A good game but nothing new to fans of the developer.
Makai Kingdom mixes elements of Disgaea and the team’s other major title, Phantom Brave. Phantom Brave was a rather awkward affair, with irritating elements of level capping, a constant need for character and item fusions, an equally constant need to update equipment as well as a new movement system - replacing the grid system with a movement circle. Makai Kingdom did away with the fusion and level capping we saw in Phantom Brave but stuck with the movement system.
This leaves the game feeling a little patched together. While playing you can’t get over the feeling that a grid movement system would have been better, doing away with the often awkward battle scenarios with characters bunched into corners or madly dispersed, and with difficult to estimate attack ranges making combat dependent at times on luck. The combo system is also somewhat of a joke. All it requires is a period of trial and error of getting people into the right attack range. There is little genuine skill or tactical planning needed.
The game is by no means terrible, rather exactly what you might expect. I’m torn between expecting something new and wanting what we all know worked so well with Disgaea. What is there is enjoyable to play through but it has something missing. They tried to spice things up a little with the inclusion of vehicles after a certain point in the game, but the vehicle use is too awkward to get to grips with, or at least I found it to be so. They also seem unnecessary as the game is easily completed without ever needing to learn to use them.
One of the games strong points should be the story, but once again, it seems a little tired. The script seems like it’s trying too hard to be something it shouldn’t, with the ‘Overlords’ speaking too plainly, with profanity and colloquialism seeming out of place - hearing characters converse like this is nothing new for Nippon Ichi games but even the childish charm of hearing a badass talk in a classical camp fashion soon wears thin. The story is also rather peculiar. It puts you in a circumstance where you don’t play as the main character, which makes it harder to really care what happens with him and those around him. There is the option of unlocking him, but it requires too much effort, especially with levelling up being harder than it was in Disgaea.
It’s a good game, but it’s unspectacular. Although they are good at making this type of game it seems that Nippon Ichi is reluctant to move on, seemingly proven by the fact that the characters of Disgaea appear in both Phantom Brave and this title. A good game but nothing new to fans of Nippon Ichi.