Disgaea 2 has a lot to offer. If you want to work for it. Luckily you don't really need to for a great experience.
For those of you who haven't played FFT, it works like this: battlefields are separated into panels of varying height. You can bring a certain number of characters onto the battlefield, but not all of them if you have a lot. If something is blocking your view, you can rotate the camera to get a better angle. Once you get in range of an enemy (or an ally, if you feel like being a jerk) you can use a normal attack or a special skill. If a character kills an enemy, he/she will gain experience and money("Hell" in this case). If all enemies are dead you win. When you're not fighting, you can buy and equip your characters with 1 weapon and 3 other items and create new characters.
However, the similarities basically stop there. Did you move to a panel and suddenly decide to go somewhere else? well, press X and he will be put back into the position he was in at the beginning of the turn. Do you want to change a character's equipment during battle? go ahead, as long as what you want isn't stored away in the warehouse. Can someone not reach a spot you want to go to? THROW them there! Want to do the same with an enemy? Go for it! You are also highly encouraged to find and exploit loopholes in the game's features(such as moving a character out of the area of effect of someone else, and then moving them back once the damage is done).
The game also features a geo system, which involves small colored pyramids called geo symbols, and colored geo panels. geo symbols can add various effects to the geo panels they sit on. These effects can either make the battle much easier, or grind it to a halt until you destroy the geo symbol. if a geo symbol of a different color than the panel is destroyed while on said panel, all panels of the same color will change to the color of the geo symbol in an explosion. If an enemy(or you) are on one of those panels, they will be damaged. If geo symbols are caught in the explosion they will cause a chain reaction, that if planned well, can result in either an entire battlefield with only one color panel, or one with none. if you end up with the latter, another explosion will be triggered that will damage all enemies, regardless of where they are.
You know how most RPGs have the level cap at 99? well Disgaea 2's level cap is 9999! Actually, items can level up too, if you go inside them and subdue the people who live there. Not only that, but characters can reincarnate into a different class if they have enough mana. Reincarnated characters keep their abilities from their previous life, so you can make a hearty warrior who also happens to know many healing and buff spells.
When you choose to create a character, you must have an existing character be his or her mentor. Through a system called extra gain, the mentor can gain the pupil's skills. another part of extra gain is that as the pupil gains more levels, the mentor will receive stat bonuses based on the pupils stats. Using these features can easily give you very powerful soldiers.
And now for the story: the main character, Adell had his world taken over by a demon named Zenon, and due to a curse, most residents have now become demons too. Adell seems to be the only human left on the entire planet. After many years of preparation, Adell and his family finally have what they need to summon Zenon and kill him, thus undoing the curse.
Sadly, the summoning snags the wrong demon. Although it isn't all bad news. The demon turns out to be Zenon's only daughter, Rozalin. Since the summoning binds her to Adell, she can't just leave. After some arguing, they somehow convince her to lead Adell to her father.
Unlike in the original Disgaea, characters are mainly static throughout the story, with the exception of Rozalin. Most the characters from the original make an appearance eventually, but they seem to have completely forgotten everything that happened in the previous game(and in the case of Etna, her character was even greatly simplified). The humor isn't as good as the original either. The story is mostly serious this time, with the best laughs coming from characters of the previous Disgaea game. Characters also repeat phrases way too often for their own good(every time I hear "I AM A BEING OF SOLITUDE!" I can't help but cringe)
Once you finish the main story, you are at about the half way point, good job! There's a lot more to do if you Liked the game so far. Sadly, most of that time is spent grinding. Remember how the level cap is 9999? Well, your characters will most likely be around level 80 by the time you finish the main storyline. Though if you don't feel like going any further, that's ok. You have already played what most would consider a solid SRPG. If you decide to continue playing, get ready for 100 more hours of play time! Although grinding goes by a lot faster than other RPGs due to the felony system. You see, since your world is now a demon world, doing bad things makes you a great member of society! having felonies means you are the worst, so that's good! of course, felonies are more than just bragging rights. having felonies actually increases the amount of experience you receive. by 1% per felony. this may not sound like much, but 1 crime usually results in multiple felonies. The court system is pretty laid back. if you show up for court, you are automatically declared guilty. they don't even really care if you were the person who committed the crime. Actually, they don't even care if multiple people enter the court to receive the same felony. depending on who comes to receive the felony, and how many felonies that person has, you get different responses from the judge.
Although it is very similar to the original Disgaea, if you liked it you will like Disgaea 2, even if you played it to death. If you never played the original, and can't find it(although you can still easily find the PSP and DS ports, which actually have more content), you really don't need to worry. they don't have many elements to the story that you will be in the dark about without playing the original.