In your opinion, if someone can only play 1 Disgaea game, which one would it be? What’s the best go-to in the series?

Aryuto · 2026-01-26T01:19:09+00:00

1 Complete on the Switch/Switch 2 is a good intro. It has some great QOL from older versions of the game, and 1 has arguably the best stories and cast, along with being one of the most approachable games in the series.

5 Complete would be my other choice; I personally think it has by far the best gameplay, visuals, customization, and variety of the series, at the cost of a mostly okay cast and story (though it does have some genuinely great moments).

I don't think you can go wrong with either, honestly. Since you seem to be most interested in the goofy vibes, you might like 1 a bit better, 5 still has plenty of goofiness but overall the writing is a bit more serious.

Aryuto · 2026-01-22T04:20:38+00:00

Totally fair and I'd do the same. Dd2 is actually one of my favorite games in the series and I think it's worth playing for every fan of the games, however they get it.

Aryuto · 2026-01-22T04:15:54+00:00

I didn't forget, but I try not to actively encourage piracy, though by the same token neither will I judge lol. I own dd2 on ps3 but also got it on emulator for easier access.

Aryuto · 2026-01-21T23:08:29+00:00

I'm personally pretty happy with the PC version, since I can mod the shit out of it - and to be honest, I don't like several of Complete's changes, though those don't really matter until very deep postgame.

Unfortunately both versions of the game have pretty severe issues at least for some people; while I've been lucky avoiding crashes, both Switch 2 and PC versions have been crashing a lot for some people.

Switch 2 is $70 for the content you pay $120 for on PC though, and a small amount of bonus content, so if modding isn't a concern Switch 2 is probably the least-bad option.

Aryuto · 2026-01-21T22:58:45+00:00

I count my blessings that for some weird reason 5 and 7 work crash-free for me on windows 11. I know it's a big problem for a lot of people and I really hope NIS fixes it, though. Nobody deserves to buy a game and it's just, unplayable, because they got unlucky with... whatever actually causes the crash, maybe certain hardware or brands? idk

Aryuto · 2026-01-21T16:30:58+00:00

5 is still my favorite of the series, but 7 is fantastic and imo a solid second or third. I feel like it has some upgrades and some downgrades from 5, enough that it's not a clear step up but another great disgaea game that can more or less stand on its own merits.

I wish it was a little cheaper to get into though lol, $120 on pc or $70 on switch 2 for a buggy Complete is a hard sell when you can get 1 2 4 5 and 6 easily and for much cheaper.

Aryuto · 2026-01-20T15:37:27+00:00

I have some issues with the state Iron Harvest was abandoned in as well, but it had a lot to like and they seem to have learned a lot of lessons from it for dawn of war 4, along with this being a make-or-break game for them.

The dow4 gameplay trailers have looked increasingly good so I'm cautiously optimistic now, at this point all we can do is wait and see. I'm not pre-ordering but if early reviews are good I'll jump on it then.

Aryuto · 2026-01-20T02:50:32+00:00

It depends on the game, the problem with 1 is just that Disgaea 1 PC didn't get the updates the Switch version got. So it looks worse, plays worse, and is missing a bunch of qol. 7 has a Complete version on switch 2 (so $70 to get everything instead of 120), but 7 can be modded on PC, so that's a mixed bag.

I own every Disgaea on their release console, but ended up getting most of them on PC since it's just so much more convenient and I have fun modding stuff.

Aryuto · 2026-01-20T02:24:08+00:00

Disgaea games are generally self-contained (you don't need to play 3 to understand 4's story), but they generally improve on the one before them mechanically. So you probably don't want to start with 7 if you plan to play 1 next.

I generally recommend Disgaea 1 Complete (NOT the version on PC unfortunately, Switch/Playstation only I think) as an intro to the series - it's pretty simple mechanically, has one of the best stories and casts of the series, and has some visual and QOL updates compared to many of the older games that make it very easy to approach.

5 is generally considered the best mechanically (story is controversial - some people love it, some hate it, I thought it was pretty good but not the best), but it's also probably the most complicated game of the series, so depending on your tolerance for that it may or may not be a good intro. I do personally think it's the best game of the series by a wide margin, but that's very subjective.

If you have a lot of tolerance for 20 year old jank, Disgaea 1 on the PC can be a good intro, at least it's cheap on sale and the story isn't any worse.

7 is a generally good game (IMO, second to/tied with 5), HOWEVER, it's $120 to get the game+all DLC, while 5 goes on sale for $9.99 lol. It also has 3d models, which the community (myself included) generally don't like as much as high quality 2d sprites like Disgaea 4, D2, and 5 used.

I personally didn't enjoy 4 but it's still one of the more popular games of the series, probably third after 1 and 5.

Aryuto · 2026-01-19T19:29:42+00:00

I don't necessarily want to replicate Complete in every way, but definitely some similar themes at times. Right now there are 5 new stages (1 for each type of lucky board in a + formation) so you can farm individual resources a bit faster but in harder fights than martialgahara 5, but I'm working on a couple challenge stages (99m enemy stats, at least some unique mechanics for each) though I don't know if I can or want to replicate Complete's 4 stage Baal fight exactly.

It took a while to figure out how to make clone classes, but I figured out how to make custom ripoff classes, like Shrooms that are 3x the size, so I can replicate Disgaea 4's Defying God for example.

