# Disgaea studio Nippon Ichi Software reportedly in financial trouble, as employees may soon go unpaid



## Arolandis (May 19, 2019)

This has been one of my top 3 favorite japanese developers for a long time now, so this is pretty sad news. I hope everything works out for the company soon.


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## Sakitoshi (May 19, 2019)

no surprise, they have been doing pretty shit for a long time now, releasing buggy games, releasing weeb games on platforms without weebs to buy them and censoring themselves to appeal to a wider audience that isn't there.


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## Zeldaplayer67 (May 19, 2019)

I would @ that one guy with the laharl pic but I don't know their name.


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## Thunder Hawk (May 19, 2019)

How long until Epic buys them out?


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## Justinde75 (May 19, 2019)

Thunder Hawk said:


> How long until Epic buys them out?


too niche tbh epic is greedy as hell so it wouldnt do much for them


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## chaoskagami (May 19, 2019)

Sakitoshi said:


> no surprise, they have been doing pretty shit for a long time now, releasing buggy games, releasing weeb games on platforms without weebs to buy them and censoring themselves to appeal to a wider audience that isn't there.



That's NIS _America_, not NIS.

Either way, I hope to hell they don't go under. I don't know how I can handle another death like Imageepoch. That was *not* pretty, and I love the Disgaea games to death (or 9999999999999 damage, anyways.)


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## Fugelmir (May 19, 2019)

Unlosing Ranger is one of my top games of all time.

Sad.


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## prectorian (May 19, 2019)

Feel sorry for those Prinnies. Some might get laid off just to stay afloat.


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## KingVamp (May 19, 2019)

As others have said, I hope they can pull themselves around. I hope the worse thing that happens is that they are bought by another good company. Not saying it will help much, but they do have more titles they could be porting to PC and newer consoles.



Zeldaplayer67 said:


> I would @ that one guy with the laharl pic but I don't know their name.


lol


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## Nimrod-002 (May 19, 2019)

explains why they re-release their games so often, they made Disgea 3 and 4 on the PS3 redundant by remastering them on the vita within a year, as a non vita owner i hated that.


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## raxadian (May 19, 2019)

I already suffered something like this when the studio behind Viewfull Joe disappeared. 

Oh well, at least they did port Disgaea 5 to the Switch.


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## warweeny (May 19, 2019)

Sad news indeed.

I was hoping for a disgaea 2 complete, but if they go down, so does my dream.


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## Sakitoshi (May 19, 2019)

chaoskagami said:


> That's NIS _America_, not NIS.
> 
> Either way, I hope to hell they don't go under. I don't know how I can handle another death like Imageepoch. That was *not* pretty, and I love the Disgaea games to death (or 9999999999999 damage, anyways.)


you are right, it's easy to mix them up.

still, nis japan has been doing just ok, they have gone too niche for its own good, just look at what they have released the past year. without a heavy hitter to keep them up is no wonder they are struggling.

don't get me wrong, I like them and don't want them to go away, but they brought this by themselves.


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## kuwanger (May 19, 2019)

Sad.  I like the Nippon art style, but I've so little interest in most their games (Yomawari series looks interesting and the Prinny series looks interesting if brutal).  Was going to suggest them teaming up with Nihon Falcom, but I don't think they're in a position to do such a thing.  *sigh*  Still sort of sad to see them go, even if I think they're too ecchi.


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## raxadian (May 19, 2019)

warweeny said:


> Sad news indeed.
> 
> I was hoping for a disgaea 2 complete, but if they go down, so does my dream.



Play the PSP version plus DLC then.


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## warweeny (May 19, 2019)

raxadian said:


> Play the PSP version plus DLC then.



i already did, i want them to improve upon the pc version, you know, not a shitty way to get to land of carnage...


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## lordpsycho (May 19, 2019)

Sad news indeed. Played all disgaea games, I've even got platinum trophy on both Yomawari 1-2 and A Rose in the Twilight, they're so engaging and nicely done.

