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Admittedly, it didn't really have a place in the review as it was only for the most hardcore of hardcore players. But you all might like it and it might help with your decision of whether you'll purchase it or not.
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As such, without going into any story spoilers (except to say that the story here isn't all that amazing), here's a quick rundown of what is new and whether or not it works.
1. Geo Symbols are gone! They have been replaced with Geo Cubes. While the color & effect system from the Geo Symbols remain (which is to say, cubes grant an effect to whatever color they're placed on and that effect is tied to the cube itself), the system itself has changed drastically. The first thing to understand is a Geo Cube is 1 by 1 (numbers will be used here instead of the word as Disgaea titles are largely spreadsheets - this is a good thing!). Which is to say it takes up a full square. As a vertical distance, it has a height of 1, and standing on it places you that high. Jumping onto a height of 4 blocks for example, would require you have a jump statistic of at least 4. Now here's where things change.
Geo Cube effects stack. If you've got a +50% Ally Damage Geo Cube, and it's stacked on another one, the effect becomes +100% Ally Damage. This works for both good and bad effects. Yes, you can effectively make a character invincible or at the same time, kill them in one turn - on effects that are neither. There are three different ways to get rid of cubes now though - smack it, throw a cube of the same color so it touches said cube, or have cubes drop into place that are the same color in a chain reaction. The first is self explanatory, but the second requires a bit of explanation.
You can't just pick up any cube. If a cube is already touching another one, you will not be able to pick it up. It needs to be free-standing, either by itself on a square or stacked on top of a cube of a different color. The third way of destroying them has entire levels based around it. Basically, if you destroy a cube of a different color under any cube, that cube will fall. Yes, they have weight. That means you can make chain reactions in more than one way. Chain reactions based on falling cubes will actually net you many (many) more points toward your bonus gauge (a gauge that distributes "prizes" at the end of each battle). There are entire levels based around this mechanic (stacked cubes). Finally, in the item world, short of being a 1x1 box, a geo cube mostly acts as the former Geo Symbol. Which is to say, treat it as such: destroying a red one on a green square will turn all of the green squares red and will destroy any other Geo Cubes on green squares - thus resulting in a chain reaction.
2. Statistics have changed! Well, OK, sort of. No longer are your characters really weighted on a graded scale for weapons. Behind the scenes, they do still seem to be. But when looking at a character, the status page will tell you flat out whether or not your character is proficient in an item. I wouldn't really recommend yutzing around with with weapons that a character is not proficient in as evilities (hold on, hold on, I'll get to it) are tied directly to weapon types.
3. Evilities. This is entirely new. Characters don't just magically learn things anymore. Evilities are Nippon Ichi's (N1) way fo saying "abilities." You buy them with mana (a sort of spiritual money you accrue while killing enemies and achieving objectives). There are two kinds as well. One is the straight combat ability - the skills you use in battle. That's pretty self-explanatory. Evilities, the equippable kind, are not. Each character has X amount of room to equip evilities. Each character type has access to certain evilities. Evilities are, for the most part, entirely passive. For example, increased defense against a certain kind of magic. It's a pretty fantastic way of adding more spice to a class-based title, as you can have a crew of characters that are all the same class but make them useful for varying situations.
4. The entire Dark Assembly system has been reworked. This is a good thing. Perhaps the best of things. You now go to your homeroom. From your home room, you can discuss a number of new things. Let's go over them three of them that may throw new (and old!) players for a loop:
Assign Clubs: Yes, like any high school, there are clubs. As you progress in the game and achieve certain objectives, you will unlock access to more clubs. These clubs are often directly related to the seating arrangement of the classroom. Yes, you can change where your characters are seated (and even unlock bigger classrooms). These clubs are directly related, more often than not, to the speed of growth of a character or their aptitude in certain combat situations. It's terribly important to manage it effectively as you can increase the abilities of a lower level character greatly when paired with higher level characters. Also, characters in clubs have a certain symbiotic link in terms of paired-attacks and such. This link becomes incredibly important once you unlock the Classroom World.
Classroom World: This is where you level your characters. Much like the item world (a series of random levels "in" the item, which you use to power up and level an item), this is a system for leveling up characters effectively. In short, without ruining it for veterans of the series, it's awesome. And removes a lot of the grind from making new characters. After unlocking it, I'd highly recommend ripping your way through it a number of times. In addition to leveling characters, you can gain an unreal amount of mana for a character in the classroom world in a very short time (3000+ in the first 10 levels). Mr. Gency's Exit is used here as well (an item used for escaping these "subworlds"). Finally, perhaps the most important thing, your character, near the end of every ten levels, can learn an ability in a mystery room (you'll see!) that any other character in their club has. I have lots of folks with Mega Heal now. In short, it's awesome. Do it.
Student Council: I don't really want to get into it, because some of the changes here will delight many people who have played the series before (mechanics can be spoilers too!). But I'll give a very brief description for new players: You go here to unlock certain mechanics. For example, a new club or the ability to create a character of a certain class. You pick the topic, pay x amount of mana, and the student council votes on said topic.
So, yes, even a slew of changes have been made to the meta-game of Disgaea.
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