Makai Dokis! Disgaea (Demo) [Comedy][Romance][Fan Game]

[SardineQueen]

ABOUT
Makai Dokis! is a fan-made visual novel that takes place in the world of Disgaea 4. You play as an Unprinny (default name: Hiro) who was sent to Hades after a tragic car accident. Your mission is to find love!

This is the demo version, so you can’t date any of the characters yet, but you can play through the beginning of the story! There are eight different endings, and seeing them all unlocks an extra scene with a secret character <3 Right now the game is ~13,000 words, and has a CG gallery with 20 images! You can play as a girl or a boy, purely for aesthetics--it has no effect on who you can go after, and the story will be the same overall either way.

For updates check out our development blog!

DOWNLOAD
Windows | Mac | Linux

STORY

Hiro was a high school student in love. They just couldn't stop thinking about a certain classmate-their first love! The only problem was that Hiro was the type to admire from afar; in other words, Hiro was a stalker. One fateful day, following their beloved crush home, the distracted Hiro was hit by a car. The impact sent the poor, pathetic high schooler flying through the air. In that moment, Hiro thought,

In my next life... I'll have an honest love life. I'll do things properly! I'll--!

And that's when Hiro's head hit the pavement.

But even death can't stop this high schooler's newfound determination! Hiro next awakens in Hades, as an Unprinny, ready to achieve their new dream of an honest and proper love life! This time, with demons! And angels! ...And another Unprinny?

Get to it, dood!

CHARACTERS

This is everyone who will have a route in the full game! (Excluding the aforementioned secret character whose route will be locked until the second playthrough.)
There's a little more info on them here in case you're not familiar with Disgaea (which is most people sadly, haha).

SCREENSHOTS


NOTES
The full version will have 8 routes in total, each with 3 different endings (bad, good, and best). During a route, there will be side events where you can pair up two of the characters you're not trying to date. We have a list of pairings we want to try to include here!

Feedback/critique is highly appreciated! There's a lot of us working on this, so I'm mostly concerned with everything flowing/fitting together... But the routes will be more confined to one writing+art style so... I don't know!

Making this demo took 27 weeks so hopefully the full version will be done before 2015? That might be too optimistic but that's what I'm aiming for at least.

So, lemme know what you guys think! Like if there's anything we should think about adding or anything like that. Thanks!!

[wererat42]

Looks cute. Might give it a look.
Are the main routes fixed as BxG and GxB? Was wondering since it looks like you're planning to have BxB and GxG pairings in the matchmaking part of the game.

[SardineQueen]

Looks cute. Might give it a look.
Are the main routes fixed as BxG and GxB? Was wondering since it looks like you're planning to have BxB and GxG pairings in the matchmaking part of the game.

Nope they're not fixed! You can do GxG or BxB, picking your gender at the start is just for looks haha.

[bellice]

GxG is a possibility? Count me IN.
I am not familiar with Disgaea, unfortunately, although I've been thinking of playing the DS game.
Gonna download the demo~

[SilverxBlue]

I like the how the game's story synopsis is written. It's so entertaining, funny and cute. The same goes for the art (except for the funny part, of course.) I rarely play demos since I'd like to just wait for the entire thing, but I'm giving this a shot because I seriously want to see more of your writing style right now.

I'm quite familiar with Disgaea myself, but I never really got around to finishing the games. Maybe I should go for it again after I'm done with the demo. XD

[SardineQueen]

I like the how the game's story synopsis is written. It's so entertaining, funny and cute. The same goes for the art (except for the funny part, of course.) I rarely play demos since I'd like to just wait for the entire thing, but I'm giving this a shot because I seriously want to see more of your writing style right now.

I'm quite familiar with Disgaea myself, but I never really got around to finishing the games. Maybe I should go for it again after I'm done with the demo. XD

Aw thanks! Good, yes, my secret mission with this game is to get everyone to play Disgaea hahaha so I'm glad to hear it!

[gekiganwing]

Fan labor is inherently risky. There is always a chance that your project could get a cease-and-desist letter. On the other hand, there's no guarantee this will happen. Plenty of free, worksafe, and canon-appropriate fan games have been finished, and can be readily obtained online.

Last month, the people working on the fan VN Starswirl Academy got a letter from copyright-owners at Hasbro. As stated in their blog post, "They’ve asked us to rename our girls and make a few changes to prevent confusion with any of their properties, and we’ve complied."

...my secret mission with this game is to get everyone to play Disgaea hahaha so I'm glad to hear it!

If I recall correctly, the Disgaea games let the player do some other activities in between battles. One of my complaints with some strategy RPGs is that outside of combat sequences, there's not much else going on.

[SardineQueen]

Fan labor is inherently risky. There is always a chance that your project could get a cease-and-desist letter. On the other hand, there's no guarantee this will happen. Plenty of free, worksafe, and canon-appropriate fan games have been finished, and can be readily obtained online.

Last month, the people working on the fan VN Starswirl Academy got a letter from copyright-owners at Hasbro. As stated in their blog post, "They’ve asked us to rename our girls and make a few changes to prevent confusion with any of their properties, and we’ve complied."

Yeah, I've always been a little worried about it, and I regret not straight up asking before starting the project in the first place, but... we haven't gotten a C&D yet so until we do I'm gonna keep chuggin away, haha. NIS is relatively small though, and REALLY loves its fans, so I think we'll be okay! Even if they do ask us to stop, I'll just be happy that we at least got a demo out for people to play before that point, yknow.

