I just picked up Disgaea 5 Complete for the Switch, but I've never played a Disgaea game before. Any tips before I jump in?

have fun with it?

The Disgaea games have a lot of systems to them so it's probably easy to get intimidated. I think you can play this game like any other SRPG through the main story and do just fine. Upgrade your equipment every so often, and try to focus experience on a core group of characters (about 10 is fine).

I recommend patience. Disgaea is all about figuring out how to abuse the systems to gain ridiculous amounts of experience. And there's a lot of systems that can all be manipulated in a lot of ways. But man, if it clicks, be prepared to lose a couple hundred hours.

(You've wasted your money if you don't beat Baal.)

If it's anything like the first game, there will be a level or two that are clearly made for grinding out experience. Spend lots of time there. If you ever want to see post game content, be prepared to spend obscene amounts of time there. The grind wore me down eventually on that first game. It can get seriously ridiculous. It's heaven if you like that sort of thing I suppose.

You can go through the main story without messing with any of the side stuff, so pretty much just experiment as much as you want to. I was trying to think of some quick tips but everything is a bit complicated and it would be easier to look at a guide for specific stuff. I guess my one tip is if you want to try the item world out, find an item that gives all stats and level that up. That way you can have a item you can put on anyone you want and have them be really powerful.

Don't make a lot of new character's when you get the ability to. You will pick up a lot of character's who are better through out the game.

Grind in the item world as soon as you can.

Transform the prinnies as soon as possible. They absolutely stink.

don't drown in the excessive anime.

1) On your first playthrough, don't sweat anything but the story. That's a good way to get used to the combat and weapon types.

2) Disgaea 5 makes it really easy to tinker with the Item World. You use that to level up weapons and equipment. If you decide to jump into it, save before you do. Every ten levels you'll be given a Mr. Gency item, which allows you to escape the Item World at any time. So have fun exploring and tinkering. It's a good way to get overpowered if you want to put some time into it.

3) If you decide to go into the Item World, don't deploy everyone you can (that's either eight or ten characters, I forget). Keep one in reserve at all times so if you need to, you can pop the aforementioned Mr. Gency item and get out.

4) Chara World is a lot of fun, but challenging at first. It's like a big board game where the goal is to get to the end in a certain number of turns. If you do, you can gain some cool perks for a character. It's fun to tinker with when you want to try something new, but again, save first.

5) Upgrading skills is useful, but keep an eye on the SP cost. That's the Disgaea series' version of mana. You'll also level up skills through regular use. This is not the same as upgrading skills, which is a bit confusing but you'll figure it out.

6) Don't sweat the Assembly until the post-game. Tinker with it if you like, but there's nothing there that you really need in the main game.

7) When you unlock the Cheat Shop, you can bump up the levels of enemies and gain more experience. This is handy when you find a level that's easily repeated. Some characters will develop big area spells or attacks, and can wipe out big blocks of enemies all at once. Disgaea has a tendency to supply the player with various levels that make this really easy to do very quickly. Take full advantage of those, and you'll be power leveled in hours.

A lot of useful info in here, thanks a ton folks!