I’ve been playing NIS games for decades, and of course that includes Disgaea. I still have fond memories of the first game including a Tsunami Bomb song for no reason back when it first launched for the PlayStation 2. Disgaea has had ups and downs since then, but with Disgaea Mayhem, NIS is trying something totally new. For this high octane spinoff, NIS is taking a page from the Omega Force/Koei Tecmo book and making a Musou! If you don’t know what that is, think Dynasty Warriors. Combo mad button-mashing is the name of the game, and that’s exactly what I experienced with a brief, hands-on demo at this year’s PAX East convention.
Source: NIS America
This was one of those demos that’s all bones. Pure gameplay, no set-dressing, no time wasted. Luckily I already speak this language, so I was able to jump in and start racking up a Disgaea-flavored body count. While many modern Musou games are about managing a whole battlefield and tackling things like territorial disputes and rescuing allies in trouble, the demo stages I played were all about combat. I’d be directed to a piece of the map, told to rack up a certain number of kills, then be able to move on. Ultimately, a boss would spawn in the final room, and it would be a test of endurance to decide the level. It was almost like a classic beat ‘em up in a Musou costume.
I was down for the relative simplicity, especially since there was a lot going on with Disgaea Mayhem’s buttons. The main character can dash and dodge, and has a laundry list of special moves and combo routes that feel familiar, but with a little extra spice. Juking around the massive bosses was a lot of fun, and experimenting with the special moves would come with rewards in the form of Disgaea-style theatrics. The most interesting part came when I finished the first stage, and was asked to swap weapons.
Source: NIS America
Turns out the main character has quite an arsenal, and can use every weapon type you’d expect to see if you know Disgaea. I used a sword, an axe, and fists in the three levels I played, and each weapon had its own distinct cadence despite sharing similar button commands. The axe was surprisingly unwieldy, with properties that seemed to contradict what I had been doing with the sword and fists. But not in a bad way – the axe is a big, heavy slab of metal, and the moves it came with reflected that. I had to be more careful about what buttons I pressed and how open I would be in the middle of big swings, which was refreshing for an otherwise familiar experience.
Ultimately this was all the demo was. Three levels, three weapons, three similar goal sets and bosses. It was fun but fast and furious, and I barely feel like I played much at all. But I did play enough to know, as a general fan of this genre, that I’m ready to play more as soon as I can get my hands on this game. I want to throw more hands with more giant Prinnies, dood.
Disgaea Mayhem is coming in Summer 2026 for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PC, and PlayStation 5. This preview is based on a hands-on demo provided by the publisher at PAX East 2026.
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Lucas plays a lot of videogames. Sometimes he enjoys one. His favorites include Dragon Quest, SaGa, and Mystery Dungeon. He’s far too rattled with ADHD to care about world-building lore but will get lost for days in essays about themes and characters. Holds a journalism degree, which makes conversations about Oxford Commas awkward to say the least. Not a trophy hunter but platinumed Sifu out of sheer spite and got 100 percent in Rondo of Blood because it rules. You can find him on Twitter @HokutoNoLucas being curmudgeonly about Square Enix discourse and occasionally saying positive things about Konami.
