Phantom Brave

"Yes it's fun, but haven't I played this game before?"

Gameplay: Phantom Brave is a good game. It is fun and it kept me entertained. But the whole game seemed a little stale, as if I was constantly thinking, "haven't I done this already?" Pretty much. Diagaea, La Pucelle, and Phantom Brave are obviously of the same stock, but I don't think people realize how similar they are. There are some cool new additions and changes, such as titles and the binding phantoms to map items business, but really these just seem like tweaks to an already established formula. I played Disgaea already. I want something new. One thing that constantly improves from Nippon Ichi games is the loss of the Saturday morning cartoon dialogue. I hated it in Disgaea and in every game after it gets less and less obvious which makes me very happy.

Graphics: I love sprites. I do. I think more games should use them. This game uses a combination of sprites and 3d backgrounds. It works mostly, but in some places the two clash bad. You see the two together and you think, "that looks weird". It does, but not always. This is another thing that is a little stale for me personally, in that everything looks exactly the same as past Nippon Ichi games. I want something new, guys!

Sound: Sound is one area where I am happy. Mostly. While I actually enjoyed the music in this game (something that very rarely happens), the same sound effects are used in menu selections and so forth, which only serves to further the sense that I've already been here, I've already played this game.

Conclusion: I liked Phantom Brave. I plan on spending many hours playing it. However, as a loyal customer of Nippon Ichi products, I feel cheated. It doesn't seem like they're even trying to be innovative but that they're just cranking out the same game over and over with only minor gameplay tweaks and additions. I want something new, Nippon. I'm not asking for anything earth shattering, I just want something that feels new. I don't think that's too much to ask. If you keep going this route with your games I'll end up getting bored with them and you'll lose a customer and I don't think either of us want that to happen.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/21/04