Disgaea 5

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance (魔界戦記ディスガイア5, Makai Senki Disugaia 5) is a 2015 tactical role-playing video game for the PlayStation 4 and the sixth in the Disgaea series by Nippon Ichi Software.[3][4][5][6] A port for the Nintendo Switch was released on March 3, 2017 in Japan as a launch title for the system. This port was released in North America on May 23, 2017, and Europe and Australia on May 26, 2017; it was released in both territories under the title Disgaea 5 Complete, containing all DLC content from the original, but no new content.[7] This version of the game was released on PC through Steam on October 22, 2018, albeit without network compatibility.

Disgaea 5
Developer(s)Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Takehisa Matsuda
Producer(s)Sohei Niikawa
Designer(s)Takehisa Matsuda
Ryo Sotokawa
Makoto Ito
Artist(s)Takehito Harada
Writer(s)Sohei Niikawa
Keiichi Inoue
Tatsuya Izumi
Composer(s)Tenpei Sato
SeriesDisgaea
Platform(s)PlayStation 4
Nintendo Switch
Microsoft Windows
ReleasePlayStation 4
Nintendo Switch
  • JP: March 3, 2017
  • NA: May 23, 2017
  • PAL: May 26, 2017
Microsoft Windows
  • WW: October 22, 2018
Genre(s)Tactical role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

The central story of the game is centred on the idea of "revenge".[8] The demon emperor Void Dark devastates numerous Netherworlds after coming to power, with the help of an army of over one million soldiers known as The Lost. Following this, the Overlords of the Netherworlds under Void Dark's rule attempt to rise up and take revenge.[9]

Gameplay
Battle interface screenshot

The game involves the player traveling across different Netherworlds in an attempt to bring the Overlords and heirs of each different world to join forces together to fight against Void Dark.[9] The game features new systems not seen within prior titles in the Disgaea series. In addition, the number of characters displayable on-screen has increased to 100, compared to 10 characters on the earlier PlayStation 3 titles.[10]

New features include the display of resistance and affiliation statistics when units on the battlefield are highlighted, and a revenge system that is triggered when party members are fallen. The game also introduced a new type of special attack known as Maougis.[9] Certain characters are able to pair up in specific duos to unleash special moves known as fusion skills. New playable character classes include dark knights with melee weapons, maids with guns, and fairies with support magic, while the soldier, magician, priest, priestess and archer classes from earlier titles returned.[11][12]

Characters
  • Killia (キリア) - The protagonist of the game, and a wandering demon with a vendetta against Void Dark.[9] Voiced by: Ben Pronsky (English),[13] Mamoru Miyano (Japanese)
  • Seraphina (セラフィーヌ) - A sheltered princess and the Overlord of Gorgeous Underworld (絢爛魔界).[8] She truly believes that all men exist to kneel before her. She ran away from her home because her father arranged a marriage of convenience with Void Dark, who she now plans to assassinate.[9] Voiced by: Kira Buckland (English),[13] Sarah Emi Bridcutt (Japanese)
  • Usalia (ウサリア) - The heir of Toto Bunny (兎兎世界),[8] who dislikes fighting. She rides a giant yellow Prinny who fights alongside her during combat. Due to one of Void Dark's subordinates, she was cursed to constantly have to eat curry, the food she once hated, or she will turn into a beast. Now she actually likes curry. She has a very nice personality, which is unusual for a demon.[9] Voiced by: Christine Marie Cabanos (English),[13] Satomi Akesaka (Japanese)
  • Red Magnus (レッドマグナス)[11] The Overlord of Scorching Flame, where vicious demons reside. He is very wild and believes that strength is everything. He is trying to defeat Void Dark to become the strongest Overlord. His Netherworld has been on bad terms with Seraphina's Netherworld for a long time. He says "super" quite often. Voiced by: Kaiji Tang (English),[13] Takehito Koyasu (Japanese)
  • Christo (クリスト)[11] An Overlord who is affiliated with a certain giant Netherworld. He is a gifted tactician, and will do whatever it takes to attain victory. Killia's great magic potential caught his eye, and he views Killia as his best shot for assassinating Void Dark. Voiced by: Xander Mobus (English),[13] Junji Majima (Japanese)
  • Zeroken (ゼロッケン)[11] A young Overlord and self-proclaimed heir of the legendary Great Demon Fist, Goldion. He appears while Killia and the others are fighting the Lost and helps them, even though no one asked him to. He can be stubborn, but has a flexible mindset, changing his attitude depending on who he's interacting with. Voiced by: Kyle McCarley (English),[13] Tetsuya Kakihara (Japanese)