Hopefully they can finish their mobile game, a Disgaea mashup can give them a lot of money. Also if they could merge with Atlus (even though Sega owns it) or IdeaFactory/CompileHeart they could make some really funny crossovers...


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## brunocar (May 19, 2019)

raxadian said:


> Play the PSP version plus DLC then.


the DLC on the PSP version is a mess due to NISA's incompetence


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## Hyro-Sama (May 19, 2019)

Hopefully, they got bought out and restructured. Haven't been a fan of their latest work.


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## coppertj (May 19, 2019)

thats a shame, i played cave story for the first time on 3ds and bought the special edition case version. Was a really good game. i've been hooked on their games ever since I really hope they pull through


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## netovsk (May 19, 2019)

Why dont they put their PS3/PS4 games on sale instead of dumping stock? I'd even buy some Disgaea/Phantom Brave games but even when on sale they are way expensive.

Plus, limiting their release platforms for the sake of idiocy sure doesn't help. I have a friend who is a big fan of Disgaea games but he's on xbox. Seeing how their games are available on windows they could port it to xbox at minimum cost/effort. They could even put some such as Disgaea Remastered on game pass for a quick cash instead of dumping stock.


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## DCG (May 19, 2019)

Nisa is a subsidiary of them, so nisa fucking stuff up is their responsibility...
So I'm guessing it's still a case of "get woke, go broke"...

I'll have to take a look at which games have been censored and which have not, to see which ones I'll pick up before they're gone :/


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## Bladexdsl (May 19, 2019)

not surprising they have lost their mojo lately Disgaea 5 was fucking terrible.


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## Jayro (May 19, 2019)

Spent the entire game's budget on hookers and blow, eh?


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## gameboy (May 19, 2019)

Fugelmir said:


> Unlosing Ranger is one of my top games of all time.
> 
> Sad.



that game is hilarious. a lot of nis games have incredible humor but theyre WAY too grindy and looty


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## Harsky (May 19, 2019)

I bet Square Enix acquires their IP or the whole company.


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## leon315 (May 19, 2019)

Hyro-Sama said:


> Hopefully, they got bought out and restructured.


Which company bought them?


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## Darksabre72 (May 19, 2019)

Sakitoshi said:


> no surprise, they have been doing pretty shit for a long time now, releasing buggy games, releasing weeb games on platforms without weebs to buy them and censoring themselves to appeal to a wider audience that isn't there.


idk if this counts but they removed features from the Steam version of Disgaea 5 Complete


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## eyeliner (May 19, 2019)

That's niche for ya.
Only hope for survival is launching something as fan service or being picked up/contracted by something like Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft and develop a game, much akin to Inteligent Systems and Fire Emblem: Awakening. They need to get their games to a broader audience.


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## Izual Urashima (May 19, 2019)

Another case of "get woke, go broke", it seems. However, NIS still has an option to get out of it - Torch NISA and get the money back, leaving eventual localisations being done by other, more competent companies.


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## Vieela (May 19, 2019)

It's so sad to see this happening tbh. NIS is way too "off mainstream" with their games, it just really makes two times harder to survive. I hope they are able to recover.


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## Eleczoro (May 19, 2019)

Sad to hear a longtime publisher like this might be going down.


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## Darksabre72 (May 19, 2019)

brunocar said:


> the DLC on the PSP version is a mess due to NISA's incompetence





Bladexdsl said:


> not surprising they have lost their mojo lately Disgaea 5 was fucking terrible.





Hyro-Sama said:


> Hopefully, they got bought out and restructured. Haven't been a fan of their latest work.


could anyone tell me why or what happened to disgaea games over the years that make them bad?


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## hotaru251 (May 19, 2019)

KingVamp said:


> I hope the worse thing that happens is that they are bought by another good company.



just dont let EA near em :| else that will be end of em.



Sucks about their trouble 

I loved main games cast and (IMHO) 3-5 havent been better than the 1st 2 games.


Hope they can turn their $$ around and keep making fans happy.


