Eight mainline titles and counting. Dozens upon dozens of lovably wild characters and scenarios. Roughly 175,200 hours (of darkness) since one of the wackiest — and deepest — SRPG series exploded onto the scene. Happy 20th, Disgaea. Is there any better way to celebrate than by opening this piece with a bunch of increasingly prodigious numbers? Yes, there is, and it’s called Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless. This latest title in the series releases in Western regions this October, and it’s poised to commemorate 20 years of the zaniest series ever to grace a grid of squares. In all respects, Disgaea 7 looks to be a larger-than-life next step in the legendary series. To learn more ahead of launch, we spoke via interpreter with Director Shunsuke Minowa about the game and how it draws from the places Disgaea’s been to take it where it’s going.
Before we get started: some of Minowa-san’s answers have been very slightly edited for readability. Now let’s go.
RPGFan: The Jumbification mechanic — that’s new in Disgaea 7. Was there anything in particular that inspired that ability?
Shunsuke Minowa: What this ties to is an idea — which has continued over multiple games — of simplifying movement. The throwing and lifting mechanics are also tied into that idea of making movement in Disgaea simpler and more flexible, and this time one of the other guiding ideas was getting back to our roots. So one of our major points throughout the series has been focused on movement and improving movement mechanics in the games, so this was another way to continually improve upon the movement features in Disgaea. And in addition to that, since we’re now using 3D animation, that also was the perfect chance to explore that more, with the Jumbification mechanic.
RPGFan: That makes perfect sense. Jumping to the setting and story, Disgaea 7 features a bunch of different, unique netherworlds. Was there any that was a particular favorite of the team?
Minowa: One world that I particularly liked was Resale World, because it was really fun to design that one.
RPGFan: Was there any particular character that was a favorite of the team?
Minowa: So for me personally, I like Ao, because I like small characters who take down bigger ones — these sort of “giant-killer” type characters. And so I asked the writers to include a character like that. But they really gave the character a lot more of a presence in the story than I initially expected, so I was just thrilled with how that went. And then, within the team overall, a lot of people really liked Higan Zesshosai.
RPGFan: Sort of jumping to how Disgaea 7 responds to some of the feedback from Disgaea 6. With Disgaea 6, I think many longtime fans were concerned about the autobattle feature and how freely you could use it. Does Disgaea 7 address those concerns in any way?
Minowa: Well, what we did for this one was we considered that for D6, this autobattle mechanic, if you had it set on, you could just let it run through the game and you didn’t have to do much at all as the player, unfortunately. And I think a lot of our more veteran players were frustrated with the fact that they didn’t feel as involved. So to address that and increase the involvement and strategic aspects, this time, we implemented a cost mechanic. So now, going through autobattles, you actually have to think about the cost. It requires more tactical planning to run autobattles. In addition, during battles, there are mini-quests, certain little conditions to meet. So there’s more strategic thinking that goes into any given stage as well. This was all to increase the fun factor of the playthrough, and engagement. So now you have to think a little more and be a little more strategic when leveling and progressing through the game. I think that gets back to the more traditional Disgaea approach: this more involved, tactical thinking that we know our users love so much.
RPGFan: Disgaea 6 was the first in the series to switch from sprites to polygonal models for the characters. I remember when D6 was first announced, that change was not embraced as strongly as maybe you would have liked. Was there ever a plan to go back to sprites for Disgaea 7? What ultimately made you stick with 3D models?
Minowa: No, there was no plan to go back to 2D once the switch was made. And that’s because 3D ties in very well with our goal of continuing to increase our fanbase. And when you think about the kind of new potential players and the engagement that 2D represents, I think it’s quite clear that 3D is much more appealing, and an easier entry point for new players, so we’re going to be sticking with 3D.
RPGFan: What new character classes in the game can players look forward to?
Minowa: I’ll go in order for the four new ones.
First, the Maiko class. We added this class to boost the Japanese aesthetic of the game. This is a support class you get in the later part of the game, an upper-ranking class. This class is really aimed at people who are going to complete the game and do a really deep-dive playthrough.
