Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review

Level 99,999,999?! Really?!

  • System: Nintendo Switch
  • Publisher: NIS America
  • Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
  • Release Date: June 29, 2021

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Launch Trailer (Nintendo Switch)

Who it Caters to

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review
Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is, of course, the sixth entry in the Disgaea series. If you like strategy RPGs you have probably heard a lot about it—given the lack of good titles in the genre—or, even better, you have played the hell out of it before. It's a game with a lot of depth in terms of mechanics but still, the franchise never took itself too seriously. If you love turn-based battles and feel like grinding for hours before preparing your team to keep grinding while you're away, this is the kind of game for you!

What to Expect

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review
What you can expect from this game is an ultra anime, almost parodic version of games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre. There are bad puns and jokes everywhere (even the cap level, which is 99,999,999, will make you laugh... or cry), and the character design perfectly matches the mood. That being said, Disgaea 6 is far from being a perfect title, so keep on reading and find out why!


Visuals

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review
One of the first things you'll notice is that Disgaea 6 doesn't look as good as one would expect from a modern title. If you're new to the sage, then you need to know that this is the first time we see 3D models in a Disgaea game, and although it could have been worse, it just doesn't feel right. Sometimes the animations feel awkward and the character models sometimes make it difficult to look around and create a strategy or move to the right cell. Although it comes with a "Performance Mode," sacrificing the graphics quality that much doesn't sound like a good trade-off, and "Graphics Mode" just makes the game almost unplayable with such loss of fps. How do you want your game, ugly or slow as hell?

All that being said, we have always had a thing for Disgaea's character design, so hopefully, Disgaea 7 will look better and bring justice to every hero and villain.

Sound, Music

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review
Disgaea 6 comes with a really good soundtrack that perfectly fits the game, so you will grow fond of it sooner or later. Most tracks are instrumental only, with the sole purpose of pumping you up for the battle or making the combat more epic. However, there's also "Missing You" aka the Netherworld's theme, a slow jazzy piece with actual lyrics. To be honest, it's hard not to like these cartoon horror movie vibes.

Gameplay

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review
Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny tells the story of Zed, a young zombie bent on defeating "The strongest God of Destruction" (he is mentioned that way several times, although his real name is simply God of Destruction). Oh, but this undead fighter is not alone—an ancient sage whose brain was transplanted into the body of a zombie dog, now known as Cerberus, accompanies him.

The game begins with a tutorial showing Zed—whose level is unknown—easily sweeping up maximum-level enemies and interrupting the Dark Assembly. There, our heroes are stopped by Ivar, the Overlord, who doesn't believe Zed could defeat the God of Destruction... so Zed starts narrating the events leading to such a feat to everyone in the Dark Assembly.

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review
We mentioned before that Disgaea 6 is a turn-based tactics RPG, but one of the game's premises is dying to come back stronger (thanks to the Super Reincarnation technique). Of course, Zed may be the protagonist but he'll make several friends along the way, all of them with different jobs and useful techniques. It's worth noting that Disgaea 6 introduces 4 new jobs: evil eye, pincer shell, mecha girl, and psychic, for a total of 22 available classes.

As for the gameplay—in case you have never played a Tactics game—you manage a team of heroes and move them across a grid, taking turns to defeat other enemies scattered around the map. The difference with other similar titles is how silly it all looks, with characters boasting life bars with millions of HP at level 1, for example. Inflated numbers are the norm in Disgaea 6, so you better get used to it!

Assigning a character class is not the only important thing if you want to min-max your characters. There are several mechanics and sub-mechanics to think about, like improving your stats for better synergy, getting the best out of the Weapon Mastery and Class Proficiency systems, farming Innocents (creatures that inhabit your weapons and armors, making them stronger), etc. All this means you can take the game as a casual SRPG, giving it an end once you finish the main story, but you can also take it as an opportunity to farm the hell out of it and try harder challenges. After all, who doesn't like dealing 9,999,999,999,999,999 damage in a single attack like a true God of Destruction would?

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review
Manually, it would take you months or even years to get to the true endgame, but thanks to the auto-play feature and the Dark Intelligence system, you can achieve everything you want to achieve while AFK... or AFJC, away from Joy-Cons, to be more precise.

Dark Intelligence allows you to put all your units in automatic mode, customizing the AI to your liking and giving your characters special orders depending on the enemies and scenarios they face. It works similar to programming, using the IF and ELSE commands, managing your team and giving them specific tasks if a preset condition is met or not.


Honey's Gameplay Consensus:

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review
In all honesty, we're having a blast with Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, but we find it hard to enjoy it with so many performance issues. If you're a fan of the franchise, go ahead and buy it—you won't regret it! If this is your first Disgaea game, then prepare yourself and lower your performance expectatives. The gameplay compensates for it, so don't worry!

Honey's Pros:

  • There's a lot to do and explore if you like team-building or go the completionist route.
  • Disgaea 6 comes with several so much needed new mechanics, like training the AI to do the grind for you.

Honey's Cons:

  • It's not the worst game on the Switch, but it's hard to ignore Disgaea's 6 bad graphic performace.

Honey's Final Verdict:

Will you be able to reach level 99,999,999? We're getting closer every day!

For all those willing to give this epic yet silly adventure a try, Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is already available, exclusively on the Nintendo Swicth.

disgaea_6_splash Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Nintendo Switch Review

Editor/Writer

Author: Rod Locksley

Hey! I'm Rod, and when I'm not watching anime or playing video games I'm probably writing about them, but I'm also a graphic and web designer, and I even published a comic book and worked like 4 years for a well-known MMORPG. Curiously, my favorite series are quite different from each other, so I'm still trying to understand what I really like in an anime...

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