Storyline

Many of the events of Disgaea 5 occur before the game begins and are revealed through flashbacks. Events will be given here chronologically rather than the order they are presented in-game.

Disgaea 5 takes place in a universe with many Netherworlds, each of which is ruled by an Overlord who has a unique Overload ability, which function both as plot points as well as cooldowns in combat. Tyrant Overlord Killidia is a bloodthirsty demon who grew up in and becomes the Overlord of the ruthless Netherworld Cryo Blood. One day, he fights Goldion, a demon who created the Ultimate Demon Technique fighting style. Goldion defeats Killidia, and then says that he wants to teach Killidia the Ultimate Demon Technique. Taking up the name Killia, he accepts in hopes that one day, he will be able to defeat Goldion. Killia then falls in love with Goldion's daughter Liezerota, who slowly changed him into a kinder person. Lieze's brother Void, who has the power to steal Overloads, becomes jealous of the relationship Killia forms with his father and sister, and believes he should be the heir to the Ultimate Demon Technique. However, Goldion has selected Killia because Void's impure heart would prevent him from learning the Final Skill, which requires a pure heart.

Killia is unable to master the Final Skill due to the inner conflict with his current self and his former bloodthirsty self, so he hurt and runs away from Goldion. Lieze follows him. Void confronts Killia demanding his sister back. He defeats Killia and steals his Overload Alma Ice Sculpture, which freezes time around an object. As Void is about to kill Killia, Lieze jumps in the way and is killed. Killia leaves in grief, but unknown to him, Void freezes time around Lieze. He then changes his name to Void Dark and forms an army known as The Lost, seemingly with the goal of universal domination, but in reality he wants to search for a way to resurrect Lieze. Goldion attempts to stop Void Dark but is defeated due to the injury he suffered earlier from Killia. While imprisoned, he is tended to by a child captured by The Lost named Zeroken, to whom Goldion warms up to and teaches the Ultimate Demon Technique, excluding the Final Skill. Later, Void Dark brainwashes Goldion and turns him into Demon General Bloodis, whose identity is concealed by armor. Zeroken runs away from The Lost in shame following this.

Majorita, one of Void Dark's Demon Generals, invades Scorching Flame, the Netherworld run by the Overlord Red Magnus. He sleeps through the invasion and wakes up to find his Netherworld destroyed and his citizens gone, and he seeks out to take revenge against The Lost. Majorita also invades Toto Bunny, a peaceful Netherworld. She places a curse on the princess Usalia, which causes her to turn into a mindless beast unless she eats nothing but spicy food, which she hates. One day, Usalia throws a fit about eating nothing but curry and finds Majorita has killed her parents the next day; she flees from Toto Bunny. In Celestia, the land of angels, Christo is an angel accused of being a spy for Void Dark and goes to the Netherworlds, planning to use and manipulate the demons into killing Void Dark and clear his own name. The Netherworld Gorgeous is a rich Netherworld ruled by Overlord Seraphina. Her father tries to offers her hand in marriage to Void Dark in order to secure peace, but she flees and attempts to assassinate Void Dark to stop the marriage.

