I’ve been a fan of Nippon Ichi‘s output for most of my life, especially their Disgaea series. Its particular flavor of zany anime humor and action was incredibly formative for me, and I remain fond of it to this day. But Disgaea was only one of the several RPGs they produced, many of which only saw single entries. One such game was Phantom Brave, which I had played a decent chunk of but never really held as close to my heart as Disgaea. Its story and characters weren’t as goofy and over-the-top and its gameplay was far less conventional.
I was content to limit my relationship with Phantom Brave to its cast’s cameos in Disgaea and nothing else. All this, combined with a twenty-year release gap made the announcement of Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero land quite softly for me. Now that I’ve played it, the game pleasantly surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. It’s far from perfect, but it evokes fond memories of both Disgaea and the best parts of Phantom Brave while maintaining an identity all its own. And considering how much I love those games, that’s no small praise.

The game once again follows Marona, a Chroma blessed with the ability to see, hear, and empower the phantoms of deceased souls. While out on a job with her guardian phantom Ash, the two are attacked by a mysterious army of pirates called the Shipwreck Fleet. Their captain nearly absorbs Marona’s Chroma powers, but Ash intervenes, allowing her to flee while he holds the line. Washing up on a nearby island, Marona finds it is home to another phantom, a shy young pirate girl named Apricot, whose father, Argento, has been lost to the Fleet as well. With few other options, the two partner up to reassemble the Argento Pirate Crew, amass allies across various islands, and save their loved ones.
The story largely hews to the tried-and-true JRPG structure where a straightforward adventure becomes complicated at the midpoint with a rug-pull reveal. Despite this, The Lost Hero is still far from the most complex of narratives. The early chapters consist mostly of exposition and introductions rather than interesting character beats, and the themes they address are fairly rote. It isn’t devoid of substance, but what substance is there doesn’t amount to much.
Come the second half though, things take a turn for the better. One thing that gives The Lost Hero a leg up on the original (at least for me) is the party. Unlike the first game, where Marona and Ash were the only unique units playable during the main story, the sequel has around half a dozen unique characters. After you finish all the introductory chapters, they get much meatier follow-ups. They’re still far from the best cast in the genre, but they have good chemistry and just enough nuance to lend the narrative a bit more thematic weight in its home stretch. You’ll barely even notice Ash’s absence for most of the story.


What is noticeable is the graphical update. Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero has transitioned from the original’s sprite-based visuals to 3D models. While the character models look decent, they leave a lot to be desired in terms of animation. Their short limbs and big heads probably don’t help, but many of their motions feel stiff and limited, especially in regard to special attacks. In addition, the camera inconsistently tracks the target of an attack, making it difficult to see how much damage it does. By the second half, it’s also quite apparent how much the game reuses environments and bosses from earlier chapters.
The soundtrack fares a bit better, mostly getting by on the strength of the tracks featuring vocals, though it still averages out to just “okay.” Most of the vocal performances are solid. Risa Mei as Apricot, Daman Mills as her first mate Rouen, and Anjali Kunapaneni as rival pirate Mayfair are particular highlights. Unfortunately, Sandy Fox and Lex Lang, returning from the first game to reprise Marona and Ash, don’t fare quite as well. Their line reads come across as forced and rigid more often than not, which is a shame considering that both have done great work on other projects.
Thankfully, Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is consistent where it most counts: its unique gameplay mechanics carried over from its predecessor. Marona can use her Chroma powers to confine phantoms to physical objects, temporarily granting them physical bodies to interact with other living beings. In most cases, “interact” means “fight.” Different types of objects grant different stat bonuses, and certain objects can also confer buffs or debuffs to both ally and enemy units until they’re destroyed or removed from the field.

What makes this dynamic so engaging is working around the limited time each phantom has on the battlefield. Marona has a set number of units she can confine at once. This number is refunded if a unit’s turn limit runs out, but not if they’re incapacitated, and once their limit is up, they cannot be confined again until the next map. You must consider which units can best clear which waves of enemies while protecting Marona and do so before their turn limit is up, and there’s a variety of well-designed encounters to keep it fresh.
Of course, you’ll need weapons to fight, and this is where things really go off the rails. Every confinable object, including rocks, bushes, anchors, fish, cacti, syringes, and flowers can be equipped as easily as a sword or axe. Whether they’re a better choice for combat than actual weapons comes down to several factors, including their title-based stat multipliers, which you can thankfully change out and even give to your units to further buff their key stats.
If all that wasn’t enough to take in, The Lost Hero debuts two major new mechanics to its combat. The first is “confire,” wherein Marona confines units to heavy artillery and machines instead of simple objects. This allows them to act quicker and use unique skills based on the object being possessed. The other is “confriend,” which sees Marona and a phantom she’s bonded with fuse into a single unit. This combined unit is granted various buffs, increased crit chance, and multiple consecutive turns to act based on Marona’s bond level with the phantom. Bonding is simple: you just have to use the unit in battle a lot and talk with them in the base after every fight. Sadly, it doesn’t elicit any new dialogue. Once they’ve reached the max level, the fused Marona can act five turns in a row, trivializing many encounters if you’re building your units well. Thankfully, this is a Nippon Ichi game, where building up your units is as much fun as the actual gameplay.

There are too many interlocking systems and features to cover in great detail; salvaging, item fusion, and the various requests one can complete for rewards are just a few. The most important ones are the reincarnation/awakening mechanics, dungeon generation, and the Juice Bar. Reincarnation and awakening allow you to build up units even once they’ve hit max level by modifying their base stats. Dungeon generation lets you create a randomly generated dungeon based on which title you affix to it—the more powerful the title, the harder the dungeon, and the greater the rewards. The Juice Bar allows you to choose how much EXP is earned automatically by a unit defeating an enemy and how much is set aside for later distribution. It’s best to use the latter method to ensure your key units aren’t over or under-leveled, especially once you upgrade the bar to allow for EXP multiplication.
Any of these systems are just some ways to get a minor edge up on your enemies until the post-game, which, in addition to several fun cameos, encourages grinding up to level 1000 and beyond in the Nippon Ichi tradition. As someone who has always loved this part of their RPGs, I could not be happier that it remains intact in The Lost Hero. With so many options at your disposal, there’s always a way to grind up quickly or utterly break a fight in half, and that element of discovery not only expedites an otherwise tedious process, it makes it fun. That alone is worth all the praise I can give.
Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero may not be the most unique JRPG in recent memory, but there’s still not much out there that can capture the specific charm of its gameplay. It’s a delight if you’ve never played a Nippon Ichi RPG or if you’re a veteran, and as one of those veterans, I’m so glad that this series has returned from the dead. Seems to be a theme.