Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Platform: PC, PS5, Switch, Switch 2
Tested on: Switch 2
Disgaea Mayhem – Review
We’ve always had a soft spot for the Disgaea series, not only because the strategy gameplay was always on point, but simply because we loved the quirky characters and the silly storylines. It’s been a while since a main entry was released, so we were a bit surprised when we suddenly saw early footage of a spin-off title with a totally different combat system. Even so, we were quite excited to get our hands on a new Disgaea title, and we were curious what the genre changeup would feel like. For the most part, we enjoyed what Disgaea Mayhem had to offer, but it did not come close to the quality of the mainline games.
Story
The story of Disgaea Mayhem is actually quite simple. You are hired by Overlord Tichelle to round up her six Psychalmates, who have revolted after the passing of Tichelle’s father, Overlord Margraf. It seems the kingdom is known for its ‘flan,’ and the six retainers have stolen all of it. You, N.A., are a hired mercenary who has to defeat all of the Psychalmates to retrieve the stolen flan. It’s a silly premise, but it works for a spin-off Disgaea title. We did find the story to be a bit shallow, and after the first few chapters it also felt like it took a backseat for most of the experience. Even so, the offset was fun, and that’s what counts here.
Graphics
Graphically, Disgaea Mayhem is not a bad-looking game. As always, the franchise seems to be a bit stuck in the past, as everything looks a bit more appropriate for a last-gen title rather than a current-gen one. Even so, the character designs always look amazingly whimsical, and even with the genre shift, everything still oozes that typical Disgaea atmosphere. The stages themselves look a bit simplistic and feel a bit empty at times, but this is also typical for the ‘musou’ genre. Overall, everything looked quite good, and even in handheld mode we didn’t encounter any stutters or frame drops on our Switch 2.
Sound
As always, Disgaea never fails to entertain when it comes to its sound design. The music is catchy, and the soundtrack is varied enough to remain entertaining throughout the entire experience. The SFX also provide great audio feedback for the on-screen action here. That being said, it’s the voice acting that always steals the show in Disgaea games. The cheesy English voice acting is back, and we loved every second of it. Almost all key dialogues are fully voiced, but smaller NPC interactions are not. We did notice that the story took more of a backseat in this spin-off adventure, however.
Gameplay
Disgaea Mayhem is a Disgaea spin-off title that trades its turn-based combat for Musou-like battlegrounds. In the game, you’ll play through short stages where you’ll kill small groups of enemies before ultimately facing the stage’s boss. The game also offers wave-based missions for weapon upgrades and free play missions in which you have to kill specific enemies. For the most part, the goal remains the same: kill enemies, kill the boss, and get rewards.
The combat here is quite simple. You choose a weapon type, and you’ll have normal and heavy attacks, as well as skills that come with your chosen weapon. The game keeps things simple, and you can just perform different combos and activate your skills, which go on cooldown after use. The controls are quite clunky though, as the camera doesn’t automatically follow your character, and locking onto bosses doesn’t even mean your attacks will be aimed at them. This kind of annoyed us, as we missed a lot of attacks after dodging incoming attacks, because our character then would not face the boss again. This is only a minor annoyance, but it felt like something from a game two decades ago, rather than a modern interpretation of a Musou-like title.
All in all, the game isn’t that long. You’ll see most of what it has to offer in about 10 hours. There are some artificial blocks in place to stretch out that time a little, via the reincarnation system and the Item World. The reincarnation system isn’t necessarily new to the series, as you can basically start from level one again, albeit with higher base stats, making the game easier as you go. The Item World is a system where you can level your items by completing wave-based battles. The further you get in the Item World of your chosen item, the higher it will raise its stats. It’s a fun way of leveling your gear. Even so, the game lacks a bit of variation, and in many cases you just pick the weapon of your choice and probably don’t swap to other ones after the first few stages. There’s also the Chara World to use your Battle Buddies, but like many other things in the game, it feels a bit basic. Don’t get us wrong, we enjoyed the inclusion of buddies that join you in combat, the option to actively use them to gain buffs in the Chara World, as well as the aforementioned Item World where you can level items. Our main problem is that everything feels very shallow and simplistic.
Conclusion
Disgaea Mayhem is a decent attempt at a spin-off title, but it falls short in some areas. The combat ended up being entertaining but a bit too basic, and the controls also didn’t always make things feel ‘smooth’. The story, while enjoyable, was a bit undercooked compared to mainline entries in the series. The visuals looked fine, but the world was very limited in size. Even so, if you’re looking for a bite-sized action title with typical Disgaea vibes, then you could do far worse than this one. If you’re looking for a fully fleshed-out Musou title, then you will not find it here.
No Comments