Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless Review: Back and Better than Ever

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny was not a good game. At least, not for the Disgaea series. It had a repetitive story, a weird emphasis on having the game auto-play itself, and featured a bafflingly simplified approach to the Disgaea formula. In fairness, I wouldn’t go so far as to flat-out call it “bad” in every aspect, but I still couldn’t help but feel as though it had burned me—a sentiment that stuck with me all the way up to the recent release of Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless. Old habits die hard, though. As a long-time Disgaea fan, I couldn’t justify myself dropping the series over a single less-than-stellar game. So, I  decided to dive into Disgaea 7 headfirst. And, boy, was it ever a good thing that I did, because Disgaea 7 ended up being one HL of a turnaround for the series.

When Cash Meets Brash

Ever the noble warrior, I see.

Taking a somewhat unique detour from its standard tonal fare, Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless takes place within Hinomoto—a collection of netherworlds which, despite the story (seemingly) taking place in the present, are largely modeled after feudal-era Japan. While Hinomoto was once proudly governed by the law of Bushido, it has since devolved into a lawless, blood-soaked realm thanks to its new ruler, Demmodore Opener—a change that suits wandering warrior, and D7 protagonist, Fuji, just fine. Obviously, Fuji’s wayward wandering isn’t meant to last forever, however (I mean, he is a protagonist), as his timely meeting with an over-the-top (and insanely rich) otaku named Piriko will see his world soon be turned upside-down—for better or for worse.

Ridiculous SRPG antics aside, one of the best things about the Disgaea series is that its plot always brings something new to the table. Sure, they all may be goofy, self-aware, and borderline nonsensical at times, but I’ve always found myself smiling at Disgaea‘s rotating cast of characters and the antics that they get themselves into. Disgaea 7 is no different. With the greed-driven, empathy-reviling Fuji, the starry-eyed, tongue-tied Piriko, and the rest of the gang complimenting each other in excellent (and appropriately ridiculous) ways. Disgaea 7 also has the unique honor of being the series’ first-ever “period piece,” with the added emphasis on setting and location, making the game feel all the more fresh and unique.

Go Big or Go Home

Large and in charge!

Disgaea has always been known for its zany, over-the-top approach to SRPG combat. Aside from the fact that it went back to the normal damage system used in Disgaea 1 – Disgaea 5, nothing’s really changed in terms of core mechanics (which is a good thing). It’s all there, and it all works incredibly smoothly. Disgaea 7 does, however, carry on the trend of adding in some kind of weird new mechanic to help spice things up. And, boy, is this new mechanic a big one—literally!

Known as “Jumbification,” Disgaea 7‘s new mechanic allows characters to grow to absolutely massive proportions. In fact, they’re so massive that they have to stand outside of the arena that you’re in—instead, towering over it like some kind of kaiju. Not surprisingly, Jumbification allows you to wreak total havoc on the board (or other jumbified characters), allowing you to easily turn the tide of battle.

Jumbifying characters isn’t just a protag-only privilege, though. Both you and your enemies have your own “Rage Gauge”— which, once filled, allows Jumbification—meaning that you have to be wary of if and when you’re about to be on the receiving end of a supersize smackdown. While I’m not sure that I’d want this to be a staple for every single Disgaea game from here on out (which I’m assuming it probably won’t be), Jumbification is a really fun mechanic to mess around with and helps Disgaea 7 to further eke out its own combat-centered niche within the franchise.

More important to the story but perhaps not as important to combat itself is the all-new “Hell Mode.” Working similarly to Disgaea 5‘s “Overload” mechanic, Hell Mode allows certain characters to enter powered-up states for a limited time alongside unlocking what is essentially a “finishing move.” While not as impactful as Jumbification, Hell Mode still works very well in the overall scheme of things. Given how scarce it is, you may or may not be making much use of it (especially if you favor generic characters), but it’s still a neat new addition.

