izigame.me

Ugh, what to say. On the one hand, I welcome the new switch to 3D; it was inevitable considering how much easier it is to develop, hire talent for, and maintain with those assets compared to sprites. Additionally, there have been some amazing quality of life improvements such as the Juice Bar which make getting reincarnated characters back up to level a lot easier, as is the improved innocent management and so on. Grinding, which is the name of the game, has never been more streamlined. But that's about it.
The move to 3D has also seen a real dip in overall quality and attention to detail compared to Disgaea 5, which I consider the high mark of the series. Most notably:
- The localisation is a UI mess. The inconsistent text scaling to cram sentences in to the UI makes the otherwise nice looking menus appear really cheap, lazy. NIS, please work on your text scaling and placement for English version so it's consistent, it looks so slapdash.
- The graphics have a horrible washed out bloom effect and the character models themselves are FAR too bright. This is especially noticeable on stages in the Item World where the ground texture is very bright. It's very hard to make the models out. There's also not a very good camera angle for seeing the models; the best isometric angle is too zoomed in or too zoomed out, so you're left using the quasi-top down view for having a good view of the battlefield, but all the units look like blobs. NIS really need to work on presenting the battlefield better and tone down the bloom effect - look at D5 for a sterling example.
- The in-battle skill cutscenes are too zoomed in - I don't mind them being isolated away from the battlefield, but holy god, please bring the camera back while they pay so we can better see the attack/skill in its full glory. Some weapon models don't even show on the screen because the camera is so squeezed. This was a problem in D6, let those scenes breathe so we can see what's going on?
- In 5 and before, we'd be treated to actual in-engine cutscenes as well as dialogue moments, which really added to the story and overall presentation. They've abandoned this, and now we're treated to lazy VN style dialogues which just makes the plot feel less special and dialled in.
- The base is less interesting / detailed. In 5, for instance, there was a bit more base to explore and you could even make custom bases using an editor. There were treasure chests to find in each act, and additional dialogue encounters. All gone.
- The price for everything including the DLC is a joke.
I have to downvote this because I don't think NIS are paying attention to quality outside of streamlining the grind features. There is an overall marked reduction in quality in presentation and localisation that we've lost since D5. I understand the switch to the new engine is going to have changes, but all I can see is a lazier and lazier product being shipped where it should now start to be getting more and more refined. And NIS are charging more than ever for it.
If D8 or whatever comes next doesn't have a proper reappraisal of these issues, I think it's time to part ways. This is feeling more and more like a lazy mobile game.