Customer Reviews

Phantom Brave

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Phantom Brave is a story-driven RPG broken into 20 chapters. In it you play Marona, a 13 yr old girl who can talk with phantoms. She goes on quests with her phantom-pal Ash.

I have to say I was disappointed with the graphics in this game when it began, as you sit through the entry cut-scenes involving Marona's parents and Ash. Both parents die, leaving Marona an orphan at age 5. You then jump forward in time to her at 13, living alone on an island with phantom-pal Ash. The island is her home which she hopes to someday buy. In the meantime, she works with her phantom friends to solve problems for people. Unfortunately, while some people need her skills, most resent her for her strange powers.

The graphics are on the cute-anima-short-people side, much like Ragnarok. The backgrounds are a bit blocky. The sound is also on the cute side, with bouncy music humming along.

The RPG aspect of the game is actually quite interesting. In most RPGs you just get one or two friends to travel with you. Here you get a wide selection of phantoms to work with, each with his or her own skills. You can name the phantoms and really build a party that works well with your gaming style.

Not only do you have phantoms to work with, but you can "confine" objects on the battlefield and use them as weapons. Each item has its own special skills - and when you merge an item with a given phantom, the combination can range from so-so to truly incredible based on the match.

Strangely, while much of this game seems very much geared towards kids with its cute look and feel, there are also scenes of blood-dripping monsters, characters yelling out "what the hell is this?" and words like "blasphemous" being tossed arond.

The in-game help is reasonably good and while it can be confusing to get started, once you get the hang of things it's not hard to work with your party and move through the levels. On the other hand, the game starts throwing around characters, groups and political situations without much introduction. It's the type of game that may seem quite confusing the first time through - and only begins to make sense when you play it the second time around and know the players and factions.

The game is pretty heavy-handed with the "everyone picks on the 13 yr old" and "she is blithely happy no matter what happens around her" scenarios. There is also a sappy voice-over that comes from nowhere to fill in the details.

A fun RPG for anime fans and those who love playing with combinations and tweaking to see what works best - but be aware of the cuteness / sappy factor. Some people love that ... and some will be drive crazy.

I have seen a lot of divergent reviews for this game, so I feel the need to set the record straight. This game is similar to a tactical simulation, however it uses an active movement and attack system somewhat similar to games like Vagrant Story or Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, however this game is mostly two-dimensional with sprites being used instead of 3d character models, on a 3d background. It plays a lot like its other Nippon Ichi predecessors, it is a turn-based strategy game, however without tile based movement and attacks. Because of that, you can end up spending a good deal of time lining up attacks carefully to ensure maximum coverage.

This game is quite diverse and gives your characters a very wide range of abilities to learn and use, so many that it may prove too much for most people to give every attribute and skill to even one character. This lends itself well to people who can invent and use unconventional tactics and open themselves up to creative thinking when playing the game. The art is cutesy and nice, which is expected of a Nippon Ichi game. The music while not great is easily acceptable. In typically Japanese fashion, most of this game lacks the kind of censorship Americans expect, seeing as there is no such thing as verbal censorship as a part of morality in Japan; Japanese explicatives are only considered rude when used as insults, and are not considered immoral. Therefore, while the art and music seem childlike, and the game genre and some of the dialog seem mature, the truth is that the game itself was originally intended for all video game playing audiences.

One complaint heard a lot is about the confinement system. Instead of having your party with you at all times, battles always start with just Marona (the main character), and you must confine the phantoms who compose your party inside of material objects (such as rocks, trees, flowers, and items) scattered around the battlefield. Party members remain so confined and able to act and do battle until their confinement period ends, usually five turns or less, at which time they will disappear and the objects will revert back into their previous state. The complaint is that not enough turns are given to complete the battle, this is a straw man argument against the game. The purpose of the confinement system is to make you recruit and train enough phantoms to last through a battle instead of making the game easy to defeat with just two or three characters like Disgaea.

Overall, the game is very good and unique. Some parts like the music could use a little polish, however nothing in the game really detracts from the overall experience. The biggest complaint I have really is that the game can be slightly repetative, especially if you've played other strategy games for long stretches of time. As with all things, strategy games require moderation!

I own them all for Playstation 2: Disgaea 1&2, La Pucelle, Makai Kingdom, even the bad Atlier Iris games distrubted by NIS America but really produced by Gust.

This is my favorite, even if I have to drop a star for no new game+.

I like it because it is hard, like a true stragic role-playing game should be. Your characters evaporate after a set amount of turns, forcing you to form a balanced party. The free movement system is innovative, including levels where you slide on surface ice for truly long range.

You get one weapon; just one. Though your title doubles as armor. Anything can be a weapon (my best weapon is a live floppy fish) including trees, swords, model trains, and boxes. You can combine weapons together, giving you access to any ability on any item. Ultimate customization.

As for the story, I found a bit sappy yet heartwarming. Plus when you consider how the special character attacks are parody, it actually becomes funny. I liked the large amount of bright colors in the backgrounds and stage levels.

Finally I liked the game because by her actions, Marona shows what it means to be Brave.

Keeping in the same vein as Disgaea, this game does have a fun storyline, even if it does get slightly preachy at times. The gameplay is also solid, making easy beginning levels to help the player learn the system (if they've never played a game of this style before) while leading into the more challenging levels that require a high degree of strategy. If Disgaea, Makai Kingdom, or La Pucelle Tactics was fun, this game is a good addition.

