Disgaea Mayhem
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Platforms: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Switch, Switch 2, PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
Outside of a few action platformers over a decade ago, the first thing that will come to mind when people think of Disgaea is that it is an SRPG, or the ever present Prinny mascots. There is a good reason for that since the series has been running non-stop since Laharl and Etna appeared all the way back in 2003 but now Nippon Ichi Software is taking a different swing with Disgaea again. Rather than putting out a new SRPG, this time we have Disgaea Mayhem, a musou-lite style action game that takes some of the franchise’s key elements and boils them down heavily, but is it still worth checking out regardless?
Story
N.A. (Not Applicable) is a mercenary that works for whoever is willing to pay his fees and has fought through countless different Netherworlds in an effort to maintain his lifestyle and when the daughter of one of his former foes, Tichelle, the fresh Overlord of the Netherworld of Super Duper, offers him a job N.A. can’t help but take her up on it, even when it turns out to be an absolutely ridiculous reason. Tichelle explains that Super Duper used to be a Netherworld of only the strongest monsters who killed and ate one another to satisfy themselves until her father, Margraf, introduced the realm to the Pristine Gleam Flan, a dessert so delicious that it managed to quell every demon into peaceful flan loving creatures that worked together in near harmony.
Unfortunately for Tichelle, with her father’s passing the six different factions serving underneath her, each led by a Psychlamate, rebelled and stole a part of the treasured flan at the same time. With Margraf once telling Tichelle that N.A. was his “BFF,” it seemed only fitting to hire him to beat down her rebellious underlings and reclaim the flan they stole, all while Tichelle herself cooks up ways to satisfy the reason they rebelled in the first place.
Disgaea Mayhem is about as ridiculous as they come for a Disgaea storyline, even more than usual though it does have a little bit of emotion near the very end of its surprisingly short story, concluding at roughly six hours if players take their time. The back and forth banter of N.A.’s no-nonsense style of taking on his targets and Tichelle’s bright joyful side constantly clash in humorous and engaging ways, especially after the player defeats one of the main bosses. This always culminates in Tichelle appearing with some masterpiece flan to please her underling and shock N.A. to the core with how skilled she is, even though N.A. refuses to admit to liking sweets of any kind despite being able to analyze every dish down to its smallest ingredient.
It is a bit unfortunate that this style of character engagement is about all there really is to Disgaea Mayhem as there really aren’t any other characters besides these two. The NPCs in the castle will change their dialogue depending on how far players are in the story but that is roughly the only change. Oddly enough, although the player defeats the Psychlamates and they supposedly return to Tichelle’s side, they don’t appear within the castle itself for follow-up dialogue in any way which once again feels like a missed opportunity. In the end, players should expect some absolutely ridiculous framework that helps set the stage for N.A. and Tichelle’s clashing personalities being the biggest highlight of the narrative.
Gameplay
It is important to note that while Disgaea Mayhem may best be described as a “musou-lite” it is also more aptly described as a simple hack and slash game at the same time since there are no actual objectives, bases to capture, or even generals to fight. The only goal players will have in any story mission is to head towards an enemy group and slay 15-20 enemies that will then despawn the rest and spawn another batch elsewhere. This will rinse and repeat until the “boss” enemy spawns and has a little back and forth with N.A. before having a slightly more varied attack pattern and a unique armor setting to allow them to tank hits and still dish out damage. Breaking this armor will leave the bosses in a stagger state and players will want to take advantage of it, especially in the early game before things get broken wide open.
Before we move onto that though, it is worth mentioning that N.A. is a jack-of-all trades fighter that can equip every type of weapon with each weapon having a unique fighting style and set of skills attached to them. Magical rods can be used to cast homing magic attacks at a distance, fists will bring him up close and personal for punches and strikes, and spears allow for a mid-range attack as well as some longer distance options as well. All skills equipped to a weapon are based off of a cooldown system and triggering a skill right when N.A. is about to be hit triggers a “counter” that apparently does more damage but most skills slay general enemies in a single swipe and bosses too after a certain point.
