Nippon Ichi Software has revealed the next entry in the popular Disgaea franchise. This over-the-top strategy RPG series' new entry — Disgaea 7 — launches in Japan on 26th January next year, and the developer also shared a ton of details about the game. An English localisation hasn't been announced yet, but we usually get these games within six months of their Japanese releases, so hopefully we'll hear something soon!
Still, it seems like there are some big things for us to get excited about with this seventh entry. Translated by Gematsu (thanks, Go Nintendo!), Nippon Ichi revealed that the new game will be set in the Hinomoto Netherworld Cluster, which is heavily inspired by Japanese culture, where the heroes are fighting to regain their lost Bushido.
Oh, and just like in ancient Japan, people — and Prinnies — can turn into giants. Right. Well, this is Disgaea, and over-the-top is its thing. But this isn't the only new feature coming to the game — check out what Nippon Ichi has shared so far:
New Feature #1: The Rule-Breaking Simulation RPG Scales up with “Dodeka MAX”!
The Disgaea series is known for its “combat system where all things go” and “infinite character development system.” In Disgaea 7, this is further enhanced with a new rule-breaking system.The new system “Dodeka MAX” will enlarge the characters so big that they leap out of the map! Defeat multiple enemies with a giant powerful blow, open giant treasure boxes—the “Dodeka MAXed” characters wreak havoc all around the map!
Don’t miss out on the biggest dynamic battles of the series!
- Dodeka MAX and unleash outrageous power!
- Both enemies and allies can Dodeka MAX. Experience thrilling, over-the-top battles.
- Use your mighty power to devilishly trample small enemies.
- What kind of items await inside the giant treasure chests…?
- New Feature #2: Create Edible… Swords? Item Reincarnation
In Disgaea 7, not only characters, but items can be reincarnated to make them stronger. Make swords into gum, slipper into staffs, and so on by reincarnating them again and again. You can create swords that heal you when eaten, or staffs that boost your mobility! What kind of items will you create and who will equip them? Make the ultimate badass items from countless possibilities!- Reincarnate items to create Beast Trance!
- The reincarnated Beast Trance has various skills not found in the standard Beast Trance!
- Reincarnate items over and over to boost damage!- Train Your Characters as You Wish! Enjoy the Flexibility of Character Development with “Reincarnation” and “Weapons Skills”
Reincarnation
Reincarnate your characters to create your most badass character! “Reincarnations” will set your characters' levels back to 1, but some statuses and skills you have acquired before the reincarnation will transfer, making them stronger. Use reincarnation again and again to create your most badass character, like a character who excels in both physical and magic attacks, or characters who knows every skill!
—By “reincarnating” a warrior into a mage, you can create a mage that can also fight in close combat.
Weapon Skills
Unlock special skills by mastering weapons! All seven weapon types can unlock a powerful special weapon skill as you continue to use that weapon. A magical knight that uses fist to fight, a fighter that can snipe from afar, a truly flexible character development system awaits you!- Cool Fighters and Cute Mages, Even Rotten Zombies! The Most Amount of Generic Characters in the Series to Enable Your Ideal Party!
There will be 45 generic characters appearing in Disgaea 7, making it the most in series history. Create your own badass army amongst characters that has different appearances and abilities.- New Feature #3: First Time in the Series, Ranked Battles are In! Use Artificial Intelligence to Enjoy More Disgaea!
Set character moves with the artificial intelligence “Machine Edit” feature; “Auto Battles” for those who don’t have much time to train your characters; and “Ranked Battles” to compete against other players!“Ranked Battles” become number one in the Japanese netherworld. An all new artificial intelligence player-versus-player mode in which you can battle against users around the country online! Shape your strategy by assessing the terrain and reading the movement patterns of your opponents. The strategies you have gathered through trial and error will lead your team to victory!
“Auto Battles” level up your characters only little work. Using an item called “Masoline,” you can command your party to fight through stages you have already cleared. Setting AIs according to the stage can let you efficiently level up your characters with less “Masoline” usage!
- Register your team and fight against players across the country. Set the best artificial intelligence according to the weekly stages.
- Highly configurable, from special moves to the order of enemy attack!
- There is also an initial artificial intelligence that is already set, so you can enjoy the feature even if you are not used to it.
-“Masoline” can be obtained by meeting certain conditions , clearing a stage, or completing a quest.- The Most Content in the Series Yet and New Gameplay Elements: Please Look Forward to the Powered-Up New Disgaea!