At the start of the gameplay, Seraphina is fighting the Lost. She meets Killia who effortlessly dispatches their army. They are later joined by Red Magnus who also happened to be wandering in the same Netherworld. Afterwards, Christo fakes being a demon with a pair of horns and joins them. The group rescues Usalia when she went berserk after not eating curry for too long a time, who joins them to take revenge against Void Dark. Throughout this, the group encounters Zeroken several times. While initially hostile as he sees Killia, who also uses the Ultimate Demon Technique, as a thief who stole Goldion's skills, he joins the team and affectionately calls Killia his 'bro' after the misunderstanding is cleared up. The group becomes known as the Rebel Army and rescues several Netherworlds from The Lost, encountering Majorita and Bloodis in the process.

Zeroken also tells Killia and co. about Bloodis actually being Goldion but brainwashed. Killia recalls that the Final Skill of their technique could expel any evil from a person, and attempts to perform it with Zeroken on Bloodis. Zeroken cannot perform the ability at first, but after he forgives himself for having abandoned Goldion previously, he both becomes an Overlord and succeeds in using the skill with Killia. Unknown to anyone, Goldion is restored by this but hides this fact, knowing that the group is too weak to challenge Void Dark. He uses his position as Bloodis to protect them from Void Dark and train them incognito to challenge Void Dark. Later, Void Dark sends magical spears to many Netherworlds to absorb their energy, and the rebel army destroys them one by one.

While doing so, the members of the group happens to come across their respective homeworlds and overcomes the obstacles in their hearts to gain or enhance their overloads. As for Killia, he overcomes his fear of becoming his past self and accepts it in full, becoming able to use the Final Skill on his own.

After Seraphina becomes the last member of the group to overcome their obstacle, and with the spears destroyed, the rebel army finally attacks Void Dark's base. They defeat Majorita and spare her out of pity, but Void Dark appears and steals her Overload then kills her. Bloodis attacks them while also demonstrating the hitherto unmentioned Ultimate Skill of the Technique, which Killia manages to reproduce with greater power than Bloodis, as the power of the skill depends on the will to protect allies and friends. Goldion, revealing that he was lifted from brainwashing earlier, now also reveals he has sacrificed his life to teach Killia the Ultimate Skill, hoping this sacrifice will be his penance for all the deeds he has done as Bloodis. The group finally encounters Void, who is defeated with the Ultimate Skill. Before he dies, he reveals the full extent of his plans - to revive Lieze by using a ridiculous amount of energy, which he has gathered from the Netherworlds; he gives Killia Broken Faith Magia, Majorita's Overload and the key to the revival ritual, and warns them the energy he absorbed is now uncontrolled and asks Killia to save his sister from the energy he fears has gone berserk.

They find Lieze who was resurrected just now; however, the energy takes over and turns her into Liezerota●Dark, the final boss of the storyline. Killia saves her by combining the Ultimate Skill with the Overloads of his friends. With The Lost defeated, the Netherworlds begin rebuilding and the group disperses. Killia and Lieze lives peacefully in the fringes of the Netherworlds.

After the game's credits, the rebel army meets again to deal with new threats plaguing the Netherworlds, forming the basis of the post-game. Lieze also joins up with them.

Development

On September 1, 2014, the game was announced at the Tokyo Game Show.[14] A trial version of the game was made available via download code included within the September 25, 2014 issue of Dengeki PlayStation.[8]

The Nintendo Switch port, Disgaea 5 Complete, was officially announced during the Nintendo Switch presentation on January 13, 2017. The game was published in Japan by Nippon Ichi Software while NIS America would handle publishing duties in North America and Europe. A limited edition was also announced which included a collector's box, two-disc soundtracks, hard cover art book and several other items.[15] Nippon Ichi Software president Sohei Niikawa stated that the development team initially considered a multi-platform release including the PlayStation 3, however decided to create a game which could only be done on the PS4 platform.[10]

The game is produced by Sohei Niikawa, with the character designs by Takehito Harada and music composed by Tenpei Sato.[9]

