Compared to disgaea?

[Hema]

how does this game/series compare to the disgaea series? comedy wise most importantly then story and gameplay

[Prinny]

much less comedy, much more "dramatic". It has a more serious undertone with a lot of depressing subject like social bullying and prejudice.
The main character is a goody two-shoes that would forgive even Hitler himself after he'd slaughter her whole family after resurrecting them. then destroy the world, then torture her for a hundred years... she would forgive and then turn around and say "One day people will understand"

This is not a joke. not an exaggeration. it's straight up what happens in the game. Yes there are "fun" scene and very soft humour. there are bits of joy here and there. but overall Phantom Brave was a very depressing story, the kind that is annoying to go through no matter how much you like the characters or the game.

I am not saying The Lost Hero will be the same. I am not saying it's gonna be as depressing. From what we have so far and the official website, it's going to be much more humour oriented with less serious undertone.


You should try either the PS2 version or the Wii version (google it or something. pretty sure you can find something) if you want a more detailed experience. As much as I love Phantom Brave, I can't honestly recommend it to just anyone. I sincerly hope The Lost Hero will be somewhat like I said earlier.

[Hema]

Originally posted by Prinny:

much less comedy, much more "dramatic". It has a more serious undertone with a lot of depressing subject like social bullying and prejudice.
The main character is a goody two-shoes that would forgive even Hitler himself after he'd slaughter her whole family after resurrecting them. then destroy the world, then torture her for a hundred years... she would forgive and then turn around and say "One day people will understand"

This is not a joke. not an exaggeration. it's straight up what happens in the game. Yes there are "fun" scene and very soft humour. there are bits of joy here and there. but overall Phantom Brave was a very depressing story, the kind that is annoying to go through no matter how much you like the characters or the game.

I am not saying The Lost Hero will be the same. I am not saying it's gonna be as depressing. From what we have so far and the official website, it's going to be much more humour oriented with less serious undertone.


You should try either the PS2 version or the Wii version (google it or something. pretty sure you can find something) if you want a more detailed experience. As much as I love Phantom Brave, I can't honestly recommend it to just anyone. I sincerly hope The Lost Hero will be somewhat like I said earlier.

thank you

[Skandranon]

As a counterpoint, phantom brave was easily my favorite Nippon ichi story, only one close to it was Soul Eater.

It's not that depressing - it basically has the tone of a kid's movie with sad parts. Think 'Up' or 'Land Before Time'.

[Hema]

Originally posted by Skandranon:

As a counterpoint, phantom brave was easily my favorite Nippon ichi story, only one close to it was Soul Eater.

It's not that depressing - it basically has the tone of a kid's movie with sad parts. Think 'Up' or 'Land Before Time'.

Soul Eater.? i know the anime/manga but not game. does it have a longer title i can use to search it?

i see. well i was mainly thinking about if it was light hearted like disgaea

[Prinny]

Originally posted by Skandranon:

As a counterpoint, phantom brave was easily my favorite Nippon ichi story, only one close to it was Soul Eater.

It's not that depressing - it basically has the tone of a kid's movie with sad parts. Think 'Up' or 'Land Before Time'.

Up has you tearing up from joy and sweetness before throwing you into the despair of solitude and the hope of new friends...
PB does not have that. you,re immediately thrown into a world of death and you witness the Orphan's parent literaly dying and being maimed in front of Ash... who somehow feels responsible and go haunt Marona.
Marona is being literaly cast out by everyone and shunned. We have NO hint of her EVER being happy before or in the present.
It's not until she literaly is the last hope of everyone around that things start to change. She is being used and abused at every corner. and then the shark comes around and act all creepy toward a kid... he's sweet, yeah. Out of nowhere...
Then the kid is thrown into an invasion of demon. thrust upon great dangerous fabled monster that someone a thousand time stronger couldn't beat and she is called a liar regardless of what happens... even though they believed her before.

UP? Up has a guide character, a ball of joy character, a depressed main character. It also has a lot of humor and antics.
Not PB. it's very different.
As for Land before time... yeah I could accept that comparison. It does have a little fun here and there but it is mostly a sad movie about death and loss through dangerous time. It's just missing child neglect, bullying, creepiness factor from adult, prejudice, abuse, manipulation, and a few more.

Yes, I know I'm being harsh on Phantom Brave. I know fans won't agree. But as much as I love this game, I simply can't deny what it is about. While absolutely fun to play, the story is by far the most debby downer I've played. It's heavy, much heavier than most people tend to admit. I can not in all honesty recommend this game to just anyone.
All hopes are only used to fight the literal incarnation of death & doom. It is not shown nor told what Marona gains. Yes the epilogue says she is no longer shunned but she is alone as the narrator says so. Canary comes back to use her, Shark still acts creepy, Hogg paid for Castille's stuff and research and yet... She is still "the possessed abandoned orphan". She is still alone (with ash the ghost), she is still struggling to feel loved. She does have a friend, but we can't tell when they'll be reunited.
Bonus content from other NIS games implies that Marona disappear and Castille is looking for her everywhere in other worlds. It is also implied she was cursed both by Sulpher, her own world, and even fate. She is often enslaved by other titles cast. Ash is.... either a fish or a toilet implement.
It is also implied that Marona will never again set foot home or be able to take a breather. With the new game coming, I'm inclined to believe so. Could be part of the curse.

