Disgaea Mayhem Review
Modest Mayhem
Disgaea Mayhem is the latest spin-off to Nippon Ichi Software’s long running strategy series. Replacing the series’s typical tactical affairs with more straightforward Musou-style brawling, the game surprisingly stays true to its roots. This includes everything from the Dark Assembly, where players can unlock certain features and upgrades, to the Item World that lets them jump into a series of battles to power up an item. There’s even a cheat shop, where things can be made substantially easier or harder, depending on the player’s preference. Though it clearly lacks the depth of the main series, Disgaea Mayhem provides plenty to enjoy during its brief running time.
Disgaea Mayhem’s story casts the player as the oddly-named mercenary N.A. He is hired by Tichelle, the master of a Netherworld, to retrieve stolen flan from her former underlings. This leads to a deeper story about how this particular Netherworld was transformed from a violent mess into a dessert-loving Netherworld by Tichelle’s father. It’s all a bit goofy, but this is par for the course for the Disgaea series. Tichelle’s former underlings serve as major bosses in the game, each having their own silly reason for rebelling against Tichelle, revealed as players progress through the game’s stages. The story offers some humor as it justifies the endless slew of combat, but rarely provides any serious or poignant moments. It provides good entertainment, and the voice acting is solid, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that it could have done more.
Disgaea Mayhem’s story revolves heavily around flan.
The basic gameplay of Disgaea Mayhem is very straightforward. The player can choose from one of seven weapon types to take into battle, with each weapon having up to four different skills to use. Skills work on a cooldown system, with more powerful skills having a longer cooldown, rather than any kind of magic point system. The weapons all play fairly differently; for example, magic rods warrant judicious ranged attacks, while fists require players to pummel foes at close range. Enemies have a variety of different attacks for players to deal with, but enemy types are reused pretty frequently. The bosses at least have a good variety of different styles that require more thought and keep things fresh.
Outside of regular story battles, Disgaea Mayhem has a ton of different systems to toy with. The series’s traditional Item World lets players enter a special world inside their weapons to level them up. In this form, players have to deal with large waves of enemies, with the increase dependent on how long they survive. There’s also a buddy system, where sometimes the player will win over monsters after a battle that can be added to a stable of companions. These monsters can accompany the player into battle, and also be equipped with gear and be leveled up just like the player. Companion allies can be changed into a weapon during battle temporarily, providing the player with a way to use two different weapon types in combat. It’s a fun system, but acquiring monsters is randomized and can require excessive replaying battles to gain the desired ally.
Beware of the prinnies dood.
There is also a Character World where players can upgrade N.A.’s stats. This takes the form of a board game, where the player’s stable of monster companions can be used to provide a better chance of success. This proves to be a nice diversion away from bashing away at tons of monsters. In addition to these systems, there is also the Dark Assembly, which provides access to various upgrades such as better items at the item shop, or unlocking a variety of things such as extra money and experience from battles. Passing a bill to gain the desired upgrade involves a simple vote, with the likelihood of success shown to players, but it can always be pushed through using money or force. One of the more notable unlocks is the cheat shop, which can be used to make the game both significantly easier and far harder. Both can prove useful, but most players are likely to gain more by making the game harder. Given all the grinding avenues for the player, it is absurdly easy to over-level N.A. and make the game’s story battles trivial, leaving the cheat shop as a handy way for players to tweak the difficulty more to their liking.
The game looks and runs well on the Nintendo Switch 2, but really doesn’t really look much different than the Switch version. Thankfully, the classic series monsters look great, and the battles are full of all sorts of visual flair. The only major complaint is areas are reused through the entirety of a single chapter, and monster types repeat very often. The game has all of the usual sound effects that series fans will be used to, and they do a good job of adding to the action. Similarly, the music is much the same as that of past titles, and nothing stands out as especially good or bad.
Like the main series, the game loves lots of damage numbers.
Disgaea Mayhem, even with the large variety of side experiences, is a pretty short game, with a campaign that can easily be completed in under ten hours. There are certainly lots of systems that players can dive into to extend, especially for those to wish to reach the maximum possible level. There is no real post-game content, however, though there will be some downloadable content available after launch. That said, the game is still a pleasant experience. Battles are fun to blast through, and power-leveling a character before cranking up the difficulty can be a blast. Like the main series, it’s not something that everyone will enjoy, but fans of Disgaea will find it an enjoyable spin-off that stays true to the series’ fundamentals. It may not ultimately be as delicious as the dessert it revolves around, but it is a tasty experience while it lasts.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Easy to understand mechanics
Fun characters and story
Plenty of mechanics to toy with
A bit on the short side
Getting specific monsters as buddies gets tedious
Not much post-game content
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