...but the grinding! Ah what the hey will get it when it goes on sale again, while I'm at it, how's Phantom Brave?
Phantom Brave is an interesting little game that is a lot like Disgaea (from the same makers so not surprising)
The story isn't quite as random, and the big difference is in how new units are summoned. In Phantom Brave you only have one party member that is alive, the rest of your party is spirits you summon into stuff like trees or rocks (which depending on what you use to summon people their stats will be different. Rocks can give high defense but low attack ect) The catch is that your summons can only be around for a limited amount of turns so you have to plan accordingly on when you are going to summon your strongest spirits.
If I am thinking correctly Phantom Brave also has an out of bounds mechanic that allows you to pick up an enemy and throw them off the map to kill them (but I don't think you can clear a map this way) I believe when you knock/throw an enemy out of bounds the rest of the enemies become stronger, but it can be quite useful.
Overall I enjoyed my time playing through Phantom Brave, but I didn't have the same motivation to continue playing after the main story to do optional stuff as I did in Disgaea at the end. I can't remember what version I played though... I own the ps2, wii and psp versions of the game lol. If I am thinking correct the wii version added extra content, and the psp version got all of the content I am to lazy to check >.> I think I played the wii version but I am not sure anymore it was a while ago.
anyways I hope that helps