Former president of Nippon Ichi Software and the creator of the Disgaea franchise Sohei Niikawa was recently interviewed by Dengeki Online about the origins of the company’s flagship series and the distinctive 2D art style of its earliest entries.
Looking back, Niikawa said that he was a bit stumped after seeing the performance of La Pucelle: Tactics, Disgaea’s predecessor. “It was a kind of game I personally loved, and it really felt like it was going to be a hit. But it didn’t really sell, and I have no idea how to make it sell.” So, for his next game, he decided to go with the approach of “since this company might not even exist next year, let’s just make a game stuffed with all the fun things, without holding back,” which is how Disgaea: Hour of Darkness came to be. He described the process as “like making a hodgepodge.”
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness came out for the PlayStation 2, at a time when the game industry was making a shift towards 3D graphics. However, the game decided to deliberately pursue a pixelated 2D art style. When asked about the reason behind this, Niikawa said that it was merely a “survival strategy for the weak.”
While he hinted that there had been an option to make a 3D Disgaea from the get-go, he said he was ultimately discouraged by the example of Final Fantasy VII, which was coincidentally the first entry in Square’s flagship series to use 3D graphics.
“When I saw Final Fantasy VII for the Play Station, it made me think ‘Our company absolutely shouldn’t go down this path.’ I figured that if we, as a company with such limited resources, had tried to carelessly imitate it, we would’ve suffered serious damage,” Niikawa explained.
However, it was after a Disgaea event in the US that Niikawa got a clear idea of what kind of direction he wanted the series to take. “When I saw the [US] fans laughing at our Japanese parody gags, I became convinced that all otaku over the world are comrades, and that we should trust what we think is entertaining, and just make it.”
As for what Niikawa has been doing these days – he has a brand-new SRPG on the way, developed by Arc System Works. Titled Demons’ Night Fever, the game revolves around raising the baby demon Giga Super Death, committing evil misdeeds and sacrificing your own allies in tactical battles. The title is set to launch in 2026 for PC (Steam), PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
Related: Disgaea’s next installment will show off Nippon Ichi Software’s leap in 3D graphics, CEO says
