Customer Reviews

Phantom Brave

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Don't believe anything Steelman (mommarock?) said about Phantom Brave, as she was apparently too busy selling her body for crack to actually play the game. Ratchet and Clank? It's not even the same genre, it's like trying to compare a toaster to a refrigerator. Anyway, this is, by far, the best of the Nippon Ichi strategy rpg's, with a typically sacharine anime storyline and an insanely dense customization feature that allows anything and everything on the battlefield to be used as a weapon, leveled up and/or fused to other items and to characters. Literally everything, trees, rocks, shrubbery, fish, pots, lamps, even the bodies of slain enemies. I've spent far more time leveling up and fusing my characters to starfish than I have actually playing through the storyline, it's damn addictive.
And Mrs. Mommarock must be a puritan of the most vile degree, since there is virtually no gore in this game (and what there is happens to be excessively cartoonish) and the only swear word I have found after countless hours of playing is the word "crappy," which I'm not even certain counts as a swear word amongst most of us normal folk, and is probably the only reason the game didn't get a "G" rating (though I'm sure the distinction is probably too great for someone in a crack-induced haze). Anyway, if you're a fan of Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaia, La Pucelle, etc, this is a must have.

...but just NOW got to playng it. When I originally bought it, I was put off by the Confine system (more on that later), and it seemed just too difficult to level characters enough to move smoothly through the game.

I was a big fan of "Disgaea," however, and always was sad that I never got into "Phantom Brave" (hereby dubbed "PB"). Yet, FINALLY (this week, in fact!), I took the game off my shelf and gave it one last go. And FINALLY, the appeal was there.

First, the good. "Phantom Brave" is a nice tactics game, where you control Marona (a Chroma), who has the ability to summon phantoms to the material realm. These phantoms fight for her in battle. There are many types of phantoms to choose from (at the beginning, I think there are 5 or 6, but that number increases to about 40 later on), each with their own unique skills. From fighters and valkyries (who are pretty much what you expect) to dungeonmonks and titlists (who really can't be explained here), Marona and her guardian phantom Ash will travel with all of them as she tries to help the world of Ivoire, most of which wished she didn't exist.

The second good thing about the game is the incredible number of weapons and skills which can be used. Of course, you have your standard swords, spears, and staves, but included also are...potted plants? Fish? Weeds? And EVERY type of item has its own unique skills to be mastered (over 400 in total). Moreover, items level up, have hit points, gain mana (a type of currency used to improve items and characters), etc. The variations are almost overwhelming.

And that is the problem. It IS overwhelming. If you're like me, you want to gain every skill in the game. But with such an incredible number of skills, it is hopeless (I haven't even mentioned that some skills can only be obtained by getting certain "titles" and bestowing them on your character, titles which ALSO can be levelled up). Were the game itself a bit more expansive (as one reviewer mentioned, there are only about 40 different battlesites in the game), it might be feasible. But it gets boring gathering enough mana by fighting the same enemies OVER and OVER again.

To make matters worse in the "confine" system. I imagine that Nipponichi, the developers of the game, realized how easy it was to create one uber-character in "Disgaea" and use him/her to slaughter everything before you. To combat that, phantoms must be confined to items on the level, and can only stay active for about 4-6 turns, after which they vanish and cannot be summoned again that battle. This makes for a LOT of levelling. And of course, with the sparse number of dungeons, well, see last paragraph.

All in all, "PB" is a fun game, but the flaws are there. It is enjoyable to run through the scenes, and the story is pretty good (I actually like a heartwarming tale), but in order to make it to the end, you need to level a lot (or cheat by powerlevelling near the beginning - scrabbits anyone?). It's strange - I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't like tactics-type strategy, but I have a hard time recommending it to many of those people as well. Basically, if you played and liked "Disgaea", you'll like this, but probably not as much...

Some people just can't understand the complexity of grapics such as these. Yes the characters are almost "pixel" in form, but the attention to detail, and three-sixty views give every character a three-D feel. And as for "Gore", yes there is minor gore, minor. Yet not enough to scrammble the brain of the average "kid gamer", who shouldn't be playing a teen marked game in the first place. I say, in my modest, and badly written way, that this is a great game...not amazing, but very very good!

