If there's one thing we've learnt since E3 a few weeks ago, it's that the older consoles of the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are really starting to get left behind, with many games skipping them completely in favour of their bigger, more powerful brothers. Oodles of interesting games are making the leap, from the upcoming Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy VII remake, to the band-based music game, Rock Band 4. The latest game to go Playstation 4-only? Insane tactical role-playing game, Disgaea 5, coming to the console this October.
For those of you that aren't too familiar with the Disgaea series - because, after all, it is a bit of a niche one - these are Japanese role-playing games with an emphasis on tactical thinking and a generous sprinkling of weirdness. Playing on a grid-based map, you and your party face off against various enemies, taking it in turns to move into position, attack, defend and use magic - but unlike your average role-playing game, your position relative to your opponents matters, as you'll want to place your characters so that they can hit the enemies with their attacks, but avoid most of your enemies' moves - meaning you generally need to think things through a bit beforehand. That isn't to say Disgaea is a serious game however - far from it. With attacks that take in exploding penguins, Godzilla costumes and slamming your opponents through a basketball hoop way up in outer space, doing insane amounts of damage (and we mean millions!) with crazy combos is a series standard.
Another Disgaea standard, the Item World lets you go *inside* your weapons, and complete dungeons to boost their power.
Marking the games' first foray onto the 'next generation' console of the Playstation 4, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance looks set to continue the series' precedent for insanity. With witty cutscenes, more jokes than you can shake a sardine at, and a whole cast of kooky, crazy and unusual characters, the games are known for their over-the-top and hilarious stories and dialogue - and Disgaea 5 promises more of the same, only this time, it tells a slightly darker story than it's predecessors. Set in the demon-inhabited Netherworld once more, Disgaea 5 centres around the dark, self-assured hero Killia, who, together with his Overlord allies is on a mission for revenge against the powerful new Demon Emperor, Void Dark, who plans to enslave the entire Netherworld. But, despite the emphasis on 'dark', we're not expecting a sudden drastic change of tone either - we imagine it'll still be the same wtf silliness we've come to expect.
With a much longer storyline, weighing in at at least 45 hours, as opposed to the usual 25-30, Disgaea 5 promises more than ever with it's move to the next generation - and that's before you even touch the post game, which existing Disgaea fans will know, is usually of epic proportions, easily taking up hundreds of hours of time to complete. Building on the Team Attacks from previous Disgaea entries, which gave adjacent characters a chance of joining in with an attack for extra damage, Disgaea 5 adds all-new Alliance Attacks to the fray. These more powerful attacks are specific to the game's main cast of characters, and are dependant on the strength of their relationship - although how this works precisely remains a tad unclear. Likewise, a new 'Revenge Mode' boosts the power of your characters when they've got fed up of their allies being beaten up, presumably as some kind of temporarily stronger 'angered' state.
Killia doesn't look happy you've been beating up his chums, Mr. Mushroom Man...
Disagea 5: Alliance of Vengeance Prinny-Bombs it's way onto the Playstation 4 on the 9th October this year (6th October in the US). Eager doods and dood-ettes can check out the new trailer below:
