Phantom Brave

Reviewed by Andrew Clark
September 24, 2006

Developer: NIS Publisher: NIS America Consoles Available: PS2 Number of Players: 1 ESRB Rating: T for Teen Website: Click Here

Screenshot from Phantom Brave . Courtesy NIS.

Phantom Brave is a strategy RPG by Nippon Ichi Software. The game is based around a little girl named Marona, and her best friend Ash (who is a phantom). Toward the beginning of the game you learn that Marona has a special gift to see phantoms, and uses them to solve cases for a living. Ash is introduced in a cut scene at the very start of the game. It is revealed later on that Marona is the daughter of two of his old friends. The fighting system is similar to Disgaea, except that instead of a grid to battle on, it's an open area.

The game has some great ideas in it, and some that still need some work. One feature in the game that has its ups and downs is the movement system. As helpful as it is the movement limits are marked by a circle that appears when players go to move, however on areas that are iced the character can go sliding across the field, off the map, and remain dead for the rest of the fight. One thing that I enjoyed about the game was that the characters can only reach so high a level by default. Once they reach their level limit they will not go any higher, unless they are combined with a weapon, item, or another character. These actions can give them more levels. In the game players summon their phantoms to the field by binding them to an object. The objects range from trees, to weapons, and many other things. Each item to bind a phantom gives the phantom different status effects. The phantom has an obtain rate for each item. This basically means that sometimes when the phantom leaves it will take the item with it. This is a neat idea, but annoying when you really want an item.

Since this game is a strategy RPG, it has a very long play time. After the main story, the game continues to go on, where you can unlock secret characters from some of the other games that Nippon Ichi has released, including characters from Disgaea, and La Pucelle. Also it's fun to go back to the game from time to time, just to see some of the moves. There are a ton of moves in the game, and some are so over the top that you feel the need to view them again. Phantom Brave is an older game and has gone down in price, but clearly the replay value is worth picking this title up.

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