Disgaea 5

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance
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
Series Disgaea
Platform(s) PlayStation 4
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Tactical role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

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]

Plot

The central story of the game is centred on the idea of "revenge".[7] The evil 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.[8]

Characters

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.[8] The game will feature 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 introduces a new type of special attack known as Maougis.[8] 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 will be returning.[9][11]

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 Ovelord who has a unique Overload ability, which both function as plot points as well as cooldowns in combat. Tyrant Overlord Killidia is a bloodthirsty demon who becomes Overlord of the ruthless Netherworld Cryo Blood and is believed to be the strongest Overlord in the universe. One day, he fights Goldion, a peaceful demon who created the Ultimate Demon Technique fighting style. Goldion defeats Killidia but wants to teach Killidia; Killlidia accepts in the hope that he can one day kill Goldion. However, Killidia falls in love with Goldion's weak daughter Lieze and becomes the kind, passive Killia. Lieze's brother Void Dark, who has the power to steal Overloads, becomes jealous of the relationship Killia forms with his father and sister, believing he should be heir to the Ultimate Demon Technique. However, Goldion has selected Killia because Void Dark's evil heart would prevent him from learning the Final Skill, which requires a strong 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 runs away from Goldion. Lieze demands to go with him. Void Dark confronts Killia demanding his sister back. Void Dark defeats Killia and steals his Overload Alma Ice Sculptor, which freezes time around an object. As Void Dark is about to kill Killia, Lieze jumps in the way and is killed. Killia leaves in grief, but unknown to him, Void Dark freezes time around Lieze. He then forms an army known as The Lost, seemingly with the goal of universal domination, but in reality he uses the vast control of the army to search out a way to resurrect Lieze.

At some point before the story, Void Dark encounters a savage, war-orphaned girl named Majorita, who has Overload Broken Faith Majia, which allows resurrection. He appoints her as a Demon General of The Lost, telling her he is creating a peaceful utopia whereas he really needs her Overload to resurrect Lieze. Goldion attempts to stop Void Dark but is defeated due to an injury he suffered earlier from Killia. While imprisoned, he is tended to by a child captured by The Lost named Zeroken, whom Goldion teaches the Ultimate Demon Technique, excluding the Final Skill. Void Dark brainwashes Goldion and turns him into Demon General Bloodis, whose identity is concealed by armor. Zeroken runs away from The Lost in fear.

Majorita invades Scorching Flame, the Netherworld run by the buff Red Magnus, whose Overload Super Universe turns him into a giant. Magnus 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 curry, a food she hates. One day, Usalia throws a fit about eating the 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 with an Overload which gives him clairvoyance. He has been accused of being a spy for Void Dark and goes to the Netherworlds, planning to use the demons to kill Void Dark and clear his name. The Netherworld Gorgeous is a rich Netherworld ruled by Seraphina, whose Overload Balor Gaze causes any man to fall in love with her. Her father offers her hand in marriage to Void Dark in order to secure peace, but she flees as well.

At the start of the gameplay, Seraphina is fighting the lost in order to attempt to kill Void Dark. Killia randomly encounters the fight and saves her; Seraphina falls in love with him and follows him, though her Overload will not work on him due to his loyalty to Lieze. Red Magnus meets and joins their group, though he has a love/hate relationship with Seraphina which started in childhood. They find Christo spying on them, and he joins their group. Christo fakes being a demon with a fake pair of horns; Killia is the only member of the group who realizes this and covers for Christo when other members of the group become suspicious. The group rescues Usalia from her berserk form after chasing a yellow prinny who stole curry from them; Usalia then joins their group as well. The group encounters Zeroken several times. At first, he is an enemy of the group because he sees Killia using the Ultimate Demon Technique and believes he stole the abilities from Goldion. However, after learning that Killia was Goldion's previous apprentice, he views Killia as a brother and joins the group. Unknown to the group, Killia struggles to control his dark half, which he fears will kill all of his friends if released. The group becomes known as the rebel army and rescues several Netherworlds from The Lost, encountering Majorita and Bloodis in the process.

Killia and Zeroken realize that while neither can use the Final Skill individually that combined they might be able to. The Final Skill clears all evil from a person, and they believe that using it on Bloodis might restore him to normal. Zeroken cannot perform the ability at first, but after he forgives himself for abandoning Goldion previously, he both unlocks an Overload of his own and is able to use the Final Skill on Bloodis. Unknown to anyone, Goldion is restored to normal but hides this fact; knowing that the group is too weak to challenge Void Dark, he plans to use his position as Bloodis to protect them from Void Dark and train them to challenge Void Dark. At this point, Void appears and easily defeats the group, but they are saved when Void is alerted that they have found an Overload which can absorb energy. The rebel army assumes this is to empower Alma Ice Sculptor, but in reality it is needed to empower Broken Faith Magia to be strong enough to resurrect Lieze as a fully living person rather than a mindless corpse. Void sends magical spears to many Netherworlds to absorb their energy, which the rebel army spends time destroying.

