Really fun return to form for the series after how tech demo-like 6 felt.

Presentation wise the game does genuinely look and sound great. The 3D sprites had a lot more going on and the old Japanese aesthetic felt refreshing and appealed to me quite a bit.

Story wise if you've played a disgaea game you kinda know what to expect but it's a large step up from 5 and I'd easily put it at 1/4's level if only because Fuji and Pirilika are very entertaining as a duo - The other party members weren't half bad either.

Gameplay wise I can't comment too much on because the real systems come into play at postgame but it felt solid to play throughout the story at least. With features like Jumbification and hell mode you do gotta think tactically about when to use them or the enemy could do the same and destroy your party which kept things interesting.

I also appreciate QoL like the juice bar being kept and even though I didn't play around with it too much D.I seems to be balanced better than 6 and encourages more active play.

Uhhh yeah tl;dr game is good and even if NIS has some... let's say wildly inconsistent output (comparing D6 and Monster Menu to Galleria and D7) it's nice that they can put the effort in where it counts and I'm more than looking forward to digging into the postgame.