Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero (PlayStation 5) Review

As mentioned in the intro, NISA/NIS was once one of the top JRPG makers around. It seemed like every big hit was often theirs, with many common characters like the ones from Disgaea and the Prinny. Fortunes, successes and tastes wax and wane, and NIS's releases are far more infrequent and often lost in a sea of games nowadays. Still, their games had a rare charm that fans still yearn for to this day. This sequel demonstrates many of the company's strengths but also shows some of its age.

Taking place after the first game, the story follows very little allowing new players to jump right in. Following a girl named Marona who has the ability to summon ghosts into physical objects to fight for her, the player travels across pirate islands trying to help people. Divided between story sections, a base management, and battle, players will craft new units, level them up, and go throw down with residents of different islands.

If a player has played any of NIS's strategy games, many of the same general things are here. There are different classes, tons of weapons ranging from guns to swords to staves, with skills and passives to boot. People looking for a lot of stat crunching will be happy to see the typical fare here. Story-wise the game is light-hearted with a dark undertone such as one of the main characters being a dead daughter of a famous pirate captain. Subtle things like seeing toys by her grave are a very nice touch to the atmosphere of the game.

One of the personal knocks was the chibi 3D models the game uses. This seems to be the way the industry is going (the usage of 3D models versus sprites) and it is unfortunate. The models simply lack the charm and heart that sprites do. Most certainly it is a time or cost thing, but look at any old sprite game and the art still holds up today, whereas any '3D' looks dated and is rarely recommended. NIS games are no exception; some of their old sprite work is phenomenal, one can only hope they go back to it compared to this cheaper-looking alternative. The models just feel so soulless in comparison, even if these are more sprite-like than most.

Combat is a little different than typical. At the start of a round Marona must use objects in the battle field to summon the spirits of ghosts into them. Things like trees, barrels, or even starfish are fair game to house the soul of warriors. Each item gives different bonuses, such as a sword giving a big percent increase into attack, but decreases intelligence, so a good place to put a fighter character. Units take turns attacking, and instead of a grid the battle is 'free roam', meaning in general it turns into a huge melee in the middle with ranged units lobbing attacks in.

It's fun and a little crazy, but don't expect a lot of strategy here. There is simply too much going on; from who will be in range to being able to steal weapons from others or the massive friendly fire - those looking for some brain-burning tactical play will be disappointed. Far too often ranges don't work as indicated or as it seems, and the player has to be okay with this rather than becoming easily frustrated. One of the problems, which will be discussed further, is that there is simply too much going on for players to feel a strong sense of strategy. Instead, it often feels like a matter of simply hoping everyone survives the melee.

A large portion of units are based on their equipped weapon. So, a fighter, a thief and a mage using a dagger are all going to have mostly the same moves - the dagger's. Players can learn moves from the weapons, but it feels like a disappointment with all the classes that it is more weapon-driven than class-driven; while there are certainly class skills which are cool to level up, something feels wrong with it being so hinged on weapons.

Another nit-pick is menus and everything feels more complicated than it needs to be. It is tough to articulate, other than the menus, unlocks, upgrades and so on do not feel intuitive to where the player needs to go to find them. Even hours in, things like finding stats, or where the class upgrades were again, still feel unintuitive. In some regard that is how a lot of NISA games are; unfortunately a little difficult to penetrate casually (or pick back up after a break).

What normally would be a fun, light-hearted romp of making some characters and doing some island battles, is partly weighed down by its own systems. Further, everything mostly being driven by weapons makes each individual character not feel that unique. This being said though, battles are pretty fun trying to fight a way up a hill while mages and healers are bombing from the top and strong units are blocking the path. It's great to see some old NISA games, now we just need a sequel to Zettai Hero Project or Soul Nomad.