So I've been playing this game since the summer and I figured I'd write a quick review on it.
If you played the first game then there really are no surprises in the new game. Besides the new jobs and races, not much is added gameplay wise. It's actually disappointing that many abilities that each job has are just named something different but are given to other jobs (Ex. Moogle lance and air render).
Out of the new races the gria is the only one that is halfway useful (it ignores elevation because it can fly).
If you were hoping on an in depth story look elsewhere. It is completely lacking and off the wall. The side quests are what keep the game going but even these get incredibly repetitive (I've complete 248/300 quests). There are many side story lines that are enjoyable and one of which should have been the actual story line (duelhorn).
A major change deals with having 0 MP at the beginning of fights. Each turn your character receieves a certain amount of MP. This was incredibly deterring to me because of how much I enjoy mage classes. Later on there are abilities that make this a minor issue (halve mp / blood price) but it is still rather annoying.
The game is hardly difficult. There is a hard setting in the beginning but I doubt it would make much of a difference. It's often the laws that are the most frustrating and lately I have completely ignored them.
I bought my DS specifically for this game and mario kart. I'd say it was worth the purchase but more so for Mario kart than this game.
Over all I'd give the gameplay 6/10, the storyline 4/10 and the other quests 7/10. So I'd say around a 6ish out of 10 over all. If you can borrow it from a friend that would def be the best option.