Phantom Brave

"Nippon Ichi has finally done it. A game that has improved vastly over their other Strategy RPGs that have been released to the States."

30 years before the game's time, a lone warrior named Scarlet the Brave defeated the King of Terror, Sulfur. 8 years before the actual story, Marona's parents and their guardian, Ash went to the Island of Evil to stop some unknown evil force. Sadly, a horrible monster killed Marona's parents and Ash. Luckily, Marona's dad near death tried to revive Ash. It only half succeeded. Now, Ash is neither alive nor dead, he is a Phantom who protects Marona, a 13 year old Chroma. Marona is a nice girl, but everyone she meets hates her because of her abilities to talk to the dead and summon them to the land of the living. Marona is a nice girl who trusts everyone she deals with. Sadly, most people don't act the same way toward her.

Thus begins yet another Nippon Ichi game. But this game isn't any other Strategy RPG, no. Phantom Brave is Strategy's middle name.

Most Strategy RPG's consist of battles on grid-type areas. This is not so in Phantom Brave. Phantom Brave is probably the only Strategy RPG to have NO panels at all. That's right, instead of moving from panel to panel you can move in any direction. This gives your characters more freedom to move about the battle. Technically, you cannot move everywhere at once and you cannot climb up steep ledges with out the help of fellow teammates.

Phantom Brave also uses a technique the was first created in Disgaea, but upgrades it vastly. Lifting is an important skill in Phantom Brave's battle (and outside battle to!). Lifting is the key to success. You can lift your allies to throw them or to use them as weapons. You can also do this with every object in and out of battle. See a fish on the ground? Pick it up and wail on your enemies! You can also use the bodies of enemies. Not to mention bushes, trees,rocks,starfish,pillars,etc.

As I've said: Everything can be used as a weapon, and every weapon has their own skills. Yes, everything you pick up have their very own sets of attacks. Using staves lets you use magic, swords and axes give you strong attacks, and while you may think using a bush might be ineffective: you're wrong. Most plant weapons in this game boost your speed.

There is also another feature that complicates battles to no end. You can kick an enemy out of battle if you knock them out of the area. This makes the enemies still in battle stronger, but you can do this until there is only one enemy left. Of course, you cannot kick a boss out of a battle. Even some enemy monsters specialize in throwing your characters out of battle.

Marona must summon her allies into battle. To summon them, she needs to confine them in items placed around the map. You can confine your allies into almost everything in a the battle. Weapons, rocks, pillars, fish, cacti, trees, bushes, and even skulls. Sometimes a certain item you confine your ally to has a protection over it. Meaning: Some items can give your allies stat boosts or stat declines. If you confine your allies in bushes or grasses your ally will have a high speed. If you confine your allies to tress, they'll have high intelligence. Rocks can give allies high defense but low speed. Most of the time, you'll need Marona to confine allies with items you think will power them greatly, like confining a With to a tree so she has an even higher intelligence.

Most Strategy RPGs let you keep your characters through the whole battle until they die. This is not so in Phantom Brave. Most allies can only be summoned to the land of the living for a certain amount of time. That's right, most characters will disappear after a certain number of turns. This makes the game more strategic since most Battles are in very large areas. It isn't a good idea to summon all your allies in the beginning of the battles because you'll be left with only Marona in a few turns.

Other than fighting, Marona resides on a little island called Phantom Island. Here, you control Ash. You can hold up to 50 things on this island (that includes people). On Phantom island there are many things you can do, if you have a DungeonKeeper you can buy random dungeons to go through and fight enemies and pick up strong weapons and items. You can also have a fusionist fuse items or characters together, and Blacksmiths can refine weapons and give them new skills.

I've had a problem with Phantom Island, there is a certain glitch where you cannot talk to anyone or leave the Island. It's happened to me twice and I'm not sure if it's just my game, other than that, the Island is perfect(if you go have this glitch, just save and restart your PS2.).

Closing
Phantom Brave gives what Strategy RPGs needed: Freedom. The lack of grid-based combat is addictive and extremely fun. If you're looking for a Disgaea clone, you're looking in the wrong place. I suggest this game to Strategy RPG fans everywhere, you won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/06/04