So I have a Vita, and I decided I want to try out playing a tactical RPG on it (I've had some past experiences with the genre but didn't really like it. I'm giving it another chance). I've always been interested in the Disgaea setting - most videos I've seen of it seem like the lack of seriousness is up my alley.

Being new to the genre, where should I start? Disgaea 1-3 are available for the Vita (1 and 2 as PSP titles). Is the story between them linear? Are the later games in the series better? Do 2 or 3 assume you're already familiar with the combat systems from the earlier games?

If they're not a good introduction to the genre, where should I start? Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions? Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together?

Is bumping unanswered questions okay?

I'd go for the latest in the series that you can get.

@FTomato said:

So I have a Vita, and I decided I want to try out playing a tactical RPG on it (I've had some past experiences with the genre but didn't really like it. I'm giving it another chance). I've always been interested in the Disgaea setting - most videos I've seen of it seem like the lack of seriousness is up my alley.

Being new to the genre, where should I start? Disgaea 1-3 are available for the Vita (1 and 2 as PSP titles). Is the story between them linear? Are the later games in the series better? Do 2 or 3 assume you're already familiar with the combat systems from the earlier games?

If they're not a good introduction to the genre, where should I start? Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions? Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together?

FFT is fucking AMAZING (with a really shitty port job). However, it is a very different game from Disgaea.

Disgaea isn't so much a SRPG as it is a "holy fuck look at the NUMBERS" simulator on a grid. Like, you go up to level 9,999, return to level 1, and then do it all again. You level up your weapons. You fight bosses with 14 BILLION HP. It's basically DBZ viewed from an isometric perspective.

As for storyline, they're mostly self-contained, but the bonus bosses (which you generally recruit) and DO appear from time to time in the storyline (since it's one big universe) are from other games from the series.

Disgaea is the king od SRPG's in my eyes. Start with number 1. It remains the best (at least story wise) to this day and if you enjoy it the others won't let you down.

It's true that Disgaea is pretty jokey/silly throughout, and if you're more concerned about the overall tone of the game then FFT and TO are both much more serious.

In terms of mechanics, well, FFT has what I feel is the best class system in any game to date. I honestly can't think of another class system that I prefer, and I've played a fuckton of RPGs. As far as combat is concerned, Disgaea is more of a strategy puzzle game if you're playing it right. You're rarely in any danger of losing, and it's typically more about figuring out how to win in the most ridiculously extravagant way possible, sweeping the board in a handful of moves. FFT, on the other hand, puts a capital "S" on Strategy. You can always grind to overcome the major hurdles, but it is almost never a necessity if you're playing intelligently. The challenge can be a bit uneven with a handful of seriously fucked spikes in the difficulty curve but when you finally beat those seemingly impossible scenarios you feel like a tactical genius.

FFT is easily my favorite game of all-time so clearly I'm a bit biased. Basically if you want a game where you can go nuts and have a fun time and grind away for hundreds of hours, go with Disgaea. If you want a game with a dark, tragic storyline that will kick you in the teeth on more than one occasion, then go with FFT.

Then go back and play TO as a curiosity and cringe at how fucked up the class system is in that game.

@SamStrife said:

Disgaea is the king od SRPG's in my eyes. Start with number 1. It remains the best (at least story wise) to this day and if you enjoy it the others won't let you down.

Yeah, I really did like the story in Disgaea 1.

Plus, the DBZ syndrome really worked for it, because I walked into the last mission going "FUCK IT, LAHARL IS KILLING EVERY MOTHERFUCKER IN THE ROOM, LET'S GO" at level 70 or so.

The first Disgaea I played was Disgaea 3 -- then I went back and played through 1 and 2. I haven't played Disgaea 4 yet, though I plan to. I'd say it doesn't really matter which order you play them in; there are references to past game's stories, but not really any main story beats that you won't understand if you hop in midway through the series. Probably the only thing to watch out for: if you play a lot of the later games then go back to the earlier ones, expect to miss some of the added features.

On the whole, the Disgaea games are not terribly difficult, excepting the ridiculous/crazy non-story dungeons. There's not even much grinding, unless you're going for those ridiculous dungeons.

As for other SRPGs, I tried FF Tactics and Tactics Ogre but simply could not get into either despite being a huge fan of Disgaea. The feel was completely different, I guess. I loved the idea of Ogre's branching story, but I couldn't bring myself to play enough of it to actually reach a point where it was interesting.

I asked that question in this one of the greatest blogs ever seen here on Giant Bomb; PixelPrinny's End of the Year Award Blog.

