caught word on my steam activity feed that several of my steammates joined a "Disgaea PC" community group. i initially thought it was just a fanmade pc adaptation of the adorably demonic strategy rpg, but nope. it's an official game group, and it wasn't long until i found the steam page for the game, too. come February of next year, the first game in Nippon Ichi Software's Disgaea series will see release on Steam.
already said some stuff about the Disgaea series last year for the first part of my Disgaea manga review thing, so i'll leave that alone. though, uh... i should at least get back to that readthrough at some point. outside of being a port of the first Disgaea game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Disgaea PC will include all content from the Afternoon of Darkness PSP rerelease, as well as enhanced textures, an updated UI, keyboard/mouse and controller support, steam achievements, and cloud saves amongst other features they didn't bother to list on the steam page. there'll also be steam trading cards that players can craft into badges to show off on their profile, as well as get some nifty emoticons and backgrounds out of it alongside coupons that they'll probably never use.
that's pretty much the gist of it from what i can gather off the steam page. though why is this titled with "gen's thoughts" instead of MAKAIPUNK? and maybe it should've been titled STEAMPUNK instead?
well, i kinda got a couple thoughts concerning this rerelease, and really, i kinda keep MAKAIPUNK focused on the more doofy-yet-informational NIS stuff. as for STEAMPUNK, this isn't a review of a steam game. so yeah.
anyhow, more wordy thoughts under the cut.
i think it goes without saying that i'm pretty hyped for a PC rerelease of Disgaea. while i do own a digital copy of the PSP port on PSVita, as well as a physical copy of the third game's PSVita port and several other NIS titles on both PSP and PS2, i've been hoping for a PC release of Disgaea for quite a while. 'course, i'd be fine with PC ports of any of NIS's other titles, Hyperdimension Neptunia not counting since while NIS America published it in the US, it's actually developed by Idea Factory and i hate IF on principle. but that's beside the point. let's get back on topic.
strangely enough, this wasn't NIS's first time testing the waters of the PC gaming market. well, NIS America, to be more specific. in 2012, NIS America decided to publish a couple of games on Steam, namely PC ports of PSP hack'n'slash dungeoncrawler Cladun X2 and PS3 action game Clan of Champions. both of which... didn't get the best of feedback. Cladun's port suffered from issues such as screen flickers and frequent crashing (solid game on PSP/Vita tho!), while Clan of Champions was just a poor game in general.
the hefty price tags on both games didn't help, either. that, and neither went on sale all that frequently, if at all. so yeah. not the best games for NISA to try gaining a PC audience. with how well those went, hopes for PC ports of titles actually developed by NIS pretty much went south until now.
so with that bout of history, how come now we're getting Disgaea on PC now? with said port actually being developed by NIS no less, if the steam page can be believed?
to be honest, i don't have that much of a clue? my best guess would be the demand for a PC version of Disgaea, which the community has wanted for quite a few years. there's also the possibility that NIS themselves might have interest in the PC gaming userbase. dunno how big PC gaming is in Japan, but considering a lot of doujin titles are PC-based, it's probably pretty sizeable.
'course, there's also a possibility NIS might be following in Idea Factory's footsteps with porting their titles to PC via Steam. yes, i know i said i hate Idea Factory on principle and still do, from what i've heard, the PC ports of the Hyperdimension Neptunia games have been doing pretty well in terms of optimization; not only tweaking graphics, but also making sure the game runs smoothly on computers. not that you'll ever convince me to play them myself, but still. gotta give credit where credit is due, even if reluctantly.
while i'm hoping NIS does the same in that regard (NISA's already shown some shots of the new UI and revamped textures, as well as mentioned that they can be switched between the new and old textures/UI), i'm hoping they'll add some options to change the quality of the graphics and such so people with more lower-end systems can enjoy the game at a decent framerate. i know Disgaea isn't known for being a graphically-intense game, and it's probably just a personal quip on my end, but still. i worry, okay? i don't have the most spectacular computer, and i'm just surprised i can run Skyrim at a reasonable framerate even if the graphic settings aren't the best.
despite that little honestly-really-minor issue, i hope Disgaea PC does well, both in sales and as a game port in general. not just because it'll potentially let NIS and NISA know there's interest for PC ports of their games, but that it'll help introduce Disgaea to more and more people who don't want to hassle with emulators or buying extra consoles.
and hey, maybe in the future we might get PC ports of some of Nippon Ichi's other non-Disgaea titles as well. Soul Nomad PC, anyone?
anyhow, that's it for now. stay rad, tell your friends, and now if you'll excuse me, i'll be here holding out hope that the eventual Makai Kingdom PC has all the content from the PSP port that never got localized in the US. ahem.
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