Review: Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless (Nintendo Switch)

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless was not happy with me. That became abundantly clear within the first hour of playing the game when I could almost hear it ask, “Hold on; have you never played a Disgaea game before?”

No, I have not.

“Oh. Well, good luck then.”

So, like a student attempting Advanced French when he’d taken Basic French three years earlier rom home during the COVID pandemic, I pressed on with no knowledge of Disgaea’s flow or nuances. Making sense of it all was difficult early on, but achieving fluency in this turn-based SRPG proved quite rewarding.

My point is that you should take this review for what it is—a newbie writing for newbies. If you’re looking for something that’ll compare it to previous Disgaeas and offer details on what’s changed and enhanced, head back to Metacritic and click again.

Disgaea 7 begins with the “unlikely” pairing of the wealthy but naive Pirilika and the scoundrel ronin Fuji. Pirilika aims to return the concept of Bushido to the Hinomoto Netherworlds, while Fuji just wants to make a lot of money (with minimal effort) so he can get out of debt. You can see where this is heading, right? Well, that’s only part of it, because this game evolves in ways you wouldn’t fully expect.

This is largely due to the battle system and character leveling. You’ll acquire units as you progress through the maps, and decide which ones to take into the turn-based battles on the game’s isometric grids. Using characters in combat rewards them with experience, and they can take back money and items to share with the group. It sounds like a typically simple system, but it can actually be quite complex if you’re new to the series. After the initial training level, I was dumped in a town with a few stores open and told to buy what I needed before heading out. But I had no idea what I needed. I knew little about the characters’ strengths and weaknesses, they’re preferred weapons, or what I’d be facing. Although that ignorance is largely on me, the game could’ve done more to guide new players along at the initial stages.

That carries over to combat, too. Aside from a few basic pointers, any knowledge or strategy I brought to the gameplay came from playing other SRPGs, not from Disgaea 7 itself. Characters take turns moving on an isometric grid to come within range of enemies for standard or magic attacks. You can be aggressive in your approach or you can take on a defensive strategy and lure individual enemies towards you. Team attacks are available for additional damage.

Standard stuff, right?

OK, but you can also lift and throw enemies or your own units to change positioning. Want to get teammates close to the enemy or onto an out-of-reach Geo Panel to acquire a certain buff? Toss ’em! It’s a fun mechanic that highlights the uniqueness of Disgaea. The aforementioned Geo Panels do, too. Whereas most grid-based SRPGs give you typical terrain bonuses, the Geo Panels give you specific coveted buffs and debuffs that can be crucial to victory.

Want more uniqueness? How about Jumbification, which allows you to turn your characters into giants for larger area attacks that do significantly more damage. You can even use it to bust open treasure chests that are otherwise inaccessible. Of course, your enemies have this ability, too, so there’s another degree of difficulty to worry about.

Or how about Hell Mode? No, it’s not an extreme difficulty level. Rather, certain characters are able to build up their Hell Gauge via the Founding Weapons that are acquired throughout the game. Once full, Hell Mode can unleash devastating demon powers with the added bonus of acquiring extra experience. As such, I didn’t always feel I needed to quickly dispatch enemies, but should simply chip away at them until Hell Mode was ready.

There are an awful lot of abilities and tricks layered through Disgaea, and peeling away at them will keep players engaged and challenged throughout. Even if you spend too much time grinding and inadvertently render most battles too easy (and there is an auto-battle setting, for what it’s worth), you can venture into Item World for bigger challenges with bigger rewards.

With all of the places to go, enemies to engage, and ways you can level up and customize your characters, Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless can easily bog down even the most seasoned of SRPG fans if you don’t pay attention to the details or aren’t familiar with the series. That’ll turn away many players. On the other hand, if you’re looking for something that really kicks the standard formula in the pants, this game does it.

It helps that the visuals and story are presented with so much color and joy. Disgaea 7’s upbeat tone can carry you through the more confusing components and compel you through. And by the time you’re pushing toward the game’s ending (and that will take quite a while), you’ll really feel like you’ve made your party and the game itself your own. I can’t say that about most SRPGs I’ve played.

So, again, speaking specifically to those who haven’t played a Disgaea game, Vows of the Virtueless will overwhelm you at the start. But once you get over the hump (perhaps with the help of an online guide), it’ll likely become one of the most unique and inviting SRPGs you’ve played in quite some time. You can easily spend a hundred hours in it, and that’s without all of the available DLC. What better way to cozy up for the winter?