PlayStation 5 Critic Reviews

Disgaea Mayhem has its stumbles as it fuses Disgaea’s iconic systems with frantic hack-and-slash gameplay, but it’s a largely worthwhile venture for series fans. Jumping between the different weapon types and leveling yourself and your items to crazy heights make for a solid base, and the charm the series is known for is certainly intact, even with its short playtime. Essentially, if you like the Disgaea series and action RPGs, you’ll likely have a good time with Disgaea Mayhem – so long as you know it won’t be too long a time.

Disgaea Mayhem is light, breezy, and charming, but that isn't enough to overcome the nagging feeling that it could have been a lot more than it currently is.

Disgaea Mayhem is a cool concept on paper, and despite some flashy late-game abilities, the lack of overall content and polish makes it a forgettable experience, even for Netherworld acolytes.

To make a Disgaea game this short feels like a mortal sin. Perhaps if you had more than one playable character, more main story content, or a lot more endgame stuff to do, Disgaea Mayhem wouldn’t feel so painfully brief. As it stands, I’ve been left wanting a lot more. The worst part is, I love what I’ve played. The combat is excellent, the characters all look amazing, and there are so many systems you can tinker with. The potential for growth and power scaling is pretty robust. But then the game fizzles out and ends, seemingly out of nowhere.

Disgaea Mayhem is a solid entry into the action RPG genre for the franchise, successfully carrying over the nonsensical plot, core mechanics, and boundless progression that the series is celebrated for. Fans who love to min-max and grind all the way to level 9999 will find plenty to sink their teeth into here once again. However, newcomers and casual players might not find enough depth to keep them hooked, given that the main story wraps up in under 10 hours. If you strip away the familiar Disgaea elements, Mayhem is a rather uninspired action game. While it's a commendable effort, it doesn't quite hold a candle to more established JRPGs in the same space.

Disgaea Mayhem is a faithful adaptation of the series’ spirit, but it fails to recapture the usual madness and over-the-top excess that define Disgaea.

Disgaea Mayhem delivers a merely mediocre result in what it proposes: it fails as a clone of Musou in terms of gameplay and fails to exude all the charisma of the brand it supposedly represents.

A part of me can't help but feel a little bad about Disgaea Mayhem since its genre shift could theoretically have been a gateway for me to enjoy a slice of this franchise. Unfortunately, it's simply just not an enjoyable experience in nearly any metric; I wish its two endearing leads, N.A. and Techilla, were in a more favorable game. At the very least, even though I won't be following the series' direction, I hope that Disgaea sticks to its roots as a tactical RPG franchise rather than flailing about in a desperate attempt to attract prospective fans.