How Does Disgaea Compare to FF Tactics?

[Shepherd]

FFT is one of my favorite games of all time and somehow I missed the Disgaea series along the way. Would I like it?

[Multihog]

I don't see why you wouldn't. The gameplay is very similar yet different enough to not feel identical.

[Maldon]

Disgaea has the better gameplay, but worse story (except 1 and 3 imo).

[FangElon]

Final Fantasy Tactics is your traditional turn-based tactic eg.Ogre Tactic. Disgaea changes the rules abit. Character turns are not determined by any stats(eg. agility) but is similar to chess(Vandal Hearts) where each side has a turn. Each turn you can move your unit all at once chaining combos doing massive damage.

The best thing to do is to go see a video of the combat system. This game is certainly not for everyone.

One last thing, not sure if you already know this but this game emphasize on doing ALOT of grinding when you reach post game event where the real fun begins. So again this game is NOT FOR EVERYONE. Make an informed decision yourself.

[Birbone]

I have the 5th game but assuming that it's not that much different from the previous games (minus the obvious tweaks and story changes), the best way to sum it up is this way: Final fantasy is more about story and Disgaea is more about gameplay.
Infact while in FFT (and generally most old FF games) don't have more game after the ending, in Disgaea once you finish the main story you unlock the post game, where you "finally" have access the the full game with all the benefits.

And as FangElon said, the combat is split basically into phases in which you get to plan all of your actions and then execute them, while in FFT you have a streak of turns which is based on your character agility (I'm not a huge fan of this one but to each their own)

On the other hand - and this is my opinion - Disgaea is a little unbalanced in comparison to FFT. In Disgaea your toons can get up to lvl 9999 and reincarnate so that they get even higher stats (in d5 the "max level" is supposedly 186.000, or i might be wrong) and that's because post game bosses have insane stats (above the millions of ATK or DEF and even billions of hp), while in FFT the level cap is 99 (at least I remember that on the ps1 game) so its much more balanced and easier to play.

And once again, FFT is mostly about story and all the usual story telling stuff (I frankly can't remember but I don't recall enjoying it)) and Disgaea is mostly anime tropes with fan service and other stuff...and exploding penguins. Take your poison I suppose.

If you like grinding and lack of story then you should be good: even if I'm playing the 5th on the switch (i also have it on the ps4) it's the fact that it guarantees a lot of stuff to do after the end and I do like to see my character growing to have ginarmous stats. I'm not sure how long is the main game but it's mostly about the ENDgame. Just like in an mmorpg!

[juliuscaesar444]

Disgaea and all the Nippon Ichii turn based strategy games play a lot faster, with maybe the exception of La Pucell, than FFT or other turn based games. It's kinda like comparing Street Fighter to say Gulity Gear or MvC. Not that either is bad, it just feels different.

it's actually kinda hard going back to FFT or even worse say, Shining Force 1,2&3, after having play NIS games

[guering]

Disgaea series in general are like FFT on steroids (gameplay-wise). It offers many complex mechanics and is much more fast paced (only D1 is kinda slow).

Story-wise it will come down to personal taste. If you need serious, epic medieval war storylines then you won't enjoy Disgaea that much, which is a comedy game. The storyline is very simple and straightforward (often absurd, most of the time they fight for things like a lost pet or a picknic basket). Characters doesn't have much depth in general, but their anime art style is above average (I'm not a fan of anime art style because many of them look generic to me, but this definitely doesn't apply to Disgaea).

If you didn't played yet, I would recommend Tactics Ogre, which is pretty much the FFT prequel. It was made by the same developers. And even is slightly better then FFT imo (this comes from a diehard FFT fan). The PSP remake is the definitive version. Don't waste time with SNES version unless you're a purist. It's easily one of the best games I've ever played.

[Yuga-Suggah]

So, what a lof people aren't talking about is the FFT is more simular to Final Fantasy V rather than Disgaea. FFT job system is the bread and butter of game. It rewards you for trying new jobs and combinations. With a good team and combinations, you can beat areas well below what you should be.You really don't need to grind in this game, but first timers have some trouble learning mechanics.

Disgaea is much more stat and level driven. It rewards powerful characters and items and things on items that increase the chances of better stats and quick level ups. The game boosts that you can level about 9999 and you can do over a billion points of damage. You can change jobs, but its not inservice of the skills, but it all about raw damage. This is not a game for non-grinders. You can beat the game by not grinding, but you are really missing out on the point of the game as a large majority of the game is grinding after you beat the game. Saying that this game is FFT on steroids implies this game is like FFT, when it reality its anything but.

So while yes, the movement is the same between the two, and I guess the class based system is in both games. But outside of that, these are two games that are completely different from each other. I would strongly suggest you try the demo first because even if you like FFT, this game is a different kind of tactics game. That said, if you like this game, NIS has a bunch of simular games to this.