Reception
Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic(PS4) 80/100[16]
(NS) 81/100[17]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Destructoid8/10[18]
Famitsu33/40[19]
Game Informer8.5/10[20]
GameRevolution[21]
GameSpot8/10[22]
GamesTM8/10[23]
GameTrailers8.6/10[24]
IGN8.7/10[25]
Digitally Downloaded[26]
Metro (UK)7/10[27]
PlayStation LifeStyle9/10[28]
PSNStores[29]
US Gamer[30]
Hardcore Gamer4/5[31]

The game sold 22,725 physical retail copies within its first week of release in Japan.[32] The game has received positive reviews, obtaining an aggregate score of 80/100 on Metacritic.[16]

By January 5, 2018, the Nintendo Switch version has sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide.[33] By April 2018, the Nintendo Switch version has sold nearly 200,000 copies in the west alone.[34]

References
  1. 2014-09-19, Disgaea 5 Japanese release date announced, Gematsu
  2. 2014-12-16, Disgaea 5 coming west in fall 2015, Gematsu
  3. 2014-09-01, Disgaea 5 announced for PlayStation 4, Gematsu
  4. 2014-09-01, Disgaea 5 Announced, Coming to PlayStation 4, IGN
  5. 2014-09-01, Disgaea 5 Unveiled for PS4 Next Spring, Anime News Network
  6. 2014-09-01, Disgaea 5 announced for PlayStation 4, Joystiq
  8. 2014-09-02, Disgaea 5 will be the series’ biggest entry yet, Gematsu
  9. 2014-09-03, Disgaea 5′s story premise detailed, Gematsu
  10. 2014-09-02, Disgaea 5 Will Have The Most Volume Of Any Game In The Series, Siliconera
  11. 2014-11-20, Two new characters, Fusion Skills, more introduced for Disgaea 5, Gematsu
  12. 2014-11-20, 「魔界戦記ディスガイア5」，メインキャラクターのみが使用できる「合体技」や，オリジナルユニットを作成できる「スカウト屋」などに関する新情報が公開, 4gamer
  13. "Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance (2015) Cast". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 19 January 2020. A green check mark indicates that the role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of the title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.
  14. 2014-09-01, PS4 getting Disgaea 5, Earth Defense Force, Ys, Gundam and Senran Kagura, Destructoid
  15. Osborn, Alex (2017-01-12). "Disgaea 5 Complete Announced for Nintendo Switch". IGN. Retrieved 2018-01-07.
  16. "Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  17. "Disgaea 5 Complete for Switch Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  18. Carter, Chris (September 22, 2015). "Review: Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance". Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  19. Gifford, Kevin. "Japan Review Check: Luigi's Mansion, Castlevania, Disgaea". Polygon. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  20. Tack, Daniel (September 22, 2015). "Exploding Penguins And Tactical Decisions". Game Informer. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  21. Haught, Jeb (October 2, 2015). "Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance Review". Game Revolution. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  22. "Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance Review". GameSpot. October 6, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  23. "Disgaea 5 - Alliance of Vengeance Review". GamesTM. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  24. GameTrailers Disgaea 5 on PS4 Review on YouTube
  25. "Review: Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance". IGN. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
  26. Sainsbury, Matt (June 10, 2015). "Review: Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance (Sony PlayStation 4)". Digitallydownloaded.net. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  27. "Disgaea 5: Alliance Of Vengeance review – no joke". Metro (UK). Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  28. Girard-Meli, Jowi (October 1, 2015). "Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance Review – Colorful Revenge (PS4)". PlayStation LifeStyle. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  29. "Review: Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance". PSN Stores. September 22, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  30. "Disgaea 5 Alliance of Vengeance PS4 Review". US Gamer. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  31. "Review: Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance". hardcoregamer.com. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  32. "Media Create Sales: 3/23/15 – 3/29/15". Gematsu. April 1, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  33. "Disgaea 5 Complete sells 200,000 copies on Switch, Nippon Ichi targeting the system for new IPs and sequels". Nintendo Everything. 2018-01-05. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
  34. "NISA – deal with Nintendo for SNK Heroines, Switch outselling PS4 versions, Disgaea 5 near 200k in the west". Nintendo Everything. 2018-04-08. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
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