Phantom Brave
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| Phantom Brave | |
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| Developer(s) | Nippon Ichi Software |
| Publisher(s) |   Nippon Ichi Software KOEI Ltd |
| Designer(s) | Yoshitsuna Kobayashi |
| Release date(s) | January 22, 2004 (JP) August 31, 2004 (NA) February 4, 2005 (EU) |
| Genre(s) | RPG/Turn-based Strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) PEGI: 12+ USK: 6+ |
| Platform(s) | PS2 |
| Media | 1 DVD-ROM (NA), 1 CD-ROM (EU) |
Phantom Brave is a tactical role-playing game for the PlayStation 2, developed by Nippon Ichi Software, and released in Japan in early 2004 and in North America in August 2004. It is similar in gameplay to its predecessor, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, with some unique twists. Its story is unrelated to Disgaea. The game shipped in two "editions"--Normal and Special--the Special edition coming with a free soundtrack and shortened instruction manual.
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[edit] Plot
The main character is a 13 year old orphan girl named Marona, who has the ability to see and speak with phantoms. People fear and hate her for this. Some even cheat her and send her hate mail. Still, she harbors no resentment towards them, and is irrepressibly hopeful despite being lonely. There is one person who looks out for her: a phantom named Ash, who worked with her parents when he was still alive. He guards her and helps her do jobs for people. In an interview, the character designer Takehito Harada explained that Ash's scarf , as well as pale complexion and red eyes, are intended to give him a ghostly appearance.
[edit] Gameplay
As in other tactical role-playing games, battles take place on an isometric board. in Phantom Brave, Marona dispatches her phantom allies by confining them to things such as trees, grass, rocks, and flowers. Different objects give different kinds of stat bonuses, making it advantageous to confine certain characters to certain things. A Soldier, for example, often benefits from the type of stat bonuses found on a rock, while a Witch does not. Up to 16 phantoms can be dispatched during a battle, but they only last for a particular number of turns. The number is based on class. A Witch lasts three turns, while a Soldier lasts eight.
Unlike most tactical role-playing games, whose game board contains a grid used for movement, Phantom Brave has a gridless system, in which each character can move a certain number of dm (decimeters) in each turn. The terrain also has traction and bounciness characteristics, which affect how long characters continue to slide along after they stop moving and how high they bounce when they jump down from a ledge. On slippery surfaces, it's possible to make the characters "ice skate" by moving very short distances (consuming few dm) and letting them slide to their destination.
Also unlike most TRPGs, the board does not have barriers on the edges. Combined with the hold and throw system inherited from Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, characters can be thrown or hit off the field and sent O.B. (out-of-bounds). O.B.'d characters are gone for the rest of the map. When an enemy is O.B'd, the levels of the remaining enemies rise, so the player can trade many small problems for one large one (the last enemy on the map cannot be thrown O.B.).
Another unique feature for character development is the fusion system. All characters and weapons accumulate mana whenever they kill an enemy. This mana can be spent to fuse two characters together, an item to a character, or an item to an item. Fusion increases the level cap of the beneficiary by the level of the consumed item or character. By spending mana, the player can improve equipment percentages (stat bonuses given to characters who equip the item or character) and confine percentages (bonuses to characters confined in the item on the field), and transfer skills to the beneficiary. In Phantom Brave, weapons have a much greater effect on stats than the characters, so mastering the fusion system to create super-powerful weapons is essential to conquering the extra maps. Also unlike most CRPGs the max level is 9999.
The random dungeons from Disgaea's Item World return in Phantom Brave. They are no longer associated with items, and are simply known as Random Dungeons. While on Phantom Isle, a Dungeon Monk can be asked to create a Random Dungeon. Some characteristics of the dungeon can be seen before creation, including the type and general number of enemies present, the floor conditions, and if the use of equipped weapons is restricted or not. Dungeons also have titles, which are applied to every enemy in the dungeon and change (usually improve) as floors are cleared. These titles can later be removed and placed on player characters. Random Dungeons take the form of a linear series of floors. Unlike in Disgaea, where to descend to the next floor one must merely move a character to a certain panel, in Phantom Brave one must defeat all the enemies present to continue. Occasionally, a floor may have a special named layout (for example, "Self-Styled God" floors have a stronger enemy in the center of a terraced layout). These floors occur randomly and confer an extra bonus upon completion. To leave a random dungeon, one must either clear every floor, or use a Dungeon Monk's Return skill (which costs money proportional to the current depth).
While not in battle, Marona can return to her home - Phantom Island - where she can summon new phantoms to aid her. Phantoms actually populate the island as non-player characters. Many classes have a utility on the island - Merchants sell things, Healers heal and resurrect, Dungeon Monks allow the player to go to random battle fields, and so forth.
As Marona and her group of Phantoms advance through the chapters, her ability to create Phantoms grows. The player starts off by being able to make a small amount of Phantoms, but as time goes on, one will be able to create more powerful Phantoms, such as fenrirs and zombies.
Like Disgaea before it, Phantom Brave has a series of extra maps following the main storyline. These maps feature cameos by some members of the Disgaea cast as enemies; after defeating them, they join the player's side as "phantom doubles". While the first couple of extra maps can be completed immediately after the main story, the later extra maps are very difficult and require a large amount of time to be spent leveling characters and fusing weapons for characters before they can be completed.
[edit] References
Maragos, Nich (Aug. 27, 2004). In Character: 01 – The Art of Takehito Harada (Interview). Retrieved Jan. 30, 2005.