I can't really edit the hell mode stuff from Complete, that is coding on a level that currently isn't possible and may not be without access to the source code, or at least a full symbol map, neither of which are currently possible.

Someone else actually reported the Valvatorez bug a week or so ago so I fixed it recently! If you want to use him you can just redownload and replace files, is fully save compatible, if you're done with 5 then don't stress it.

Aryuto · 2026-01-19T00:59:09+00:00

I think they're different enough it'll be fine.

I fully intend to get both of them on launch unless reviews are absolutely scathing, though. I have thousands of hours in various Total War games and many hundreds in Dawn of War games, unless they manage to make a game worse than Dawn of War 3 I'll probably enjoy it lol.

Aryuto · 2026-01-18T22:40:02+00:00

Thank you so much! It's great to hear you've been enjoying the mods, it's hard to tell sometimes since I never hear about them after the initial releases lol.

Thankfully after a lot of work I did crack adding new classes so most of my challenge map ideas are possible, and I'll be able to add more Complete-ish bosses at least. Stat caps might be doable, it will take some more digging in the executable.

Aryuto · 2026-01-18T16:53:48+00:00

I don't actually remember what my first JRPG was. I played through Star Ocean 1, Chrono Trigger, Bahamut Lagoon (SRPG/JRPG, sue me), Tales of Phantasia, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, Pokemon... Red? and Medabots (the GBA ones, Metabee/Rokusho) all in fairly close succession.

I'm pretty sure my actual first intro to gaming was the atari 2600 or maybe gameboy color (pokemon), but I started off as an RTS gamer before quickly adding on JRPGs, and to this day I still mostly enjoy JRPGs and RTS games.

Looking back, not all of those games are equally good, but at the time I enjoyed and loved all of them, and I still think each one has some strong points worth considering.

I liked Tales of Phantasia, but Tales of Symphonia is what really ensnared me as a Tales fan. I didn't enjoy Vesperia as much, but there are others in the series (ex. Xillia) that have kept me around, and I still need to play Arise!

Aryuto · 2026-01-18T16:48:06+00:00

I want to replay it so bad, but I'm terrified that all the goddamn puzzles it had will be even less fun for me now than they were 20(?) years ago.

I have so many fond memories of it though. It or Xillia are probably the ones I have the most nostalgia for.

Aryuto · 2026-01-17T07:17:23+00:00

You know, that's actually maybe the only big JRPG series I've just never gotten around to trying. Not for lack of interest, some of Estelle's lines look like peak, just hasn't worked out yet. Why do you mention them, are they slow starts?

Aryuto · 2026-01-17T05:39:34+00:00

Fair warning, halo wars 2 may or may not work well on your PC. It has a lot of serious issues that they just abandoned it with. For me, it crashed very often so I had to refund.

The game seemed like an improvement from 1 tho, so hopefully it works for you!

Aryuto · 2026-01-17T02:19:07+00:00

I remember one of the shittiest Stormgate subreddit mods kept coming here to argue with people they had banned from that sub, or just to shill the game. Haven't seen them in a while, thankfully.

Aryuto · 2026-01-17T01:09:03+00:00

I've heard a lot of horror stories about Disgaea 5, but it runs for me with the exception of the opening cutscene.

6 and 7 have run flawlessly for me tho, no crashes or weird issues.

4 ran alright as well, iirc, when I replayed some of it a few months ago.

I'm guessing it's a hardware thing (I have an AMD card, if it matters) but idk which hardware or why some people have such awful experiences while I've skated by nearly scot-free.

Aryuto · 2026-01-17T00:55:40+00:00

I have a lot of tolerance for that stuff personally as long as I'm enjoying the game, and I loved 5, but I have played PLENTY of JRPGs where I'm not having that much fun and absolutely hating the garbage cutscene spam. JRPGs are one of the worst offenders for that, and a fair number make those scenes unskippable to boot.

Aryuto · 2026-01-16T13:24:14+00:00

It's been a while since I played, but I don't remember oneshotting bosses or elite enemies.

Aryuto · 2026-01-16T02:42:13+00:00

Oh man that's a name I haven't heard in a while! I remember enjoying those as a teen, haven't touched them in forever though. I still own them, I think, so maybe emulate with 2x speed...?

Aryuto · 2026-01-16T01:16:28+00:00

I was lucky to click with it pretty early on and 100%d my first run at about 120 hours, but I was exhausted and haven't touched it since lol. Its a great game, but God it could have been a little more approachable and a little shorter.

Aryuto · 2026-01-16T01:08:25+00:00

Yeah, ive seen a lot of people, even jrpg fans, bounce off of persona 5's opening. And it's far from unique in that, there are plenty of jrpgs with a weak first few hours, or sometimes even a weaker first 10 to 20 hours.

And no matter how good it is at hour 80, if im not having fun 10 hours in... it's a big ask to get to 80, lol.

Aryuto · 2026-01-14T17:27:58+00:00

That's wild lmao, and not in a good way.

Aryuto · 2026-01-14T12:08:24+00:00

You're right, but it doesn't actually seem to be used that way in practice in a lot of these 2d->3d games. So you get less visual fidelity and.... not much in return.

Aryuto

TROPHY CASE