Phantom Brave The Lost Hero is apparently a sequel to a game that came out way back in 2004 for the PlayStation 2. At a time when in my teenage years, I never really had the courage to ask my parents for a new console after my original PlayStation finally met its demise. And while it did have a bunch of expanded remakes and remastered versions in the past couple of years, it was only in 2025 that it finally caught my eye.
But right from the get-go, I have no idea what to expect. I have no prior knowledge about the game nor did I even try to get any further information as to what’s about to unfold. This is a game that I really wanted to try for the first time, blind. All I really know is that it has the same developer, Nippon Ichi Software, that publishes and develops the Disgaea titles. As someone who has played through a couple of their games in the past, I felt genuine excitement and terror.
Excitement that I might spend a lot of time in this game as well as terror that I might ACTUALLY spend a lot of time in this game. So, without further ado, let’s just get right into this, shall we?
Off to a brand-new adventure
As a sequel, Phantom Brave The Lost Hero ’s story does follow a somewhat new story arc so you wouldn’t really feel lost just like our hero, Marona, who is apparently someone who has the ability to see and interact with phantoms. However, she also has the powers that allow her to confine these phantoms to certain objects and give them physical forms to aid her in battle.
But during her travels at sea alongside her companion Ash, they end up meeting a masked figure that is trying to steal Marona’s powers but before he can take them fully, Ash saves her by throwing her out to sea where she ends up in an island inhabited by a pirate crew that will eventually help her find Ash that was left back in the ship.
Now while it might have taken me just about 50 hours to even complete the story, it was a well-worth experience. It has such an engaging and heartfelt story that tugs at your heartstrings. I just loved how phantoms, people who have just lost their lives due to a tragic end and have deep and lingering regrets finally find something else to keep them going.
Each and every one that you’ll meet and befriend also has such great character development that I just couldn’t really find a good stopping point to put it down. Its just like how I end up feeling when I watch a really good show that I end up just binge-watching the entire series.
It’s Disgaea but not really…
But as a game that has the same feel as Disgaea, you can pretty much expect the same level of love and detail. It’s a tactical-type RPG but with a lot of twists that makes it really unique and that’s coming from the people who made Disgaea, a game that already has its unique quirks. So, let’s break them down a bit. As I mentioned before, Marona has the ability to confine her phantom friends into objects in the world.
She can also gain the ability to “confriend” a phantom which is basically fusing herself with her phantoms and allows her to gain their unique abilities. What’s a bit more unique here is that confined phantoms gain certain bonuses based on the objects they’re fused with. Certain scenarios can also have some unique interactions with Gadgets. Some gadgets like catapults or cannons provide certain strategic advantages when used right which adds to the level of complexity but it’s one of those that are satisfying to use.
Similarly, as you progress through its core story or when you finish certain requests, you’ll also unlock more types of familiar phantoms if you already tried some of the other titles that they’re known for. From human-type classes like Fighters, Mages, Archers to more monster-like abominations. Given its nature, you can pretty much expect that you’ll end up spending even hundreds of hours just trying everything.
Gearing up in Phantom Brave The Lost Hero can also vary. Every character has the ability to use every weapon type albeit with certain conditions. If a character has an innate skill or ability based on a certain stat like ATK or DEX, equipping a weapon, object, tree or even a barrel that has low base stats in the required field means you’ll just end up doing far less damage than equipping an item that fits its necessary criteria.
Some abilities are also tied to the weapon you’re using so if you ever switched weapon types without learning them yet when you reach the required level or weapon mastery, then you lose the ability to use them later.
And while you can buy a lot of these weapons through the shop, there are also quite a few other ways to get them. Dungeons created from treasure maps is one of them while setting up a Salvaging Crew while you do the story or do other things eventually nets you a random item once they do come back. There’s a handful of other options and unlockable features that you can also expect in Phantom Brave The Lost Hero but I’ll just leave that for you to figure out later.
Diverse landscapes and strategy
Its stages or fields also offer varying shapes and sizes as well as elevation. This is also beside the fact that you’ve got multiple biomes that offer both the vibrant islands filled with greenery, the cold and snowy mountains or even the most dreaded of places. It’s these kinds of differences in the stages that make every encounter fun rather than repetitive.
Especially since summoned phantoms only have a limited amount of turns before they get removed from the field so strategizing how to optimally clear a stage becomes the main draw that makes me just come back to Phantom Brave The Lost Hero every single time. It’s not called a tactical or strategy RPG for nothing, that’s for sure.
Conclusion
Phantom Brave The Lost Hero is definitely something unexpected. There’s a good amount of content with replayable scenarios as well as more added content on top. Its story is great and engaging without making you feel that you’re stuck in dialogue hell for hours.
For better or worse, it found a good balance between sandwiching its story bits and their gameplay elements. The only thing that really soured that dough is the fact that every few hours, Phantom Brave The Lost Hero on the Nintendo Switch keeps experiencing errors that force me to restart Phantom Brave The Lost Hero every now and then besides the fact that camera angles when casting skills are often out of focus.
Phantom Brave The Lost Hero Trailer
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