Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance (魔界戦記ディスガイア5 Makai Senki Disugaia Faivu, literally: Netherworld Battle Chronicle Disgaea Five) is the fifth title in the main series of Disgaea games, and the first installment on the PlayStation 4 system. It tells the story of various Overlords who join together as a Rebel Army, led by a young wandering Demon named Killia, in order to take vengeance against Demon Emperor Void Dark whose goal is to conquer all the Netherworlds. With it, the game has a vengeance theme to it.

The game was released in Japan on March 26, 2015, with the American release on October 6, 2015. A re-release known as Disgaea 5 Complete for the Nintendo Switch was released on May 23, 2017 in America.

Plot
With the help of his army of soldiers known as The Lost, the Demon Emperor Void Dark has been devastating numerous Netherworlds. The Overlords ruling those Netherworlds, desperate to defeat Void Dark, begin an unlikely alliance to save all the Netherworlds.

Gameplay
The core gameplay remains the same as in previous Disgaea games. Like Disgaea 4 and Disgaea D2, HD sprites are used to represent the characters on-screen. Due the PS4's stronger hardware specs and higher memory, up to 100 sprites on the screen can be shown without the game's performance suffering. In comparison, previous Disgaea games would slow down if too many sprites were on the screen, as older hardware had a much smaller amount of RAM in comparison to the PS4's RAM. There are multiple stages that take advantage of the stronger hardware, which feature over 100 enemies. In addition, a new feature to speed up battle skits up to 4 times the normal speed is included.

A major new gameplay addition is Revenge Mode. When characters take damage or their allies fall in battle, a new Revenge Gauge shown in state indicators will fill up. Once it is completely filled up, characters enter Revenge Mode and gain new abilities and stat boosts. When characters are in Revenge Mode, incoming damage is reduced by 25% and all skills cost 1 SP to use. Overlord characters can use an Overload Skill once per stage in Revenge Mode, and all characters can learn a standard Overload Skill from the Dark Assembly. An unfilled Revenge Gauge is maintained between stages, but once a character is deployed with a filled Revenge Gauge they will immediately enter Revenge Mode and the Revenge Gauge will be cleared after the mode expires or stage ends. Enemies can also enter Revenge Mode and gain the same advantages player characters do, but defeating an enemy in revenge mode will award one of various types of Shards, an item type that can be used on a character to permanently improve one of its stats.

Magichange and Dual Magichange have returned in Disgaea 5. Characters can also equip more than one weapon, switch between their use in normal attacks, and they can use the weapon skills of the extra weapon they have equipped.

Several gameplay elements from Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness and Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited return. Notable returning gameplay elements are the Cheat Shop, the Innocent Warehouse, the ability to freely reposition characters within their movement range, and the ability to retry a stage at will.

Disgaea 5 uses the Weapon Mastery system found in Disgaea D2 instead of Disgaea 3 or Disgaea 4's Weapon Forte system. There are individual damage resistances for each type of weapon in addition to the standard elemental resistances. Disgaea 5 also adds a Star element resistance. The Weapon Mastery system has been overhauled, as the max Weapon Mastery Level is now 100 instead of 255 like in previous games. There is now Armor Mastery, which increases as characters get hit by attacks. Armor Mastery grants stat bonuses to armor-slot equipment. Monster Weapons also have their own weapon mastery as well.

Skill Boosting returns from Disgaea 3 and Disgaea 4, however, instead of increasing a skill's damage multiplier, boosting a skill will increase its Power Rank. A skill can be boosted up to nine times, each boost will subsequently increase the SP cost by a significant amount. Skill levels have been reworked, as higher leveled skills will have lower SP costs instead of higher damage like in previous games.

Another new gameplay feature is Squads. Squads are similar to the Club system from Disgaea 3, where characters gain Squad-exclusive bonuses based on the squad they are in, or can allow the player to access certain facilities within the hub. Leaders of squads gain access to a Squad Attack Skill. Prisoners can also be assigned to level up Squads in order to strengthen Squad bonuses and gain access to new Squad bonuses.

Other new features include the Innocent Farm. The Innocent Farm functions similarly to the Day Care centers found in the Pokémon series. By leaving Innocents in the Innocent Farm, Innocents will grow as the player completes battles or clears stages in the Item World and the Chara World. Innocents can breed after a certain amount of time and create a new Innocent.

The player can make curries by the Curry Shop. The player can choose what ingredients to use in a curry, and whatever ingredients the player uses will determine the effect of the curry. Curry can last up to 100 battles depending on how long it was cooked for. Curry can have multiple effects such as increasing Critical Rate or adding HP/SP regeneration. The effects of a curry will effect every character in the party.

The Spellbook weapon from Disgaea D2 does not appear in Disgaea 5. However, there are some book-styled Staff-type weapons. Both types of monster weapons share the same resistance stat. All other previous weapon types reappear in Disgaea 5.

Reception
Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance received "generally favorable" reviews on Metacritic getting a metascore of 80/100 based on 43 critics reviews.

Trivia

 * Disgaea 5 is the first in the series to not feature characters from other Disgaea games in either the main or post game aside from Asagi, and only features them as DLC. This game took place before others in the series, and was strictly narrated in the past tense, so this is reasonable in continuity.
 * Disgaea 5 is the only game in the series where Laharl, Etna, and Flonne are not featured in the base game, instead appearing as DLC.
 * Disgaea 5 has the most main story episodes out of any Disgaea, featuring 16 episodes.
 * All DLC from Disgaea 5 Alliance of Vengeance comes pre-installed in Disgaea 5 Complete, including the Seraphina Bunny Suit.
 * A common theory about Disgaea 5 is that it is chronologically a prequel to the previous games.
 * Disgaea RPG refers the heroes from Disgaea 5 as "the original Overlords" - further reinforced by the fact that Kilia had been awoken from a thousand year slumber.
 * Uses of phrases such as "Historians said...", despite those also appearing in Disgaea 4, or hints that Christo may be Lamington are generally used to reinforce the theory.

Official Sites

 * Japanese site
 * English site
 * Disgaea 5 Complete