Phantom Brave
May 26, 2005

NOTE:Before you begin to read this review, I wanted to make something clear. If you have read all or any of my other reviews on this site, you have probably noticed that I give every game I review a good score. The reason is simple. It isn?t because I?m easy to please, and it isn?t because I refuse to recognize the not-so-great things about the games I play. No, the explanation is simple; I really only end up reviewing games that I like. In most cases, games that I really like. So when you get to the bottom of my review and you see the good score, don?t dismiss it because I always give good scores. Just remember, I only play the games I like, and I only review the games I play.

Phantom Brave is a tactical role playing game, alike in many ways to more popular games like ?Final Fantasy Tactics,? ?Fire Emblem? and ?Advance Wars.? However Phantom Brave succeeds in tearing apart the idea of what a tactical rpg is, and re-building it in a way that retains the strategy driven premise of the genre, without becoming just another face in the crowd, and more importantly, without being dull.

About the Creators Nippon-Ichi Software is a Japanese company with a little over ten years of a presence in the video game world. Success in America was very limited however, at least until the game ?Disgea: Hour of Darkness? was published by Atlus on the PS2 some time back. The game was a surprising cult hit and inspired the Nippon-Ichi to release the slightly older game ?La Pucelle Tactics? in America as well. This game was published by Mastiff. While neither games had a huge impact on the American game market, the games were made cheaply enough (2D tactics games aren?t very expensive to make), that even the moderate success of both ?Disgea? and ?La Pucelle? were reasons enough to open an American distribution branch for Nippon-Ichi Software entitled NIS America. Phantom Brave is the first game to be published by NIS America.

Back to the Game - So what?s different?
Most tactical RPGs take place on a virtual game board that is cut in to squares. Each character is usually aloud to move a certain number of squares, depending on the speed or movement range of that character. While this way is fine, it isn?t very interesting. After a while you begin to feel like you are playing a board game, and it?s easy to loose interest. How Phantom Brave mixes it up is instead of using the ridged, board game like ?square? style game play, it opts for a much freer, less restrictive ?circle? style. The character on the field is surrounded by a circle showing his movement range. At any given time during the characters turn, he can move to any edge of that circle, depending on if there is anything in his way. This opens things up in a big way, making every thing feel less like a board game and more like an interesting video game. This type of game play does create some problems, like moving to a specific place but then do to icy terrain accidentally sliding off the map, but luckily the system is forgiving and any mistakes you make can be undone with the touch of a button. The only moves that cannot be undone are attacks, for obvious reasons.

Another big change is that of your army. You play as a young girl named Morona. The unique thing about this girl is that she has the ability to communicate with and summon (or ?confine?) phantoms into objects on the playing field. Each phantom has a certain amount of turns he is confined for. After this number of turns has passed, the character is unconfined, and is unusable for the remainder of the battle. Where this system gets interesting is the different stats gained or lost depending on the item the phantom is confined to by Morona. For example, confining in to a flower may cause your character to be weaker, but to have a higher intelligence and move faster. This is ideal for spell casting characters. Likewise, confining into a tree stump or large rock would cause the characters speed and intelligence to drop, but his strength would be greatly improved. This is obviously ideal for your fighter type character classes. The confining system, although it takes a while to get used to, makes for a whole different kind of strategy. In order to be successful you must take into consideration many things, including the time of confinement (how long is the character going to be confined), to what item to confine the character into (what kind of bonuses would be good for this character, and what would be the ideal place to bring the character out at), etc.

The last difference I?m going to point out in this review is turns. In most tactical rpgs turns are broken up into enemy turns and your turns. Phantom Brave ditches this idea and instead bases its turns out speed, meaning whoever is fastest will go first, and if a character is much faster than another, may even go two or three times before the other character gets a turn. This may or may not sound strange, but it works very well. It improves the flow of the game dramatically, makes it feel like less of a board game and more like a video game, and it just makes since, plain and simple. Besides, it?s really funny to go back to the first battles after your characters are all ridiculously high levels and kill all the enemies before they get a chance to even move. Mwahahaha. Ahem.