When the rebel army goes to Scorching Flame, Magnus finds that his citizens are still alive but have joined The Lost due to feeling betrayed by Magnus. Eventually, Magnus realizes his rage is because he is angry at himself for failing his Netherworld by being asleep during the invasion, and his Overload evolves. The rebel army goes to Toto Bunny to destroy a spear. Partway through, they encounter Majorita controlling the corpses of Usalia's parents; however, Usalia realizes that her parents loved her until the end when they sacrifice themselves to protect her from Majorita. At this point, her curse becomes a controllable Overload, and the group forces Majorita to retreat to the spear after fatally poisoning Usalia. Christo risks revealing his identity by using Angel Magic to heal Usalia. Christo finds out that Celestia is preparing to destroy countless Netherworlds to kill Void Dark, and that Celestia will promote him if he uses his clairvoyance to reveal Void Dark's position. Christo realizes he has come to like the demons who care about each other more than the traitorous angels and also realizes that he was to blame for the angels that hated him. He threatens to really become a spy for Void Dark in order to prevent the destruction of the Netherworlds, and his clairvoyance strengthens.

Killia eventually reaches the point where he can barely control his dark half. His dark half emerges after a fight with Bloodis and then turns on his friends, though his friends' support temporarily suppresses it. As Killia tries increasingly hard to control his dark half, he eventually accepts that his past as the Tyrant Overlord is a part of who he is but that it does not need to control him; this unlocks a new Overload to replace Alma Ice Sculptor, Tyrant Revelio, which allows him to bring forth his bloodlust in a controlled fashion. The final spear is located in Gorgeous, which is now bankrupt due to Sera's father building a vast underground fortress. Sera's father offers Sera the chance to become wealthy again by betraying her friends to The Lost. She comes to the realization she likes her friends more than being rich and her Overload strengthens.

With the spears destroyed, the rebel army attacks Void Dark's base. Killia mentions that Goldion once mentioned an Ultimate Skill which he could not perfect because it relies on the strength of friends. Because he believes Goldion to still be under Void's mind control, Killia believes the Ultimate Skill might be strong enough to save him but does not know how to perform it. They first encounter Majorita, who reverts to the personality of a scared child when defeated. They spare her out of pity, but Void Dark appears and steals her Overload then kills her. The group then encounters Bloodis, who demonstrates the incomplete Ultimate Skill. Killia uses this on Bloodis, who then reveals he had been freed from the mind control for a long time. He dies from the wound of the attack but hopes that if the technique can be used to stop Void, it will be his penance for his actions. The group finally encounters Void, who is defeated with the Ultimate Skill. Before he dies, he reveals the full extent of his plans; he gives Killia Broken Faith Magia and the energy he absorbed and asks Killia to save his sister.

The rebel army find's Lieze, and Killia uses Broken Faith Magia to resurrect her. However, the jealous energy of Void Dark takes over and turns her into Dark Lieze, the final boss of the storyline. Killia saves her by combining the Ultimate Skill with the Overloads of his friends. With The Lost defeated, Red Magnus begins to rebuild all the Netherworlds destroyed by The Lost. Christo decides to stay in the Netherworld; he wants to study the demons more because they were far different than Celestia believed. Zeroken opens up a school that teaches the Ultimate Demon Technique. Usalia rebuilds Toto Bunny into the utopia that Majorita had ironically been striving for. Seraphina uses her Overload to pull Gorgeous out of bankruptcy. Killia lives an isolated, peaceful life with Lieze.

After the game's credits, the rebel army meets again to deal with new threats plaguing the universe, forming the basis of the post-game. Lieze joins up with the group but is not a playable character. Through gameplay, Asagi, Majorita, Goldion, and Void Dark eventually join the rebel army.

Development

The game was announced on September 1, 2014, at Tokyo Game Show.[12] 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] A trial version of the game was made available via download code included within the September 25, 2014 issue of Dengeki PlayStation.[7]

The game is produced by Sohei Niikawa, with the character designs by Takehito Harada and music composed by Tenpei Sato.[8]

Reception

The game sold 22,725 physical retail copies within its first week of release in Japan.[13] The game has received generally positive reviews, obtaining an aggregate score of 80 on Metacritic.[14] Deculture.es gave the game a 9.7 saying “A devilishly perfect SRPG that can't be missed in your PS4 library“.[15]

References

  1. ↑ 2014-09-19, Disgaea 5 Japanese release date announced, Gematsu
  2. 1 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
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 2014-09-02, Disgaea 5 will be the series’ biggest entry yet, Gematsu
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2014-09-03, Disgaea 5′s story premise detailed, Gematsu
  9. 1 2 3 4 2014-11-20, Two new characters, Fusion Skills, more introduced for Disgaea 5, Gematsu
  10. 1 2 2014-09-02, Disgaea 5 Will Have The Most Volume Of Any Game In The Series, Siliconera
  11. ↑ 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
  12. ↑ 2014-09-01, PS4 getting Disgaea 5, Earth Defense Force, Ys, Gundam and Senran Kagura, Destructoid
  13. ↑ "Media Create Sales: 3/23/15 – 3/29/15". Gematsu. April 1, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  14. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/disgaea-5-alliance-of-vengeance
  15. ↑ "Análisis: 'Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance' - Deculture.es". Deculture.es. September 27, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
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