Second, we have the male Bandit. This character is more of a mid-level class. This was part of our overarching goal to have a male and female version of every class. Up till now, we only had the female Thief. The special ability that the Bandit offers is that when you defeat a character, you have a chance for item drops. This ability is great for the middle part of the game when you’re trying to increase your items, so he comes into play right around then.
Next, we have the Zombie Maiden. The Zombie Maiden ties into another goal we had: to focus on fantastical or creepy characters called yokai in Japanese. Pirilika is based on the maneki neko, the “waving cat,” and Fuji actually has some eastern, Chinese-style dragon elements incorporated as well. [Pirilika and Fuji are the game’s main characters –Ed.] We thought we’d also like to have these elements incorporated with the generic characters. So this zombie maiden is based on the Chinese jiangshi, the “hopping zombie.” We know that a lot of our existing fans like the zombie class; they’re tough, and they also can come back. This one ties into Jumbility, though. You’ll like this one to die and regenerate because as you take damage, that boosts your Jumbification meter so that you can Jumbify more quickly. So it’s actually good to have this character die. It’ll come back and boost your meter.
Finally, we have the Big Eye class. This is the highest level class, the most high-tier one. This class’ concept is that it has long-range attacks, and also it has movement-related skills. So the idea is that you can fire off these long-range attacks while moving around. This one also ties into the yokai or fantastical creature theme.
RPGFan: D7 introduces a change to the Item World: Item Reincarnation. Does that mesh into the previous Item World system, or does it replace it?
Minowa: We have both systems. The idea is that as you completely clear an Item World, the item can be reincarnated. So they lock in with each other, and in this way, as you continually reincarnate the item, you get to explore more Item Worlds. It’s much like leveling a character. We wanted to make them parallel mechanics.
RPGFan: Previous Disgaea entries offered hundreds of hours of playtime. For Disgaea 7, how long do you estimate players will take to complete the main story? And for the really hardcore completionists, how long do you think they’ll take?
Minowa: For the main scenario — this is assuming someone is familiar with the series and knows something about it — maybe 30 to 40 hours, we think. And then, if you’re going to do a completion run, essentially you can play it without limit; it just depends on how much you want to level your characters. But if we assume that the “end” is defeating Overlord Baal, then about 400 hours.
RPGFan: I understand that this is the first Disgaea game you’ve directed. Was there anything particularly challenging about directing Disgaea for the first time?
Minowa: One challenge was Jumbification because when introducing a new mechanic, you need to balance its strength. If it’s too strong, it could overpower things, of course. But at the same time, it’s a new mechanic; you want it to be strong. You want it to be appealing to players. Another one, similarly, was Item Reincarnation because this was a completely new mechanic. We were starting from scratch, so that took quite a lot of time to get right as well.
RPGFan: These days, many popular Japanese titles are released worldwide simultaneously. That’s obviously not the case for Disgaea 7, but was that a consideration, and do you think it will be in the future?
Minowa: It always depends; it’s sort of case by case. We definitely want to do that going forward, and have thought about that in the past as well.
RPGFan: 2023 marks 20 years of Disgaea. For fans who have stuck with the series for this long, what do you think they will appreciate or enjoy most about Disgaea 7?
Minowa: One big goal of Disgaea 7 was getting back to the series’ roots. So there are some main points: things like battle systems with a high degree of flexibility and freedom, a lot of appeal in doing a complete playthrough with a lot of depth to the game, and then focusing the story on one specific netherworld. All features that are featured in some of our original and classic games. So the overarching idea is making a Disgaea game that is very much like the Disgaea you’ve known up till now. Creating this classic kind of Disgaea, I think, will be really pleasing to our veteran fans. And I think that within the series, this is a great starting point. I think people will really love this game, and I’m excited for everyone to play it.
We would like to thank Shunsuke Minowa and the rest of the team at NIS and NIS America for their time.
Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless arrives on PS4, PS5, Switch, and Windows PC via Steam on October 3rd in North America, and later that month in other regions.
