| Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten | |
|---|---|
North American Cover Art |
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| Developer(s) | Nippon Ichi Software |
| Publisher(s) | Nippon Ichi Software |
| Artist(s) | Takehito Harada |
| Composer(s) | Tenpei Sato |
| Series | Disgaea |
| Engine | PhyreEngine |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 3 |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Tactical role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | |
| Media/distribution | Blu-ray Disc |
Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten (魔界戦記ディスガイア4 Makai Senki Disugaia Fō) is a 2011 Tactical role-playing video game for the PlayStation 3 and is the fourth in the Disgaea series by Nippon Ichi Software. The game tells the story of Valvatorez, a former tyrant leading a party to rebel against the president of the Netherworld. NIS America has also stated in their latest Prinny Bomb Newsletter; vol #76, that Disgaea 4 will be coming to North America on September 6, 2011.[3] NIS America confirmed to various sites (including Siliconera), that the English version will contain slightly more voiced dialogue than the Japanese version, and will retain the anime cameos for the Omega tier spells.[4]
Contents |
The game once again takes place in a Netherworld, common in Disgaea titles, and follows the story of Valvatorez, a former tyrant and vampire who gave up on his powers and atrocities after promising never to drink blood again until he manages to instill fear into a girl he met 400 years ago, Artina, who died before he could do so. Due to the decline of his powers he was reduced to being the warden and Prinny Caretaker of the prison in the Netherworld. Displeased and angered at the corruption of the Netherworld's rotten government, he rises up and seeks to overthrow it in order to take place as its Overlord. During his conquest he receives the aid of his loyal servant Fenrich, a fellow caretaker of the Prinny prison, and a young girl named Fuka Kazamatsuri, a middle-schooler who was killed by Des X, an artificial demon created by her father, Genjuro Kazamatsuri, and was meant to turn into a Prinny, but was simply given a hat due to the lack of Prinny skin. Along the way they also recruit Emizel, the netherworld president Hugos' son, Desco, the prototype of Des X and a man-made demon created by humans to be the ultimate weapon who was abandoned in the prison, and Vulcanus, the "angel of avarice", an angel who is stealing money from everyone in the netherworld. After they defeat the president it is revealed that the netherworld's decline is due to how it is actually being controlled by the secret ruler of the human world, a man who calls himself Judge Nemo. They head to the human world where he is planning to use Des X to destroy the world, and stop him by defeating her. He then heads to the moon where he has enlisted the aid of aliens and is planning to destroy it and thus exterminate life on Earth, but they stop him again, this time with the aid of the now-archangel Flonne. It is also revealed that Vulcanus is actually Artina, and that Nemo is seeking vengeance against all mankind for her death and cannot see her or any other angels because he no longer believes in God. After the destruction of the moon is stopped, his hatred for mankind grows so great that it activates Fear the Great, a system created by god to exterminate all life on a planet if it is deemed too dangerous due to the amount of hate on it. The group heads into the system and persuade Nemo until he can see and hear Artina, and he decides to sacrifice himself to stop the system. However, the group says that he's just trying to run from his sins and saves him, saying that he should repent as a prinny.
In the post-game someone else takes over Fear the Great and starts changing the world, resulting in various people becoming president and the world changing to fit their wants and needs. These are:
After defeating them the culprit finally gains full control of Fear the Great and reveals herself to be Asagi, who wants her own game. They defeat her and she joins, putting an end to the post-game story.
Other optional bosses are Prinny Kurtis, Priniger X (which does not join) and Zetta (in regular humanoid form), Zetta being the strongest regular (non-Land of Carnage) boss.
Baal does not make an appearance (his soul having been used in the creation of Priniger X), but the strongest sword is his Baal Sword.
The strongest secret boss is Priniger X Gou at level 5000, unlocked after Zetta is defeated.