We say this because just like the original Disgaea games, Disgaea Mayhem features the Item World that allows players to delve into an item of their choosing and fight against waves of enemies to strengthen their chosen piece of gear and receive XP as well at the same time. The only problem is, while initial levels may see players needing to replay an old stage to keep their level in line with upcoming foes, once the Item World is unlocked all bets are off. Completely clearing an item world, even on the most basic setting, will skyrocket not only the effects of the item (especially useful with weapons and armor) but also N.A. and his “Battle Buddy’s” level at the same time, pushing them far above any challenge that the game might offer. In fact, it was so rough that the first major Psychlamate was slain with a single skill.
It is worth noting that there are no difficulty options in the game but there is a “cheat shop” players can unlock using the Dark Assembly mechanic. Here, just like always, players will be able to introduce new “bills” such as unlocking the cheat shop, being able to run around the castle, increase the quality of items in the store, and other special effects and modes while either bribing or knocking out assembly members that might vote no on the measure. Should the measure fail, the player can simply destroy every naysayer and force it through anyways. This can then be used to unlock the cheat shop to increase the game’s difficulty ironically rather than make things simpler.
Earlier it was mentioned that N.A. can be accompanied by Battle Buddies. These are various monsters that can be “befriended” after slaying them throughout the levels but obtaining them is entirely random. Players can play through an entire stage worth of levels and not see a single new Battle Buddy and then the next time through unlock three that can be unlocked and join the player at their side. The Battle Buddy AI is rough at best, though it does also depend on which buddy players bring with as Nekomata’s are up-close-and-personal fighters that work well enough and Genjus will summon other wolves to create a small pack of fighters around the player. All Battle Buddies can be equipped with gear just like the player, including broken Item World equipment if players choose. It is also worth noting that every single Battle Buddy has a unique “Magichange” form that transforms them into a separate weapon type with unique skills as well as well as a combined “Super” attack that can deal devastating damage to bosses and random foes alike by expending the entire Magichange at once.
Outside of the standard gameplay mode there is also a mode that doesn’t feature N.A. at all and instead is designed to increase his stats and unlock his Evilities. This is the Chara World board game where the player’s Battle Buddies, led by Tichelle, will take place in an auto-battle system to increase N.A.’s stats depending on their success and even unlock new abilities for him. Sadly that is about it as far as these mechanics go as they lack the depth to take things further, and even taking part in post-game activities is a breeze long before the player reaches them thanks to how players can break the game with insane levels and damage numbers. This has always been the case for late-game Disgaea, but it all just feels too easy here.
Audio & Visuals
Disgaea Mayhem is as vibrantly colorful as one can expect from a game with N.A.’s broody design as a mercenary clashing wonderfully with Tichelle’s angelic appearance despite being an Overlord. Enemy designs are fairly predictable as they are all familiar foes from the franchise but unfortunately there are far too few of them. Instead, players will simply begin encountering palette swapped versions that designate stronger versions of an enemy. Boss designs are at least rather unique though. As for the stages themselves, they are decent enough but also fairly limited because most missions involve only exploring a small gated off section of a level with only a few offering full free exploration. Similarly, the level design in the Item World is as generic as they come, offering only the most basic of platforms to battle on in the middle of a void.
One thing that is rather nice is the way that super attacks from Magichanged Battle Buddies look as they are both humorous and extremely powerful depending on who N.A. has with them. As for the game’s voice work, NIS America has offered both their own original English voice track that works great for the game’s characters as well as the original Japanese dub for those who prefer it. The soundtrack consists of some standard battlefield background music that rarely stands out except for a couple of tracks that play at the Castle that feel more like a Disgaea game.
Overall
Disgaea Mayhem is a rather strange choice for Nippon Ichi to make with the main franchise. It delivers all of the same charm and humor that fans have come to expect from it as well as most of the signature enemies, but lacks the depth and challenge at the same time. With limited enemy variety and the ability to easily break the game’s balance, the title feels watered down in almost every regard to the point that its funny flan focused story will struggle to hold afloat. Thankfully, at least the combat mechanics are all satisfying with enough variety to mix things up if players want to and tweaking the difficulty in the cheat menu can crank up the challenge should players choose.
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