TLDR:
Is the game fun? Absolutely
Is the story funny? Not at all. barely a shred of "funny" around chapter 6. It's all serious, sad, or hope that nor the player nor any character other than Marona can actually understand.
Is the story sad? Definitely.
Is the story "good"? IMO 80% good, 20% mediocre.
What is the main theme? Bullied orphan saves the world and is cursed to never be happy and relax at home. Also implicit creeper & emotional manipulation. Orphan hopes everyone would understand "something that is never explained" by "never explaining anything about anything concerning her". Also 10 years old, so it checks out.
Would I recommend the game? Not really.
Do I love the game? Absolutely. one of my favorite from the era. Second only to Disgaea.
Last word? Try it before buying. while a great GAME, the story is definitely not for everyone. PS2, PSP, Wii, WiiU, PSN, also have the game, the main story has remained unchanged regardless of version.

[BlueKanary]

As much as I agree that the story is much heavier than most and wouldn't recommend to just anyone, you make it sound like this game is comparable to Fear & Hunger. (Which a crossover would go hard ngl)

[Prinny]

I've never played Fear & Hunger.

PB isn't as bad as I describe it, true. but it needs to be understood that way. Some gamer don't mind how heavy the story is while other can't stomach it. Whatever the reason, it's not for everyone.

I truly love the game. I played through it twice this year. I play it every year at least once. Maybe that's why the way I talk about it sounds so harsh. It's fresh in my memory and a constant in my life. I'm closer to the game than most.
That's the bias that separates us, i'm guessing.

If you want a similar gameplay (not identical) but with more fun bones, try Makai Kingdom. while the humor is a bit outdated, it's still a lot lighter to digest than PB. closer to Disgaea.

if you don't mind a story that is not funny, a bit depressing, but still good. then by all mean try Phantom Brave. I don't want to discourage anyone from playing, but I don't want anyone getting their hopes up and feel betrayed.

[Omnipotencia]

i hope you like puzzle cause thats basically what it is, cool moves and everything but time limited stages, i beat the first one by just cheating marona to level 2000, was having fun with the game until you reach the first boss level stage and discover every unit is time limited and once they disappear you cant simply confine them to the item again nope they are gone the rest of the round and once all phantoms despawn they are gone leaving just marona. which just leaves you to power level marona and solo the game instead with maybe 1 phantom or 2. overlevel stuff so you can just 1 shot things and not deal with the phantom turn limit, coming from disgaea to this and having your party just disappear kinda sucks.

[Red Bat]

The NIS games actually make injokes about how Phantom Brave was a more "serious" game than Disgaea, something only really attempted again with Soul Nomad.

That said Phantom Brave is nowhere near as dark as Soul Nomad, and doesn't take itself particularly seriously. It's humorous and comedic, just less so than Disgaea, which itself sets an absurdly high bar in terms of not taking itself seriously. In fact even Soul Nomad comes across as pretty comedic compared to the average JRPG.

Originally posted by Hema:

Originally posted by Skandranon:

As a counterpoint, phantom brave was easily my favorite Nippon ichi story, only one close to it was Soul Eater.

It's not that depressing - it basically has the tone of a kid's movie with sad parts. Think 'Up' or 'Land Before Time'.

Soul Eater.? i know the anime/manga but not game. does it have a longer title i can use to search it?

i see. well i was mainly thinking about if it was light hearted like disgaea

They meant "Soul Nomad", not "Soul Eater". Some regions the game is called Soul Cradle. The full name is Soul Nomad and the World Eaters, which sounds like a really dumb power metal band.

Soul Nomad is an Ogre Battle style game that infamous for it's "evil" story route, which did the genocide thing before Undertale even came out.

[Charteuse Gale]

Marona on lost hero was much stronger than in previous game.

Just get travelling solo scroll that boost Marona stats by x2 and x3 speed if she play solo with no phantom on stage.

Once you get that scroll, you already beat the game, no joke it is that broken.

Story , cameo, dlc characters , cameo post game recruit and dlc was not that great compared to generic characters.

Some dlc characters actually good but they still lose to generic characters unit.

Getting egg is much easier than change book and many generic ability was quite broken. Example like Samurai that add 50% damage on her skill physical damage if she hit single target enemy.

Story characters need change book and 5 star or even phantom scroll to compete against generic character.

You can beat post end game boss with Samurai unit easily, i even beat it with Marona solo without using confriend. Post game end game boss is sadly easy compared to Pringer-X boss in previous game.

As for story, it was predictable and very cliche...no plot twist at all.

Also yeah Marona forgive the villian that basically commit genocide and even try to kill her and Ash.

[Exile HT]

everyone covered story wise, but gameplay wise you have distance to move rather then squares. you can move all around within your distance, and moves have areas of effects to see if your going to clip the enemy/enemies/friendlies in it. you dont have a base pad you bring squads out of, rather there are items all over the map that your main character summons your units into and they only last for X rounds before poofing out of existance. its similar but different enough to make it fun theres also a lot more weapon/item types with a lot of skills that make up for some of its other shortcomings. the final main difference is rather then geo panels on the ground you have the items on the map that send effects out to other units or items that you can then destroy to stop or summon into for a bonus.