Nick Hogg, OP Game Guy

bebe bd

Phantom Brave

I see dead people—and then I bind them
to various household objects and use
them to fight evil. Yeah, that’s pretty
much the order of the day when dealing
with Nippon Ichi’s new Strategy RPG,
Phantom Brave. The ultimate question is
whether or not this RPG lives up to its
predecessors, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness,
and, La Pucelle Tactics, but hey, that’s what
I’m here for.

First off, this game has no worldly
connection to either Disgaea or La Pucelle;
it is its own new world with a new set of
characters. In the world of Phantom Brave,
there are people called Chormas, who can
see spirits. Chormas also have the power
to battle the spirits and, in some cases,
even use other spirits to fight them with.

Marona, a 13-year-old

Chorma who lost
her parents eight
years earlier, is
constantly
accompanied by

her spirit
guardian, Ash.
Ash was a

swordsman who died protecting Marona’s
parents eight years earlier. With their last
bit of strength, Marona’s parents had tried
to bring Ash back to the world of the liv-

 

ing, but failed and now he’s
trapped as a phantom between
the world of the living and the
dead. I guess a phantom is techni-
cally dead, but if Disgaea taught us
anything, it was that if you die you
will most likely end up as a Prinny.
Where the story becomes a down-
er is the fact that most of the
people in the world of Phantom
Brave believe that Marona is pos-
sessed, and is going to raise an
army of the dead to reign terror
and enslave humanity. So most of
the people Marona encounters in
the game call her possessed and
scream at her to go away. But Marona’s
the type of person who just acts all happy,
and tries to please everyone. Thankfully, it
seems like some personal growth is in
order for Marona, because people who
are way too happy in a bad situation tend
to get on your nerves. I should also note
that there is a special edition of the game
which comes with a CD soundtrack in the
box, but it’s only indicated on the back of
the box in small print. It’s a special edi-
tion, so it’s easy to miss.

Nippon Ichi outdid itself for innova-
tion in strategy RPGs—the grid system is
gone, the battlefield is now longer and
arranged in neat, little squares, and there is
a circular radius of movement. It’s odd at

first but it does have its advantages,
such as being able to move more
than once in a turn, as well as after
attacking, But a problem arises with
lining up attacks and their ranges,
and whenever a few characters start
fighting they tend to want to
stick to small areas. This
ends up looking far too
crowded, and makes it dif-
ficult to use some attacks.
As for the fighting itself, the
only character that is alive in
your party is Marona, and she
binds the ghosts in your party
to common objects on the bat-
tlefield. These objects modify
the character’s stats. The char-
acter can also only be on the
field for a limited number of
turns, dependent on their class and
level. This adds a whole new dimension of
strategy since you have to thoroughly plan
out when you should bring out a charac-
ter to avoid wasting any turns.

The equipment system is vastly differ-
ent from a normal RPG. For instance, you
can only hold one weapon at a time,
which can be any type of object on the
battlefield. So you’ve got characters wield-
ing trees, and nothing says badass like a
ghost wielding a Christmas tree. These
weapons, which include swords for those
traditional RPG fans, can be upgraded
with points gained by killing enemies. And

  
   
  
  
   

 

those are the basics of the system. There
is also a merging of characters’ systems,
that I believe is similar to the transmigra-
tion option of Disgaea, but the effects
early in the game aren’t really there to be
seen.

So, the overall verdict is that I’m not as

impressed with Phantom Brave as | was
with Disgaea, though, to be fair, I have
been playing Disgaea for over a yeat now.
This might end up in the category with La
Pucelle, because the game is enjoyable, but
I’m not going to take the time to squeeze
every ounce of game play out of it.

ity to expres