Disgaea PC (PC) Second Opinion Review

Disgaea is an interesting title to be certain. Before it came out, grid-based strategy RPGs were not well known outside of maybe the one or two people who knew of Fire Emblem or had Final Fantasy Tactics, yet, with its launch, not only did it suddenly had a new company come to the forefront, but the public was blindsided with an unexpectedly good title; a title now not only several sequels down the line (boasting multiple spin-offs and cross-over titles), but also very popular. Now, at last, what was originally made on the PS2, is now on the Vita, DS, and PC platforms - yet something seems off about it.

For starters, the game is funny with a tendency towards the absurd (for example, Edna uses a rocket launcher or a super-powerful chewing gum to wake Laharl up), and it more than holds the everything together. Things as simple as having political congress meetings reach a decision, are done not by debate or even bribery, but, instead, by wanton brawling with the winner deciding what is right and wrong - if only real-life politics were that simple. However, things like the enjoyable main cast and variety of options both in team composition and abilities keep it more than afloat.

The PC port offers an update to this system yet has several shortcomings as well. For example, while the characters are updated visually, it's nowhere near the level possible even for a port of a remake, and, thus, feels a bit lacking. Likewise the port seemed to ignore making it a bit more intuitive for PC users, but this is basically only a minor issue as things can be re-mapped. Instead, the thing that seems to gnaw away at the back of the mind for what feels wrong is this: while this may be simply a port, so much of it feels like it's been done before. Well, that doesn't really capture the meaning, but a more in-depth answer might explain it.

When it comes to the initial launch of a game, developers have no clue about the things the players can do to break it, or what may or may not actually work. For example in Tales of Graces it was quickly found that there was a glitch that allowed earning a large amount of money swiftly, or, for a more relevant example, in Disgaea, there were various balance issues and 'stat-gates' in which something could, or could not, be handled based simply on the amount of time spent grinding. Many of the stats became either pointless or redundant, and those who mastered things like the re-incarnation system could end up vastly overpowered, while the ones who struggled to understand it would end up on the opposite end.

Here is where the issue comes from. This may have been okay back in the day but, now, seemingly avoiding things like providing better answers, optional DLC to do something like speed EXP growth, or even paying attention to their own later entries and seeing what worked and what didn't feels underwhelming and not right. Not fixing the unbalanced stats in of itself seems less like an attempt to preserve the nature of the original game and, instead, like a lazy shortcoming. While Etna mode is most certainly a welcome change and improvement it feels like so much more could have been done by simply stopping to look back.