Delightful Diversification

I’m in love with the fact that this looks like a character select screen for a fighting game,

One of my least favorite things about Disgaea 6 was how simplified the class system was. A lot of older classes had been removed, and any class featuring both male and female variants (Warrior/Valkyrie, Magician/Witch, etc.) was cut in half. I’m overjoyed to say that Disgaea 7 has done away with that.

Disgaea 7 features a whopping 27 humanoid classes—the most in any game in the series to date. Sadly, this doesn’t mean the resurgence of all of the older classes (don’t expect to see things like Fake Asagi, Pirate, or Bouncer), but Disgaea 7 does add a lot of fun, new classes to mess around with. Most of these, notably, are the addition of new gendered counterparts for pre-existing classes—such as the Ranger (paired with Archer) and Bandit (paired with Thief)—allowing players a greater deal of customization when looking at specific roles. There also exists a single new class in the Maiko—an offensive female unit specialized in combating male units—once again giving players the opportunity to work with something brand-new.

Despite the great turnout for humanoid units, monster units don’t fare quite as well—with Disgaea 7 only offering 18 unique monsters against Disgaea 5‘s impressive roster of 21. I can’t say I’m all that upset, though. While I do miss seeing the likes of the Nether Noble and Chimera around, the fact that Disgaea 7 still has a nice offering of monsters to choose from and even goes so far as to include two newcomers—Zombie Maiden and Big Eye. Additionally, Disgaea 7 also makes the excellent decision (at least in my opinion) of bringing back Monster Weapons and reverting their Lift/Throw to Disgaea 5‘s Mon-Toss.

Think for Yourself, Dood!

Demonic Intelligence is handled much better this time around.

There were a lot of things about Disgaea 6 that I wasn’t fond of (in case you couldn’t tell), but there was nothing that I loathed more than the inclusion of  Demonic Intelligence. For those not in the know, Demonic Intelligence was a mechanic newly introduced in Disgaea 6 that quite literally let players create custom AIs for each of their units. To its credit, Demonic Intelligence was incredibly robust (almost surprisingly so), but the game made it very clear that if you put enough effort into creating the perfect DI for each unit, you could basically create a party that never needed your input. Now, I’m not against the inclusion of an “auto mode” in games. In fact, I think that they can be incredibly helpful. I like “dumb” auto modes, though. I don’t want something capable of beating the game for me, and that’s exactly what the newly included D.I. was.

Demonic Intelligence didn’t go away after Disgaea 6. It still exists with Disgaea 7, and it’s just as robust now as it’s ever been. Fortunately, it’s been put on a leash this time around. Rather than simply letting players use bots to steamroll through all of the content, D.I. use is very conditional this time around. For starters, it can’t beat any level that you haven’t already beaten yourself and is flat-out banned in the Item World. It also uses a special currency called “Poltergas,” which can only be acquired by manually defeating opponents. Outside of this, D.I. is used for the newly introduced PvP mode, which is honestly a really nice addition to the game. Essentially, D.I. has gone from a complete catch-all to something that you use to either power-level or battle other people—and I couldn’t be happier with this turnout.

Sound in Mind, Strong in Body

Just as Disgaea 6 was an example of how a good series can begin to deteriorate over time, Disgaea 7 is a good—nay, great—example of how it’s never too late for a series to get back on track. Not only does Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless fix the myriad mistakes of its predecessor to the point of over-correction (and I mean that in a good way), but it even finds ways of utilizing mechanics that debuted in Disgaea 6 in ways that are both balanced and, if you’ll pardon the pun, intelligent. Regardless of whether you lauded or loathed the adventures of Zed & co., there’s no excuse to skip out on what is both the latest and greatest entry in the Disgaea series. Hinomoto is beckoning you—answer its call!

Final Verdict: 4.5/5

Available on: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC; Publisher: NIS America; Developer: Nippon Ichi Software; Players: 1; Released: October 3, 2023; ESRB: T for Teen; MSRP: $59.99

Full disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher.