Now Playing - Phantom Brave

I have recently had the opportunity to finalize my dealings with Star Ocean 3 and henceforth have begun my trek through the world of Phantom Brave. Now, being the HUGE Nippon Ichi fan that I am (I played both Disgaea and La Pucelle to death), I was rather stoked to play up their newest offering, Phantom Brave (PB). What do I think so far?

First off, I went into this one thinking it would be a lot like NI's previous offerings, but in reality PB is a totally different animal; and it IS an animal!

I have very few qualms in saying that PB may very well be the most involved strategy RPG ever. The amount of things you can do in this game is enough to boggle the mind. In order to bring out a troop, you do not merely summon them, you "confine" them to a wide variety of inanimate objects on the battlefield. Each object has different characteristics and thus the strengths and weaknesses of your summoned character will change accordingly.

Once you have actually managed to summon a character or two onto the battlefield, the madness continues. First off, they will only remain summoned for a number of turns. This means that you either have to accutely manage who you bring out at what time, or else you need to get your business done and quickly!

Next, you can fight with pretty much anything you find littered around the battlefield. You can steal enemy's weapons and then beat them down with said weapon. You can even level up that weapon, bring it into battle and confine yourself to it, or simply fuse with the item itself to permanently gain its ability.

That explanation right there is really only skimming the surface of what PB is all about. I could literally write for hours on its intricacies, but I think I will save that for the review when I finish the game.

So what do I think of it so far? Well, it is almost a little too involved. The story is typical NI fare, but slightly sadder and a little bit more downtrodden (at least so far). I am enjoying it, but so far it seems to lack that certain...something that Disgaea, and to a lesser extent, La Pucelle exuded.

In any case, I will keep you posted on my progress through the game (I am only in chapter 4), so in the meantime here are some screens to keep you busy.

Phantom Brave Screens (Courtesy of 1up)

And on another note, did anyone else notice that a new game has been announced by NI? Called Phantom Kingdom, it certainly looks to be in the same style as previous efforts. I haven't heard much of anything in the way of details, but here are some shots at least. Doesn't NI really know what it is doing with sprites?

Phantom Kingdom Screens (Courtesy of RPGFan)

Comments (0) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 11.26.2004

Game Party!

Long ago, during the beautiful, stress free summer vacations of old, and on every single weekend, all of us friends would get together to play games. Those were the glory days of games ranging from the original Super Mario Bros. all the way through Star Fox and past! I cannot remember at exactly what age we stopped doing this and instead began spending every night at the bar, but then I don't remember much from that time at all.

Now here we are a few years later and we have long since tired of the bar and respective violence and cash draining associated with it. Once again as the Wheel of Time spins, we find ourselves getting together once again. And what to do on our get togethers? Why play games of course!

It was with great delight then that my buddy called me up last week and we planned a game party for the weekend. Now granted, we never call it a "game party" as such, we just sort of get together, rent a few games and drink a lot of booze.

So it was that we made it over to our local Video Game Trader and managed to snap up a copy of Halo 2 and Mortal Kombat Deception. We attempted, with no success, to procur a copy of Metal Gear Solid 3 and GTA San Andrea but the former wasn't available for rental yet and the latter was most likely rented out the second it hit the shelves.

For our booze of preference, we picked the always faithful Kokanee twelve pack. It should have done us fine, but over the course of the night others joined us, the ladies came back from their makeup appointment (One thing about getting married, the ladies get their makeup done not once, not twice, but thrice!) and we were once again in need of booze. And food.

A quick jaunt over to Boston Pizza settled both cravings handily. Or it should have. After scarfing down a Ciabatta Chicken Sandwich (Excellent!) and draining my third of a team pitcher (basically a bath tub of beer), my buddy came up with an excellent, yet deadly idea. Why not try out those old 2 litre cooler bottles we used to drink when we were 17? Being a tad inebriated, we all heartily agreed.

Now, some would say that one's video game skills should decline after drinking your face off as one's motor skills gradually leave them. Strangely enough, ours seemed to improve. We worked our way handily through the "Konquest" mode of MK Deception and gunned each other down left, right and center in Halo 2.

While both games are pretty fun, I found they both suffered from a few flaws. First off Mortal Kombat. While kicking each other's teeth in was rather fun, in order to get a full line-up of fighters, you have to slog through the "Konquest" mode. Basically it is a fighting game "RPG" filled to the brim with mindless fetch quests and dialogue, boring, predictable tutorials and voice acting up to par with the original Shadow Hearts (I.E. worst.voice-acting.evar!). This can naturally make for a boring experience since only one person can play and watching someone play it isn't exactly what I would call good fun.

Halo 2 on the other hand was kind of a let-down. I realize I didn't play even a shred of what could be played, but to me it seemed simply like the first Halo but with a few new features. Granted I didn't play it online and only 2 of us were playing multi-player, but none of us really got into it. Strangely enough however, we fired up Karaoke Revolution 2 and everyone had a blast with it!

So what is the moral of this story? Perhaps it is that you WILL face a hangover from hell by mixing your liquors. Perhaps it is that Halo simply hasn't evolved enough for me to appreciate it or perhaps I don't posess the necessary tools to fully enjoy it (I.E. a network adapter, 4 controllers, etc.). Or perhaps it is that RPG modes do not belong in fighting games. No matter how you put it, I still love video game parties and I can't wait for the next one!

PS - My apologies for no pictures, my brother didn't bring his digital cam and by the time I realized I wanted it I was too plowed to even think about driving to get it. Here are some screens instead!

Halo 2 Screens (Courtesy of 1up)

Mortal Kombat Deception Screens (Courtesy of 1up)

Comments (0) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 11.24.2004

Game of the Day: Kingdom Hearts - Chain of Memories

Kingdom Hearts - Chain of Memories

Hello and welcome to day 5 of my "Game of the Day" feature. It is rather remarkable to find myself in a situation where there are so many triple "A" titles in need of some recognition. It is a good situation, of that there is little doubt, but a very brutal situation on my wallet.

Today I find myself writing about another fantastic portable game to be coming out soon, Kingdom Hearts - Chain of Memories.

My love towards the original Kingdom Hearts came to me as something of a surprise. Sure, it was a game developed by amazing producer Square Enix (Square at the time I believe), but I mean how amazing could a game be that integrated characters from the Final Fantasy (Yay!) universe with the Disney universe (WTF???).

Thankfully, it ended up being a brilliant piece of work. While people may have complained (and rightfully so) about an annoying camera and the button mashing battle system, the unique storyline and lovable characters (not to mention the brilliant voice acting and beautiful graphics) really came together to form one amazing experience.

Here we are a couple of years later and we have not one, but two sequels on the horizon; surprisingly, the first of which is going to be released on the GBA.

The original KH looked brilliant on the PS2 and respectfully the GBA version looks beautiful compared to almost anything else on Nintendo's little handheld. Sporting lush animation, colorful characters and even cutscenes (!), KH for the GBA looks set to raise the bar on how games can look on the GBA.

Chain of Memories' storyline is set to take place directly after the first game's plot and looks to feature all of your old favorites. Characters from Final Fantasy, Disney and of course unique characters like Sora all make a return appearance.

As far as gameplay goes, it looks as though Chain of Memories is going to try something new. Now, most people have an inherent fear of card based RPGs but in Chain of Memories the card feature actually looks as though it could be very cool. Every attack seems to be synced onto cards so it should be interesting to see how a pure action RPG can switch over to card based and still keep the action intense.

All in all Chain of Memories looks to be ready to set new standards by which portable RPGs are gauged by. I for one am immensly curious to see what became of Sora after his first adventure and so Chain of Memories may very well be the latest, greatest thing for my GBA!

Screens (Courtesy of 1up)

Comments (0) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 11.22.2004

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