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## Shogil (May 19, 2019)

DCG said:


> Nisa is a subsidiary of them, so nisa fucking stuff up is their responsibility...
> So I'm guessing it's still a case of "get woke, go broke"...
> 
> I'll have to take a look at which games have been censored and which have not, to see which ones I'll pick up before they're gone :/



That's what I want to know: Do the NISA screw-ups hurt NIS in any way? I'm assuming if a NISA game undersells due to poor performance, bad pricing, translation issues etc. then that also hurts NIS?


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## Deleted_413010 (May 19, 2019)

I don't feel remorse...never even heard of them or their games but it doesn't sound like games I would play.

As for employees not being paid if I didn't get paid for even a single month I would quit and possibly sue the company. Its bullshit which I do not like.


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## brunocar (May 19, 2019)

Darksabre72 said:


> could anyone tell me why or what happened to disgaea games over the years that make them bad?


NISA fucked so many things up in the last decade, the D2 PSP DLC was localized terribly and was full of bugs and incomplete, the D1 PC port was a mess at launch and still doesnt work all that well, the whole Ys 8 scandal (xseed had been doing and had the rights for all the previous Ys games, but NISA took over for this one game and the translation was shit, the vita version was never localized [thats the original version btw] and the PC port was a hot mess) and then you have D5 complete PC, where the game was delayed 4 times, the entire game got leaked during beta testing because the demo was the full game with a single file changed so that you couldnt progress and if that wasnt enough, when the game finally came out, it had all of its online and social features completly removed, so it wasnt "complete" as the title suggests


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## raxadian (May 19, 2019)

brunocar said:


> NISA fucked so many things up in the last decade, the D2 PSP DLC was localized terribly and was full of bugs and incomplete, the D1 PC port was a mess at launch and still doesnt work all that well, the whole Ys 8 scandal (xseed had been doing and had the rights for all the previous Ys games, but NISA took over for this one game and the translation was shit, the vita version was never localized [thats the original version btw] and the PC port was a hot mess) and then you have D5 complete PC, where the game was delayed 4 times, the entire game got leaked during beta testing because the demo was the full game with a single file changed so that you couldnt progress and if that wasnt enough, when the game finally came out, it had all of its online and social features completly removed, so it wasnt "complete" as the title suggests



Is even earlier than that, Disgaea 1 for PS2 had a game breaking bug,  Disgaea 1 for PSP had a bug that allowed you to beat the game quite easily. And Disgaea DS while it had extra content and Prinny Comentary mode. But the game crashed a lot and in some cases outright deleted your saved game.


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## osaka35 (May 19, 2019)

dissapointing. I wonder if it just comes down to sales, management, or the nature of the games they made. it'd be nice if they were bought by someone who appreciated their fun spin on things and kept their funding solid. good on them making sure employees get paid first and foremost.


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## raxadian (May 19, 2019)

osaka35 said:


> dissapointing. I wonder if it just comes down to sales, management, or the nature of the games they made. it'd be nice if they were bought by someone who appreciated their fun spin on things and kept their funding solid. good on them making sure employees get paid first and foremost.



The mobile game definitely killed the company when the west started to hate Lootboxes. 

But let's be honest, considering all the bugs all the versions of Disgaea 1 save Complete had, problems had been there long ago.  

Disgaea 2 is a good game but the PSP DLC was badly made and people complained it wasn't a direct sequel to Disgaea 1 and how much of a cliche storm it was.  

Disgaea 3 won fans back, 4 is divisive and 5 was a porting disaster on PC. Is the Nintendo Switch version of five good? 

And how come D2 only came out for PS3?


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## THYPLEX (May 19, 2019)

Bladexdsl said:


> not surprising they have lost their mojo lately Disgaea 5 was fucking terrible.


It was so bad ?
Why?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



raxadian said:


> The mobile game definitely killed the company when the west started to hate Lootboxes.
> 
> But let's be honest, considering all the bugs all the versions of Disgaea 1 save Complete had, problems had been there long ago.
> 
> ...


So , only disgaea 2 is good ?
Why ?


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## raxadian (May 19, 2019)

THYPLEX said:


> It was so bad ?
> Why?
> 
> So , only disgaea 2 is good ?
> Why ?