[Sora-Kuroi]

This looks really great! *---*! wow before 2015? well, we're 2014 already hahaha! Good luck with this and I hope you won't give up on this project >w<

P.S: the guy with silver hair seems to be a tsundere. I hope he is, I love tsunderes <3

[Hyraculon]

Big Disgaea fan here, immediately downloaded and did a quick playthrough, naming my character Sardines-chan and shooting for a Lord Valvatorez route, as Lord Val is naturally the pinnacle of all dreaminess. Someday I'll meet up with him on the astral plane and we'll share a sardine milkshake with two straws. Wait, what was I talking about? Right, my impressions.

Looks-wise, I'd say it's pretty fabulous. The changing art styles during character introductions can be a little distracting, but I don't think they take anything away from the experience, and in a way it's actually kind of cute? It's like, "I AM FAN GAME, HEAR ME ROAR."

I do have one issue with this game, and frankly kinda feel like a jerk even bringing up, because it's simultaneously nitpicky and something that would be fundamentally difficult to change, but I found myself disliking Hiro almost from the outset. S/he has an excellent premise in theory (creepy stalker A++), but in practice is presented an extremely bland character who just sort of wanders around vaguely noticing that the Netherworld is weird. I know that's par for the course in a lot of dating games, but I feel like in the NIS multiverse, having no personality shouldn't fly (unless they're being humorously marginalized like ZHP's Main Character, who also had the dubious benefit of being silent to keep him from distracting the audience from the real characters). I found myself thinking things like, "why does anybody besides Val even bother with Sardines-chan? A meek unprinny ought to be even lower on the totem pole than Secret Hidden Character." Possibly I'm looking at this from the wrong angle here, but I'm just not buying it.

Can I ask, is there an overarching plot? Do we ever get to meet the former object of Hiro's affections or anything like that? (Too many spoilers?)

[silverpikachu99]

I flippin loved this demo~! Each character was so unique and the mc is adorable~!!! Can't wait for the final release.

[TsukiShima]

Another fan of Disgaea here!

I was very excited when I saw this topic, and judging by the screenshots it's clear that you're following the traditional Disgaea style. Would be purely VN? Because Disgaea is known for the RPG Strategy based game. But there is the overall VN styled Disgaea game titled Disgaea Infinite and I'm guessing it would be more or less resembles that.

Other than that, the art looks very nice and flawless! I haven't play the demo but I will and I'll give my feedback soon. I personally think as long as you recreate all the sprites, bgs, and all other things it won't be much problem for NIS. Or at least I think so. ^^ It would be sad if they disapprove since you all already worked so much.

Good luck with this project!

[SardineQueen]

I do have one issue with this game, and frankly kinda feel like a jerk even bringing up, because it's simultaneously nitpicky and something that would be fundamentally difficult to change, but I found myself disliking Hiro almost from the outset. S/he has an excellent premise in theory (creepy stalker A++), but in practice is presented an extremely bland character who just sort of wanders around vaguely noticing that the Netherworld is weird. I know that's par for the course in a lot of dating games, but I feel like in the NIS multiverse, having no personality shouldn't fly (unless they're being humorously marginalized like ZHP's Main Character, who also had the dubious benefit of being silent to keep him from distracting the audience from the real characters). I found myself thinking things like, "why does anybody besides Val even bother with Sardines-chan? A meek unprinny ought to be even lower on the totem pole than Secret Hidden Character." Possibly I'm looking at this from the wrong angle here, but I'm just not buying it.

Can I ask, is there an overarching plot? Do we ever get to meet the former object of Hiro's affections or anything like that? (Too many spoilers?)

Oh gosh you're totally right! Since Hiro is supposed to be a self-insert we've kinda approached it in the more traditional way of... not too much personality. But what were we thinking! This is Disgaea! We definitely need to push it more, haha! Thanks for pointing it out, we'll work on that for the routes <3

You don't get to meet Hiro's first crush but there IS somewhat of an overarching plot in that, well, Hiro is a Prinny and Prinnies are supposed to reincarnate. So (without giving too much away haha) routes may end in Hiro having to make an important decision regarding that.

I was very excited when I saw this topic, and judging by the screenshots it's clear that you're following the traditional Disgaea style. Would be purely VN? Because Disgaea is known for the RPG Strategy based game. But there is the overall VN styled Disgaea game titled Disgaea Infinite and I'm guessing it would be more or less resembles that.

We're not doing anything with sprites and to be honest I wouldn't know how to code for anything outside of just the basic VN stuff, so, yeah I guess this is just purely VN! (Also, Disgaea Infinite was amazing and I really want to replay it now omg)

But yeah, thanks so much for the feedback you guys. I gotta say, I'm really happy to hear from fellow Disgaea fans!! And not just cuz you're our target audience haha <3

[Hortea]

Hi ! I just played through the demo and I really enjoyed it ! Truly, I LOVED IT. I create my account just to be able to say that I found this demo really funny and really distracting. The art is beautiful and the characters are all so weird it's really nice
Can't wait to play the full version, THANKS for this game which will be amazing, I'm sure of it !

Ps: THIS GAME IS A REALLY GOOD JOB !
PPs: Sorry for the possible mistakes, english is not my native language (is it a correct form to say this ?)