Disgaea 4 Complete+ (Nintendo Switch) Review

By Eric Ace 19.12.2019

Review for Disgaea 4 Complete+  on Nintendo Switch

Love it or hate it, NISA (Nippon Ichi Software America) is a name that any JRPGer will know. With a very long history of localizing games both from its parent company, NIS, as well as others, players in general can count on anime visuals, funny stories, and solid JRPG gameplay. This remake follows the adventure of a vampire who was cast down to Hades and must slowly regain his position, all because of a promise to the lowly Prinnies. With all the previous DLC of the PS3 version, this instalment is indeed fully loaded.

Disgaea 4 Complete+ is a remake of the PS3 Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, but with more content added. As stated by NISA, the 'Complete' part of the title is an inclusion of all released characters and scenarios, as well as other popular features from the fifth entry, such as being able to more easily control experience and monster level. The 'plus' part refers to small improvements, like a bigger resolution, and being able to speed up the skills. So there you go…

Straying very little from the general formula of the series, players alternate between strategic battles on a grid, a very involved story, and a base where everything from buying items, to going into bonus worlds occurs. The series is in general famous for beating the game usually being only the halfway point as far as how much there is extra to do. This is zero exception, with tons of post-game quests, characters and grinding.

Screenshot for Disgaea 4 Complete+  on Nintendo Switch

The story itself is very entertaining and the main character, Valvatorez, is one of the most interesting Disgaea mains. The plots in these are never very serious, but it is oddly charming how engaging and downright funny they can be. Out of the first four games, this one was easily the funniest. While NISA occasionally takes some serious flak for various censorship issues or localization issues, this is actually very well done. Though a few memes and jokes show a bit of their time from when the game was first made, overall almost every section of story had a good laughable moment.

Following an unspecified fall from grace, Valvatorez finds himself in the lowly role of a lowly Prinny instructor, who deals with the souls of humans who have sinned and have to be redeemed. His job is to prepare these misguided souls for the rest of their punishment. He takes his role stoically, despite being insulted by those around him. On graduation day he promised to give them one sardine each, but they are abducted, and he is forced to do some questing to get them back to keep his simple promise.

Sometimes in JRPGs (usually too often to count) the characters get lost in their shtick, becoming one-track, and every time they appear on the screen, the same old obvious joke will repeat. Luckily that does not happen here at all. At first his love of Sardines seemed like it was going to be this issue, but it is brought up rare enough to not feel grating.

Screenshot for Disgaea 4 Complete+  on Nintendo Switch

His character trait leads to a surprisingly nuanced element in what is a comedic plot, with his general stoicism and commitment. The best part of his character is his determination to keeping his promises, which leads to outright hilarious moments. These usually revolve around him telling his opponents that he could not care less about these Prinnies he is fighting so hard for, and he only wants to fulfil his promise after which they can do what they want. Mixed with tons of misunderstandings and manipulations, half the time the story was more fun than the actual game.

Concerning the voice acting, it is very well done. Most of the major characters are great, with standout parts, such as where Valvatorez is calling one of his enemies a 'rascal' was due to a very good localization effort by NISA. As expected in these plots, all sorts of characters get wrapped up in the craziness, but the story was extremely interesting from the comedic point of view.

Despite being a SRPG, these games have never been very much on the tactical strategy side of things. They are much more on the power levelling, picking favourite characters, and in general playing much quicker than any sort of careful placement of characters. With level caps of 9999 (which can then be reset) it is obvious this is the direction that games continues. Don't be misled; there's tons of depth here as far as picking weapons, skills, classes, traits and everything else.

Screenshot for Disgaea 4 Complete+  on Nintendo Switch

Anyone playing any previous Disgaea knows what they are getting into here. The normal game itself can be beaten without too much effort or careful grinding, but the real depth of the game comes out in all the extra things that can be done. There are tons of side-quests, grinding for equipment, making perfect characters, and so on that are what made this series popular with fans. All of these elements are present along with some nicer features like the 'Cheat Shop,' which can be used to modify enemy level and rewards.

The Dark Assembly/Classroom from previous games continues in here with the 'Cam Pain HQ' where characters can be given boosts, new features can be unlocked, and new characters crafted. The most significant difference is that instead of groups, there are now buildings that are placed on the map, and those near them get the buff. The best feature about this is that it rewards careful positioning, and allows characters to potentially get multiple buffs. This feels similar to some other NISA games and was a fun feature to work with.

The only major downside of this game attempt to appeal to a wider audience is its own depth. There are many features that make this much more accessible to potential fans. In the end, though, there are JRPG fans that don't care to have characters in the thousands of levels, and that is undoubtedly part of the appeal of this. There is of course more than that, but it would be selling the package short. There is just something fun and addictive in making that new character, giving them the best stat boosts possible, watching their growth from level 1, trying to eek just a little more out that is the true magic of the title. There are very few flaws, with the only issue being that players either like this or not, and those that do will find a refined game here.

Screenshot for Disgaea 4 Complete+  on Nintendo Switch

Cubed3 Rating

8/10
Rated 8 out of 10

Great - Silver Award

Rated 8 out of 10

Showing clear evolution over the previous games, as well as including some of the best features from the fifth entry, this remake is very good for fans that might have missed this the first time, those who want to come back with everything included, or for even first time players. Even those not looking for the massive post-game grind, the main story is funny enough to earn a recommendation for JRPG fans on that merit alone. It is a great overall package.

Developer

Nippon Ichi

Publisher

NIS America

Genre

Strategy

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  8/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

Comments

Comments are currently disabled

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
Azuardo, jesusraz

There are 2 members online at the moment.