Phantom Brave

[ryodi]

Isn't the American version on CD as well? I say one listed on eBay and it had the Compact Disk logo on the back of the packaging.

[E. Randy Dupre]

Got the PAL version a couple of days ago. The battling's easy enough to get the hang of, but the team-building and organisational stuff is where the complexity comes in. Much as with Disgaea, really.

Had a couple of brilliant moments when aspects which were confusing me suddenly clicked today. The stats screen appearing whenever you clear a floor ina random dungeon made no sense until I did a complete run through a small one and opened up the Titlist. Similarly, the specifics of using the Fusionist were a bit of a mystery until I decided that I needed to work out how to get the Fighter's speed stat notched up a bit.

It's a game that suffers from the same problem as Disgaea, in that it throws everything at the player right from the beginning and fails to provide decent explanations about how the various bits and pieces work. Disgaea gave you access to things like Transmigration far earlier than was either necessary or useful, and it just ended up confusing people who thought that they were supposed to use those options as soon as they became available. Same thing applies here, imo.

That's a matter of personal preference, I guess. Personally, I quite like it - coming to sudden and unexpected understanding of one of the aspects of the system and realising how much potential it has for opening up even more experimentation, after having spent a few hours in total confusion about it, is a great feeling - but the option for more detailed tutorials really should be included for people who don't want to spend hours figuring out what the point of these things is.

In terms of how it compares to Disgaea, it adds even more depth to the character creation and development, but possibly doesn't pull the actual battling off quite as well. The loss of the grid makes maps end up being a total mess towards the end of a fight, and there's not really any call for actual tactics or strategy in battles outside of deciding when to summon your phantoms. Battles feel like a bit of a free-for-all.

As far as character creation and squad management go, though, I've never played anything that comes close to touching this.

[MartyG]

It's a game that suffers from the same problem as Disgaea, in that it throws everything at the player right from the beginning and fails to provide decent explanations about how the various bits and pieces work.

I think this is a bit unfair - I'd say this is one of the charms of both games - it gives you so much for the player to discover and it rewards those people with the effort they put into the game.

There are points in the game that will frustrate you mightily - the free move grid is definitely not without its problems.

July sees the release of Phantom Kingdom ( or Makai Kingdom Chronicles of the Sacred Tome as it will be in the West ), hopefully this will have cured some of the issues with the free grid system.

I hope you enjoy the rest of Phantom Brave, the extra unlockables are well worth it

[SuperBeatBoy]

Isn't the American version on CD as well? I say one listed on eBay and it had the Compact Disk logo on the back of the packaging.

if you looked hard enough it would have a dvd rom icon next to it. the compact disc logo is for the soundtrack.

[E. Randy Dupre]

Don't get me wrong, Marty - I absolutely adore Disgaea, and PB's already got its claws into me in a big way (obsession imminent, tbh).

To expand on my complaint: Take transmigration as the example again. A huge amount of the First Play thread on Disgaea was taken up with people asking when they should start to use transmigration, or exactly what it was. That could have been solved if the ability had remained locked until the player got their first character up to, say, level 500. Having the option available from such an early point just led to people thinking that they had to use it immediately.

Every now and again there's just a little something like this that makes you realise that NI aren't as good as explaining their game systems as they are at designing them. Why isn't the info about holding down square to get a character into the correct position for ranged attacks in PB not presented in the tutorials, for example, and instead hidden away in one of the many submenus? Little things like that.

[MartyG]

I think the [] thing was mentioned somewhere by talking to one of the characters or in the manual (it's been a while since I played so I forget), I just happened to discover it by accident.

Certainly some aspects could be better explained, but I do like the discover the game for yourself aspect to it. Perhaps they do it on purpose so doublejump books can sell more of their guides

[E. Randy Dupre]

I think the [] thing was mentioned somewhere by talking to one of the characters or in the manual (it's been a while since I played so I forget), I just happened to discover it by accident.

Yeah, it's in the Battle System menu (or whatever it's called) that's one of the options you get to by pressing triangle on your home island. I only discovered it because I knew from Disgaea that there was likely to be important info hidden away there. Well, that and because I was trying to find out what the hell I was supposed to do with a Fusionist

[E. Randy Dupre]

Right then. Question.

I've got an item which I can't get my Blacksmith to do anything with - when I go to the screen where you choose which item you want him to forge, its name is greyed out and not selectable. It's a Combo Fish, obtained as a special prize thingy from a random dungeon. What I want to know is why the Blacksmith won't touch it - does he have to be a certain level before he can modify certain items, or is it an item which simply can't ever be altered? If it's the second of those things, then I might as well combine it with one of my characters straight away, because it won't have any more skills to learn.

[MartyG]

There are certain items the blacksmith can't upgrade, this must be one of them, but tbh I can't remember ever seeing that particular game item.

[E. Randy Dupre]

I got it for finishing a random dungeon level which was, yep, full of fish.

So these non-blacksmith items - have they got any benefits to make up for the lack of upgrades? Like, do they possess moves which are unavailable elsewhere, or something?

[MartyG]

The items I had that the blacksmith couldn't upgrade had higher stats - but given some of the randomness of the game that could have simply been chance.

These items should gain levels eventually if you have an old man on the island and leave the item lying around to gain exp.

[E. Randy Dupre]

Cheers - I was wondering what the point of the old man was.

Something else I've been wondering about. I thought that defeating an enemy unit with a yellow health bar (like the specialists in Disgaea) meant that you were then given the ability to create that unit back on Phantom Isle, but that's not always the case. Is there a percentage chance of success on this, or do you have to get to a certain episode in the story before they open up? I was in a random dungeon last night that was full of various Putty unit types with yellow health bars, but when I finished it I still wasn't able to create them.

There's more stuff I'm not sure about, but I keep forgetting what it is whenever I turn the game off.

[MartyG]

You have to kill a certain number of the units before you can create them. Others you become available once they're introduced in the story, like the Old Man and Fusionists.

The yellow bar enemies won't attack you, IIRC, it just signifies they're neutral.

[E. Randy Dupre]

Cheers again. The manual's totally useless for anythng beyond the basics.

Fusion, for example - there's nothing about that whatsoever. So I'll ask here again

What's the relevance of the compatibility ranking on the final screen of the fusion process? I've seen SS, S, A and B. I presume they're supposed to relate to the suitability of the two things being fused to each other, but it still seems a little odd - I mean, even rocks contain moves which are best suited to Marona and healers (Diamondize, for example). Is the ranking just supposed to give a general idea of how well the two items/characters being fused fit together?

Is there a maximum number of abilities you can teach any one character, or is it limitness?

Is there a maximum number of items and characters you can keep stored in the spirit world?

Do items gain knowledge of new skills and abilities when they have their levels raised by the blacksmith? Like, I've got a stone cane which has reached its current level roof (lvl10) and doesn't have any more greyed-out skills to learn. If I raise its level roof by fusing it with another item, will it open up new greyed-out skills for the blacksmith to teach it?

[MartyG]

I only know the answer to a couple of those questions I'm afraid - yes there is a limit to the number of items on the Island and that it the total of characters+items = 120 (IIRC - I'd have to check but I certainly hit that limit)

Yes there is a limit to the number of skills = 32

I can't remember if items gain new skills when levelling, I don't think they do, I think they just change their stats. The whole fusing thing is an entire book all of its own. You're probably better off checking the forums at DoubleJump books as there are people with far more knowledge of the game than I have there. I stopped playing it after unlocking the hidden levels.

Now Disgaea on the other hand ...