REVIEW: Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero


Title	Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero
Developer	Nippon Ichi Software, Inc.
Publisher	NIS America
Release Date	January 30th, 2025
Genre	Strategy
Platform	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam
Age Rating	Teen
Official Website

I love NIS strategy games like Disgaea, so when I got a chance to check out Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero, I jumped on it. It’s been a hot minute since I played the original Phantom Brave, but I had high hopes this sequel would be on par or even better. I’ve spent 35 hours with the game and finished the main story, so it’s time to share my thoughts. Did I have a great time with this pirate adventure, or did it sink me into depths of despair? Let’s find out!

The story here begins as Marona and Ash have just finished up a Chroma job when their ship is attacked by a group of ghost ships known as the “Shipwreck Fleet.” After a fierce battle with a powerful new enemy, Ash holds off the enemies allowing Marona to escape. She washes up on an island and meets a young phantom girl named Apricot. She wants to find her father, captain of the Argento Pirate Crew. The crew is on the verge of disbanding due to lack of a captain, but Apricot wants to restore the crew to its former glory and find her father. Marona agrees to help her, and the two set out on an epic adventure of friendship that will lead them to places they never dreamed of.

Graphically, Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero looks pretty good. All of the chibi style characters have a lot of details. The environments look great as well, and each one is well represented from the lush forest to the depths of the oceans. Each character class and weapon group has some flashy special moves that were all nicely done too. I played the game in performance mode on the PlayStation 5 and it ran at a steady 60fps, while still looking great.

I found myself humming along to the fantastic soundtrack more than once. These battle tunes are just simply catchy and fit the mood of the game to a tee. There are some more somber tracks for the emotional moments in the story that really bring out the feels as well. The game is fully dubbed in English for those that enjoy the dub, and you can have the Japanese audio as well if that fits your fancy. Both casts did a great job giving these characters life, so this greatly comes down to which you prefer.

If you have played other NIS strategy games, you will feel right at home here. You will create a party of phantoms from the different classes and monsters at your disposal. They will start out very weak, of course, until you level them up in combat. You will also need to give them some skills, these are obtained by equipping your party members with different types of weapons. Some will be more proficient with certain weapon types than others. Magic-based characters will use staffs or books, while your fighters may use axes and clubs. You can use some pretty unorthodox weapons too. These include things like trees, snowmen, treasure chests and more. After meeting certain requirements, party members will learn the skills of these weapons and these weapons can be moved on to others so they can gain even more skills.

You will start gameplay at Skullrock Island. This is your home base and there are various options available to you. You can create phantoms, salvage the seas for useful items, take on quests or created dungeons, and more. You will need to create certain phantoms before these options open up to you. For example, to have a shop you need a merchant, and as you level her up better items will begin to appear in the shop as well.

When combat begins, you will always start with Marona. She has to confine her phantom helpers to various items on the map. These will be easy to spot since they will be glowing. The items will sometimes give boosts or negative effects to the phantom confined to them or other phantoms on the map, so you will have to plan accordingly as to which items would be the best choice to confine party members. Characters can move freely on the gridless map, so get them into position for their biggest attacks and let them fly. Each map is won when there are no enemy units remaining, but fear not if you are wiped out on a map, you will just start back at base with whatever experience you gained retained.

The last thing I would like to discuss is Marona’s special ability, Confriend. This allows her to confine a phantom in herself, mixing their powers. The closer you are to the phantom in Confriend, the more attacks you will get in a row, and they will be more powerful too. Affinity with each phantom is gained by simply talking to them at the base or using them in combat. When you have one maxed out, it can really turn the tide of battle getting four major attacks in a row on your foes. This ability can be used once Marona’s gauge is full and it fills simply by her taking turns.

All and all, I had a pretty good time with Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero. The story and characters are great, and the music is very fitting for the game, overall. If you are a fan of other NIS strategy titles, picking this up is a no brainer at $59.99 price tag, you’re gonna find a lot to love here. This is a good entry point for newcomers as well since the story is self contained and you really need no knowledge of the previous game to have a good time here. Now if you will excuse me, I have some more random levels to attend to.