Prinny Party: Going Overboard! review

Inviting Disgaea’s demons to a board game night might not seem like a sensible idea. Between their unrelenting appetite for power and a habit of tossing one another around, these aren’t the kind of guests who are concerned with your security deposit or your furniture. With the release of Prinny Party: Going Overboard!, developer Nippon Ichi Software has created a game where cooperation is valuable but betrayal is frequent. Right now, that’s probably one of the most fitting metaphors for our society.

Board to Be Wild

Just don’t go in expecting Mario Party-style mini-games to break up the turn-taking. Here, developing your character and messing with the board are the main draws. With its equipment, monsters, and rival adventurers, Dokapon Kingdom is probably the closest point of comparison. That said, Disgaea’s curious systems and appreciation for outrageousness give Going Overboard! its own chaotic personality.

The move away from mainline Disgaea’s strategy role-playing campaigns and visual novel-style interludes means less emphasis on plot. Here, the storyline focuses on the takeover of Boardway Park by Laharl, the Supreme Overboard, and his Protago-Knights, a crew that should be familiar to franchise fans. Your chosen character needs to become powerful enough to challenge them, tasking you with everything from gathering money and raising stats to buying equipment as you travel around the board.

But success entails more than just beating the boss. You’ll have to carry your captive all the way back to the Prinny Report station at the starting space, and whoever returns the defeated Supreme Overboard wins. As such, the person who does the bulk of the work in battle might not be the one who celebrates. Don’t expect much storyline beyond this premise, with players generating conflict and more than a few grudges.

A Taste of Reel Ambition

Although your character’s movement around the board is determined by stopping a spinning reel, turns are more involved than just moving toward the next event. Attacks, skills, item use, and throwing give you plenty to think about, while slots affect your damage output and stat improvements. You can move and attack in the same turn, although some skills prevent a subsequent basic attack. Consumables provide further options, with a sardine restoring health and spirit, while an amnesia pill lets you reset your movement direction.

Unsurprisingly, class selection matters, too. A Warrior’s close-range strength needs different positioning from a Witch’s ranged magic. An Armor Knight’s strong defense and throwing ability offer another approach, while a Prinny’s five-space Prinny Dash can help you clear some distance. Building a competitive character means considering everything from reach and survivability to equipment, rather than just being lucky enough to land on some of the favorable board spaces.

Of course, the randomness of the reels can undermine the most prudent preparation. And learning how the different interconnected systems all fit together takes some time. As such, I wouldn’t recommend hopping into Going Overboard! thinking it was just another party game with a Prinny reskin. It’s a lot deeper than your average video board game, which makes sense given the Disgaea connection.

Property Damage Is a Feature Not a Bug

One of the clearest examples of this is how throwing is handled, a mechanic that dates back to 2003’s Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Yes, allies, enemies, and even facilities can be picked up and tossed around, allowing for more interference. You can fling a fellow player to transport or punish them, with Prinnies demonstrating their trademark volatility when tossed. Enemies can also be combined by throwing them into each other, generating a more formidable foe with better rewards. Meanwhile, stacking matching facilities increases their rank and improves their offerings. Stacked cannons gain range and attack power, giving your construction projects a more destructive purpose. Between the upgrades and repositioning, Going Overboard! keeps you on your toes.

Similarly, the Boardroom Assembly provides another clever adaptation of Disgaea’s outrageousness. A percentage of the money players spend around the park feeds a shared fund, which allows players to sponsor bills once they reach an Assembly space. These can deliver advantages ranging from another move and a different turn order to increased damage. “I Wanna Move Again!” offers exactly the sort of legislative self-interest its name suggests. And like Disgaea’s skeptical take on politics, bribery and violence are options when persuasion doesn’t work. Much like the real world, it’s a powerful tool that converts collective resources into an individual advantage. But bending the rules has long been the norm in the Netherworld and its fun to see a board game let you cheat a bit.

Pack Your Overnight Bag and ABC Gum

But here’s the thing: all this depth means that play can take up a hefty amount of time. Depending on how you tweak the rules, shorter games can run around 45 minutes, while others stretch across several hours, with even a two-player game capable of running three full hours. The number of Protago-Knights, their arrival speed, and character growth settings all help determine how long the match will be, so run-times can vary. Three save slots and an autosave let you continue later, which is welcome when a game threatens to stretch into the AM hours. That said, slow deliberations and a two-turn wait after death can reduce momentum. While habits will vary, when my friends fell, there was the lingering threat of them leaving the game and heading home.

Expectedly, Going Overboard! plays best with a quartet of participants, producing a taut tension between teamwork and selfishness. Keeping someone alive might be the most sensible strategy when a simultaneous wipe means everyone loses. Yet that same player might steal your hard-earned captive a few minutes later. So if you appreciate sideline negotiation, fits of opportunism, and the occasional reversal of fortune, Prinny Party gives you plenty to argue and laugh about.

The one caveat is that everyone in your group will need to appreciate the same kind of spirited play. If one person isn’t feeling it, there’s a good chance the game will go unfinished given the time commitment. Oddly, there’s no conventional online multiplayer, with the original Switch and PlayStation 5 versions limited to local multiplayer. However, Steam’s Remote Play Together and the Switch 2 edition’s GameShare let you play remotely with friends using one copy.

One Is the Loneliest Dood

But going Overboard! alone isn’t really recommended. Sure, you can tackle the board alone or add some CPU-controlled participants if you’re interested in experimenting with classes or trying out growth strategies. But as a lone player there’s little room for error against the powerful bosses, since dying without another survivor ends the attempt. Reloading a recent autosave softens that setback, although repeated retries can still zap your enthusiasm. Your computer-controlled frenemies aren’t a substitute for humans: their turns can drag, and they have a frustrating habit of targeting a player who’s ahead or carrying a boss, even when other threats remain. That’s no match for the ever-changing alliances of real people. There’s also only one main board, with smaller areas reached through events, so different classes and rule adjustments are responsible for encouraging replays. I would have preferred more boards.

Prinny Party: Going Overboard! understands that Disgaea’s appeal is more than just some familiar faces and enormous damage numbers. Being able to bend the rules with everything from questionable legislation to scrambling for stolen credit means a fun night for those who have the time and a taste for treachery. Solo players should approach the board more cautiously. Difficult opening encounters and simple-minded computer opponents can turn some of that mischief into a chore. Bring friends who enjoy this kind of pluckish play, because the Netherworld is more fun when you’re laughing at your friends misfortune.

Prinny Party: Going Overboard! was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.