Makai Kingdom Review

Despite being eerily similar to previous games, it's still a solid RPG

The combat system around which most of the game revolves allows as much flexibility as the character creation system. The tactics that are used, the weapons that are employed and the fighters that are brought into the fray on each map are entirely down to the player. As with previous titles, characters and items can be stacked and thrown around in order to access far-flung areas (although, irritatingly, it's now necessary to manually deselect a character's held weapon before picking anything up) and chucking items off the edge of the visible map can now reveal hidden areas and enemies. In Makai Kingdom, what you see initially is rarely the totality of what you can do. Buildings from the main hub world can be brought into battle, providing bonuses and a refuge for your fighters, and later maps provide vehicles with which to mix up the action a little. Characters gain weapons experience with use, opening up more impressive attacks and even more strategic options.

In isolation, then, each map or level in Makai Kingdom is an enjoyable and open-ended challenge. It's perhaps a little overwhelming at first - the lack of predefined characters and the enormous amount of flexibility on offer make this a daunting game for a genre newcomer - but it soon opens up and it's possible to get very attached to whatever ragtag army the player ends up creating. It's the overall structure of the game that lets it down a little, though. The individual levels are, for the most part, unconnected to the story, with the inter-level cut-scenes merely providing a reason to attack yet another random group of enemies on yet another semi-random map. And the very nature of the game means that repetition plays a big part. Even early on, it's often necessary to play and replay the same levels in order to power up individual characters, and as the game progresses it's often necessary to go back, create new level 1 characters, and play through the opening sections yet again in order to maintain a strong and diverse fighting force.

Ultimately, Makai Kingdom is more a game about numbers than it is about pure strategy. There's nothing here that compares to something like, say, Advance Wars, where set challenges have to be overcome with limited resources in a skilful manner. In Makai Kingdom, it's always up to the player how each level is tackled, and the best way is usually to chuck as many high-level characters at the level as possible. The heart of the game revolves around how those characters act and the methods used to level them up, and that process can, at times, be something of a repetitive grind. Obsessive-compulsives will love this, and there's real satisfaction to be gained in developing a powerful army entirely to your own specifications - but those looking for a more focussed challenge may find themselves floundering at times.

If you have a passion for strategy RPGs you can do worse than Makai Kingdom

It was always like this, of course. Disgaea, Phantom Brave and La Pucelle: Tactics all had exactly the same premise, and it's this that proves to be Makai Kingdom's biggest problem. Although fun, deep and extremely open-ended, it is largely the same as its three predecessors - while at the same time not being quite as funny or as accessible as Disgaea and not quite as inventive as Phantom Brave. Character sprites, menus and even loading screens have been lifted wholesale from previous titles and the whole thing has the faint whiff of complacency. It's a game aimed firmly at an existing fan base, which is fair enough - but whether someone who's ploughed three hundred hours or more into Nippon Ichi's previous titles will have the will or the mental stamina to do it all over again remains to be seen.

There's no doubt that Makai Kingdom is a good game, maybe even a great one, although undeniably niche in its appeal. If you're unable to find a copy of Disgaea, or have already wrung every last ounce of fun out of Nippon Ichi's previous games, then there's a lot of fun to be had here. However, Disgaea is still the best game in the series, and there's surely a limit to how often the same basic concepts and character sprites can be recycled. Makai Kingdom is a fine game, but it's also something of an exercise in treading water, and as the fourth largely-identical game in a row it's far from an essential purchase.