Phantom Brave is a Japanese strategy-RPG from Nippon-Ichi, makers of Disagea (among others). Although I have been a long time fan of RPGs and various strategy games, I'd never tried my hand at an SRPG prior to Phantom Brave (despite owning FF Tactics for the better part of two years). When I saw PB for $20, I picked it up - and I was blown away.

The battle system is the heart of any RPG, and is especially important in an strategy-RPG. Phantom Brave's is fantastic, in my opinion, and is both unique and engaging. Essentially, you summon phantoms, which can be confined in real world objects placed around the map. Each phantom has a set number of turns before it is removed from the board. Phantoms can also be killed or thrown out of bounds by enemies. Before battle, you can equip your phantoms with a wide variety of weaponry - anything from swords to sunflowers to starfish - which effect attack, speed etc. stats. To make this weapons better, you can upgrade them using a blacksmith phantom, or fuse them with other items using a fusionist phantom. You can also get a titlist phantom to assign titles to weapons/characters that offer huge upgrades to their stats. The level of customization/character types is simply mind-blowing, and for anyone interested in delving into that, it's remarkably deep and rewarding. Some battles are cheap in the fashion in which the objects/terrain is laid out (i.e. spreading out the enemies across a giant map, so that your phantoms run out of turns before they can defeat all of them).

The story is pretty typical "kid saves the world while learning/teaching life lessons along the way" type stuff, but I found it engaging. The main characters, Ash and Marona, can be annoying at times, but they can also be quite heart-warming and funny. The final chapters are a bit over-wraught and rushed, but for the most part, the story is decent. The dialogue can be painful at times - the overuse of clichés is nearly sickening - but I managed to get through that. It is predicitable in parts, and it doesn't measure up to the likes of Final Fantasy VIII/IX/X et al. (insert game with good story here). It does its job, and it's quite funny in places - it definitely had me pressing on through the game, which is a plus.

Sound and graphics are rather blah. The voice acting gets grating; it's not absolutely god-awful, but it's not great either .The music is ok, but nothing spectacular as RPGs go. The graphics are absolutely crap - I'm sure even fans of 2D sprites will agree - with horrid animations, pixilated characters, terrible spell effects, and an amateurish appearance overall. This could have been done on the original Playstation, and it shows.

Overall, Phantom Brave really surprised me (in a pleasant sort of way). It is charming at many points, offers some great gameplay, and has a lot of replay value for those strategy-RPG nuts. After the "official game" is over and completed, then you can engage in a series of scenarios that require a huge amount of leveling, skill, and time to beat. Not to mention the fact that you can also upgrade your characters to level 9999, find rare items, upgrade titles, and go spelunking in the random dungeons the game creates. If you're looking to conquer all that Phantom Brave has to offer, prepare to fork over 200 hours of your life or more. Personally, my 35 hours got me through the main game and a few of the post-game events - a decent play-time as RPGs are concerned - and I was quite pleased with my experience. Regardless of how you wish to play Phantom Brave, the choice is there for you, and it should appeal to strategy buffs and newbies (such as myself) alike. Recommended.

If you like Disgaea: Hour Of Darkness and the characters, you will love this game. I bought PBrave quite some time ago to play and was like kinda dissapointed with it as it's not as good as Disgaea.. So i stopped playing until one day. I felt uneasy because i always love to complete a game before throwing it into the shelf and never touch it again. So I continued to play Phantom Brave and was surprised. Very surprised. The storyline gets more & more cool, as well as the game becomimg more and more challenging. Example: when you reached a boss stage where you can't defeat the boss. There's only 1 solution...Train more! Everyone would be thinking:"Aww...training the characters again...HOW BORING and waste of time!" But hey! Training is FUN! Yes...You can access the random dungeon and train your characters as well as your weapons. You might be able to charge right through the game (but then again just use a cheat device and complete a game in 2 hours, right? Heheh) There was once, i took a risk in the game..most of my characters were like lvl 30+ only..but i entered a lvl 70+ random dungeon just to steal their lvl 70+ weapons lying on the floor. Hah..it was great. Once I managed to get at least 1 high lvl weapon,I'm out of there before i get my butt kicked. That's the beauty of Phantom Brave.
It's worth it, and kind of feels like other stealthy games when you make a raid on high level monsters. The whole game was not only about training your character's lvl and proceed. The Titles and weapons also affect your characters alot. And Yes..when i got the lvl 70+ weapon, i managed to kick 1 or 2 bosses behinds as I proceed with the story. And a great story it is. Until the final boss stage...I was like sooo shocked. He could finish me off with like 1 or 2 attacks! LOL..Once again..Risk my characters lives to those extremely high lvl random dungeon to steal some high lvl weapons and good titles.
This game really needs alot of strategy in defeating different bosses and stages..Argh..about the strategy thingy..it's kinda hard to explain..You hard to try it yourself..Seriously =) I never get any frustration from this game even when i got thrashed by some bosses, i would laugh and say to myself:"Train more =)" This game by itself is already cool..But whats more COOL is the bonus stuffs u can get in the ending!!!! I was SO DAMN HAPPY when i saw Laharl and party in the game!! Yup!! The Characters from Disgaea!. It was kind of funny when your main character met up with the main characters from the game you played before. You even get them to join you after you defeated them!!(well..it's not easy..i had a hard time defeating them..but it's worth it.

