I just can’t shake this tired, bluesy feeling lately, though it’s mostly the fault of the late summer heat/humidity. It’s like my body saps up excess moisture in buckets and triples my body mass for however long it takes me to reach the next air conditioned building. Needless to say, I’m more of a winter type, but not so much that I’m one of those “Let’s jump in the freezing river!” psychos.
Uh, anyway.
In what could constitute another mini-review/impression bit, I gave in and picked up my own copy of Phantom Brave a couple weeks back, for $15 new. Whee. And, similar to how I latched onto Soul Nomad, I’m finding this other less-sung N1 title to be pretty enjoyable. The time-limited summoning is actually a lot less aggravating than it sounded on paper, as it sort of justifies the bloated casts these games end up with. The way items and confinement work adds a lot of possible dimensions to the play, and while Makai Kingdom expanded on the modified, grid-free engine, the plot was a lot weaker, and combat ended up repetitive and shallow. On the other hand, jetbikes.
Phantom Brave, on the other hand, is a regular puppy kicker of a yarn, featuring a quirky cast and witty script focused entirely on shoveling piles of horrible onto the head of a relentlessly optimistic little girl. Go Japan!
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It’s got some wonkiness in it no doubt, but I’m finding it alright so far. It and Makai are still kind of pale imitations of Disgaea, though.
Hell. Maybe good srpg’s need tiles. Soul Nomad used a literal, 2-D MAP for its battles.
I got Phantom Brave as a gift for my roommate (who had just plowed through Disgaea, you see), and I think he played it for maybe 20 minutes.
I guess it didn’t grab him.
The part I liked most about Phantom Brave was stripping flowerpots and fish of their titles, then giving them to my army…
…that, or combining all the most expensive offensive skills (weapon or otherwise) onto a single UBERHAX weapon.
The story…that’s another matter entirely.