All the changes in Phantom Brave as opposed to a more conventional tactical RPG keep it from feeling old and ?I?ve done this before?-ish. The systems may take a while to get the hang of, but after an hour or less of playing you?ll find out for yourself that in this case what makes the game different makes it better.

Some Details
Not everything in Phantom Brave is completely original, but everything is well executed. For example between battles you spend some time at your home base. Here is where you do all your healing, equipping and supplying. If you have a merchant on your team you can purchase items from him, your healer can heal your party, your fusionist can take two items and combine them together to create one super item, your titlist can assign new titles to characters and items modifying their stats, Morona (the main character) can create new phantoms and re-name existing ones, as well as re-summon destroyed phantoms, your dungeon monk can create random dungeons for you to hone your skills, gain levels and acquire new items in, your blacksmith can forge your items to make them stronger, the list goes on. Aside from the strait forward fighters, almost every character has an out-of battle use, adding a depth to the game that keeps things interesting. Even if a character isn?t necessarily good in battle, he can still be of great use to you. In addition, many times the characters out-of-battle abilities are affected by their levels, so you?ll have reason to use almost all of your characters in battle for one purpose or another. For example, the quality of your merchant?s items for sale depends on his level, so it?s smart to use him in battle frequently.

There are also lots of hidden secrets on your island, including ?back door? ways to leveling up your characters and an unlockable, very useful, phantom class.

You Say Way to Much Good Stuff. Say Some Bad Stuff Now!
As with every game, even the great ones, there are things about this one that just aren?t perfect. While there isn?t a whole lot of complaining to do, the difficulty can get in the way from pure enjoyment sometimes. You will need to go back and replay levels or create random dungeons to level up your characters if you wish to be successful when the game gets more difficult. On the opposite side of the coin, though, if the game was too much easier you could fly through it much too quickly, and it just wouldn?t be as much fun.

My other ?big? complaint with the game is that while many characters have outside-of-battle-uses that are neat and fun, the process of figuring out who does what can be confusing. A character that seems useless in the beginning of the game will turn out to be very handy later on, making you wish you had used him more and leveled him up more so that his abilities could actually be of some help. It?s much the same way with items ? you?ll get rid of some that you deem useless only to wish that you had held on to it later on (Tip: If you find a changebook, keep it. Trust me).

Other than that, the game is loads of fun and just to finish the main quest it will probably last you (depending on how much you take your time and enjoy yourself) anywhere from 35-50 hours. But even after you finish the story and ?complete? the game, there are many hidden dungeons, secrets, and other incentives to keep the hardcore coming back until the timer is maxed out.

PROS
-Great game. Deep systems remain interesting throughout the lengthy adventure

-Funny characters with a lighthearted and almost touching story

-A great departure from the traditional game of its genre without taking it in such a radical direction that the game becomes outlandish. The balance is brilliant.

-Lots and lots of stuff to do, even after the main story if finished

CONS
-Some may find parts of the story to be cheesy

-While this game has and will turn many people into tactical rpg fans, the genre is still very niche and just might not be your cup of tea

-Some of the characters and items true uses may be hard to discover, which is exciting, but can be overwhelming at times, especially for newcomers to the genre

Conclusion
Phantom Brave is good. No, Phantom Brave is great. There is so much to do in this game - this review barely scratches the surface. If you want proof of that, check out DoubleJump Book?s 240+page strategy guide. Even if you?ve never liked or tried a game of this type, this one is definitely one that you should check out somewhere along the way. Because of the more logical battle system this game is a good entry point for newcomers, as well as a wonderful treat for hardcore fans of the genre. I can?t wait for NIS?s next game.

Fuzzy Blowfish gives Phantom Brave an A

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