Wisdom:
