Story (1/3) - This is one of my least liked entries in terms of story. The plot went where the writers wanted it to, utilizing Deus Ex Machinas or characters that were never introduced or foreshadowed to move the story along. While the characters were fun, going from comedic to serious just doesn't work. Felt like a typical shonen style manga.

Gameplay (4/4) - Honestly, a perfect stepup from the previous entry. Reincarnation is fun again, no ridiculous stats like in D6, game is as fast or slow as you want it to be. Carnage stages added new elements which really made me think. Great job.

Performance (3/3) - Everything worked perfectly. No frame drops. No large errors. Trophies were bugged, but easy fix when you go to D-merits. Visuals were nice and clean. The Voice Actors did such a good job, especially Pirilika and Fuji.

Disgaea is what I would call my guilty pleasure franchise. I feel like the games very often 'go through the motions' and don't make a lot of significant changes. I don't think I used actual strategy in this strategy RPG until it came time to take on chaos Baal.

But...I still love it. Seeing my numbers steadily climb is a very soothing experience. The grind in this game feels very rewarding. I kinda wish the absurd level cap of Disgaea 6 returned here but this ends up being a more balanced experience (and way less emphasis on auto battles too) so I will take it.

Just glad this game didn't hold back on classes. Excited to see if 8 can reach the heights of 5.

This is probably the best Disgaea game in the series from a QoL and mechanics standpoint. Maybe the best full-stop, depending on how you feel about the story. The thing is, I don’t think this franchise works for me anymore. I’m a longtime fan of the series. I used to gobble this stuff up. I would spend hours engaging with the different menus, doing anything but advancing the story. Maybe its because I’m getting older, but it just didn’t hook me this time around. Fully realizing that excessiveness is something Disgaea has always embraced, it finally started to feel cumbersome for me as I found myself managing over 20 units and their equipment, abilities, and skill levels. On top of that, your equipment has equipment. And your skills have ranks that you can choose to improve. It’s a lot. Too much for me at this stage in my gaming career.

So in order to enjoy Disgaea 7 enough to get to the finish line, I ignored a few of its features. I still spent some time in the Item World, leveling up my equipment and even re-did a few stages to grind levels. But really just the bare minimum required to breeze through the main story.

A highlight for me was the unique checklist of objectives the game gives you for each map (limits on the number/type of deployed units, for example). This made each map far more interesting than if I just used brute force and the maximum number of units. It was very satisfying to start each stage by comparing the map layout to the list of objectives. It’s very easy to restart the stage if you mess up, but the “undo button” is also very forgiving. You can get away with a lot before you’re forced to restart a stage entirely.

The writing in this game also made me dread picking up the controller sometimes. Again, it’s the same sense of humor this series has always had, but I think I’ve outgrown it. Every so often a joke would land, but it was more common for every sentence to feel like a vehicle for a childish gag. Often the same joke repeated numerous times. Just an absolutely ridiculous script and plot. The English voice actors did an excellent job with it though. I liked Pirilika in particular. Both her characterization and the performance by her voice actor.

If I were awarding stars based on how good of a Disgaea game this is, it'd be an easy five. But for me, I couldn't wait to be done.