Disgaea 4 has a political theme. Nippon Ichi, feeling finished with all the game systems a school setting can provide, made the story one of a more political nature. While aspects of Netherworld politics existed in previous games, like bribing senators in the first title, it is the central focus of the story and gameplay systems in Disgaea 4.[5]
One character in the game is a spoof of sorts to United States President Barack Obama, as he uses Obama's popular "Yes we can" slogan in his campaign.[5]
As with all Disgaea series games, combat is carried out in a turn-by-turn based stratgey. Allies can be deployed into combat, each with their own special skills and "Evilities", additional abilities that are applied to every character. Enemies and allies may be picked up and thrown, just like previous Disgaea games. However, Disgaea 4 adds a new feature to its grabbing system, allowing any friendly character on the field to pick up another adjacent friendly character, and continously pick up allies, in a tower fashion. When in the tower formation, the movement range of the stacked characters increase. The bottom character of the tower can also throw the tower ahead of him/her to further increase movement distance. Special abilities may be activated while in tower formation, such as specific team attacks and the ability to obtain items normally unreachable due to a wall.
As with other Disgaea games, friendly monsters can be Magichanged by unique characters to become weapons. A new function has also been added called "Demon Fuse". With Demon Fuse, the player can join two monsters to form a giant version of the combined monsters, as well as increasing statistics. Demon Fused monsters can be Magichanged as well, and the result is a giant weapon, to correspond with the size of the Demon Fused monster.
Valvatorez owns a hub location known as "Hades". Here, equipment can be purchased or sold, specific functions can be carried out, the player can travel to other locations to advance the story, and such. Unlike previous Disgaea hub towns, Hades comes with the ability to be rearranged to the player's liking, as well as changing the appearance.
As the player progresses through the story, Valvatorez's amount of captured land will grow, and as such, more characters can be befriended. Various items can also be placed on the land panels, as well as characters. When an item is placed on a panel, it may affect the layout or gameplay when a battle is initiated on that panel. For instance, having a certain item on a panel allows captured enemies to be "Disciplined".
When an enemy is captured, when certain conditions are met, the player may "Discipline" the captured enemy. When an enemy is being disciplined, the player may force them to perform a variety of actions, such as "Slap With A Wad Of Bills". The player has a limited amount of turns to perform actions on the target, and then the player may force the captive to give up their HL (money), force them to locate treasure for the player, recruit them as an ally, or simply let them go. If recurited as an ally, a disciplined enemy's job is renamed as "Ex-hostage".
Over the Playstation Network, the player can build his or her own pirate ship, and place characters on it as they wish. By using this, the player can use their pirate ship to "invade" the custom worlds of other Disgaea 4 players, and challenge them. Other player's characters can be captured the same way as a normal enemy, and may be punished through the new "Discipline" system. Players may also initate pirate ship to pirate ship battles, see the total accumulated stats of all Disgaea 4 players, create battle maps to upload, use, and share, and send a specific council member, called a Foreign Minister, to another player's game to affect Senate in their game.
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 82.81% |
| Metacritic | 80% |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B- |
| Allgame | |
| Famitsu | 33/40 |
| GamePro | 4/5 |
| GamesRadar | 8.0/10 |
| GameTrailers | 7.5/10 |
| GameZone | 9/10 |
| IGN | 8.5/10 |
| ZTGameDomain | 9.7/10[6] |
| PlayStation LifeStyle | 9/10[7] |
| RPGamer | 4.5/5[8] |
Upon release, the game has received generally favorable reviews, with an aggregated score of 80 in Metacritic[9] and a 82.81% on gamerankings.[10] IGN gave the game an 8.5 saying "Fans of the series will find exactly what they expect here -- and non-fans will find exactly what they fear ... This is probably the best Disgaea since the 2003 original'.[11] GameZone give it a 9/10 stating "Overall, Disgaea 4 is a blast, and easily cements Nippon Ichi’s legacy as the kings of the strategy RPG genre.[12]"
Famitsu awarded the game a total of 33/40, composed of a 9/8/8/8 score.[13]
The game has sold 79,425 copies in its first week Japanese market placing it in fourth place.[14]
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