Retaining the Disgaea flavor, Disgaea 7 has evolved with new game-deepening elements. The tale of regaining Hinomoto, the hidden effects of Dodeka MAX, and unique characters that add flare to the Japan-esque world. Please stay tuned for more news to come on Disgaea 7!
So, eating weapons, reincarnation to make new hybrid classes, giant Prinnies... sounds like Disgaea, alright!
Japan will be getting a 3,300 yen Collector's Box for the game at launch, which contains a Soundtrack CD, and an art book, and it comes in a nice little box, too! Given the developer's western subsidiary, NIS America, we'll likely get something similar here too.
We've grabbed a few screenshots from the upcoming game that show off a few of the different mechanics.
We'll let you know as soon as Disgaea 7 gets a western release date. In the meantime, are you happy with what you've seen from the next entry in the series so far? Share your thoughts in the comments, doods!
[source gematsu.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 40
Disgaea, now with Dynamaxing.
I sure hope this doesn't become a trend.
Cool, although I hope they've figured out what was causing the game the previous game to run so poorly on the system.
In 3d? Damnit. Fingers crossed then.
Glad to see they're continuing this, I was thinking 6 was going to be the last one - especially because one of the series creators just resigned.
Even though I'm excited for this and would welcome more new tactical games in this franchise, could we also get Disgaea 2 & 3 as well? The series doesn't felt complete without those two.
Please don't make this a switch exclusive in the west again, the last game ran absolutely awful on the switch
I still need to finish 6 (and 5) but excited for this one as well.
I used to love Disgaea, but at this point I think I have Disgaea poisoning as there's been so much. I think you can play 10 Disgaea or Disgaea spinoff on the Switch alone.
I've never touched this series before. Is it any good? It looks like a lot of fun, but there's so little time and so many JRPGs
This is REALLY soon after 6 was seemingly just released. But I ain’t complaining. And yes: give us Disgaea 2 and 3 too!
More than any other Disgaea before this comes across as a quick asset flip with how quickly it came to being and how similar it looks to 6. I wasn't too keen on Disgaea 6 when the game's biggest selling point seemed to be that it could play itself and as I understand it dropped a lot of features from 5.
Even the character designs here seem really haphazard, the samurai-japan theming is also decisively not my thing.
@Serpenterror absolutely yes.
I could've sworn they said 6 would be the last one. Am I going crazy?
This feels fast, but then again so does everything else. Slow down, I'm old.
Lol
@Pillowpants If time is a problem usually Disgaea isnt for you. The main point of the game is infinite grinding. That said, I'm a big fan although I skipped 6.
@Sonos Well, I don't mind grinding, but in a vast sea of JRPGs it's hard to choose which ones are worthwhile sometimes. So, what I'm asking is: Is Disgaea worth playing as a fan of JRPGs?
Still gotta finish 5 complete but right after that 6 and the prinny duology I'll hop right on it.
@Pillowpants I see JRPGs as a chosen group lining up against a monster and wailing away. Nippon Ichi really just makes SRPGs - making a team then fighting baddies on a grid.
Two different beats imho. Disgaea has goofy and fun stories, awesome characters, over-the-top special moves and infinite powering up. I'm into. You may be.
I'm about 110 hours in D5 - Which I might have paid 10 bucks for on the eshop. That comes out to about .003 pesos per minute. Good deal.
Cool, I'll wait for the updated Disgaea 7 release on other systems with all the content.
@Ralizah at a guess probably not.
Yeah ...I'll wait for the PS5 version, thanks. I'd prefer playing at a frame rate higher than Ocarina of Time on N64.
The obligatory Dynamax joke has already been made, so what else is there to say? I'm still on the first game but fully welcome yet another addition to Switch's status as a Disgaea machine.
This looks really good. This Disgaea franchise has always looked good to me but I've never jumped in and played one. Maybe someday!
@MrGawain - Nope, just 4 mainlines, and 2 spinoffs.
The PS3 had more at this point in its lifespan.
@Severian: The original Switch version of DS6 is actually a few years old in Japan. The PS5/PS4 (western) port is less than a year old though if I remember correctly.
@UltimateOtaku91 @Arehexes @Vix: The game is going to be multiplatform in Japan. No idea on how the western release will be like but hopefully its the same.
