A follow-up of sorts to Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Phantom Brave is Nippon Ichi’s latest entry into the Strategy RPG genre. The game picks up right where Disgaea and La Pucelle: Tactics left off, combining a great, funny storyline with intense action, providing one of the best Strategy RPGs on the market today.

Phantom Brave is Nippon Ichi’s best looking title so far, and proves that there is still a lot to be said for traditional, hand-drawn sprites. The game still retains the twisted, anime-inspired look of previous titles. Characters are bright, colorful, and full of expression and emotion. These are traits rarely seen in most games, and its something that Nippon Ichi always seems to hit squarely on the head. The downside to the game’s graphical package is that it tends to feel a little cluttered at times. Unlike most Strategy RPGs, characters don’t disappear when they fall on the battlefield. Though it’s a really cool effect, it also makes some battles feel very cluttered and can be a distraction.

Voice work was a big plus in past games, and they once again deliver in Phantom Brave. Characters are just as expressive as they look and never overdo their lines. Music is also great, and really helps to set a tempo throughout the game. Sound effects are ripped straight from the stock files heard in Disgaea and La Pucelle, which is either good or bad depending on your feelings towards their respective sound effects.

The game stars Marona, a 13-year-old girl who resides on Phantom Isle. Despite her optimistic outlook on life and good-natured attempts to try and help out everyone, Marona is outcast from society due to her special ability to speak to the dead and manipulate spirits. One such spirit is Ash, a swordsman who was “saved” by Marona’s parents in order to protect their daughter before their deaths. In addition to being her spiritual advisor, Ash also acts as her father, trying to protect her from the constant insults of the world around her.

You begin with only Marona (and by default, Ash) under your control. Marona is weak in battle and must rely on her ability to summon spirits. In order to summon spirits, you must first find a vessel for the spirit to reside in. These can be anything from a rock to a tree. Selection of vessels is a key component and has a direct influence on the spirit’s stats (in addition to the spirit’s innate level). Each object has its own innate attributes, including elemental bases and stat bonuses. Spirits also share a connection with the object they are fused to, unlocking new abilities. The system sounds complex in explanation, but plays out much easier, provided you keep strategy in mind. New spirits can either be won in battle (as Marona continues on her adventure), or purchased between battles, some of which come with increased experience levels if you’re willing to shell out some money.

Once fused to an object, spirits won’t remain for long. If they take enough damage, the spirit’s connection will be severed. Depending on the spirit’s level, its connection will also be severed after a set number of turns. This lends a unique strategy to the game and will require you to really think about when to bind spirits to objects and went not to.

During her adventure, which spans more than 20 episodes and is comprised of more than 100 hours of gameplay, Marona will meet an interesting cast of characters and also run into some familiar faces from Disgaea, so keep an eye out.

Phantom Brave comes with the same foils and difficulty problems as other Strategy RPGs. No matter how great a general you are, some battles will be just too difficult for your army to tackle on the first try. This leads to a lot of trial-and-error situations where you have to roll the dice and hope for the best. The upped challenge level also means that you’ll have to fight some previously won battles numerous times in order to level up your characters and get them at fighting strength. Phantom Brave really can’t be faulted for its difficulty level since it is, unfortunately, the nature of the genre. However, it would be great if someone could figure out a fix for the problem since it feels like this is what is really keeping the genre from reaching a wider audience.

True to its strategy RPG roots, Phantom Brave consists mostly of long, tactical battles. The system shares a lot in common with Disgaea and La Pucelle, but also manages to work in a few new twists that give the game a fresh look.

The idea of hex based movement and attacks are thrown out in Phantom Brave. Instead, all movement is handled by a free-roaming battle system. Soldiers all have a set movement radius, represented by a circle that appears below that character. During a given turn, characters can only move within that circle. Characters also have an attack range, also represented by a circle. As long as an enemy is in the character’s attack circle, he can be attacked. Overall, the system is very fluid and reminiscent of the systems used in Parasite Eve and Vagrant Story. The system feels a little unusual during the first few battles, but the concept behind everything should still feel very similar to the hex-based systems.

Phantom Brave’s battle system also introduces the idea of initiative, as opposed to the concept of you moving all of your characters, then your opponent doing the same. The faster your soldiers are, the more turns they’ll get. When layered in with the fact that some phantoms can only stick around for a set number of turns, this system really makes you think about when to call more phantoms into battle.

Fans of either Disgaea or La Pucelle: Tactics should be very happy with Phantom Brave. Some of the game’s systems may feel a little too similar at times, but the game still proves why, at least in my opinion, Nippon Ichi is one of the best when it comes to Strategy RPGs. Newcomers to the genre may feel a little overwhelmed with the game at first, but are encouraged to give Phantom Brave a shot since it’s as good a game as any to get a feel for the genre.