Disgaea 1 and 3 are considered the best games but 2 has been earning some fans. I mean while 2 storywise is considered inferior to 1, the game itself is better.

4 is divisive and 5... depends how good the Switch version is.


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## Deleted User (May 19, 2019)

F


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## meem (May 19, 2019)

raxadian said:


> Disgaea 1 and 3 are considered the best games but 2 has been earning some fans. I mean while 2 storywise is considered inferior to 1, the game itself is better.
> 
> 4 is divisive and 5... depends how good the Switch version is.



200000 sales from what I've heard, Also what happened with the pc port? The switch ports what you expect from a complete package, and what I've seen everything from the ps4 version is accounted for in the switch version I believe


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## eriol33 (May 19, 2019)

That sounds uber bad. It seems Nippon ichi is going bankrupt or what?


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## Darksabre72 (May 19, 2019)

brunocar said:


> NISA fucked so many things up in the last decade, the D2 PSP DLC was localized terribly and was full of bugs and incomplete, the D1 PC port was a mess at launch and still doesnt work all that well, the whole Ys 8 scandal (xseed had been doing and had the rights for all the previous Ys games, but NISA took over for this one game and the translation was shit, the vita version was never localized [thats the original version btw] and the PC port was a hot mess) and then you have D5 complete PC, where the game was delayed 4 times, the entire game got leaked during beta testing because the demo was the full game with a single file changed so that you couldnt progress and if that wasnt enough, when the game finally came out, it had all of its online and social features completly removed, so it wasnt "complete" as the title suggests


wow i heard about D5 being censored with the pc port removing features and xseed issue, but this is just a mess, especially with NSIA not doing a great job on the ports. thank you for the tldr.


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## kingaz (May 19, 2019)

raxadian said:


> Disgaea 1 and 3 are considered the best games but 2 has been earning some fans. I mean while 2 storywise is considered inferior to 1, the game itself is better.
> 
> 4 is divisive and 5... depends how good the Switch version is.



My understanding is that 3 is more divisive than 4, and actually sold slightly worse than 4 (although the vita release of 3 outsold the vita release of 4, so I suppose that 3 gets a tiny edge in overall sales). 

At any rate, this is really shitty news. I have been starving for 3, 4, and D2 to come to PC (and for 2, 3, 4, and D2 to all come to Switch and PS4). But they are in such dire straits right now that I fear that either the remnants of NIS or whoever buys the rights won't find any point in re-releasing older games, let alone getting around to Disgaea 6.


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## SS4 (May 19, 2019)

Damn, lets all buy stocks, it might help the company and if it does we also will all make profits in the end on top of keeping the studio alive for more games to come 
But yeah, guess they wanted to go mobile to milk the shit out of whales like most companies are doing using their best IP in shitty games . . . . If they do manage to launch it, they will most likely get back in business given today's mobile landscape.


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## alexei_gp (May 19, 2019)

@porkiewpyne mmmm sorry it was so long time not passed here on gbatemp.I didnt know you put new rules here.My apologies i didnt to be mean to the mods


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## raxadian (May 20, 2019)

kingaz said:


> My understanding is that 3 is more divisive than 4, and actually sold slightly worse than 4 (although the vita release of 3 outsold the vita release of 4, so I suppose that 3 gets a tiny edge in overall sales).
> 
> At any rate, this is really shitty news. I have been starving for 3, 4, and D2 to come to PC (and for 2, 3, 4, and D2 to all come to Switch and PS4). But they are in such dire straits right now that I fear that either the remnants of NIS or whoever buys the rights won't find any point in re-releasing older games, let alone getting around to Disgaea 6.



Get a hackable used Vita, then you can play the first four games there. for Disgaea Dimension 2 aka Disgaea D2 you either need a hackable PS3 or a PS3 emulator and for 5 is better to get the Switch version.

I have a PSP, PS3, Vita and Switch and even a Nintendo DS to enjoy Prinny commentary mode on Disgaea DS.


