Now that I've had the game for about two weeks, I should probably post about it right?
First of all, I would like to say that at the moment, this almost, if not, surpasses Disgaea in my eyes. The gameplay is great for it's genre (and the gameplay does in fact surpass Disgaea). The only reason that it's not ranked better than Disgaea (on my own personal list) would be just for the story. While the story is great (and hilarious), there are too many scenes that don't really add anything to the game. Also, the wishing system (and that junk) was a great idea and it was used well. There is a
lot of depth to the gameplay, but after playing enough of the NIS games, it's not all that confusing. Also, the addition of Reincarnation is also a great touch. Unlike all of the other games, the power for characters in Makai Kingdom are based on their initial stats, not completely on their weapon. In the games before this, all you needed to do was find a rare weapon and find a way to beef it up. In Makai Kingdom, it takes bits and pieces from both Disgaea (the story, hilarity, and a few other minor things) and Phantom Brave (you have to confine [outside of battle, there's no in-battle confining] new characters into certain items to raise their stats). Also, the way the dungeons are now done is probably the b est so far. There's really too much that I could talk about and I should probably type up a full on review, but in short, many people believe this to actually be better than Disgaea, which, for the most part, is no easy feat.
I also decided to pick up the strategy guide today (if only for the cool pictures and minor things inside. It's actually a great guide, though I don't need any of the information really). :3