Characters getting worse in each game.

[AliceTheGorgon]

D1: Etna was cool. Laharl was slightly annoying for falling for Flonne, but other than that was okay, and as long as you actually killed Lamington (or Flonne) or got one of the Etna endings everything was okay.

D2: Rozalin and Adell were nothing particularly special, but Rozalin being the overlord was kind of neat, and Adell's family were pretty fun. (Shout-outs to the "bad" ending too, which was neat.)

D3: Raspberyl was neat, but got a bit stale over time, and Mao was whatever.

D4: Valvatorez was so dull I don't remember anything about him other than that he liked sardines and was boring and I never even got very far in the game.

D:D2 decieded that Etna needed to be knocked down a billion pegs, so instead of having the potential to become Beauty Tyrant Etna like in D1, or even just Beauty Queen Etna when she literally hacked her title in D2 (and that's in the canon route), now she supposedly can't even absorb a ball of demon energy without dying.
(Edit: I somehow manged to forget about the random demon siblings from nowhere. Apparently I literally blocked that memory because they were so bad.)

Now we have the "please just have sex or kill each other already" squad in D5, who're supposedly demon overlords yet constantly go out of their way to act exactly like every anime stereotype ever and be all angst and pointless sexual tension and love and justice and helping every random person for no reason. Friggin' Christo even comments on how un-demonlike Killia is, for Netherworld's sake.

Sure, the gameplay's had a lot of refinments over the years (apart from guns only being four-way starting in D2, that's still dumb), but the characters are so insufferable that there's no possible way I'll be able to spend as long on this one as the original, or even 2.

[ShinkuTear]

While opinions vary, most people would argue Valvatorez is one of the *most* likable and interesting MCs the series has had, plus his game has Desco, who is also wonderful.

Yeah, D3 had pretty much zero interesting characters, maybe just Almaz and Sapphire, Mao only resembled anything likable when he was going on about crazy stuff.

D5, at very least the cast mostly becomes likable by Chapters 8 to 10 or so, when people start getting their growth chapters. Zero and Red stop being flaming trash and become likable, Usalia becomes more likable, and Killia stops being an annoying loner-wannabe.

Seraphina pretty much never improves though, she always sucks, and half the cast needing up to Chapter 10 out of 16 to stop being garbage is not good at all

[Murasaki]

Originally posted by ShinkuTear:

While opinions vary, most people would argue Valvatorez is one of the *most* likable and interesting MCs the series has had, plus his game has Desco, who is also wonderful.

Yeah, D3 had pretty much zero interesting characters, maybe just Almaz and Sapphire, Mao only resembled anything likable when he was going on about crazy stuff.

D5, at very least the cast mostly becomes likable by Chapters 8 to 10 or so, when people start getting their growth chapters. Zero and Red stop being flaming trash and become likable, Usalia becomes more likable, and Killia stops being an annoying loner-wannabe.

Seraphina pretty much never improves though, she always sucks, and half the cast needing up to Chapter 10 out of 16 to stop being garbage is not good at all

Kinda disagree about Seraphina though. My bet most people hate her cause bad english dub. While she never grows like most of the cast, she becomes better at the end. If anything i'm kinda sad that she is forever friendzoned by killia. I even enjoyed her chapter (though i wished her father would be more human like). And for me least favorable characters are: generic overlords (i mean its just really cheap way to make them and even in comparison to Diez Gentlemen they looks worse), Zeroken (i get that he grows much but he feels so cliche and typical anime hero.). Things i missed in d5: playable Lieze. She is the best character in this game hands down. (at least for me).

[Fel]

D1 was probably among the best cast for the "uniques", they really did the brat without limits well (outside of the end of the story that I decided to selectively forget to just keep the brat that jumps on meteors and laughs as it crashes down), and Etna was just right in the mix between potential back-stabber and friend. Even Flonne had her moments, especially in the "next episode" things where she is just like a kid wanting to be a super heroine.

Etna, Adel's mother and Adel's sister worked fine in D2, and the annoying frog had its time, but the rest of the cast was really annoying for me.

D3 only had Raspberyl, and it's pretty hard to carry the whole thing without at least one or two stand out characters.

For D4 the duo of Desco and Fuuka was pretty much the only thing that stuck for me. Sure, Artina (lesser version of Flonne in most aspects) and Fenrich (boring loyal pet dog) were there for story reasons, and Valvatorez just looks like a badass that doesn't want to bother trying.

(DD2 just didn't hapen, I refuse to remember Etna being that useless and weak-minded, and Laharl was way too toned down as well)

As for this game, the story for me is "hey, look at those fools pretending to go against a big bad guy, let's follow them and steal their screen time by stealing their enemies while they sometimes discuss things in the comfy base panel" as I abandonned all of the story characters and play with generic instead because of how poor the characters are in dialogues.

[Automaton Spy]

Looks like someone forgot their spoiler tags.

That and Killia and Lieze are cute as hell.

