Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Phantom Brave is a truly unique experience. Running in the same vein as other NIS titles, Phantom Brave has very similar traits and gameplay similarities you'd find in NIS' Disgaea series and La Puccelle series. Phantom Brave tells the tale of a young girl named Marona who lost her parents when she was a just a child. Her parents worked as Chromas, mercenary or bounty hunters of sorts, and they were killed during a mission against a powerful demon. During their last moments, though, they saved their companion's life, Ash, and although he doesn't obtain his life again, he stays around as a Phantom and promises to watch over and keep Marona safe.

Having the same powers as her parents, Marona has a unique ability known as Chartreuse Gale. This ability allows her to see and interact with Phantoms. She also has the ability to send Phantoms into solid objects and use them in battle. This ability is known as "Confine" and it's one of the key aspects you'll encounter while playing the game. Essentially raising Marona, Ash helps her as a Chroma and keeps tabs on the jobs she accepts and the people she interacts with. Since she can see Phantoms, Marona has a lonely life. None of the townspeople want to interact with her because they think she is possessed by evil spirits, which forces her to live on a desolate island by herself. Along with some help from Ash, Marona is about to embark on a grand adventure.



What's Hot
If you like the Disgaea series, you'll find a lot of similarities within Phantom Brave.
You'll notice some of the enemies are the same from Disgaea, but they are just the low-level peon characters, so it's fun to kill something so familiar. Aside from similar characters, the gameplay is also remarkably similar. Essentially, you'll progress, create new characters, and do the basics exactly the same as you would in Disgaea. You'll progress through chapters and visit new islands on the world map as you take on new jobs. Every chapter will have numerous jobs to be taken and this will move the game forward.

Once you begin a job, you'll get a small story introduction and then it's time to engage in battle. The battle system is very unique and takes a very different approach to the strategic battle system. Instead of using a grid based system, you have a limited movement circular scope and can only move and attack within that contained sphere. But before you even start to make movements and plan your offensive strike, you must first confine your Phantoms to inanimate objects. Every battleground will have trees, boulders, etc, available for Phantom confining. Once you confine them to the object, they'll be combat ready. It's just a new way to summon your characters into battle. This also will go as far as making objects into weapons and other items. It may seem strange at first, but it's a crafty little system. However, each Phantom can only be used for a certain amount of time before they are removed from battle. Some will stay around for 8 turns or more, while others will be less. You need to use strategy here and only confine certain Phantoms when the time calls for it. Don't go using them all early in battle and then have none of them left to use against the stronger opponent.

For those of us who played the PS2 version to death, you'll be glad to know there are new additions just for you. Instead of forcing you to play through the entire game again, you can access the new content right from the start. These are just as addictive as the main games missions and you'll be glad you got a chance to play the new content. Spanning four chapters, the new content tells the story of Corona – a Marona from a different dimension. I won't spoil any of it for you, though. It just gives you another reason to get the game.

Though the game is very fun and you control a happy little girl who has an unfortunate life, the story is rather dark. You meet a lot of characters throughout the game and they all have some kind of unfortunate circumstance plaguing their existence. Even a few of the enemy characters you'll encounter have had their share of sadness. Whether it is because their family was killed or paralyzed or the fact they have no friends, most of the characters are very lonesome beings.



What's Not
The game does have a few flaws here and there. The battle system, while engrossing, has some minor complications to it. The movement and attacking just seems a bit off at times. Since your movements are limited to the circle, the movement of your character just seems foreign. It takes a bit of time to adjust to it, but then you need to adjust to aiming your attack, too. You also use a small circle to target the enemy, but you'll often find you're out of range even when they are in front of you or they are on a ledge higher than you and therefore, you can't attack them. It's not necessarily a flaw that you can't hit the enemy who has the height advantage, it's just the targeting system can be a bit confusing at times.

The graphics aren't anything taxing. They are solid sprites and the animations are nice. The game is what you have come to expect from NIS with these types of titles, though. The 2D animations are solid and they are detailed in their very low-resolution way. You can see the minor details of the weapons and character outfits, it's just nothing shocking.

Overall
Phantom Brave: We Meet Again is a well crafted Wii game. With some amazing gameplay aspects and a long satisfying adventure, Phantom Brave is one of the best hardcore titles the Wii has to offer. Even if you played the PS2 original a few years back, you owe it to yourself to play this game, even if it's only for the new content. Phantom Brave is one of, if not, the best RPG titles available on Wii.