More

    Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero Review – Marona’s Seafaring Misadventures

    A beloved sequel with sadly a lackluster story.

    2024 saw the release of some beloved franchises that fans could only dream of seeing sequels of. However, I think I speak for everyone here when I say that no one expected to see a sequel to Phantom Brave announced and then released in 2025, in the form of Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero

    After all, it has been 20 years. This beloved franchise from Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) has seen a number of ports since the original’s PlayStation 2 release, but never a proper sequel. That changes this year, as we join Marona in a brand-new adventure.

    No Need to Play the Original for Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero

    Being a sequel, the story of Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero takes place six months after the ending of the original Phantom Brave. After Marona and Ash managed to vanquish Sulphur to another world, her name was etched in history as the Legendary Chroma. Instead of standing around however, she decides to travel around the world, helping others with her powers, as much as Ash would rather prefer she stood still.

    However, things soon take a sour turn, as the ship they’re in is assaulted by a fleet of ghost ships that are known as the Shipwreck Fleet. A mysterious masked man appears, and he is hellbent on taking away Marona’s powers for his own ambitions. In a moment of desperation, Ash places her in a water sphere and throws her far away.

    And so, Marona is separated from Ash. Her sphere washes ashore in an island called Skullrock Island. This island is run by the Argento Pirate Crew. However, Marona soon manages to give them a run for their money, but asks for the help of the crew that they help find Ash once again in order to rescue him.

    A More Lighthearted Story

    If you were expecting a hardcore story, then well, Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is anything but. The narrative takes on this more light-hearted and comical tone. A question that might arise is that, since The Lost Hero is a sequel, is if it’s a requirement to play the original Phantom Brave to understand this one.

    Well, the answer to that is…complicated. There is a brief summary on the events of the first game, so you should be able to jump right into it. A lot of the narrative’s key details are left out though, and you’ll be certainly lacking a lot of context, especially in regards to Marona’s own backstory.

    During the preview event that was attended by our staff member Soul, scenario writer Kento Jobana did mention that the story was toned down. The reason for this was due to the fact that the story of the original Phantom Brave was a bit too depressing. After rewatching a few of the cutscenes of the original, I can see how that would’ve been a problem.

    However, I also think the writing team went a bit too far with that prospect. Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero‘s story feels like a Sunday morning cartoon. Even during the times where the story tries to build up some suspense, it fails to do so. As an example, there was even a scene during a particular chapter where it was just so obvious on what the ploy was, yet Marona and co. just stood there, oblivious to the whole thing.

    The Power of the Phantoms

    Marona is capable of fighting, but most stages will have dozen of enemies that she can’t fight alone. And that’s where her Chartreuse ability comes into play, where she imbues objects with Phantoms, giving them a physical form for a limited time. Units are capable of freely moving across the map for a limited amount of turns, and Marona is even able to throw them around the battlefield.

    Speaking of throwing, this is where another feature comes into play. Certain attacks are able to violently throw an unit across the battlefield, to the point they can even go out of bounds. This might sound like a bug, but it’s certainly a feature. If you go out of bounds, you take a massive amount of damage, and objects that are thrown out are gone forever.

    Later in the game however, Marona is capable of having Phantoms possess her body with the power of the Miracle Chartreuse. Due to how this ability can deal a massive amount of damage, the time limit for Confriend is much shorter than Confine, meaning players should always use it as a sort of trump card.

    Phantoms can also be Confined into Gadgets such as cannons and even giant fans. This allows units to use those gadgets in order to contribute heavily to the battle’s favor. By creating an Engineer Phantom and developing new ones, you’re able to properly give some firepower to the less combat-oriented classes, which is one of the things that I enjoyed about the system.

    Home, Sweet Base

    There are several Facilities that are vital for your adventures you’re able to access through Skullrock Island’s main base. Each Facility is run by a specific type of Phantom. Creating a Phantom can be done at any time from Marona’s menu.

    Personally, I found the customization for the Phantoms to be a bit lacking. For instance, creating a Wizard, Engineer or even a Merchant only gives you the option to choose between five female models, with no way to create a male one. The same goes for classes such as the Fighter, Musician and Cook, which seem to be limited to just male models.

    This also extends to their personalities, where the Fighter will constantly be talking about exercise and the Merchant about money. This singular speech pattern gets extremely repetitive. It would’ve been nice if there was a screen where you could’ve been able to pick a sort of personality out of a number of different options.

    Still, the Facilities are really good features. In particular, the best one by far is the Juice Bar. By using its scale, the player is able to decide how much EXP goes to the Juice Bar, and how much your characters on-field get. You can then manually choose to dish out (pun intended) that EXP to whichever Phantom you wish. This method reminds me of the accumulated experience system from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and it has to be said, this is a really good system for those who wish to tune in every detail.

    Nintendo Switch Performance

    For the purposes of this review, Final Weapon received a Nintendo Switch copy of the game, so one of the main things I had to check was the performance. And sadly, I have noticed some significant frame drops, especially when using projectile-based attacks, and in some stages where there is a large amount of enemies. Some of the attacks from Marona’s Confriend form also suffer from frame drop issues.

    Furthermore, there is also a weird bug where in some situations, the game will just straight up crash if you attempt to select Continue from the title screen. Luckily, this never corrupted my save, but it is something that is very annoying. I hope the team at NIS can somewhat address this with a day-one patch.

    A Solid Sequel Marred By Its Story

    Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is a solid sequel to the beloved franchise, that much is certain. However, it pains me to admit that Nippon Ichi Software’s attempt at making the story sound less depressing resulted in a narrative that didn’t appeal to me as much as I thought it would.

    Don’t get me wrong. This sequel truly experiments a lot, with many elements you’d not usually see in a typical SRPG. Still, perhaps because I was looking for an exciting story with twists and turns, and what I got was a Sunday morning cartoon full of villains I’m unable to take seriously, then it’s very hard for me to recommend this game to the average person.

    Disclaimer: NIS America provided a Nintendo Switch copy of Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero for review purposes.

    SUMMARY

    Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is a good sequel to a beloved series that introduces a lot of good ideas. Still, it's a game that falls flat in its storytelling, going a bit too over the top, resulting in something that is hard to get engaged with.

    Latest articles

    Latest Articles

    Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is a good sequel to a beloved series that introduces a lot of good ideas. Still, it's a game that falls flat in its storytelling, going a bit too over the top, resulting in something that is hard to get engaged with.Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero Review - Marona's Seafaring Misadventures