Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero review: A pirate's unlife for me

An unlikely strategy RPG sequel from NIS' long history has arrived. How is it?

I was shocked to see a Phantom Brave sequel. The original came out all the way back in 2004 for the PlayStation 2. I was just starting high school that year! It’s been ported a few times over the years, like other NIS gems that never got sequels, but it never seemed to garner much attention. It seems like the house of Disgaea wanted to give one of its stranger combat systems another shot, so here we are with Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero.

A surprising deep cut

It’s been over 20 years for us in real life, but only six months have passed in Phantom Brave’s world. Marona, a girl who has the power to see and talk to ghosts (and cram them into inanimate objects) is once again the hero, alongside lifelong guardian (also a ghost) Ash. After saving the world, the pair decide it’s time to turn this “help people and talk to phantoms” thing into more of a job. Rent’s not paying itself. The two set sail, then are separated by a fleet of ghost pirates, which both makes sense and feels completely random at the same time.

Washing up on an island without her ride or die undead life coach-slash-bodyguard, Marona meets the daughter (ghost) of a local respected pirate crew captain (ghost?) after a run-in with the same fleet (so many ghosts). From there it’s off to the races, as Marona decides to go with the flow, start helping people, and figure out the rest later. If you didn’t play the first game, don’t worry, you’ll understand exactly who Marona is in no time.

We trust the ghosts here; no busting

There’s a lot of figuring things out in Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero. It’s a super complicated game, much like the original. While NIS flagship Disgaea is full of numbers, it’s pretty straightforward in how it operates as a turn-based strategy RPG. Phantom Brave on the other hand, feels like it’s making stuff up as it goes along, for better or worse. There are tons of weird and unfamiliar systems in this game, and you have to engage with most of them whether you want to or not. Of course this means it’s not a very approachable game despite its colorful, smiling faces and easy difficulty option. On the other hand it really stands out; I haven’t come across anything in the past two decades quite like Phantom Brave, until another Phantom Brave fell from the sky.

I’d drive myself (and our readers) out the nearest window if I tried to get into everything, but luckily The Lost Hero’s core combat mechanics do some effective stage-setting. When I want to move a character I do so in a big circle instead of tiles, manually jump over terrain, and watch a second circle close in on me as a Doing Stuff cap. All my attacks have an AoE I have to aim and account for, even just for punching someone. Also, I’m only allowed to fight for four turns before I lose my corporeal form, which is only solid enough to fight monsters because a teenage girl stuffed my soul into a pile of rocks. My weapon is a starfish, which I found somewhere after the last battle. I think it gives me new skills? I’ll probably just throw it at someone when I find a real weapon, if I have enough turns to grab it. I’m sure it’ll work out.

Since Phantom Brave is a series about making friends with ghosts, a lot of its gameplay ideas seem interested in the temporary. Few things are going to last a whole battle, and you have to understand and accept that you can’t just roll through every fight with your team of favorites and take your time covering the map. You need backups, or a team you can deploy in waves. You also have to be reactive to what things on the map, from specific trees to crates and barrels, you can use to summon a unit. This is a tough system to get used to, especially if you’re a NIS regular and have come to expect being able to do whatever you want with little pushback. Back in the day, I fell off Phantom Brave almost immediately, despite being interested in the characters and their story. There’s only so much room in my brain for strategy, and “this guy only lasts for four turns then disappears” was too much to handle.

This time around with The Lost Hero I couldn’t just run away. Trying easy mode was a big help, I’m not going to lie. But Marona also has an ability to give units extra turns, making it pretty hard to back myself into a corner. But as long as I didn’t do something foolish like start a battle with all my offensive characters, the limits that were scary at first became just another number to pay attention to. I ended up getting more annoyed with trying to manage my weapons, which involves looking at too many numbers at once if I wanted to try swapping things around. The Lost Hero ends up feeling pretty grindy, even if its systems look and feel like things you haven’t seen before.

It's kinda like Disgaea, without the Hell part. Instead: Teddy bears!

Speaking of things you have seen before, The Lost Hero’s storytelling chops are pretty much what NIS fans are accustomed to. There’s a much more cheery mood compared to things like Disgaea’s Hot Topic energy, but there’s a house style and this game fits in it. You find quirky characters, they bounce off your own quirky characters, and life lessons are learned along the way. “Tropes in a weird setting” is the playbook this company thrives in, and there’s no reason to change it now. The story also feels like it’s meandering aimlessly for large chunks of time, but it fits the kind of character Marona is, someone who is just happy to be alive and find people in need. The vibes are laid back, although the action and number-crunching are anything but “cozy.”

Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is a clumsy-feeling game, but its scatterbrained energy comes from an admirable place of bucking standardized gameplay conventions in a genre that doesn’t budge often. The first game had some interesting ideas back 20 years ago, and those ideas are streamlined and expanded upon, without losing that experimental feeling. Its systems are as grindy as they are weird though, and the writing mostly being on the happy-go-lucky side isn’t going out of its way to yank you along. Instead it wants you to relax and tackle things at a slower pace, which feels good until it starts exposing problems. Anyone who loved the original (greetings, fellow 30 or 40-something RPG dork) will probably have fun here, although the rounded edges may be disappointing. For anyone else, I’d say go for it if you’re specifically looking for something new and novel. Come in prepared to be overwhelmed at first; if you make it over the hump there’s a solid adventure on the other side. It's a perfect use case for a demo, and sure enough there is one. Check it out!

Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is available on January 30, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 and 5. A PC version is planned for spring 2025. A Nintendo Switch code was provided for this review.

Review for
Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero
7
Pros

• Laid-back vibe
• Distinct mechanics set it apart from other SRPGs
• Fun premise and setting - ghosts!

Cons

• Very grindy!
• Distinct mechanics are overwhelming and complex (YMMV)
• Story takes its sweet time a bit too often