Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another hit from nipon ichi!, 16 Feb 2005
I have been waiting for this game ever since it first came out in Japan and I heard about the new battle system. Ok first off, I enjoyed this game A LOT more than I did Disgaea, it comes across as taking it's self a lot more seriously. Where as Disgaea has constant bizarre jokes, (I'm sure those who've played it remember the Prism rangers) Phantom brave has a serious plot about a girl named Marona who is despised by normal people because she has the unique ability to contact and see "Phantoms" such as her body guard Ash. Those who liked the comedy in Disgaea need not worry as this still has some hilarious moments.Ok now for the battle system... This game has one of THE most amazing and innovative battle systems ever seen in a Tactical RPG. It is extremely well balanced, new players to the genre can pick it up easily yet it's enough to keep even the most veteran of TRPG players interested (and challenged!). Unlike other TRPGs this does not use the conventional grid system (Like that seen in Disgaea) it uses a free roaming system in which each turn you can move a certain distance e.g. 20 meters, this system allows for unprecedented freedom in the genre. The other interesting this about the battle system is the "Confine" skill, unlike Disgaea you have to confine your characters to different items that are around the map. Now this is where it gets REALLY interesting, items have different attributes so you would want to confine a fighter to a rock as this will give you something like +20% on Def and Atk, and you would confine a mage to say a tree giving you +20% on Int. One thing that should be said is that confines don't last forever... after a certain amount of turns your characters (Other than Marona obviously) will disappear and you will be unable to re-confine them. Some people may not like this system and I admit that at first I didn't like it, BUT once you get used to it you can see that it adds extra depth to the game and makes you think a lot harder "Hmmmm should I confine this character now and risk loosing him before the boss fight?". This is by far the best TRPG available in Europe at this time, and those who liked really liked Disgaea and not this need not worry too much as another TRPG by Nipo ichi software named "La Pucelle: Tactics" will be out here in the spring. Although it should be noted that La Pucelle actually came out in Japan LONG before Disgaea and may well be a little less polished. If you're a fan of Disgaea or TPRGs as a hole you should go out and get it RIGHT NOW, casual RPGers should be warned that this game may not be your cup of tea.
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6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great but Not as great as disgaea, 3 Feb 2005
This game is the first game of the RPG calendar I know its technically a TB strategy but its an RPG as well. Anyway this game has the wonderful fighting of disgaea and the later to be released la pucielle tactics (the first in the series but the 3rd to be released here) but the lack of the grid is confusing and you have to level up constantly on random maps to keep up with the story fights. More RPG's to come but this is sure to last the time untill the big guns arrive. If you have not played disgaea play this first then disgaea. It will impress you even more
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10 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hm..., 15 Feb 2005
As a major Disgaea fan. I bought this the day it came out and prepared to dedicate vast amounts of time to it. No chance of that. First, where Disgaea had a basic, but charming and occasionally witty, storyline, PB has revolting mush. A girl of about 5 speaks in a Flonne-like voice about love and happiness and a bloke with an equally wussy voice tells her not to trust people. As they progress through the story, you realise there's no punchline and it's not going to get better - it's like a child's picture book. It's Flonne, without the jokes or the parody.Not to worry - it's all about the battle system anyway, isn't it? Again, no. You create your army, as you did in Disgaea, and arm them - only weapons this time. However, simply to get their asses on the map you have to consign them (they're ghosts) into an item (say, make your Fighter possess a Tree). Each item comes with good sides (+ATK50%) and bad ones (-DEF50%). So it really doesn't matter if you build up your army or not, as they're going to be half as weak in some way just showing up to battle. Then, to add insult to injury, your chars can only hang around on the map for a set number of turns - 3 for your mages, 5 for your soldiers, for example. After these turns, they vanish and cannot be summoned again in that battle. This means your army has usually packed up and left long before the end of the fight. Alright, so you can conserve your best ones till you've reached the boss, or even create two or three of each character just to ensure you've someone left to kill the last demon, but still - it sucks, and loses its appeal or challenge very quickly. No story, no battle... what does this game have going for it? Well... a sense it might get better if you carry on. But I doubt it.
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