Definitely, not a game for newcomers but a great game if you get past all the menus and mechanics that unfold during gameplay. Cannot say it is a step up from the previous one but there are a lot of changes. I do miss the auto-battle though. Why they had to cut that off? Disgaea is a game about grinding and auto-battle made it fun, not it is just repetitive. Still, a great game with countless hours, trying to bring those numbers into the billions :)