Seeing a JRPG franchise receive a musou style spinoff is hardly a new concept. Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest, and Persona have all received Dynasty Warriors–inspired hack-and-slash games courtesy of Omega Force over the years. What rarely happens, however, is seeing a musou game developed by someone other than the studio that popularised the genre, let alone by the series’ own developers. That’s exactly what happened with Disgaea. The long running turn based strategy franchise has now received its own action spinoff in the form of Disgaea Mayhem.

A riveting tale.

Disgaea Mayhem is a game that doesn’t try to set you up with an interesting premise at a steady pace. After starting a new savefile, you are thrown into an arena where you learn the game’s simplistic, but functional combat mechanics. It’s a standard musou-esque combat system: you have a quick attack, a strong attack, a run feature, a dodge button, and slots for screen-clearing moves, moves you’ll earn by either grabbing new and more powerful weapons, or by fusing your blade with one of your allies (usually a classic Disgaea monster, such as a Prinny), temporarily turning it into a more powerful version of itself. Every single level follows the same structure: kill waves of enemies in a very satisfactory manner, then defeat a boss.

You will kill a lot of them, dood.

I purposefully mentioned the gameplay before the game’s plot for two reasons. The first one: you are thrown into a battlefield before you can even understand what the hell is going on at first. The second reason: Disgaea Mayhem‘s story is absolutely stupid. You play as a serious bounty hunter, hired by the ruler of the netherworld to defeat a series of enemies because… they had all eaten her flan. Yep. Flan. That dessert which has never, ever been the central plot point of any story in the history of mankind. It is a premise so silly, so absolutely stupid, that it made me chuckle a few times. I am not particularly proud, either. The cheesy voice acting, whether it was intentional or just amateurish, was an oddly perfect fit for the setting, as well.

Throughout your playthrough, you will unlock new levels, partners, equipment… and once you think things are starting to pick up and fall into a neat little routine, Disgaea Mayhem just ends. It’s a shockingly short game which, despite featuring an interesting enough (if flawed) combat system, just is way too repetitive to be considered replayable. The game offers too little content, at least as of the time of writing, to be worthy of its staggering full price. It’s a shame, as I actually quite enjoyted the game, its loop, and how utterly ridiculous it is. I just wanted more from it at the end of the day.

Some bosses are just pure evil. Others, like this one, are just angry because of their BMI.

Disgaea Mayhem ended up being far more entertaining than I expected, especially considering the initial wave of negative reviews it received. I even found myself enjoying its utterly idiotic premise and overlooking some of its gameplay shortcomings. It was quickly becoming one of those perfect “switch your brain off and have fun” kinds of games. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t have enough to offer in the long run. It’s too short and lacks much in terms of lasting appeal. I’d recommend waiting for a sale, or at least until more content is added further down the line. If that happens, Disgaea Mayhem will absolutely be worth your time and money.

Disgaea Mayhem is available now on PS5, PC, Switch and Switch 2.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of Disgaea Mayhem was provided by the publisher.