The Disgaea series is a hilarious and grind-heavy SRPG that thrives on goofy characters, huge damage numbers, and parodies of RPG tropes. If the recently released demo is anything to go off of, the newest entry in the franchise, Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, seems to be no exception. Available for free on the Switch eShop, the demo provides hours of introductory content that can be transferred over to the full game. It also illuminates some concerning trends, but more on that shortly.
The story is off to a great start, partially because Zed is a very fun protagonist. As a zombie who’s at the bottom rung of the Netherworld, Zed has a huge chip in his shoulder and a delightfully poor attitude. He wants to beat everything up and is only reined in by his dog companion, Cerberus. The two of them play off one another wonderfully, often coming off as something of a comedy duo. The premise of battling against the most powerful God of Destruction as one of the weakest classes around is exactly the kind of silly fun I expect from Disgaea, so I had a blast experiencing the first two chapters of the story in the demo. The demo is very beginner-friendly if you’re new to the series, both in story and gameplay, so don’t worry about any other games being spoiled when you play.
The demo does a great job of either teaching you the basics of Disgaea or leaving you to your own devices, depending on how you choose to react to tutorial prompts. It’s easy to learn how to play, and the stages are straightforward in both chapters. It’s fun to clear each stage to the best of your ability, as the better you play, the more bonuses you snag post-level. You won’t need a ton of strategy to progress through the demo, but I have no issue with that since this is the earliest portion of the game.
There’s lots to do in the demo, from leveling to character creation to a ton of quests that can be done through available missions. I made all sorts of goofy characters and leveled them on each stage, and thanks to the ridiculous Disgaea numbers, they were in the hundreds within a few battles. I’ve read that you can power-level in the demo and carry over a max-level character to the full game, which Disgaea veterans may find to be of interest.
Disgaea 6 goes for a 3D-chibi art style in contrast to the sharp sprites that previous titles in the series have. I imagine everyone will have different reactions to this shift, but I’m not a big fan of it. The chibi-style just feels strange in 3D, and the detailed sprites were much more impressive. These visuals also seem to heavily slow down the demo’s performance, to a borderline unacceptable degree. The default visuals setting, which focuses on graphics, makes even the hub world drop frames left and right. It’s not a mind-blowing game in the visuals department, so having to change the setting to performance, which makes things blurrier, seems like a very unnecessary problem.
Overall, I’m looking forward to Disgaea 6. It has some technical issues that are concerning to me, but the story and gameplay are so fun that I can look past them. I can’t wait to play the full game, as Defiance of Destiny has indeed punched me in the throat. I really love their marketing.