But if Disgaea didn't exist this game would get five stars. The 3d point of view is excelent and adds a fresh new look to the strategy RPG cannon.

I love the variety of spells and skills and there is so much to explore that this game will give easily over 100 hours of entertainment.

The story is weak but it's really only about 10% of the game. Most of the game is really played in the random dungeons so you don't have to suffer through the predictable story adventures over and over.

All in all it's a great game but if you don't have a strategy RPG for PS2 pick up Disgaea first. Also get the strategy guide for this one it's completely worth it.

I loved Disgaea. I haven't played La Pucelle Tactics yet, but I picked this game up.

I love it! It's just like Disgaea (some people might think that's bad), but you know, upgraded! Interesting new features are the ability to confine your phantoms into objects on the battle map. It's extremely customizable that way, and if you confine wrong...well...you are probably going to lose.

Otherwise, the ability to combine items with characters to give different abilities is really cool.

THe storyline is a bit linear so far (I haven't completed the game yet), and Marona can be a bit aggravating because of how she acts, but oh well.

If you like Disgaea or La Pucelle, pick this game up. It's not as hilarious as Disgaea, but it's still a great game! It's a bit more serious.

The game showed up and I was playing it right away. A rarity among Nis America(formerly Atlus)games. Peo0ple underestimate the coolness of older games. I prefer old school stuff. Yeah,I would love a PSp and a PS3 but I am not that wealthy so I make do with that I can afford.

I'm personally amazed at how high of ratings this game gets, considering what the actual game contains. As a huge Disgaea fan and someone who enjoyed La Pucelle tactics, I expected more of the same from Nippon Ichi Software...

... boy was I disappointed.

Some things you should know before buying this game:

ALL of your decent characters, in game, have a very VERY finite amount of turns that you can use them for. What this means is that say you've got a nice super powered knight character... on average, assuming you 'confine' him to a decent object, he'll be around for 5 or so turns. After that? No more character for the rest of the battle. This is MURDER on levels that are big, because if your enemies are halfway across the screen then you either waste half of your turns getting them, or get the 'main' character (who happens to have awful stats) close enough to the enemies that she runs the risk of being ganged up on and horribly whooped. And, joy of joys, only the characters doing the attacking get experience, so those low level characters take an awfully annoying amount of time to level up.

Also, aside from a weapon, you've got no equipment. A single weapon can raise up all of your stats, but your weapons can be pilfered and tossed out of the arena (which means you can't use them.)

They murdered the lovely 'item world' that you could play in Disgaea, and instead replaced it with 'Dungeons'. Dungeons have types, and titles. (note that every enemy in this dungeon will have this title.) that means if you're heading into a dungeon with a super powered title, you can expect that ALL of the enemies in that particular dungeon will be likewise overpowered and horrible.

There's also, no new game plus...

Which in a way is a blessing, because the storyline is just plain awful. I imagine most children over the age of 10 could come up with a more convincing plotline than the one they try to pull off, and whereas Disgaea's weak moments were at least highlighted by humor... the attempt at seriousness leaves the player kind of staring at the screen.

Given that I've given it one star, I know most people will probably not bother to read this review, thinking I just had some horrible bias against the game, but in all honesty I really think that's the rating this game deserves. While I like strategy rpg's for their level building and making powerful characters, I also like the satisfaction of getting to see those characters raze maps with their might, instead of going 'only 3 turns left... only 3 turns left!'. The only possible value I can see in this game is if you just enjoy senseless, difficult level building that doesn't really amount to alot in the end anyway.

So I have to say I was slightly let down by LaPucelle tactics and was hoping they would make a comeback with the next installment, they did...relatively.
To look at the game graphic wise it is easy to say that they are slightly outdated taking you back to the days of Ogre Tatcics or Final Fantasy Tactics, but I think that having them this way fits the personality of the game to a "T".
The actual combat system is VERY unique. Instead of just choosing your characters at the beginning of the battle like all other "tactic-like" games you start every battle with Marona, the main character. It is up to her to "confine" various items found throuhout the playing feild into playable characters. The only downside to this is they have a pre-set number of turns that they are allowed to stay on the field before the disapperar until the next battle. This can get very tedious especially later in the game.
Now on to its slight downfalls. The actual story isnt that bad but it gets muddled down into tiny episodes on how the main character is in outcast but it is all right with her cliches and you can see them coming a mile away. On top of that the voice acting isnt that great. It seems like the actors are just reading a pre-set script rahter than putting any emotion into it. Lastly there is also this very cheezy narrator that pops up at the most oppurtune time to inform you on the innner feelings of the characters, think of your kindergarten teachers voice mixed with that of Michael Jacksons.
Overall though it is a highyl enjoyable game with great elemnts and strategy to it, 4 stars because of the story.

I was kind of sceptical about this title. I loved Disgeia, but La Pucelle didn't really do anything for me. Well, this definately delivered the strategy fun I've been missing. While it isn't like either of its predicessors {combat wise} it adds a NEW type of strategy. Confining. I could explain it, but I don't feel like it, so I'll just say its tight. Another cool thing is that ANYTHING on the battlefield, {bushes,bricks, etc.} can be used as a weapon. I mean they have uniqe moves and everything ! There is however a bit of a learning curve {for the book doesn't cover much at all} But once u figure everything out its just as addictive as Disgeia ever was. {0r more so}