But with levels taking easily a half-hour each, an item world can take hours. With no way to freeze your progress in case you'd like to cleanse your palette with something mindless and fast, say a quick level in God of War or maybe a few Guitar Hero songs, it takes a serious commitment. Disgaea 2 really needs an option to put the game on hold during its random world spelunking. Unlike a game where a restrictive saved game system is a part of the gameplay (Dead Rising, anyone?), here it remains an inconvenient oversight.

It's also disappointing that the developers at Nippon Ichi didn't improve the graphics engine in the three years since the last game. It's a very very 2D game, with characters crammed together into a mass of hard-to-distinguish sprites covering up important details like elevation data, terrain bonuses, and attack areas. A new higher camera angle can make it a bit more manageable. And since it's turn based, you've got all the time in the world to shift the camera around and sort out who's who and who's where. Still, you can't help but wonder how much of Disgaea's running time is spent trying to figure out where the heck everyone is standing.

The story is new and just as effectively told as the last game, which was appealing even to those of us for whom Japanese RPG stories are like nails on a chalkboard. There are some cameos from the first game, but since this is a narrative reboot, you're not missing anything if you start with Disgaea 2. And really, it's not the story that matters. Disgaea 2 is ultimately about the characters you create, the battles you fight, the equipment you improve, and the party you level up and kit out. Like many of the best games -- Civilization, X-Com, Diablo, Pirates -- Disgaea 2 is about the story you create in the playing. - Tom Chick.