I wrote:

"I am moved to pick up Disgaea 4 from your write up but I also read that it's not too friendly to the uninitiated. Not a good game to get into the franchise with. I would have jumped on board with a PS2 title but now that my 60 gig is dead, I'm not sure which way to go...D3 or D4."

And was replied:

Enns: "Hey if you decide to give Disgaea a shot go with 4. In the end it really doesn't matter which way you go if it has to do with the learning curve. All the games have systems stacked on systems and a massive post game. Just get the better version over what seems easier. As confusing as it can be Disgaea fans love to talk about the game and help each other out. So it won't be too hard to find information scattered around various forums. Look at this trailer if you need convincing of it's manly fancy."

and

PixelPrinny: "As for D4 being a tough jumping off point... yeah, I could see that. Mainly in the way of the humor. It's the easiest one to pick up, gameplay-wise, with plenty of tutorials and practice maps, but any humor involving characters from past Disgaeas won't make much a lot of sense. Though that said, I think Flonne still stands on her own as a funny character even if you didn't know her from previous games. D3 is pretty much the same, though you can get that on the cheap these days so it might be worth picking up if you can find a copy and are at all interested."

I don't know if this helps any and my opinion is worthless since I still haven't gotten around to picking up a copy. I need to do that this weekend I think. I can order a new copy of D4 for less than $30 off Newegg.

If you do decide to go with Disgaea, you can pick it up where ever you like in the series and it won't make much different storywise. I started with Disgaea 3 on the PS3. You'll miss some references when past characters make cameos, but that's about it. It's got tutorials levels where they'll spell everything out for you as you go along, so getting through the storymode at least on your own won't be much of a problem.

I'll also say that it'll be little tough to appreciate just how much Disgaea turns the SRPG genre on its head if you haven't played the classics like FFT, and in some cases it might even make those older games a little tough to go back to. Speaking for myself as I'm going through FFT for the first time on my Vita, this port has some pretty slow attack animations, it's got me missing the option to skip animations from Disgaea big time.

@redyoshi said:

If you do decide to go with Disgaea, you can pick it up where ever you like in the series and it won't make much different storywise. I started with Disgaea 3 on the PS3. You'll miss some references when past characters make cameos, but that's about it. It's got tutorials levels where they'll spell everything out for you as you go along, so getting through the storymode at least on your own won't be much of a problem.

I'll also say that it'll be little tough to appreciate just how much Disgaea turns the SRPG genre on its head if you haven't played the classics like FFT, and in some cases it might even make those older games a little tough to go back to. Speaking for myself as I'm going through FFT for the first time on my Vita, this port has some pretty slow attack animations, it's got me missing the option to skip animations from Disgaea big time.

To be completely fucking fair to FFT, the portable ports are COMPLETE shit when it comes to slowdown. It ran absolutely fine on the PSX, and for some god unknown reason they keep porting it with the same issues.

@Terramagi said:

@redyoshi said:

If you do decide to go with Disgaea, you can pick it up where ever you like in the series and it won't make much different storywise. I started with Disgaea 3 on the PS3. You'll miss some references when past characters make cameos, but that's about it. It's got tutorials levels where they'll spell everything out for you as you go along, so getting through the storymode at least on your own won't be much of a problem.

I'll also say that it'll be little tough to appreciate just how much Disgaea turns the SRPG genre on its head if you haven't played the classics like FFT, and in some cases it might even make those older games a little tough to go back to. Speaking for myself as I'm going through FFT for the first time on my Vita, this port has some pretty slow attack animations, it's got me missing the option to skip animations from Disgaea big time.

To be completely fucking fair to FFT, the portable ports are COMPLETE shit when it comes to slowdown. It ran absolutely fine on the PSX, and for some god unknown reason they keep porting it with the same issues.

Yeah, that's what I've heard. I'm in love with the story and tone of the game though, so it's bearable.

If the OP wants to start with this game, maybe it'd be best to wait and see if the PSOne version will be playable on the Vita come the 28th? Of course, then they would be missing out on the gorgeous cutscenes.

@redyoshi said:

@Terramagi said:

@redyoshi said:

If you do decide to go with Disgaea, you can pick it up where ever you like in the series and it won't make much different storywise. I started with Disgaea 3 on the PS3. You'll miss some references when past characters make cameos, but that's about it. It's got tutorials levels where they'll spell everything out for you as you go along, so getting through the storymode at least on your own won't be much of a problem.

