Oh, hello, Disgaea. It's been a while.

So sometime after Disgaea D2, I just… kind of decided I'd had enough of Disgaea for a while. The games didn't get notably bad or anything—I had plenty of fun playing them, and Disgaea 2 in particular is still a favorite of mine. It was more a case of "I think I've had my fill of the Disgaea formula for a good while.” Playing several sprawling, content-heavy strategy-RPGs (and re-releases of the same), can be exhausting after a while. So for about a decade, I simply didn't play Disgaea games.

And then Disgaea 7 Complete arrived on my review plate. Suddenly, I felt the intense desire to play a Disgaea game again. And it felt great! Going through Disgaea 7 Complete, remembering and re-acclimating myself to all of the series' staples and quirks, felt like catching up with an old friend after several years--a lot has changed around you, but you can still see why you enjoyed spending time together. While this means I can't really compare Disgaea 7 Complete to some of the more recent series entries—or its original 2023 release—I can hopefully provide a perspective of someone returning to the Netherworld after a long time.

Every Disgaea game (save D2) offers up a new Netherworld, and Disgaea 7 is no different—though this time around, the Netherworld of Hinomoto is based heavily around Meiji-era Japan. Filthy-rich tourist Pirilika is, for lack of a better descriptive term, a complete weeaboo for Hinomoto, fawning upon its history and culture from afar, only to be distressed when she gets there and discovers that her perceptions were wholly incorrect. Fuji is a powerful demon warrior who is in an absurd amount of debt, and notices that Pirilika is absolutely loaded. Together, they get sucked into a chaotic adventure involving a corrupt government, a collection of legendary weaponry, and a whole lot of encounters with complete weirdos.

The story doesn't really have much depth to it—it more or less exists as a vehicle for funny character interactions and to funnel you from one story battle to the next. The characters didn't really grab me as much as some of the other games did—well, aside from Higan Zesshosai, whose design had me in her camp from the first moment I saw it—but they certainly have their charm: I'm a big fan of the utterly bizarre ways Pirilika finds to screw up common idioms. The Japanese-inspired setting feels more like window dressing than anything else: much of the visual style and tone are the typical colorful Disgaea zaniness. If you're here strictly for the plot and setting, then you might be a bit disappointed.

But I don't think a thought-provoking story is what most Disgaea fans are here for. At least, that not what I want out of these games. What I want is a ridiculously big and endlessly customizable time-sink of a strategy/RPG that lets you fight for hours on end and build an absurdly powerful army. And on that front, Disgaea 7 Complete delivers in spades.

If you've played a Disgaea game, you know the basics of what to expect here—grid-based, turn-driven, menu-heavy combat, assorted character classes and weapon types, and distinct Disgaea-isms like throwing around allied and enemy units, effect-granting Geo Panels, and boosting damage with team-up attacks. You'll see much of this on display in the main story battles that advance the plot. There's a good variety of challenges in the main campaign: Besides fairly straightforward kill-all-enemies and boss-fight battles, you'll often encounter puzzle-like stages based around mechanics: arrange the Geo Panels for a boost or a big chain reaction, use the lifting/throwing to get to advantageous spots on the map, use only a specific unit type, and so on. There's a list of challenge conditions unique to each stage, such as beating it under a certain turn limit or with limited deployments, that, when satisfied, reward you with extra loot.

Some stages are essentially tutorials, as well, introducing mechanics like Jumbify, which transforms one of your units into a bonus-granting, AoE-smashing giant for a few turns, or the Hell Mode, a powered-up state which only certain characters wielding the Infernal Arms macguffins can utilize (until the postgame). These mechanics are neat, but also somewhat gimmicky: some of the character-specific effects you get from Jumbifying or going Hellish are extremely good—like giving units an extra attack—while others aren't very exciting.

You'll need to go through the story mode to unlock a lot of the interesting customization options, which can be something of a drag. My beloved Item World—a prime means of character levelling and weapon upgrading in Disgaea—wasn't open until several hours in. But once more than a handful of features become available, there's a whole lot of great stuff to sink your teeth into: character creation, class changing, character-specific Evility enhancements, skill leveling, and so on. Efficient level-building and resource-farming can be aided by the "Cheat Shop" (which functions mostly as a means to boost combat rewards and auto-sell items) and by assigning characters to themed Squads that give various bonuses. If there's a character you need to get up to snuff quickly, you can feed them additional EXP, Mana, and stats you've earned from mixes in the Juice Bar.

There's also an AI mode that I, admittedly, didn't play around with much—I'm kind of a control freak with SRPG battles--but it's similar in look and feel to systems like Final Fantasy XII's Gambit system, setting actions to perform automatically when certain conditions are met. What is cool is that you can use your "programmed" units to auto-grind in stages for you by using a consumable called Poltergas, so once you've found the stage you want to grind on, you can just set your little dudes up and have them go. With everything on offer, it feels like I have a lot of control over my character-building in Disgaea 7 Complete, and that makes me feel quite satisfied.

Once I had the Item World open, I knew where most of my time with Disgaea 7 Complete was going. Venturing through a randomized, multi-floor challenge world to power up my gear has always been a favorite element, and getting a really sick piece of gear out of a challenging item-dive feels great. A new feature for further boosting gear is Item Reincarnation, which—much like character reincarnation—lets an item return to Level 1 (and even transmogrify into something else). This goes hand-in-hand with another addition, Item Properties, which are what you'd expect from the name: damage bonuses, stat and reward boosts, ailments and debuffs on hit, that sort of thing. If you're really devoted, you can make some absolutely absurd stuff through Item Reincarnation. Giving you the tools to engage in this sort of ridiculous excess is precisely what makes Disgaea special and fun—provided you're also willing to devote your time to it.

So, yes, Disgaea 7 Complete would be an easy recommendation to anyone looking for a particular brand of goofy, grind-driven strategy/RPG… but, as of this time of writing, it's only available on the Switch 2. This "Complete" version of the game, which includes much of the DLC from Disgaea 7's original release and some new additions, is an exclusive outside of Japan. Making this even more disappointing is that Disgaea 7's physical release—including the limited editions—is on one of the much-maligned Game Key Cards that physical Switch 2 collectors loathe. Would there be a proper physical release of Disgaea 7 Complete on other platforms in the future? It's difficult to say, but as more and more companies shift toward download-centric releases, I would hope for the best but prepare to be let down anyway.

From a purely technical standpoint, the game mostly ran great. Animations were smooth throughout, visuals were nice and crisp, and load times were brisk. My only issue was some odd, seemingly random freezing mid-play—which could sometimes resolve itself, but usually meant the game was going to crash. These episodes were rare, but still pretty frustrating. (Alas, nothing's quite as painful as getting a good Item World run only for the game to crash before you're able to get out and save.)

Is Disgaea 7 Complete the best yet in the series? Given my long time away from these games, I can't really say anything authoritative, but I had a great time with it. There's some stiff competition in strategy/RPGs right now, especially with the recent Final Fantasy Tactics remaster. But if there's one thing Disgaea 7 Complete made me realize, it's that nothing else scratches a particular sort of micromanaging, army-building itch quite like Disgaea does.