When the latest addition to the long running Disgaea franchise, Alliance of Vengeance was announced for release on Western shelves, expectations were high, and rightfully so. The last game, Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten , gained almost unified praise from critics and fans alike and has,...

The Disgaea series was an instant hit during its début on the Playstation 2, taking the familiar Strategy RPG concept popularized through games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre (same creator, different series) while adding an extra dose of hardcore gameplay revisions and quirky-yet-cute...

Impressive effort with a few noticeable problems holding it back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth most people's time and cash.

Finding a good tactical-RPG on a modern console is extremely rare. Sure, it happens every once in a while, but you have to wade through a lot of worthless crap in the interim. Fortunately, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance is an extremely deep and fun-filled game, because the epitome of torture is...

Deep character customization; User-friendly; fun-filled combat; Huge variety of features; Handy menu navigation; Post-game feature extends length

Horrible English voice acting and music; Character conversations are too lengthy; Tags

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance, the sixth title in the popular tactical RPG series, successfully expands on an already rich universe which began over 10 years ago on PlayStation 2.

The least funny Disgaea yet, but arguably the best in terms of the actual gameplay – even if there is a lack of genuinely new ideas.

A huge depth of options in terms of the combat itself and the character and customisation, but all of it is introduced in a sensibly controlled manner; Some nice 2D animation

The script and characters are amongst the least interesting in the series, and Killia in particular is a real bore; A lack of major new ideas and a built-in reliance on level grinding

It's no real surprise that Nippon Ichi's Disgaea is hitting new-gen. Since its inception back in 2003 new chapters have been released at regular intervals. Although this new game sports a 5 in its title, those five entries have to be added to the direct continuation of the first Disgaea title (that...

Wonderful combat but the world around it has some flaws that you just can't ignore.

Combat feels more intuitive than in previous games; but is still incredibly deep; The minor characters have some great dialogue in places

The hub world music; Please make it stop!!, Seraphinas spoilt-girl schtick never gets funny

If you enjoy grinding numbers, goofy anime antics, and over-the-top style, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance will give you hundreds of hours of replayability. If you don't like the idea of spending hours and hours replaying levels and building up characters, then you might want to look somewhere...

Solid core battle system; Hours and hours and hours of replayability; New graphics look gorgeous; sprites look amazing

Repetitive gameplay makes replaying old levels drag on; Camera angle issues tend to cause frustration; Little innovation in gameplay

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance marks a fresh start for the storied franchise, which previously was relegated to older Sony platforms (not counting a brief tryst with Nintendo's hardware in the form of a DS port of the debut title).