Phantom Brave

"A cute little SRPG that isn't for everyone"

I'm fairly new to the whole SRPG genre. I've played the basics like Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Tactics, and Vandal Hearts ect. Phantom Brave is the first SRPG where I have felt completely overwhelmed with what it had to offer me. It's my first time with NIS and it won't be the last.

Ash is killed and he comes to his teachers/mentors younger daughter as a Phantom and helps her stay afloat in the world. It's Marona's 13th birthday, people call her possessed and tend to avoid her. She receives a Sea Mail and with the help of Ash she takes the job and tries to get enough money to buy the island that she is renting. The thing about the plot is that while it's a rather simple story, it does advance past that and provide an interesting if not slightly predictable tale that isn't really about saving world but about how people treat each other.

The graphics in the game turned me off right away. I have no problem with 2D or sprites but it just looked ugly. Character models are absurdly large 2d sprites and they do look rather ugly at times. Characters are slightly cute in way also... The thing that really sets it apart is the background during the dialog. Looks just fantastic, In game graphics are pretty good as well. Lots of items lying about for the most part, enemies while a lot look a like they do differ by a lot at times. The game also has a lot of stage settings but by the end it just feels like you're rehashing it all.

The sound in the game is actually really good. Thunks and booms and stuff can be heard on the sound effects side and while it isn't all that impressive rest of the sound area is. Everything is voice acted which kind of surprised me. Marona has a kind of whiny voice that I didn't care for at first but then it kind of grew on me because it made her come off as actually being 13 and not 30 like some games tend to do. The music in the game is just great. Buy the special edition of the game, it's the same price, it comes with the soundtrack which I highly recommend. The few vocal pieces in the game are very good, a bit anime-ish but that's okay. Rest of the music is rather cutesy and what not but it fits the mood of the game.

Control in the game is really simple. On your home island it's easy to jump and talk to people. Of course nothing is worse than jumping on a character and dealing damage. Camera is easily moveable by using R1 and L1. The fighting is all done via menus. I did have some odd hit detection issues. Sometimes Ash would attack a dead body instead of the person I had marked that was beside the dead body. I really don't get that whole thing but oh well.

Have you ever played an SRPG? Well, keep that in mind and then wait for all of the other new stuff that perhaps makes the game a bit too complex. The game has you going from island to island doing jobs. The game is broken up in 20 chapters; each is kind of like their own side story except the final few chapters all focus on the big finale. You need to attack the stages one by one; of course they appear that way also. Any time after a stage you can go back to the island and heal or save or whatever.

Alright, here is how the battle system works. Sorry if I make it sound confusing bit it does seem a bit complex. If you've played Disgaea it's a lot like that. Okay, on the side of the screen is a bar that shows whose up to attack and then everything that follows for about the next 10 turns. Now, Marona is the only character on your team. You need to confine spirits, like Ash into an object that you either brought along or that is in the playing field. It can be a flower, a bush, a tree, a skull, a sword, and whatever. Now, each item has strengths and weakness. Some lower your HP by X amount while others give you 1000 more attack. You need to pay attention to all of that. Some also have added effects like grounded which mean the character can't move at all. Those suck and try not to attach to them.

Now that the spirits are confined they are added to the bar on the right. Okay, now a normal SRPG has you moving in blocks. Phantom Brave gives you a circle radius to move around in. X amount of steps ect. Sometimes you won't make it to your point because of an obstacle but you can always cancel and try a different way, as long as you haven't attacked or healed anything. Now you just need to kill everything on the stage. Fairly simple from here but you can pick up times like trees or dead bodies and use them as weapons. This is very amusing at times. Now, the biggest catch is that each character only has so many turns and then they turn back into their item and they can not be summoned again for that battle. That's right, so now you really need to rethink everything and level everyone well. Oh and if you're character has a high % in one category then when he vanishes off the field he might bring that item with him to the island.

Now, you level up normally and all that jazz but your weapons also level up. Both also produce mana and I had no clue what mana was used for until near the end of the game when someone online told me what it did. See, mana is used to get new attacks, force a weapon up a level or combine stuff. See, you can combine one weapon with another and gain specific things from it. It works the same way with humans. Do you want Ash to learn heal so he isn't totally defenseless? Then combine him with a healer and make sure you have him learn heal. By doing this you also unlock new levels for the character. The second character chosen is the one that is gone forever but their gained levels are added onto the other characters max level. So, everyone has a max level setting of 100. You can break that by combining characters. Combine a level 30 healer with Ash and he can now go up to 130.

So, the game is a bit complex at times and requires a lot of thinking which gave me a lot of problems at first. I also found that the game is near impossible to beat by just playing through it. I constantly found myself having to go and make a dungeon and level up my guys. And it is tough to level people up. You have to take your strongest out of the mix and work on everyone else. Thankfully when a character dies they aren't gone forever and later on Marona learns life which is a god send for the later levels. Oh and before I forgot your attacks also gain levels, like spells and what not and it has them doing more damage or healing more ect.

The game took me about 20 hours to beat in a 3 day period. I was addicted to this game and just couldn't put it down. Besides the main plot I've heard there are some EX missions and then you can actually build your characters up to level 9999 which would take forever. You have a random dungeon creator ect. The game has a lot to offer after the game is over. Also, don't my time with a grain of salt because I tend to just do the main part and ignore everything else and I'm sure I played a little over 20 hours because I got game over a couple different times.

Is phantom Brave for everyone? No, people might hate the graphics or the anime style to the game. Also, it is a bit complex and some might be turned off by that as well. I really enjoyed the game after I understood how to play it and sadly my game didn't come with a manual so I was left in the dark but someone online helped me figure things out. It's worth at least a rental if your rental stores have it but the fact that it's like $18 means you should just buy it because that's like renting it twice. SRPG fans will enjoy it but I don't think this is a game for the casual gamer.

Story - 7/10
Graphics - 6/10
Sound - 8/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 8/10
Replay value - 7/10

Final Score - 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/06