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## orangy57 (May 20, 2019)

hey look its the guys that made the cool penguin hat in tf2

that penguin was cool, hope the place doesn't get shut down while scummy companies still manage to prosper


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## kingaz (May 20, 2019)

raxadian said:


> Get a hackable used Vita, then you can play the first four games there. for Disgaea Dimension 2 aka Disgaea D2 you either need a hackable PS3 or a PS3 emulator and for 5 is better to get the Switch version.
> 
> I have a PSP, PS3, Vita and Switch and even a Nintendo DS to enjoy Prinny commentary mode on Disgaea DS.



I mean, I do have a hacked PSTV that is pretty much just for 3, 4, and persona 5 golden with a couple of PSP games to boot. And I do have disgaea 1 and 2 for PC, and 1 complete and 5 for switch. 

I just would love to have all 6 games in an official form on a high quality portable console (read: not the VITA). And while I'm still a little unhappy with how NIS didn't even bother making HD sprites for many of the original classes from D1 for complete, they did eventually make that port passable enough for me to pick up.


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## brunocar (May 20, 2019)

raxadian said:


> Is even earlier than that, Disgaea 1 for PS2 had a game breaking bug,  Disgaea 1 for PSP had a bug that allowed you to beat the game quite easily. And Disgaea DS while it had extra content and Prinny Comentary mode. But the game crashed a lot and in some cases outright deleted your saved game.


pretty sure those are mostly NIS's fault, not NISA.


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## WhiteMaze (May 20, 2019)

Taking into account that their games sold relatively well, and this being a studio far more known than other studios of the same size, I would say this is definitely bad management.

Someone has been buying too many Ferraris with company money.

Paying employees?? Ha. Those chumps should be glad they even have a job to begin with.


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## Izual Urashima (May 20, 2019)

For those suggesting people to (re)play Disgaea 4 or especially D2, be VERY careful with them, since they are known to melt PS3s (when a certain character uses a fire spell, which is quite meta in itself, it causes a loop the console is definitely not meant to endure, making it overheat in seconds).

This has never been officially patched, but maybe fan patches hold the solution ?


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## raxadian (May 20, 2019)

Izual Urashima said:


> For those suggesting people to (re)play Disgaea 4 or especially D2, be VERY careful with them, since they are known to melt PS3s (when a certain character uses a fire spell, which is quite meta in itself, it causes a loop the console is definitely not meant to endure, making it overheat in seconds).
> 
> This has never been officially patched, but maybe fan patches hold the solution ?



Well at least D4 can be played on a Vita. And for D2 doubleload is said to work, you can also try disabling attacks animations.


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## GamerzHell9137 (May 20, 2019)

They both suck ass.


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## Ericthegreat (May 20, 2019)

Chary said:


> View attachment 167414​
> Things appear to not be going well for Nippon Ichi Software, as reports, comments, and outcries of financial problems begin to crop up. NIS is not to be confused with its North American localizing and publishing branch, NIS America; NIS itself is the Japanese studio that develops titles such as Disgaea, Phantom Brave, Labyrinth of Refrain, The Witch and the Hundred Knight, and many other niche JRPGs. Currently, they are working on Disgaea RPG, a mobile phone game, which was delayed "indefinitely" earlier this year after a rocky launch that saw the game taken down entirely, causing company stocks to plunge in the aftermath. A month after the delay has now seen further complications for NIS, as blogs, news outlets, and even employees have come forward to say that workers will soon go without pay, as the company doesn't have the funds for salaries.
> 
> As reported in Japan, Nippon Ichi Software has gone through with a Moving Strike Warrant, meaning that they're selling their stocks far below value, in order to quickly make money at the cost of current stockholders investments in attempts to quickly generate enough to pay their employees. As Disgaea RPG has been in development for two years and wasn't ready for launch, there has been no income brought in to provide the development team with their wages. For the few Japanese players that bought in-game items before the game was pulled, they can now request a refund, through opening a support ticket on the official website, presumably occurring now rather than immediately after the game was pulled, as a result of the MS Warrant.
> ...


