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Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtuelessis the seventh entry in the marvellously crunchy Disgaea series - known for allowing characters to reach ridiculous levels and pitting you against some very tough, puzzle-like battlefields. This is not a series for people who like to be eased in to a new collection of mechanics.
Thanks to how the series has grown over the years, there are rather a lot of things to get used to when starting a Disgaea game. There are unique mechanics at play, such as jumbifying, lifting and throwing, and hell mode, and that’s all in addition to an inherently-complex combat system that can be tweaked and fiddled with for hours.
Take Advantage Of Your Special Evilities
Every character in the game has a list ofEvilitiesthat affect their performance in battle, growths, and stats. These range from simple boosts to certain weapon types to significant, battle-changing effects such as vastly boosting the range of your spells or instantly killing enemies who are already low on health.
Each character also has aunique Evilitythat you should be aware of. These are easy to dismiss as they aren’t set by you personally, but they can give you a great insight into how that character is meant to be played and can affect your development plans for them.
Fuji, for example, is given adamage boost whenever hestrikes an enemy from the back. This makes it plain that he’ll benefit from equipment and Dark Assembly bills that boost his movement stat, allowing him to easily reach an enemy’s back for a quick boost in damage.Shroom units, on the other hand,reduce the stats of adjacent female units by a huge 20 percent, so you may find yourself drawn to them when facing female bosses.
Having an in-depth knowledge of how your units are affected by the Evilities you’re able to’t change can be incredibly useful when facing the toughest fights that the game has to offer.
How Jumbilities Work
Early on in the game, you’ll gain access to theJumbifyability. This will make one of your units massive and set them to one side of the stage. They can use this prodigious size to attack large squares of the stage at once or to take on a Jumbified enemy head-to-head.
Similar to the unique Evilities mentioned previously, each unit also has access to a uniqueJumbility. Theseaffect the entire battlefield at once, basically creating a whole new stat bonus or rule change for yourallies and enemies. These can be incredibly useful, and you may want to build entire strategies around the more powerful examples found in the game.
Notable Jumbilitiesinclude the following:
Keep Resistances In Mind
All units in the game have a set ofelemental and weapon resistancesto be aware of. These will appear in the bottom right of the screen when you move your cursor over a unit -positive numbers denote resistance, while negative numbers denote a weakness.
While targeting a unit’s weaknesses is obviously important, it’s also important to avoid resistance. It’s quite easy to exclude possible weapon resistances from your plans and end up regretting your actions. If you were to pour all of your resources into strengthening Fuji and then come up against a unit heavily resistant to swords, for example, you might be in a bad place.
For this reason, it’s a good idea to ensure you have plenty of different damage sources. There are four elements and eight weapon types to use, and having specialists for each and every one is a great way to make sure you have an answer for every problem the game throws at you.
No More Bonus Points
If you’re a returning player from any of the prior Disgaea games, you’ll notice that you no longer receive a bonus point tally at the end of a battle. This system is replaced with a new one - instead, Disgaea 7 includes a list of optional objectives that can be completed per battlefield.
As in previous games, dealing with this system is optional, butthe rewards are far easier to get, either accidentally or on purpose. You should make a habit of checking these objectives at the start of each battle - they’ll show up whenever you open your unit list from the home base. Some objectives, such as only deploying units of one gender or limiting your number of units, are very easy to work around.
This also means that it’s far rarer for you to be rewarded for clearing the battlefield of geo panels. For this reason, manipulating geo effects and keeping track of them is important.
Boost Stats Using The Dark Assembly
Some of your units' important stats, such asmovement range and counter-attack rates, can be boosted through theDark Assembly. In exchange for mana, you’re able to improve a unit’s movement, jump power, throwing range, and counter-attack number.
If you find yourself favouring a character and bringing them to battles a lot, it’s a good idea to use their mana reserves (or supplement them with Mana Juice at the Juice Bar) to increase these basic stats. These bills are generally quite easy to pass with a little bribery.
