Phantom Brave is the third game to be released by Japanese firm
Nippon-Ichi, which is similar to games such as Advanced Wars and
Final Fantasy Tactics.
You play as a young girl named Morona who has the ability to
summon phantoms and turn them into objects that are on the battle
field.
You can create a flower for instance which will make the character
weaker, but will have a higher intelligence and move faster, ideal
for spell casters.
You can create a tree stump or large rock which will cause the
characters speed and intelligence to drop, but its strength would
be improved.
Phantom Brave drops the standard turn based approach of 'your
turn, my turn'by relying on the characters speed to determine
how many attacks take place.
What helps to set this apart is that in most tactical RPGs movement
takes place on a virtual game board that is cut in to squares,
with each character being allowed to move a certain number of
squares depending on the speed or movement range of that character.
Phantom Brave uses a circle system, where the character on the
field is surrounded by a circle showing his movement range.
This feels far less restrictive than the standard chequered board
approach.
In between battles you spend some time at your home base. Here
is where you do all your healing, equipping and supplying. If
you have a merchant on your team you can purchase items from him,
your healer can heal your party, your fusionist can take two items
and combine them together to create one super item, your titlist
can assign new titles to characters and items modifying their
stats.
You can also create new phantoms and re-name existing ones, as
well as re-summon destroyed phantoms, your dungeon monk can create
random dungeons for you to hone your skills, gain levels and acquire
new items in, your blacksmith can forge your items to make them
stronger.
Plenty to keep you occupied!
The only negative is that you will have to create random dungeons
or replay levels to level up your characters so that they can
be successful when the game gets more difficult.
