Disgaea Mayhem from NIS America is an action RPG take on the beloved franchise in which you’ll be tasked with getting the Princess some pudding. Learn more in our Disgaea Mayhem review!
Disgaea Mayhem from NIS America is an action RPG take on the beloved franchise in which you’ll be tasked with getting the Princess some pudding. While it sounds like a very easy request to fulfill, nothing is ever simple in this Netherworld! You’ll be placed in the role of N.A. and will need to destroy everything and everyone in your path as you aim to please Princess Tichelle, Overlord of the Netherworld. You won’t be doing this out of the goodness of your heart. You are, after all, a mercenary, and the only thing motivating you is money. Make the most of the different weapons that you can wield, and use your mighty attacks to wreak havoc along the way.
Super Duper is a Netherworld that used to be packed with beasts that are more than ready to rip apart the weak, eating anything in their path as well. Princess Tichelle’s father – that would be Overlord Margraf – managed to change things around, and it’s now turned into a peaceful Netherworld… or so it seems. Once Overlord Tichelle succeeded him as Overlord, his retainers decided it would be a good time to start a rebellion. It was then that Overlord Tichelle’s flan – which he kept safely within her fridge – was eaten! Yes, the flan that was eaten must be recovered.
It was the Pristine Gleam Flan that was taken from her, and you must recover it before it’s too late. The good news? The Pristine Gleam Flan takes a while to be digested, and since you’re such a talented mercenary, this mission certainly won’t be an issue… right? The six retainers that have betrayed Overlord Tichelle are known as the Six Psychlamates, and you must find which one ate the Pristine Gleam Flan and safely bring it back to the new Overlord. First up? John-Zuck, who you should be able to find in Pestilence Plains.
You’ll be thrown into action right away. You’ll be taking control of N.A. by using the left analog stick, with the right analog stick being used for the camera so that you can move it around. Normal attacks will be mapped to the Y button, and strong attacks can be used by pressing the X button. Jump by pressing the B button, and dash with the A button so that you can hopefully manage to avoid incoming attacks. You can also guard by pressing the ZR button. Just be careful, since you won’t be able to guard forever! If you overdo it, you’ll suffer a guard break and will be temporarily stunned.
You can use specials by pressing the L button and then pressing the A, B, X, or Y buttons, depending on which slot each special is equipped to. Specials will differ based on the weapon you’re currently equipped with, so be sure to test out all of them! If you use a special right before you’re about to be attacked, you’ll get to perform a counter that will nullify the attack. This will also lower the cooldown for that special, as well as increase its power. Items can be used based on which slot of the D-Pad you’ve equipped them to.
The game offers seven different weapons for you to wield, with each one offering a different combat style for you to take for a spin. Switching to a new weapon will hopefully allow you to gain the upper hand. Unleashing powerful multi-hit combos with your fist can help you when faced with multiple foes in close range, but you should also consider using a bow to attack them from a safer distance as you chip away at their HP. There’s even a staff that will allow you to unleash magic attacks and even conjure up a magic bomb.
While powerful weapons and grinding to level up are all fine and well, you’ll also need to make the most of another option you have for boosting your odds of victory: the Dark Chocolate Assembly. As has been the case for other games in the Disgaea series, you’ll be working on passing bills that can change how you approach subsequent battles. Some of the bills that you can try to pass include being able to reincarnate at level 1 while retaining a good portion of your stats, improving the items available for sale, being able to run and jump in the Overlord’s castle, or receiving triple experience on the next map that you take on.
But what if you want to avoid your proposal being rejected? Then you might want to bribe the confectioners with items or use a substantial amount of money after a vote to change the outcome. Or, you know, use a classic beatdown to move things in your favor.
Wurst, the Minister of the Netherworld of Super Duper, will let you know that you’ve been granted permission to use the facilities of the Netherworld, since you’re now under the employ of Overlord Tichelle. You’ll be able to explore as you please, and you can interact with the Dimension Guide when you feel like it’s time to explore the target location to try and find whoever it is that ate the flan.
