Disgaea 6 Is a Risk
It’s been just under two months since Nippon Ichi Software announced Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, the newest title in the company’s most popular franchise and one of the few remaining reliable strategy RPG franchises still around these days. Merely saying this makes it sound routine, but it’s not: This game is one of the riskiest projects NIS has undertaken in recent memory. It also represents the kind of chance they needed to take.
One big surprise is evident by seeing it in action. Previous installments in the Disgaea series and all previous NIS SRPGs relied on beautiful sprites. They started in standard definition form on PlayStation 2 with La Pucelle (a fun reminder that Disgaea: Hour of Darkness was their second SRPG for that console), a style that continued into the PSP and even the PlayStation 3 days; but they received a high-definition upgrade for Disgaea 4 while relying on the same style of animation. This newest installment represents another generational leap for the franchise, so the developers felt it was time to jump to 3D polygons.
It’s a big chance, and you’ll always have several fans who don’t like disruptions in tradition. Can you think of any other SRPGs these days that use sprites? There are no longer any among those not released for lower prices on digital services, which this game won’t be. Yet, it felt like NIS would never abandon sprites after sticking with them for PS3 and even PlayStation 4 titles that were full-priced retail releases. Disgaea 6 will arrive more than half a decade after Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance released for PS4 in March 2015 (which was eventually ported to Switch and Steam in 2017). NIS felt there should be a big leap after such a long gap between installments, and wants to expand the franchise’s audience. The new presentation makes sense.
The character models themselves are the best they could look for an NIS game. No one with working eyes would claim that they’re detailed, but they’re good enough that most potential players should be fine with them. They made sure the models resembled sprites from afar to maintain the franchise’s trademark look. It’s more visually impressive than titles like The Witch and the Hundred Knight games and The Awakened Fate Ultimatum from this same company. They needed to give this project the budget necessary to make the character models impressive enough for the older fans who will miss sprites and new fans they want to attract.
The project being 3D to begin with is another risk, given the chance that NIS doesn’t have much cash to go around. I cannot remember the last time this company had a big success, though they’ve had a number of smaller ones. It’s good that they’re going back to the franchise that’s worked out for them and bailed them out so many times in the past, but this helps show how much is riding on this project.
There’s another risk: Disgaea 6 will be exclusive to Nintendo Switch in the west. The Disgaea franchise was exclusive to Sony platforms for years, the reason why I only mentioned PlayStation platforms above outside parentheses. The only titles other platforms received in the past were ports. Interestingly, the game will also be on PlayStation 4 when it releases in Japan, but perhaps NIS has made some kind of deal to release it only on a Nintendo platform outside the country. This is predictably irking Sony fans who don’t own Switch systems, but chances are they’ll get one eventually.
When you examine this more closely, though, this isn’t that big of a risk: There’s a proven home for niche games on Switch, especially outside Japan, thanks in part to Nintendo’s efforts. It was them, for instance, who encouraged XSeed to bring the recent release of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin to the platform after it was initially planned for PS4 and Steam. As a result, XSeed confirmed that Switch preorders outpaced PS4 preorders by a 2-to-1 ratio. (Sakuna has been a surprise hit overall, with how it ballooned Marvelous’ stock price to unanticipated levels.) More relevant is how NIS used to release most of their games exclusively to PlayStation systems, but has made sure to port nearly all their newest games to Switch after Disgaea 5 Complete sold well on the system in the launch window.
There’s potential that Disgaea 6 could be NIS’ best-selling game in a while, and this game along with other potential titles could keep them in business as they are. The game will release first in Japan on January 28th, with western releases following next summer. NIS will provide several more Japanese trailers over the next two-and-a-half months, and more English trailers will come shortly afterward.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
