As a fan of Nippon-Ichi (or NIS America) since the first Disgaea, I bought this game hoping for more of their unique brand of humor and great, involving game play. I can say that I was NOT disappointed. There are so many facets to the game that if you try to "master" every part of the game, you could easily spend over 100 hours doing it. You could definitely make it through the game in less than that (40 hours or less, probably), but a game like this is designed for you to really take advantage of all the extra features. It is similar to Disgaea, while at the same time being very unique and original. Features such as confinement (for your summoned warriors), weapon/character combinations, and a free-movement setup (i.e. no "grid" like in traditional tactical RPGs), it takes the good things from Disgaea and adds some new twists. This makes the game fresh and interesting. The only reason I gave it 4 stars for "fun" is because you can really get bogged down in making "perfect" characters or weapons; some people LOVE this, and others HATE it. If you like Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea style games, Nippon-Ichi, or just intricate, involved games in general, this is definitely the game for you.

this game is really cool. it will take up most of ur time. it took about 70 hours to beat the game but takes a longer time to complete the extra episodes so this game will keep you busy for a while

I bought this game for someone else. Sorry I can't be of any help, but I don't play video games and the person I bought this for lives in another city.

...but just NOW got to playng it. When I originally bought it, I was put off by the Confine system (more on that later), and it seemed just too difficult to level characters enough to move smoothly through the game.

I was a big fan of "Disgaea," however, and always was sad that I never got into "Phantom Brave" (hereby dubbed "PB"). Yet, FINALLY (this week, in fact!), I took the game off my shelf and gave it one last go. And FINALLY, the appeal was there.

First, the good. "Phantom Brave" is a nice tactics game, where you control Marona (a Chroma), who has the ability to summon phantoms to the material realm. These phantoms fight for her in battle. There are many types of phantoms to choose from (at the beginning, I think there are 5 or 6, but that number increases to about 40 later on), each with their own unique skills. From fighters and valkyries (who are pretty much what you expect) to dungeonmonks and titlists (who really can't be explained here), Marona and her guardian phantom Ash will travel with all of them as she tries to help the world of Ivoire, most of which wished she didn't exist.

The second good thing about the game is the incredible number of weapons and skills which can be used. Of course, you have your standard swords, spears, and staves, but included also are...potted plants? Fish? Weeds? And EVERY type of item has its own unique skills to be mastered (over 400 in total). Moreover, items level up, have hit points, gain mana (a type of currency used to improve items and characters), etc. The variations are almost overwhelming.

And that is the problem. It IS overwhelming. If you're like me, you want to gain every skill in the game. But with such an incredible number of skills, it is hopeless (I haven't even mentioned that some skills can only be obtained by getting certain "titles" and bestowing them on your character, titles which ALSO can be levelled up). Were the game itself a bit more expansive (as one reviewer mentioned, there are only about 40 different battlesites in the game), it might be feasible. But it gets boring gathering enough mana by fighting the same enemies OVER and OVER again.

To make matters worse in the "confine" system. I imagine that Nipponichi, the developers of the game, realized how easy it was to create one uber-character in "Disgaea" and use him/her to slaughter everything before you. To combat that, phantoms must be confined to items on the level, and can only stay active for about 4-6 turns, after which they vanish and cannot be summoned again that battle. This makes for a LOT of levelling. And of course, with the sparse number of dungeons, well, see last paragraph.

All in all, "PB" is a fun game, but the flaws are there. It is enjoyable to run through the scenes, and the story is pretty good (I actually like a heartwarming tale), but in order to make it to the end, you need to level a lot (or cheat by powerlevelling near the beginning - scrabbits anyone?). It's strange - I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't like tactics-type strategy, but I have a hard time recommending it to many of those people as well. Basically, if you played and liked "Disgaea", you'll like this, but probably not as much...

Phantom Brave is a Japanese strategy-RPG from Nippon-Ichi, makers of Disagea (among others). Although I have been a long time fan of RPGs and various strategy games, I'd never tried my hand at an SRPG prior to Phantom Brave (despite owning FF Tactics for the better part of two years). When I saw PB for $20, I picked it up - and I was blown away.

The battle system is the heart of any RPG, and is especially important in an strategy-RPG. Phantom Brave's is fantastic, in my opinion, and is both unique and engaging. Essentially, you summon phantoms, which can be confined in real world objects placed around the map. Each phantom has a set number of turns before it is removed from the board. Phantoms can also be killed or thrown out of bounds by enemies. Before battle, you can equip your phantoms with a wide variety of weaponry - anything from swords to sunflowers to starfish - which effect attack, speed etc. stats. To make this weapons better, you can upgrade them using a blacksmith phantom, or fuse them with other items using a fusionist phantom. You can also get a titlist phantom to assign titles to weapons/characters that offer huge upgrades to their stats. The level of customization/character types is simply mind-blowing, and for anyone interested in delving into that, it's remarkably deep and rewarding. Some battles are cheap in the fashion in which the objects/terrain is laid out (i.e. spreading out the enemies across a giant map, so that your phantoms run out of turns before they can defeat all of them).

The story is pretty typical "kid saves the world while learning/teaching life lessons along the way" type stuff, but I found it engaging. The main characters, Ash and Marona, can be annoying at times, but they can also be quite heart-warming and funny. The final chapters are a bit over-wraught and rushed, but for the most part, the story is decent. The dialogue can be painful at times - the overuse of clichés is nearly sickening - but I managed to get through that. It is predicitable in parts, and it doesn't measure up to the likes of Final Fantasy VIII/IX/X et al. (insert game with good story here). It does its job, and it's quite funny in places - it definitely had me pressing on through the game, which is a plus.

Sound and graphics are rather blah. The voice acting gets grating; it's not absolutely god-awful, but it's not great either .The music is ok, but nothing spectacular as RPGs go. The graphics are absolutely crap - I'm sure even fans of 2D sprites will agree - with horrid animations, pixilated characters, terrible spell effects, and an amateurish appearance overall. This could have been done on the original Playstation, and it shows.

Overall, Phantom Brave really surprised me (in a pleasant sort of way). It is charming at many points, offers some great gameplay, and has a lot of replay value for those strategy-RPG nuts. After the "official game" is over and completed, then you can engage in a series of scenarios that require a huge amount of leveling, skill, and time to beat. Not to mention the fact that you can also upgrade your characters to level 9999, find rare items, upgrade titles, and go spelunking in the random dungeons the game creates. If you're looking to conquer all that Phantom Brave has to offer, prepare to fork over 200 hours of your life or more. Personally, my 35 hours got me through the main game and a few of the post-game events - a decent play-time as RPGs are concerned - and I was quite pleased with my experience. Regardless of how you wish to play Phantom Brave, the choice is there for you, and it should appeal to strategy buffs and newbies (such as myself) alike. Recommended.