[ShinkuTear]

Sure, Seraphina grows, but it just feels so... minor. It is supposed to be her growing to conquer one of her greatest fears, but it comes off like she just learned some common sense and then did that weird Zukyun thing.

[Murasaki]

Originally posted by ShinkuTear:

Sure, Seraphina grows, but it just feels so... minor. It is supposed to be her growing to conquer one of her greatest fears, but it comes off like she just learned some common sense and then did that weird Zukyun thing.

Still better than cliche Zeroken who was weak and scared and now becomes a hero or whatever.

[ShinkuTear]

Honestly, I feel the opposite. Zero weant from a coward afraid of any fight he wasn't 100% on, to someone devoted to rescuing who he cares about.

Sera seems like she has the least growth in the entire party. Even one of the post game allies seems like they grow more within the few scenes they get.

[Murasaki]

Originally posted by ShinkuTear:

Honestly, I feel the opposite. Zero weant from a coward afraid of any fight he wasn't 100% on, to someone devoted to rescuing who he cares about.

Sera seems like she has the least growth in the entire party. Even one of the post game allies seems like they grow more within the few scenes they get.

Tastes i guess. Sera was kinda fun overall in later chapters (no, not this joke when she shoots someone). But there were couple of great moments. I actually wish some older disgaeas would be released. I hate some gameplay changes in this one. (want to play d4)

[Moringa]

Personally I like most of the chars in Disgaea 5 and I have no idea where the overall sexual tension comes from OP mentions. In Disgaea 1 you had flat chest big boobs jokes all the time if I remember correctly. The only (romantic) advances in this title come from Sera.
Btw I don't want to sound elitist or brag about playing the game in Japanese (sound and text) but the English text will probably not do justice to a lot of word plays and especially not the speaking style of the characters. Sera is fun because she has this extreme ojousama style. That's not reinventing the wheel but it's still enjoyable. Again every character is a walking trope - that's just how the games are and were starting with disgaea 1 and previous Nippon Ichi titles.
If you don't like it, then these games are not for you. But comparing 5 with previous titles, I like 5 a lot. As always, nostalgia can be a ♥♥♥♥♥...

[sidspacewalker]

The cast of D1 was certainly the best and most memorable, all future entries kind of went downhill in the cast and plot department but certainly improved in the gameplay department. I'm just glad I could play D5 with the D1 cast.

Genuine question though, can you explain why you like Etna?

[Pickleton]

Etna makes a good foil for Laharl.

[Drobodur]

But ... They are the same?!?
They have jokes, they have quirks, and they are sidestep of a steriotype, while being one.

I personally didn't like cast of D2 - because too serious. Only ninja was desent, and just barely, by the fact, that it was ninja.

Mechanically I love what they did here, in D5 - you have at least some pull to use main cast in battle, due to good evilities, and ability to open tiers on any class you need.
And their evilities / overlord uniques give desent options, even if they are dragged beghind in levels. (Like free money / items / exp, 100% hit chance and dethblow, if you can land charm).

Visually - they look better, than ever before...

I, personally had no expectations, before buying the game, but so far - I like this cast.
Red Magnus in particular.

[Prinny]

Sometimes it looks like I'm the only one that really likes most of the chars in D5. I'm around chapter 8 and I think I only dislike Red Magnus, but I don't actually hate him.

I like Killia, I'm surprised that he is not only an edgy and lone wolf type, I like his "cooker and kind" side as well. (I have a weak spot for characters like him)
Usalia is really cute and funny, I like how random she sometimes is.
Seraphina...is "ok". I don't think she is terrible as most people say, I'm just kinda bothered by how she looks like Etna and Rozalin at the same time.
Christo is *fabulous*.
Zeroken is cool, he kinda looks like Axel. I like his interactions with Killia.

About the story I don't think it's bad either. It's nice but nothing special.

[Grizzled Grizzly]

Originally posted by dennissu:

Personally I like most of the chars in Disgaea 5 and I have no idea where the overall sexual tension comes from OP mentions. In Disgaea 1 you had flat chest big boobs jokes all the time if I remember correctly. The only (romantic) advances in this title come from Sera.
Btw I don't want to sound elitist or brag about playing the game in Japanese (sound and text) but the English text will probably not do justice to a lot of word plays and especially not the speaking style of the characters. Sera is fun because she has this extreme ojousama style. That's not reinventing the wheel but it's still enjoyable. Again every character is a walking trope - that's just how the games are and were starting with disgaea 1 and previous Nippon Ichi titles.
If you don't like it, then these games are not for you. But comparing 5 with previous titles, I like 5 a lot. As always, nostalgia can be a ♥♥♥♥♥...

It's all because the OP is scared of women and any display of sexual content....joke or not....makes him uncomfortable.

[Brave Sir Robin]

I don't know about worse every game, but D1 had by far the best writing in the series. After that every game had its hits and misses. I mean I like Val overall, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ did they overuse the sardine gag.