I'll also say that it'll be little tough to appreciate just how much Disgaea turns the SRPG genre on its head if you haven't played the classics like FFT, and in some cases it might even make those older games a little tough to go back to. Speaking for myself as I'm going through FFT for the first time on my Vita, this port has some pretty slow attack animations, it's got me missing the option to skip animations from Disgaea big time.

To be completely fucking fair to FFT, the portable ports are COMPLETE shit when it comes to slowdown. It ran absolutely fine on the PSX, and for some god unknown reason they keep porting it with the same issues.

Yeah, that's what I've heard. I'm in love with the story and tone of the game though, so it's bearable.

If the OP wants to start with this game, maybe it'd be best to wait and see if the PSOne version will be playable on the Vita come the 28th? Of course, then they would be missing out on the gorgeous cutscenes.

Eh, the portable translation, while prettier, also removes a lot of the charm.

Like, it fixes certain... dubious... level objectives in the latter half of the game, as well as l-i-t-t-l-e- -m-o-n-e-y, but it removes a lot of the best lines of the game, most notably Delita's.

@Terramagi: @SamStrife: @StarvingGamer: @Jrad: @redyoshi: Thanks. I think I'll get the psx version of FFT if it's available next week, and if it isn't then I'll get Disgaea 1.

I know I'm about a year late to this post... But if you are looking for a great RPG that's not too serious as you mentioned persona 4 is INCREDIBLE! (P4 Golden on vita is best if possible) it's honestly the most amazing as well as funny game I've ever played! Plus the story is by far better than anything I've seen in a game!

Now to your original question: I haven't personally played Disgaea but I plan to start the series this week! My brother in-law who introduced me to the Persona games has played Disgaea 3 and loved it! From he's told me and what I've read it really stands on its own even though it's a sequel!

All Disgaea games are stand alone except A Brighter Darkness which is a direct sequel to Hour of Darkness.

I wanted to like the first Disgaea, but it's such a potentially bottomless pit of grind, the completionist in me couldn't take it anymore and I never even finished the story. The one completionist time on howlongtobeat.com is at 962 hours. Nine-hundred and sixty-two hours!

I replayed the first one for the sequel but it isn't as fleshed out like the others, healers get almost never experience, you end up in item world levels where the pieces of land are too far removed and you can't progress and you're forced to waste a exit.

I completed the the story without the item world and grinding with ease though, near the end of the game there's a level or two with 200% exp gain, use that too level your lowbies.

If you're new to the series get the latest one and then if you like the series, work your way down and avoid the first one and read up on the story instead.

I am thinking of getting it on Vita since it adds more things compared to the PS3 versions and includes all DLC. But how does Disgaea 3 compare to 4? 4 has better reviews but it is not out on vite until summer. So it stands between 3 on Vita and 4 on PS3 as of now. the new D2 doesn't seem as good, especially when you don't have nostalgia for those characters. Seems to be for fans of the first game. Iäve never played Disgea.

@dagas: They are all similar games. I think the original still really holds up, so you could just start there.

I started like a week ago with Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness, which is the PSP version of Hour of Darkness, the first game in the franchise. I'm having a great time with it. As far as I can tell, you can't go wrong with Disgaea, if you are into SRPGs. It's the best!

We'll that is the catch. I'm not really into SRPG's. I am more into standard (tactical?) RPG's. I loved Jeanne D'arc and liked Final Fantasy Tactics on the PSP but otherwise I've never really been into SRPG's. I did play a little bit of the PSP remake of the first Disgea but for some reason never got into it as I did with JD or FFT and played probably less than 30min. I don't have that game anymore and while the Vita can play PSP games I feel like the newer games should be better. If not story wise then at least gameplay and graphic wise.

After discovering the Atelier games I am playing JRPG's again like I haven't done since the late 90's. I've gotten almost every PS3 and Vita JRPG that there is so that is why I am thinking of giving SRPG's a chance again with Disgea.

Even if my favourite is Disgaea 4 (mainly because of Fuuka), D2 is the way to go. It's the latest and best Disgaea yet. About 3 x 4 I think most Disgaea fans will agree that Disgaea 4 is a better game for a lot of small reasons that doesn't matter explaining if you're new to the series. Disgaea 3 is still fun but I'd never chose it over either Disgaea 4 or D2. Don't let the review scores fool you, D2 is the best one so far.

I got Disgaea Infinite to get to know the universe and the characters a bit. I liked the characters but not the gameplay so I decided to get a proper Disgaea game. I started at the beginning with the PSP remake of the first one, playing it on my Vita. If I get into it I then I'll keep buying 2 and then 3 and when it is out 4 on Vita because these kinds of games are to me handheld games.