Review: Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero Is Predictable, but Fun

Phantom Brave is an NIS America strategy game series that can feel a little out of place when compared to other titles from the company. It doesn’t involve demonic overlords trying to prove themselves or conquer Netherworlds. We aren’t dealing with antiheroes like Soul Nomad’s Gig or Makai Kingdom’s Zetta. Marona’s always been an earnest young woman who wants the best for people, even though she’s initially demonized and misunderstood due her gifts, and both entries are bright and colorful with optimistic outlooks. Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero continues the series’ strong strategy game tradition while also telling a story where the heroine isn’t a pariah, but the new entry is also incredibly predictable.

Following the end of Phantom Brave, Marona is now no longer feared for her Chartreuse Gale ability that allows her to see Phantoms and summon them to assist her or interact with the real world. Thanks to her and Ash saving Ivoire from Sulphur, she’s now universally beloved, respected worldwide, and taking trips to assist people around the world. However, on one of these voyages the duo ends up encountering the Shipwreck Fleet. Its masked leader steals some of Marona’s powers, but she’s able to get away due to Ash stepping in and using his powers to send her to safety.

Marona washes up on an island where Apricot, a Phantom of the daughter of the Argento Pirates captain, resides after her death. She’s been there hoping her father, who left three years ago to face the Shipwreck Fleet, would return. The two of them and one of the remaining living members of that crew team up to revive the Argento Pirates, build up enough territory to gain allies to confront the Shipwreck Fleet, find their missing loved ones, and save the day again. 

At this point, I’m pretty sure you have some idea of where the story is going in Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero. Especially if you’ve seen the images of major masked antagonists in the official trailers. Everything is very much telegraphed here. I didn’t encounter any “twists” that surprised me. This isn’t to say the story isn’t pleasant enough! I loved seeing Marona universally loved and appreciated for who she is and everything she does for others after how depressing it was to watch folks bully, harass, and villainize her in the original game. It is just all very cookie cutter in such a way that I didn’t find it all that interesting. 

While the narrative is “okay,” the gameplay in Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is exactly as addictive as you’d expect from one of NIS America’s “numbers go up” strategy games. While there are some named, unique characters like Marona, Apricot, and Rouen, the bulk of your forces will be the Phantoms you have Marona “summon” via the character creator. The bulk of these roll out gradually as new chapters unlock, and I loved how you’re encouraged to make ones you might not have due to needing at least one of a certain class to unlock certain Facilities. Said Facilities allow you to do things like merge weapons to increase their experience, venture into dungeons to bulk up equipment, take on optional requests, go on salvage missions to get more items and equipment while you’re going through the campaign, acquire abilities for characters by equipping weapons, buy items, get buffs from ships and crews, and dole out stored EXP to new or unused units via the Juice Bar. Yes, it’s a lot. (This is a NIS game, after all!) But it’s all added in increments and makes sense.

Actual gameplay in Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is pretty much identical to the original game, so you’ll know exactly what you’re getting into in the new one. You start with Marona on the field. She can Confine her Phantom allies to items or pieces of equipment in the field to summon units to fight alongside her. If said character’s Steal stat is high enough, that may even result in it being taken with you at the end of the stage as a reward. Each Phantom can remain active for a certain number of turns, though Marona does have a default skill that can extend that by one. (Another one of her two skills allows one Phantom ally to immediately act after she uses it and her turn ends.) There is free movement within a certain area defined by the move stat, with no grids, and the jump stat determines how high you can jump up ledges and platforms. 

One of the unique gameplay elements in the series is that Items in the field can also have properties that can act as buffs and debuffs. Lines may connect these to other items or characters, which means allies or enemies could gain additional traits. So it might mean destroying objects or tossing them out of bounds to get rid of healing or even invincible effects could force different strategies. 

There are also some elements that those familiar with strategy games may be encountering for the first time. One is the notion of gadgets. These can appear in stages, or you can use a Facility to make sure one is available for Apricot to summon on one of her turns with Confire. These could involve things like a cannon with an AOE effect that can also decimate certain blocks, a catapult that can help you propel units to certain spots, or a fan that could blow or pull allies, enemies, or objects to set positions. Those are quite handy, and I felt stages when they appeared tended to make good use of them. It’s also a highlight if there happens to be a stage with gadgets in a island with a biome that includes interesting use of space or perhaps slippery terrain effects.

The other new element is the Confriend system. It’s basically a way of making Marona completely over-powered. What happens is as you summon Phantoms on the map, her bond with them will increase. Also, as you fight, a gauge will fill for her. When conditions are right and maxed out, you can choose the Confriend option to Confine a character to Marona. This buffs her stats and adds extra abilities to make it easier to tear through things. I honestly felt it was a bit too overpowered at times, and as such only used it a handful of times on some of the more difficult bosses and situations. It’s an interesting concept and fits the tone of the game!

Of course, I might also only think that because Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is a game where it is so incredibly easy to unintentionally over-level. I had so much fun building up characters to learn new skills. Because I needed to make Phantoms for certain Facilities, I used units I wouldn’t normally. The ability to fulfill requests and Salvage functions meant I’d grind just to potentially get a great piece of equipment, needed request item, or extra cash. Not to mention I’d sometimes replay a new map a few times with my almost-all-thief crew to plunder items and equipment that might come in handy. I spent way, way too much time just building folks up, and I loved every minute.

That said, performance was usually fine. I did notice a few things when playing Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero on the Switch, though. Early battles were fine, and I had no trouble with performance in the hub in early chapters. Once the island or battlefields started to fill up, then it seemed like there'd be a bit of a dip in performance. This might come after some character movement or attack animation in the field, or when loading up Skullrock after coming back to check in after a battle was done.

The funny thing is that while Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is absolutely a joy to play when you’re going through battles or building up characters and equipment via Facilities, I also do think it sometimes doesn’t feel like all of the quality of life features you’d expect are here. By the time I finished the first two chapters, I was looking for a means to turn off the extended attack and action animations in the options. There was none. When it comes to executing attacks, there’s no option to pick an attack, select an enemy, and perhaps have some sort of auto-positioning mechanism help you narrow the gap. Instead, you have to choose the attack, then hold a button while moving the character to try and get the opponent into the correct range. I also did note that there were some maps and moments when it seemed like it chugged along a bit on the Switch when there were too many Phantoms, enemies, items, and effects in play on the field. However, that last one could just be a consequence of playing it on that system in handheld mode. 

I genuinely enjoyed my time with Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero, and I am so glad NIS made a game in which Marona gets to be universally beloved after her initial adventure. The strategic elements are a lot of fun, and I feel like elements such as gadgets and Facilities are quite well utilized. It would have been nice to include some additional quality of life features found in past NIS games and there are no surprises in the story, but it all makes for a good time.

Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero will come to the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5 on January 30, 2025, and it will eventually show up on the PC via Steam in 2025. 

The post Review: Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero Is Predictable, but Fun appeared first on Siliconera.