Disgaea fans: How does 4 compare to 1 and 2, doods?

I used to play the hell out of 1 and 2 back in the PS2 days, but I haven’t touched the series beyond that, and haven’t even played 1/2 much in the last 10 years.

How would you rate 4 in comparison? I noticed it was on sale in the Switch eShop, and I’d love to have one of the series to play on the go.

What I loved about the ones I played:

  • Story had a good balance of comedy and heart
  • Flexible and fun character building, with decent enough defined classes to get you started
  • Tons of post-game/side content (I didn’t like every piece of it, but I liked how much there was to try.)
  • CAPTAIN GORDON, DEFENDER OF EARTH
  • Perfect geochains, though I was usually too smoothbrain for it.

What I didn’t like:

  • Item world, IIRC worse in 1 than 2?
  • Adell’s siblings
  • Demon court thing?
bjoern_tantau,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

Did someone say Diarrhea 4?

HawlSera,

Disgaea 4 has a worse story than D1 and 2, with Valvatorez being pretty much my least favorite of the Overlords (SARDINES! is not funny and never will be) but… is improved in every other way. Sadly it doesn’t carry over Disgaea 3’s “EVERYONE IS HERE!” policy in terms of the post-game/DLC, and neither does anything else…

I hope D8 comes back to that…

I miss Nisa and it’s not like she’s going to be in HD Neptunia anytime soon… not that I’d play HD Neptunia

Kotking,
@Kotking@kbin.social avatar

Played 1,2,4 and 5 .
Mechanics I would say I liked 4 compared to 1,2 while 5 has formula a bit reinvented so it's different at all in good and bad ways.
Story wise 1,2 and 4 are great, 5 story is meh.
So if you want to try after 4 the 5th... Just tune out of the story, it's not even close to others. Personal stories in 5 are kinda good but overall story is trash.
So yeah Valvatorez main plot is great so definitely get that one if you itching for Disgaea.

HawlSera,

Personally I hope we get 3 on Steam one day, it was my introduction to the series, and no other entry has the same absurdly high amount of Post-Game content (Disgaea 3 had a LOOOOONG DLC support cycle and I hope 8 does as well… I miss Prierre and Nisa)

Apeman42,
@Apeman42@lemmy.world avatar

So I found out after I posted this that there’s a demo, and 40 minutes in I already like Valvotorez more than Laharl, and at least on par with Adell. Seems like I’ll finish the demo to eb sure, and probably pick it up.

Ilflish,

If that’s the case you should get it. 4 was easily my favourite gameplay wise but the characters weren’t my favorite

HawlSera,

It seems like even Nippon Ichi didn’t like the characters, since the Post-Game stories are about Fuka and Desco and in one of them you even recruit the Tyrant version of Valv from way back in the past, who’s dialogue mentions that he hates Present Day Valvatorez

and… when Disgaea 3 got a re-release on Vita the characters who come over from 4 are… Fuka and Desco…

Valvatorez and Fenrich are mysteriously absent

the nicest thing I can say about the two are that they’re a great couple

Liking Sardines is not a personality, and liking Valvatorez is both not a personality, and a violation of my suspension of disbelief.

Vespair,

Pop back in after you’ve played a bit and let us know what you think!

Splatterphace,

Dark Assembly was amazing, you shut your mouth

https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/a1de6cd8-ffe9-415a-97c5-14dc5107e728.webp

Apeman42,
@Apeman42@lemmy.world avatar

It wasn’t necessarily a badly-designed feature, I’m just bitter because I sucked.

Vespair,

I love disgaea 1 and 2, but I think 4 is an enormous upgrade in basically every single way, including quality of life.

If you enjoyed D1&D2 at all, I highly recommend D4 and suspect you’ll enjoy it even more than the first two.

For the record, I think 4&5 are the crown jewels of Disgaea; easily my favorite games in the series

ryven,
@ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

As someone who played 1 and then 5, I was really annoyed by how nice most of the demons in 5 are.

Also that one character whose arc is about coming to terms with the fact that her family is actually broke, when she had built her identity around being rich… but MFer you’re a demon overlord! Your overlord power is mind control! Just take other people’s money!

Vespair,

Yeah it takes awhile to realize that every netherworld is different with different customs, and that Laharl’s has the most “demonic behavior” default demons of the whole series. The series quickly abandons the real “demon” energy in favor of just focusing on character and setting tropes and stereotypes instead

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