Phantom Brave is Nippon Ichi's most unique and innovative SRPG, and my personal favourite of theirs. It's also pobably their most serious in terms of story, even though there are still many comedic moments in that more dramatic overall framework.

However, what makes the game unique are really its gameplay systems, and most directly 3 of its features:

• Free movement and positioning on the map - unlike in most SRPGs, particularly those developed in Japan, you are not bound to a grid, or hexes, or any other fixed partitioning. This also means that all spells and attacks have ranges which are expressed in 3D shapes, not sets of tiles.
  
• All your units except Marona are Phantoms which are "confined" into objects on the battlefield. Depending on which objects you use this causes significant effects on stats. Furthermore, phantoms only remain on the battlefield for a limited number of turns (depending on some factors).
  
• Both battlefield objects and units can be equipped as items, and often grant item-specific skills.

There's more to it of course, including the N1 staple character and item leveling, as well as a random dungeon generation system, and so on and so forth. But the 3 points above are what make it very unique even in the space of N1 SRPGs.

The PC version of the game is marketed as DEFINITIVE, and as far as I can tell that is absolutely the case. It includes all the content from all previous releases (including dual audio tracks), supports arbitrary resolutions and 60 FPS, and includes recreated HD UI graphics as well high-res 2D art. Both mouse/keyboard and gamepad controls are supported and work well. Outside of recreating all the sprites - which is understandably out of scope for a port such as this - it's about as great a version of Phantom Brave as we are ever likely to get.

In addition to the unique gamplay, the game also features a fantastic soundtrack, probably one of the best in any N1 game. Overall, it's a must play for all SRPG fans, especially those who have not played any of the game's previous versions.

(Oh, and I did play its previous versions, so this review is based on the entirety of the game, regardless of what the hour count says)

Phantom Brave is Nippon Ichi's most unique and innovative SRPG, and my personal favourite of theirs. It's also pobably their most serious in terms of story, even though there are still many comedic moments in that more dramatic overall framework. However, what makes the game unique are really its gameplay systems, and most directly 3 of its features: [LIST] [*]Free movement and positioning on the map - unlike in most SRPGs, particularly those developed in Japan, you are [B]not bound to a grid[/B], or hexes, or any other fixed partitioning. This also means that all spells and attacks have ranges which are expressed in 3D shapes, not sets of tiles. [*]All your units except Marona are Phantoms which are [B]"confined"[/B] into objects on the battlefield. Depending on which objects you use this causes significant effects on stats. Furthermore, phantoms only remain on the battlefield for a limited number of turns (depending on some factors). [*]Both battlefield objects and units can be equipped as items, and often grant item-specific skills. [/LIST] There's more to it of course, including the N1 staple character and item leveling, as well as a random dungeon generation system, and so on and so forth. But the 3 points above are what make it very unique even in the space of N1 SRPGs. The PC version of the game is marketed as DEFINITIVE, and as far as I can tell that is absolutely the case. It includes all the content from all previous releases (including dual audio tracks), supports[B] arbitrary resolutions and 60 FPS[/B], and includes recreated HD UI graphics as well high-res 2D art. Both mouse/keyboard and gamepad controls are supported and work well. Outside of recreating all the sprites - which is understandably out of scope for a port such as this - it's about as great a version of Phantom Brave as we are ever likely to get. In addition to the unique gamplay, the game also features a fantastic soundtrack, probably one of the best in any N1 game. [b][i]Overall, it's a must play for all SRPG fans, especially those who have not played any of the game's previous versions.[/i][/b] (Oh, and I did play its previous versions, so this review is based on the entirety of the game, regardless of what the hour count says)