Another solid installment in the classic Disgaea franchise.
It's still difficult to get resolutions passed. The old use crappy items to bribe the senators (this time around they're teachers)technique won't work this time. Different classes prefer different types of bribes.
If you're a fan of Etna, Laharl, and Flonne, they're unlockable characters but not at all crucial to the storyline. For the most part, this story is all new. The new characters are fun and extremely well-voiced. Mr Champloo, a home-ec teacher parodying the chef Emeril, is pure hilarity!
Instead of leveling individual skills by using them over and over, you use your mana points to purchase and upgrade skills. It puts more of an emphasis on beating baddies and gathering mana points and is probably the single biggest change to the format. You'll find there's never enough mana to buy skills, pass resolutions, and reincarnate if you use that method of play. I often rationed out who was going to kill what bad guy so I could appropriate mana points that way.
Another aspect to note is that there are a lot of storyline characters that join your squad. They're pretty much the best characters to use so you'll find yourself with an abundance of characters by the middle of the game and not enough time to deploy and use them all. If you want to level up or use all the characters, the item world is still crazy and always pure random fun.
Disgaea 2 was the only game that I ever beat and then went back immediately afterward to play through all over again. This game is similarly good. Princesses, demons, uppity butlers - It's all gravy. Get lost in Disgaea one more time. It's a helluva way to blow 40+ hours.