someguyinahat
Member
Just finished the main story for one of the games I bought in the Steam sale. What's this? It's not a hidden object game? Will wonders never cease! It's Phantom Brave PC:
The story: You play Marona, an orphan girl with the ability to see and control phantoms, who are beings somewhere between life and death,dream and reality, mind and matter. She is referred to as a Chroma (which isn't really explained. I'm not sure if it refers to her ability, since most people with abilities refer to them by colour, or her job which is sort of like an odd-job mercenary.) One phantom sticks by her all the time: Ash, who worked with Marona's parents before they were party-wiped by a big bad. But having a phantom around you at all times isn't as cool as you'd think: just about everyone calls her "The Possessed," and they all treat her like shit, asking for her help and then stiffing her on payments. She takes it all with a smile because she thinks that if you continue to repay evil with good, people will come around. She works her way up from retrieving stolen food, finding mischievous forest creatures, etc. all the way to saving the world...and making a few friends along the way.
Hard to categorize this story. It's light-hearted and dark at the same time. You have a world full of jerks, then you have this one girl who's cute, generous, naive, and trying to be a ray of sunshine in a bleak world. There are some comedic moments, but in general I'd say it's probably a story of love overcoming hate. I liked it.
The gameplay: It's a strategy RPG without a grid system. Each level has various items strewn about: plants, rocks, weapons, fish, and other miscellaneous objects. Marona has her phantoms possess these items and then they can move around freely. These phantoms can be given items to wield, and if need be, you can confine phantoms into those items as well (although no experience will be given to phantoms summoned into an item you already owned.) The phantoms are only around for a limited time (on average four turns, although some can be as low as 2 or as high as 8.) When they leave, there's a chance they'll take the item with them and you can then use it. One creature, the bottlemail, almost always has a 100% chance of taking the item home. However, all your opponents will go out of their way to attack your bottlemail first. Why? How should I know? So the art of using phantoms as decoys becomes a thing. The lack of a grid system means you can't protect your mages or your weaker creatures, as opponents can and will go past your tanks. Get ready to throw out all your old grid strategies and come up with some new ones!
It took a while to get used to. The early levels can get tough as Ash and Marona feel underlevelled, and the last few levels can get tough as you've underlevelled everyone BUT Ash and Marona. (Or maybe I just completely screwed up the "correct" way to play.) Still, it was pretty enjoyable. Also, while there is a post-game, there's no New Game+.
The graphics: Well, the graphics are kinda chunky. The sprites really stick out like sore thumbs against reasonably good-looking backdrops. There was an option to smooth the sprites but in my opinion it made them look smeary, which is even worse than chunky. Good thing you don't play these kind of games for the graphics!
The audio and dialogue: They had some good voice actors in there. Marona has the same voice actor as Flonne from Disgaea, and your rival Walnut is none other than Steve Blum. They sure put their all into dialogue like "YeeeeeeARRRGH!" I didn't notice any translation jank, not that I really expect it from a game like this. It didn't feature hidden objects, after all.
The length: My Steam profile says 52 hours, but I did some alt-tabbing and such, so it's probably just shy of 50. A solid length for the main campaign, and I know there is more to come. Not sure if I'll get to it right away.
The verdict: While I liked Disgaea more, this is a solid SRPG. I'd recommend it.
Edit: Top of the page, neat!
The story: You play Marona, an orphan girl with the ability to see and control phantoms, who are beings somewhere between life and death,
Hard to categorize this story. It's light-hearted and dark at the same time. You have a world full of jerks, then you have this one girl who's cute, generous, naive, and trying to be a ray of sunshine in a bleak world. There are some comedic moments, but in general I'd say it's probably a story of love overcoming hate. I liked it.
The gameplay: It's a strategy RPG without a grid system. Each level has various items strewn about: plants, rocks, weapons, fish, and other miscellaneous objects. Marona has her phantoms possess these items and then they can move around freely. These phantoms can be given items to wield, and if need be, you can confine phantoms into those items as well (although no experience will be given to phantoms summoned into an item you already owned.) The phantoms are only around for a limited time (on average four turns, although some can be as low as 2 or as high as 8.) When they leave, there's a chance they'll take the item with them and you can then use it. One creature, the bottlemail, almost always has a 100% chance of taking the item home. However, all your opponents will go out of their way to attack your bottlemail first. Why? How should I know? So the art of using phantoms as decoys becomes a thing. The lack of a grid system means you can't protect your mages or your weaker creatures, as opponents can and will go past your tanks. Get ready to throw out all your old grid strategies and come up with some new ones!
It took a while to get used to. The early levels can get tough as Ash and Marona feel underlevelled, and the last few levels can get tough as you've underlevelled everyone BUT Ash and Marona. (Or maybe I just completely screwed up the "correct" way to play.) Still, it was pretty enjoyable. Also, while there is a post-game, there's no New Game+.
The graphics: Well, the graphics are kinda chunky. The sprites really stick out like sore thumbs against reasonably good-looking backdrops. There was an option to smooth the sprites but in my opinion it made them look smeary, which is even worse than chunky. Good thing you don't play these kind of games for the graphics!
The audio and dialogue: They had some good voice actors in there. Marona has the same voice actor as Flonne from Disgaea, and your rival Walnut is none other than Steve Blum. They sure put their all into dialogue like "YeeeeeeARRRGH!" I didn't notice any translation jank, not that I really expect it from a game like this. It didn't feature hidden objects, after all.
The length: My Steam profile says 52 hours, but I did some alt-tabbing and such, so it's probably just shy of 50. A solid length for the main campaign, and I know there is more to come. Not sure if I'll get to it right away.
The verdict: While I liked Disgaea more, this is a solid SRPG. I'd recommend it.
Edit: Top of the page, neat!
