Disgaea 5

One of the most unexpected titles coming to Nintendo Switch is Disgaea 5 Complete, a tactical RPG in the vein of genre classics like Final Fantasy Tactics. We spent quite a bit of time with the game at Nintendo's New York Switch event, and came away quite impressed with the port.

If you haven't heard of the Disgaea series, that's okay; after all, it's pretty niche and hasn't featured much on Nintendo systems recently, notably popping up with Disgaea DS back in 2008/2009. Disgaea has a bit of a cult following in the Western world; it's all about demons and angels and their attempts to change the underworld. Often in these games a demon will embark on a journey that ends with them saving the world, despite their intentions to do the opposite. At the start of each battle you can withdraw up to 10 characters from your base and move them around the map. Each turn consists of three phases - movement, action and execution. You can execute as many times as you want per turn, but it behooves you to think ahead a few steps, as many characters have combo techniques they can use with their allies, and that goes for you as well as your enemies.

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Some of us here at Nintendo Life have played the PS4 version of Disgaea 5, and we were unable to discern a difference between the original and the Switch version. Fortunately, the demo on hand at the event loaded up with characters already fully leveled up with their flashiest techniques available. Disgaea is known for having over-the-top attacks that result in large explosions and screen-filling effects; even when launching the largest of attacks we observed nary a hiccup or stutter when docked or in portable mode.

We were able to play in all three gameplay modes the Switch supports, and with three different controller configurations; we used Joy-Cons in and out of their grip and also tried the Pro Controller, all of which worked exactly as one would expect. Disgaea 5 seems as though it would be an excellent candidate for touch control on the Switch, but unfortunately it does not support the touch display.

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The reason we're most excited for Disgaea 5 on Switch is due to the incredibly large amount of content the game offers. Disgaea games are known for having one of the longest endgames of all, usually clocking in at the thousands of hours; they offer myriad subsystems and games to get into, a level cap of 9,999 and countless dungeons and worlds to explore, and that's not counting the DLC add-ons that come bundled with the Switch version by default.

It's great to see a game with as much depth and content as Disgaea 5 on the way to the Switch. We imagine fans of the genre will spend hundreds of hours with Killia and friends, from the comfort of their couch or on the go.