This is a story about prejudice, betrayal, and the power of kindness. It's the year 913, in the ocean-filled world of Iviore. Three Chromas (Basically Mercenaries) are investigating a disturbance at the Island of Evil, an island known for being... Well... Evil. It's here that we're introduced to one of the two main characters, Ash, along with other characters of lesser import but still important because they happen to be the parents of the second main character, Marona. Anyways, bad things happen, and as a result, Ash becomes a Phantom, and is charged with protecting Marona. 8 years pass, and we find Marona and Ash living together on an island known as Phantom Isle, working as Chromas. But all is not well with these two, as Marona is called the "Possessed One" and is considered evil by most, despite her glaring innocence. This is because she's able to see Phantoms, and can give them physical substance, if only for a short while.

No Steve, I'm sorry. You can't come fight bloody battles with us. You're doomed to spend your days carefree on this paradisical beach with the hot females.

            This brings us to the battle system. Gone are the grid-filled battlefields of the past. Free roaming is what battles are all about in Phantom Brave. The amount of turns a character has is determined by their speed stat, as opposed to everybody moving in the same turn. You can move a set distance each turn, as depicted by a red circle surrounding your character, and you can move as many times as you want during your turn until you reach the maximum distance. It's very possible to move in, attack, and move away again. Of course, you can't very well move if you don't have anyone on the field, right? Players will always start out with Marona, but she is a subpar warrior at best, and is very quickly overshadowed by most Phantoms you can obtain. How do you use phantoms, you ask? Well, Marona has the ability to confine phantoms to various objects strewn about the battlefield, giving them physical substance and allowing them to fight at your side. Through the use of the Confine ability, a row of standard bricks can become a veritable army of soldiers, fighters, and even old men. Of course, there are a few drawbacks to this system. One can only confine a phantom for a limited amount of time before it disappears again, unable to be confined for the remainder of that battle. Different objects will also provide different bonuses for the phantom confined to it. Rocks are well suited for a more physically oriented character, such as a Fighter, while flowers would provide more use for a Witch.  

            Terrain is also a bit of a factor in this game as well. Some places (Especially those covered in ice, for obvious reasons) are far more slippery than others. Careful management of slippery terrain can result in being able to move around ten times faster than you normally would. Some terrain is also rather bouncy, and when you throw things they tend to... Bounce. Another feature to note is what I like to call "Special Protection," although it doesn't necessarily have to offer protection. Basically, certain objects on the field will offer other objects a special ability, ranging from doubling attack power to increasing experience gain to invincibility. One can confine phantoms to these "Protected" objects, and take advantage of the protection yourself. However, destroying the object or killing the enemy that's creating the protection negates any abilities it offers.  

            Equipment also works a bit differently in this game. Instead of being able to give a full set of armor to each character, weapons and armor are handled by... Being the same thing. Attack, Defense, Intelligence, Resistance, and other stats are all enhanced by objects that are either picked up on the battlefield or bought from a merchant. More mundane items such as rocks and weeds are obtained by confining a character to them and waiting until their time runs out. There's a chance that you'll permenantly gain the item, and you can equip it for various effects. Otherwise, weapons such as swords, axes, and books are bought from a merchant phantom. Confining an equipped character counts as confining two characters, however, so you may find that you can't bring out that army of rock-wielding Putties as fast as you'd like. Another thing that's rather unique about this game is that you can essentially 'equip' other characters, friend or foe, and use their abilities as if they were your own. Certain characters also get special attacks when 'wielding' one another. One more thing to note is that allies can pick up enemies and throw them out of the battlefield, eliminating them. This increases the power of the remaining enemies, but sometimes the tradeoff is worth it.  

            Each item has its own set of special abilities, which can be unlocked through the use of a Blacksmith phantom, however any enhancements made to an item are specific to that item only. Items can level up as well, gaining experience each time it's used. It's also possible to fuse items together and combine their abilities, so you could have a rock with the ability to use Hurricane Slash, for example. You can also fuse characters with items and other characters, to further increase stats and abilities. This is all tied together through the use of Mana, which is similar to exp, only it's used solely for fusions and blacksmithery.

"Run away from the rabbit of death!"

 

            The graphics in this game are almost identical to Disgaea and La Pucelle: Tactics, which is to say, full of hand drawn sprites. The cutscenes are portrayed with moving sprites at least. But in the end, it just feels like the same thing. Despite the lack of a grid system, the battlefields look rather squarish, and wouldn't look at all out of place in the other NIS games.  

            The voice acting, while not the best ever, gets the job done, although several characters seem to be rather... lacking... when it comes to vocal prowess. The music is also fairly decent, and sets the mood for the scenes rather well.  

            Overall, the gameplay is rather enjoyable and deep. The story is a bit cliche, but these days it's very hard to come up with a completely original story. There are loads of things to do after you beat the game, which makes up for the lack of replay value. If you're a Strategy RPG fan at all, you probably already own this title, but if not, you should.

-Quinton Alexander

Score Breakdown
Overall 8 See our Review Criteria	Gameplay	10
	Story	6
	Graphics	5
	Sound/Music	7
	Replay Value	4