Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories/Dark Court

Accept a Subpoena from the Post Officer (Red Skull) on a base map. Next, speak with the Item Worlder (Thief) and enter a Subpoena you've accepted. Travel through the Item World like you normally would, until you reach the level with a Dark Court Gate. Finally, have a character enter this gate to advance to the Dark Court and accept the gracious award of a Felony (and any other gifts that might be associated with it). This entire process is known as the Dark Court system, with Felonies as the ultimate reward.

Subpoenas
To accept a subpoena, as stated above, you must talk with the local Post Officer. However, you must meet certain requirements in order to accept a subpoena. Below are listed all types of Subpoenas, their requirements, the Felony count they give, and extra rewards you receive after gaining the Felony.

There are two main types of subpoenas:
 * Per-Character subpoenas are issued to every character who meets the criteria. Most of these subpoenas can be obtained multiple times per character (Some reset when issued, while others reset after reincarnation).
 * Everybody subpoenas are issued once. Period.  Only way to get them again is to start a New Game, and that kind of defeats the purpose.

For either type of subpoena, it doesn't matter who accepts it. Whoever passes through the Dark Court Gate is who gets charged with the Felony count.

Dark Court
When entering the Item World on a Subpoena, the Baliff Specialist's level represents the level where you'll find the Dark Court Gate. After you've left the Dark Court, the Baliff will disappear. More than one Baliff specialist can never be in the same item, but you can transfer a Baliff (and therefore the Dark Court Gate) to another item. It's advised you do this, as leveling up a Subpoena is pointless compared to leveling nearly any other item.

Once you've ventured to the level at which the Dark Court Gate exists, whichever character you send in will receive the Felony reward (and mana rewards, if there are any). You can also choose to throw in a tower of characters, who will ALL receive the full Felony bonus (although mana will be split amongst them). Of course, it would be most beneficial to throw a tower of nine characters into a Dark Gate portal whenever possible.

Felonies
So, what makes Felonies so special?
 * For every Felony a character has, their EXP gain increases by 1%.
 * The more collective Felonies you have, the less expensive items will be to purchase.
 * More Felonies will make it easier to pass Dark Assembly bills.

Additionally, having a certain amount of Felonies with certain characters will allow you to achieve different Endings and open up some Extra Stages. The only downfalls of Felonies are that any one character can only hold up to 99 at a time, and any character with Felonies will be absorbed by the Dark Sun.

A character's felony stamp can be wiped clean by passing the "Reincarnate into a Prinny" bill in the Dark Assembly ("Reincarnate to Atone for Sins" for Special Classes). This restores their ability to ascend into the Dark Sun and also removes the Dark Assembly favoritism, but EXP bonus is persistent and accumulative. After atoning for their sins, a character can gain another 99 Felonies. This process can be repeated forever, but the EXP bonus for an individual character will apparently be cut off after they have stocked 300 Felonies. The total amount of Felonies a character has is not visible anywhere in the game, so you may want to write down or somehow find a way of remembering the total for each character.

Reincarnation into a Prinny also has its own set of drawbacks and advantages. Weapon Mastery and Specials could be lost in the reincarnation, and Prinnies' base stats are far from impressive; on the other hand, Prinnies gain levels faster than other character classes, and can get an additional exp/mana gain boost via the Beastmaster's Wild Groom special.