Wow I feel bad for the investors, I wonder where things went wrong, to me this seems like someone stole their profits. (Unless they really pay their developers well with too long of a turnover.)


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## Bowl0l (May 20, 2019)

Izual Urashima said:


> For those suggesting people to (re)play Disgaea 4 or especially D2, be VERY careful with them, since they are known to melt PS3s (when a certain character uses a fire spell, which is quite meta in itself, it causes a loop the console is definitely not meant to endure, making it overheat in seconds).
> 
> This has never been officially patched, but maybe fan patches hold the solution ?


 Serious? Can you be specific on the move's name?


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## raxadian (May 20, 2019)

Bowl0l said:


> Serious? Can you be specific on the move's name?



It doesn't burn the PS3, just crashes it. Just double load the game and disable attack animations and you are golden. 

D4 was patched, so get all the updates, Dimension 2 unfortunately wasn't.  

These crashes are nothing new, Disgaea DS crashes a lot.


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## KEHT (May 20, 2019)

So, this is a price not to release Disgaea 5 on VITA


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## FANDROID_SWIMBOIS (May 20, 2019)

very sad news, i love the game `dood`


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## Fugelmir (May 20, 2019)

I just played 5.  Storyline was stupid as usual but it had an awesome battle theme:


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## Darksabre72 (May 20, 2019)

raxadian said:


> It doesn't burn the PS3, just crashes it. Just double load the game and disable attack animations and you are golden.
> 
> D4 was patched, so get all the updates, Dimension 2 unfortunately wasn't.
> 
> These crashes are nothing new, Disgaea DS crashes a lot.


does alot of disgaea game problems occur mainly in the japanese versions of disgaea games or the english versions?


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## Ericthegreat (May 20, 2019)

Izual Urashima said:


> For those suggesting people to (re)play Disgaea 4 or especially D2, be VERY careful with them, since they are known to melt PS3s (when a certain character uses a fire spell, which is quite meta in itself, it causes a loop the console is definitely not meant to endure, making it overheat in seconds).
> 
> This has never been officially patched, but maybe fan patches hold the solution ?





Bowl0l said:


> Serious? Can you be specific on the move's name?


That's really strange and sounds like something easy to patch, seems though probably it stays within its playground and the game crashes way before any damage can be done (probably can still corrupt somthing software wise), but it seems no one really knows (or cares to check(?)) if it does overflow, but still it should be okay, I could see this perhaps killing a machine that was going to die soon anyway, but probably it stays within its playground.


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## raxadian (May 20, 2019)

Darksabre72 said:


> does alot of disgaea game problems occur mainly in the japanese versions of disgaea games or the english versions?



For what I know? Mostly in the English versions. Although the PS2 version of Disgaea 1 is still buggy as hell even in Japanese.


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## THYPLEX (May 22, 2019)

raxadian said:


> Disgaea 1 and 3 are considered the best games but 2 has been earning some fans. I mean while 2 storywise is considered inferior to 1, the game itself is better.
> 
> 4 is divisive and 5... depends how good the Switch version is.


Gameplay itself wich game of those Is Better among the others?


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## Skaidus (May 22, 2019)

Gameplay improves

Story sucks more 

Thats what happens when you go up the disgaea series 

(Play LaPucelle)


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## raxadian (May 22, 2019)

Skaidus said:


> Gameplay improves
> 
> Story sucks more
> 
> ...



Hey, 3 is good enough to stand in it's own and Dimension 2 storywise is okay for a sequel.  

Gameplay wise I have quite enjoyed Disgaea 2.


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## chaoskagami (May 25, 2019)

raxadian said:


> For what I know? Mostly in the English versions. Although the PS2 version of Disgaea 1 is still buggy as hell even in Japanese.



There've been bugs in the Japanese version of games, but NIS never seems to take very long to push a fix. The same cannot be said for NISA, and in some cases we never even get improvement patches, only bugfixes.

And PS2 games are inherently unfixable. They have to be R2'd if a bugfix is needed (aside from some rare cases like Rachet Deadlocked which exploits a buffer overflow in netcode to patch the binary in memory when attempting to play online)


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