Disgaea 1 Complete is an incredible remake of 2003's uncompromisingly idiosyncratic JRPG breakout hit. Hundreds of hours await, endlessly toiling at copious dungeons and enemy encounters, and the sheer delight that battles manage to produce is never lost on you.
If you're an existing fan or want to get into the series then Disgaea 1 Complete is a must-buy remake. Its gameplay, humour, and vast amount of content hold up impressively well 15 years after its debut and it looks better than ever, too.
Great value proposition. A good deal of content, a delightful soundtrack, gorgeous artwork, and a decent story. It is a delight being able to play this again after many years.
It’s an overall great game, never played the original but had the luxury of playing disgaea 2. Some elements to the game make it feel very cartoony like the writing,the story etc.
The first Disgaea game is back in a great HD remake. All assets are rebuilt from zero and the game now features all the additions of the Nintendo DS and PSP versions. If you never played the first chapter of this funny jRPG series, this is the perfect chance to remedy, and it comes in a retail version too.
Disgaea 1 Complete blows raspberries at po-faced, self-serious strategy games by mixing complex systems with comedy to delightful effect. This remaster is a great introduction for series newcomers, provided you can forgive the odd mismatching texture and an inflexible camera. Veteran fans who have assimilated years of iterative refinements and additions may have a tougher time, but an abundance of charm helps paper over any quality-of-life deficiencies. This cult classic has never looked better and the Switch version makes dipping in and out a breeze.
Still one of the best strategy role-playing games ever made and a great place for newcomers to the franchise to start – assuming they’ve got the dedication necessary.
The cheesy story and over-the-top characters are as funny and entertaining in the last chapter as they are in the first - but without dedication, experimentation, grinding, and probably some help from other sources, this can be a tough game to get through. With great strategic gameplay full of crazily exaggerated moves and all sorts of options and content to unlock, though, there is plenty of reason to stick with it and spend countless hours in the Netherworld. Aside from some major crash bugs and a couple of other niggling faults, portable Disgaea is right at home on Switch.
If you enjoy tactic RPGs it’s definitely worth a look in, and there is plenty to enjoy despite its roughness. If you like RPGs but aren’t sure about tactic based games I recommend playing the Disgaea 5 demo to get an idea if this is a game for you.
Disgaea, for someone new to the series is a turn-based tactical jrpg, this game was originally released in 2003 and has been remastered in HD, with a lot of the assets used from Disgaea5. Accompanying the amazing turn-based combat, is a very ok story with a great punny sense of humor. Not even in dialogue, every item in this game has a cheeky description that will entertain you when scrolling through the store. With other story beats that are sure to make you laugh out loud, as long as you appreciate a corny joke every now and again.
The highlight of Disgaea 1 complete is absolutely the combat system. With a team of 10 possible members on the battlefield in a game, you will slash, throw, and cast your way to victory. Each different character type having different specialties from spears & swords, to guns & bows, to different elemental spells filling your team out with the type of characters that fit your playstyle is a joy. Some characters such as warriors and brawlers will counter attack when hit by the enemy, giving you tons of extra damage dealt each turn, but you have to make sure that you have a healer on hand when the goings get rough.
Coming from Disgaea 5, a huge combat disappointment is that you can only see your enemies elemental weaknesses not their weapon weaknesses. In D5 when planning your attacks you can set your spear wielding brawler on an enemy that will be vulnerable to their attacks, truly taking advantage of each member of your squad.
In Disgaea 5 complete, which full disclosure, was the first game that I’ve played in the series. Right off of the bat they give you a million HL, strong extra characters, and it takes away the struggle that makes you learn to really push and utilize these systems. Honestly, while I love Disgaea 5, I never really felt that it was difficult, and yes I shouldn’t have used all of those things from the beginning but I didn’t really know that going in. In Disgaea 1, you have to struggle, die, then learn how to work your way through a difficult stage.
When playing Disgaea for review I googled some YouTube videos on grinding, looking in particular for some game hacks that can level you up quick and when I say quick I mean it will take forever going down a rabbit hole learning new ways to utilize the many systems at play. One particular level has a geo modifier that makes every single space on the board give you invincibility except for one on the opposite side of the level.
So that you can throw enemies on top of each other, creating one incredibly strong enemy at level 112. Then maneuver that enemy to the only square on the map that characters will take damage, so if you're patient enough you can hack away at an enemy and take no damage. So with one enemy killed I raised my brawler from level 14 to level 25, which is the entire point of this game.
Playing the game on and off the battlefield. Learning each system will take time, but will surprise you if you challenge it. Ranking my character up in the dark assembly, then allows you to spend mana to have the assembly vote on different modifiers. These modifiers can simply allow you to get higher ranked items in the store or can give you Triple XP on the next enemy killed. However, if you’re clever enough to combine a grinding technique with the Triple XP then gaining 10 levels in a single kill can jump to 20 or 25.
And when I say grinding, yes this is a very grindy game. Expect to play the same level 10, 20, or how every many times you want really. Loving the combat system myself, grinding can be incredibly rewarding when you first get decimated by an enemy then comeback and destroy them, but if grinding isn’t your thing than Disgaea definitely is not for you. Finding a level with high XP modifiers that also gives you tons of HL is well worth the grind in my opinion. Even futhered with the item world, a feature that allows you to enter any item in your inventory to level that item up as you play through.
Not sure what to expect when coming from the latest entry in the series into the first, Disgaea 1 Complete is a much easier entry point. Having less systems in play than the later entries will allow you to really sink your teeth into the meaty systems that are at the games core and build upon it slowly.
Disgaea 1 Complete is a fantastic tactical-jrpg with some of the most rewarding turn-based combat that I have ever experienced. Yes the story is whacky, but fun, keeping you surprised throughout because it’s so damn goofy that you won’t be able to guess what’s next. If tactical JRPGs are your thing, if Disgaea is your thing, or if you haven’t played this genre before and are looking for a new solid experience I can happily recommend Disgaea 1 Complete.
As a Fan of the complete Disgaea Saga, i' m so sad to have to put this score to this game. But it is what it deserves.
This is not a Remake, is just a ReSkin. It won't be a great deal if the price wasn't near like a new game (49€).
There is a list of the problems:
- No QoL improvements. Everything is like the first game in every aspect, even in the negative things.
You can't Skip animation skills by pushing a button.
You can't make the geochanges go faster.
You can't gain exp by healing.
Item world still with imposible rooms.
The innocents in item world problem from the first game comes back.
No Machichange.
Changing voices to characters.
Continue in the same battle if you die.
Canceling just the attack or the movement or moving until ending the action.
Nothing comes with the game.
- The Re-skin is REALLY lazy. They just use assets from the new games and put them on the characters. But they don't change the old ones from the story, so you have a mix of New sprites in battles and old sprites in the reading.
- Some old monsters, where they didn't came in the other games are gone and changed by the new ones, just to use that skins. So, wingeds, Galactic demons... They are gone. They didn't even tried to make new skins for them. This adds to the lazyness.
Yes, the story is good, but that's not an excuse as it's been there for more than 10 years.. If i just wanted to play Disgaea as before, i could just buy the old one on Steam for 14,99€ instead of 49,99€. Don't buy the game. It doesn't cost this price at this moment. It's just a cash grab.
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