I reviewed the unique Phantom Courageous again when it was part of NIS Classics Vol. 1, and was quite keen on the sport. It was a pleasing shock when Phantom Courageous: The Misplaced Hero was not too long ago introduced, and much more nice after I secured an appointment to preview the sport at PAX West. I had a beautiful time with the upcoming sequel, because it builds upon the unique with all of the attraction you’d anticipate from Nippon Ichi Software program.
This time round, the spectral Ash has gone lacking, main a extra skilled Marona to go and discover him. She groups up with a spirit named Apricot who’s in search of her pirate captain father, main to what’s to this point a pleasant new journey. All through my time with the demo, there have been numerous goofy strains of dialogue that made me smile as Apricot and Marona confronted an enormous wolf that was pretending to be Apricot’s father. By now, I anticipate this type of attraction from Nippon Ichi, nevertheless it’s simply as refreshing to run into the irreverent comedy because it ever is.
The power to run freely round a set house as an alternative of a grid continues to offer Phantom Courageous: The Misplaced Hero a unique really feel than different tactical video games, with this facet even bettering by means of small QoL modifications. Now you can maintain down a button to maneuver whereas viewing your assault vary, reducing down on the quantity of menus you need to navigate throughout fight. Small touches like this are at all times appreciated, particularly so a few years after the unique recreation.
Phantom Courageous: The Misplaced Hero helps you to possess devices
A brand new mechanic helps you to confine spirits into devices as an alternative of simply common objects, with the demo permitting me to place one inside an unlimited cannon. This meant I may do enormous AOE cannon assaults in opposition to the enemy pirates that had been swarming my squad, which was a large assist as increasingly more foes arrived.
One other attention-grabbing addition in Phantom Courageous: The Misplaced Hero helps you to ship items out on passive salvage missions that run in real-time to get goodies to make use of in chapters, which is simply one of many completely different features you’ll be able to unlock by making items of various courses in between phases. It looks as if there can be fairly just a few issues to unlock, which actually piques my curiosity.
“I can inform there can be a ton of choices in every stage for each confinement and weapon usability, which ought to show to be plenty of foolish enjoyable.“
With the ability to use something as a weapon is one other enjoyable little facet of Phantom Courageous: The Misplaced Hero, as I unintentionally had one in all my items choose up an entire tree as an alternative of her dagger, main her to have some wild talents that used the tree kind of as a giant membership. One enemy used a big fish as a weapon, and essentially the most shocking half was that it was extremely highly effective. I can inform there can be a ton of choices in every stage for each confinement and weapon usability, which ought to show to be plenty of foolish enjoyable.
I used to be additionally pleasantly shocked with how Phantom Courageous: The Misplaced Hero interprets the sport from pixel artwork to 3D. I really like pixel artwork essentially the most, however the artwork model current in Phantom Courageous works effectively with these 3D fashions, as they haven’t misplaced any of the attraction that got here from their unique 2D presentation.
All-in-all, Phantom Courageous: The Misplaced Hero stands out as an thrilling follow-up to one in all Nippon Ichi’s much less talked about titles. The possession mechanic stays neat and has even been constructed upon, and there are already some promising QoL updates. I’ll completely be checking it out when it releases subsequent yr on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Change, and PC, because it looks like a sequel I by no means anticipated however can’t await.