Seemed like they were just testing the 3D waters with D6. Hopefully this one gets it right.
Wooooooow, biggest 2022 news for me!
I´ll buy day-1!!!
Disgaea is amazing 300+ hours replay value!
Funny this series doesn't get the Splatoon hate. 7 games now, and starting with 4 "It's the exact same game but this time the numbers are bigger" has been the OFFICAL MARKETING TAG LINE. I went to a presser for 4 where they handed out screen shots of combat from 3 but had added extra 0s to the damage numbers with a marker.
You spend most of your time in procedurally generated maps, you replay the game over and over to get different endings, there is no FMV ... so the amount of time and effort put into delivering the single player experience could easily be called into question.
Compare that to Splatoon's or even Pokémon's single player that are rebuilt from the ground up for each entry. And here you don't get anything else; no multiplayer, no co-op.
Don't get me wrong, I love this series and will totally get this game. I have absolutely no problem with a developer has clearly found a format and formula that works and focuses on perfecting it. I LIKE that they are not trying to reinvent the wheel.
It's just really odd that this series gets a pass, while Pokémon and Splatoon get 100s of comments on every video condemning them for doing the same thing.
I’d like to give the benefit of the doubt that they want to move on from 6 and improve on it in the new style. But it really does feel too soon.
I'm burnt out on this franchise. There's only so much repetitive grinding I can take so not interested in the slightest.
@HeadPirate
I think the main difference is that Splatoon and Pokemon (especially Pokemon) are multi-million dollar franchises that people expect way more from because they should logically have the money to do more with their games.
Disgaea and Nippon Ichi Software are way smaller by comparison so expecting them to match up to the same standard just isn't going to happen. Disgaea 6 was probably going to be the last Disgaea game but it luckily sold well enough for a 7th game to be made. This franchise doesn't sell millions of copies like those other two do.
6 was so bad that it can only go up from here, right?
@HeadPirate This series just don't have enougth people who care about it.
@JR150
I understand where that argument comes from, but I think you'll agree it doesn't really hold up to scrutiny
"Quality" isn't really the right word to use, given that has nothing to do with if the games make drastic changes to the formula. These game have exceptional quality and polish, they just don't change anything. Mortal Combat 11 and Street Fighter 5 are both extremely high quality despite being next to identical to pervious games. Splatoon 2 was a much higher quality game then the first. So the expectation of change can't really be down to quality, given people recognise quality in games that don't change.
Lifetime sales of Disgaea are around 6 million, which puts it around where Monster Hunter was before the last release, half the sales of something like Kingdom Hearts, double the sales of something like Ace Attorney. So it might not make any top 10 franchise of all time lists, but personally I would expect top quality from any series that's moved 100s of million of dollars in product.
Nippon Ichi has 215 employees, Monolithsoft has 275, up from around 180 two years ago. I'm pretty sure no one would have argued "well it's a small studio, we shouldn't expect quality" if Xenoblades 3 sucked. That's also a series in the 6 million total sales ballpark.
@UltimateOtaku91 whether the game was exclusive or not in the West has zero correlation on the performance of the game
@HeadPirate Xenoblade also released less games and on less platforms compared to Disgaea series so it’s not a valid comparison at all
@Arawn93 yes but it was the switch version which had performance issues and the version that came West at launch, I'd rather have a version that runs perfect at launch like the ps5 version was.
@UltimateOtaku91 The game was literally available in Playstation along with Switch in Japan and it had plenty of similar issues reported.
@Pillowpants So the Disgaea series is a Strategy RPG in as close to the true sense of the word. Most SRPG's are more Tactical RPG's, more emphasis is placed on each encouter, positioning, ability, weaknessess, while Disgaea has these and you can play the vanilla story just fine like this the end-goal is becoming ungodly powerful to take on what most games would reserves as secret bosses, so the game actually becomes not just a grind, but how do I optimise (re. abuse) the games systems to grind faster, better, stronger. Each games has progressively made this grind easier and easier to do, whilst typically increasing the maximum "power level" you need to achieve. Disgaea 6 felt more like Factorio for 95% of it's playtime than FF-Tactics.
To off-set the numbers-heavy gameplay the story and characters are very anime-styled as you can see with a strong emphasis on humour and not taking itself seriously.
@bluemujika Thanks for the thorough explanation. It sounds like something I'd really enjoy. I love Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics and other turn-based strategy RPGs
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