Disgaea 5 Improves Story, is “More Newcomer Friendly” – NIS

 

In a closed media event after the Tokyo Game Show’s second media day, Nippon Ichi Software and NIS America president Souhei Niikawa presented some new details about the upcoming PS4-exclusive strategy RPG Disgaea 5.

First, Mr. Niikawa said that this is the ideal entry point into the series, as it’s very newcomer-friendly. He loves the more hardcore Disgaea games of the past, and those longtime fans will definitely find something to love, but new players will be a little more keen on this one than past titles.

One reason for this, he said, was the improved, more detailed story. He said that fan feedback was taken after the past Disgaea games, and the team noticed a lot of comments saying that the story was “a little skimpy.” (I found this surprising, as I always thought the wacky nonsense was part of the fun.) On that note, he says that Disgaea 5′s story is the biggest yet.

When he said this, the huge amount of NPCs from the demo suddenly made sense. I didn’t mention it in my play report of the TGS showfloor demo, but the root hub did indeed have an increased number of NPCs running around in it. By Nippon Ichi reports, the things they say will often be more than the one-line throwaway dialogue that has sometimes come forth from NPCs of previous Disgaea titles.

The story will have 16 chapters and “many side stories,” in Niikawa’s words.

Disgaea 5 will arrive on Japanese store shelves on March 26, 2015. International releases have been confirmed, but not with a specific date yet. I played the game and wrote about it here, and Disgaea 4‘s Vita version was recently reviewed here.

 

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