Disgaea 6 Complete on PS4 Still Feels Like a Handheld Game

About a year after its original release on the Nintendo Switch, the localized version of Disgaea 6 Complete is now on the PS4, PS5, and Windows PC worldwide. I had the opportunity to play the PS4 version and, while this is almost everywhere now, it still feels like a handheld game.

The first thing I noticed about Disgaea 6 on the PS4 was that it felt very much like a Switch game. The 3D effect looked rather rough. Also, something about the font made it look quite retro. This combination made the game look a lot older than one released in 2021. At first, I actually thought that it was from the Nintendo 3DS! The 3D animations in combat when you use special attacks are rather lackluster when compared with other native Switch games that came out around the same time.

However, in saying that, the game definitely feels like a PS4 game. Everything was smooth, from moving the cursor to watching the characters move about on the maps. The graphics aren’t breathtaking by any means, but it never felt laggy. Now, my PS4 is fairly old, and there are occasional hiccups with games such as Genshin Impact or 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. But no matter how many enemies were on the map in Disgaea 6, it made no impact on the performance.

The second thing I noticed about the game was that it felt geared towards series veterans. I spent a lot of time in the beginning wondering if I should recognize and know protagonist Zed. While the game does provide explanations for the systems such as Super Reincarnation, the Dark Assembly, and the Item World, they suddenly unlock in between story levels. The way Cerberus casually tells Zed that these functions are now available, with no particular fanfare, definitely feels like these are mechanics players should already be familiar with and itching to gain access to.

There are some aspects of Disgaea 6 that maybe may feel easier to deal with on the Switch than on the PS4. And this may be where my status as a Disgaea novice rears its head. The game is very grind-heavy and requires repeating maps a lot. This is honestly fine, due to the auto-battle and auto-repeat functions. (Why auto-battle keeps sending my squishiest characters out in the frontline and killing them, I don’t understand, though!) In Disgaea 6 especially, the auto functions for grinding are a lifesaver considering the monstrous level cap.

But this part of the game feels like it works better on a portable console such as the Switch, since you could theoretically leave it running while you go and do something else. Manual grinding is a draw for the Disgaea series. After all, previous entries in the franchise were on consoles such as the PS2 or PS3. However, making it automatic begs the question of what the player should do while the characters zoom about. These days, it’s not unheard of to play two games at the same time. But I usually consider the mobile game to be the one that you can leave idling. While the grinding itself is not an issue, something about being able to activate auto-battle and auto-repeat on a PS4 gave me an odd cognitive dissonance.

Disgaea 6: Complete is available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny is available on the Nintendo Switch.