In conclusion: Phantom Brave is a Strategy RPG (SRPG) gamers can love if he/she can get used to the gameplay and storyline. And Of course...the reward of this game is a good feeling in the heart.

As a fan of Nippon-Ichi (or NIS America) since the first Disgaea, I bought this game hoping for more of their unique brand of humor and great, involving game play. I can say that I was NOT disappointed. There are so many facets to the game that if you try to "master" every part of the game, you could easily spend over 100 hours doing it. You could definitely make it through the game in less than that (40 hours or less, probably), but a game like this is designed for you to really take advantage of all the extra features. It is similar to Disgaea, while at the same time being very unique and original. Features such as confinement (for your summoned warriors), weapon/character combinations, and a free-movement setup (i.e. no "grid" like in traditional tactical RPGs), it takes the good things from Disgaea and adds some new twists. This makes the game fresh and interesting. The only reason I gave it 4 stars for "fun" is because you can really get bogged down in making "perfect" characters or weapons; some people LOVE this, and others HATE it. If you like Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea style games, Nippon-Ichi, or just intricate, involved games in general, this is definitely the game for you.

this game is really cool. it will take up most of ur time. it took about 70 hours to beat the game but takes a longer time to complete the extra episodes so this game will keep you busy for a while

I'm a big RPG lover...especially of the FF series, Lunar, and Kingdom Hearts. I didn't expect much out of this game but I typically like RPGs even when the stories aren't that great. However, this was one of the WORST RPGs that I've ever played. It's one of those boring games where a still picture of a character comes up and the dialogue is horrendous. There's an annoying little girl who's parents died and she can see the phantoms and nobody likes her. So every time you go to a new area she says the same things. It is so redundant and boring. "one day everything will be ok" new area "one day I'll be happy" new area "One day..." OK we got it one F***ing day! The battle system tries to imitate Final Fantasy Tactics but falls unbelievably short. Each time you go to a new area, you fight four battles at that area and then you're on to the next boring area. So in essence you actually only go to about 10 different places and you don't actually go to them because like Tactics there is no exploring of cities or going into shops or traveling in any form. The game is just battles and then horrible dialogue with characters that you don't care about at all. There's just two main characters that you play and the rest are like (wizard, chemist, blah only nowhere near as much variety as FFtactics and they have nowhere near the abilities). So if you didn't even like Tactics then there is no way that you'll like this game. It's been months since I've played it and I didn't even finish it which is very unlike me but I just didn't care because it was so predictable and the characters were boring. I just don't understand how something that crappy is made/sold. If you read this and then buy that horrible game then i pity you.

This game is so lacking in current technology that it is like playing PAC-MAN. There are animated sequences that are well done, like small snippets of a cartoon..... BUT the gameplay is awkward and outdated. If you are used to the quality of play in say...Jak or Ratchet and Clank... then you will be terribly disappointed in this game.

IF I had been able to preview it before I bought it for my daughter, it would still be on a shelf somewhere in a wrapper.

It is also rated TEEN.... Believe me with all the gore, how it got past a MATURE Rating, I will never know. YUCK! Also, if you are worried at all about gratutitous cursing... Stay away from this one. It usually doesn't phase me, but to have my daughter exposed to hearing curse words in almost every sentence... it was too much for me.

This is a loser all around as far as I am concerned. Take you child to McDonalds or something with the money you will save.... you will be glad you did. I would have given it a ZERO, but the choice was not offered!