But before that, you should prepare at the Overlord’s castle so that you can be ready for the next battle. You can use your money at the general store to purchase items, change your equipment, practice for combat at the Training Grounds, use the Data Shop to review your records and gameplay stats, visit the Special Content Shop to check out special content or to apply content that you’ve obtained as DLC, and more. Additional facilities will unlock as you progress further and further in the game.
You’ll run into boss enemies that are definitely going to be more powerful than the regular enemies that you’ll run into. You should lock onto a nearby boss by pressing in on the right analog stick so that you can keep the camera focused on it while fighting. Pay attention to their movement and attack patterns so that you can find the right window of opportunity to deal as much damage as you can as quickly as possible. Deplete a boss’s armor to stun them for a set period of time, which is the perfect moment for you to use your most powerful skills one after the other.
This is why it’s important that you can bring a Battle Buddy to aid you in combat. There’s also the option of using Magichange by pressing the R button while holding the L button. This will transform your Battle Buddy into a weapon that you can wield, boosting your stats. You can also press the R button while holding the L button once you’ve used Magichange before, which will execute a Magichange skill. After this, Magichange will instantly end.
Be careful about the status ailments that can sometimes be inflicted on you. There are four different status ailments: poison, paralysis, sleep, and charm. Poison will have you taking constant damage over time as a percentage based on your max HP. Paralysis will leave you unable to move for a period of time, but you’ll at least be able to use items to fix this. Sleep will also leave you unable to move, but any attack that lands on you will wake you up. As for Charmed, it will leave you unable to attack or use special skills for a bit.
Want to increase your power? Then you might want to consider reincarnation. This will allow you to work on leveling up your stats all over again while also increasing your Total Reincarnation Level. The Total Reincarnation Level will show how many times you’ve reincarnated, which will be reflected in how big a bonus you’ll receive after each subsequent reincarnation.
Disgaea Mayhem is an action RPG take on the beloved franchise in which you’ll be tasked with getting the Princess some pudding. While it sounds like a very easy request to fulfill, nothing is ever simple in the Netherworld! You’ll be placed in the role of N.A. and will need to destroy everything and everyone in your path as you aim to please Princess Tichelle, Overlord of this Netherworld. You won’t be doing this out of the goodness of your heart. You are, after all, a mercenary, and the only thing motivating you is money. Make the most of the different weapons that you can wield, and use your mighty attacks to wreak havoc along the way.
As you defeat enemies and bosses, you’ll gain experience points. Once you’ve obtained enough experience points, you’ll get to level up. When this happens, you’ll receive a boost to your HP, attack, and defense. HP is directly tied to how much damage you can take before being defeated. Attack will dictate how much damage you deal. Defense will represent how tough you are. Other stats are speed, which is related to how fast you can move around the battlefield, and critical, which dictates the chance for you to land a critical attack.
You’ll be able to equip one weapon and three pieces of armor at a time. The more you use a weapon, the better you’ll get at that weapon type. Each weapon mastery is tracked separately. As weapon mastery increases, the stats gained from that weapon type will be improved, and the cooldown for special skills will also decrease.
You’ll be using the RingRingRot app on your smartphone so that Overlord Tichelle can instantly teleport to your location. Why is this important? Because she very much wants to have a word with each of the Six Psychlamates and ask them a very, very important question. What is that question? You’ll have to play Disgaea Mayhem!
You can customize your experience as needed by checking out the Settings menu. Once there, you can choose between Quality Mode and Performance Mode for the game’s graphics. Quality Mode will prioritize the game’s graphical fidelity. Performance Mode will favor the overall framerate while lowering the game’s max resolution. You can also activate or deactivate autosave, activate or deactivate the automatic use of Boost Tickets after completing a level, switch camera rotation and speed, remap the buttons, change text speed, and switch between the available languages for text and voice, to name some examples.
Disgaea Mayhem launches next week on Nintendo Switch 2 on July 23 with a $59.99 price tag. You can try before you buy if you want to, since there’s a Disgaea Mayhem demo available straight from the Nintendo eShop. There’s also a Nintendo Switch version of the game available for the same price.
Disclaimer
This Disgaea Mayhem review is based on a Nintendo Switch 2 copy provided by NIS America.
