izigame.me

I just beat Disgaea 7 today, after about 30 hours. Disgaea 6 was a well known disaster, and while 7 wasn't as obviously rushed, frankly it rolled back some good ideas from 6. The more I think about this game, the more I realize that I somehow had more fun with 6 than 7, something I didn't think possible.
Now, let's be clear, it is just on its basic facts better than 6. It has more content overall, they added more classes and stuff, and it was rebalanced to fit more in line with other Disgaea games. But I can't really PRAISE anything it changed. Mostly, I think it took good (if imperfect) ideas from 6 and ruined them.
Monster weapons are back, which means monster units sucking compared to humanoid units is back too. The lack of the generic weapon skills, the inability to form towers with, etc. return us to that old point where they're all mostly bad again. I predicted back in the 6 days that 7 would unthinkingly ruin monsters again, and wow! They did! Big shocker!
They added some improvements to DI, the unit AI you program yourself... But oh wait you can't use it anywhere but in main stages now. And it's a limited resource now. Grinding in main stages is so fast if you know how to do it that you don't need DI for that! So why is DI in this game at all? If they wanted to nerf it this much they should have just removed it, instead of tormenting me with it like so! I praised them for adding DI in 6 because, while it made it an idle game, we all frankly know how repetitive these games are. All DI was doing was saving me from carpal tunnel. But lmao nope, they nerfed DI into the ground and then below it a little for good measure.
They changed how items work a lot with the new item reincarnation system! In order to do this, they gutted the innocent system. They can only provide a paltry primary stat boost now. No more XP farming weapons! At later levels, the boost from innocents is so small. Don't bother. Now, item reincarnation proper is a really cool idea... That is executed comically poorly. Basically what used to be handled by advanced innocents is now RNG heck. Seeded RNG, too, so you can't save scum it. Good luck ever using it to make a perfect item. You may as well not even care about your items in this game.
They improved the hospital prize system, and by that, they introduced a comically broken "Hospital Gacha" that basically just prints money and high tier items for you for most of the game. I almost never had to grind in 7. This entry was very easy compared to its predecessors.
There are some mechanics in 6 that didn't leave much of an impression on me, as in all games. Jumbo units, don't care. Hell Mode would be good if it was like 5's Revenge system, but it's not, it's worse. They removed non-1-tile-large units, also don't care. Juice bar is back, I hear it's essential to the late game, but you don't need to touch it until then. I liked netherworld research from 5 more than 7's equivalent item world expedition system.
The most curious thing they did was roll back the absurd number inflation from 6. Honestly I don't care either way about that. Them rolling it back shows loud and clear they thought 6 a mistake- in general, they threw the baby out with the bathwater a lot in 7. I absolutely cannot believe I'm saying this, but 6 had the more interesting ideas and was better for it. 5 is still the best game, don't get me wrong, but... Yeah.
I'm struggling to think of something to praise this game strongly on, so I guess that's my opinion of the game. Maybe I could praise it for having unique sprites for some NPCs this time around? Or an expanded class selection? I'm just.... Ehh. I think Disgaea is cooked folks. Painfully sad to say that, but I think we'll never reach the peak that was 5 again. NIS has been in dire financial straights, I hear, from repeated poor sales, and the complete edition of this game may be the last Disgaea we see. I hope they can prove me wrong, but 7 gives me no hope.