NIS America’s legacy has grown over the last fifteen years, but truly got going with major momentum thanks to their outstanding library of tactical RPGs. While this genre has become stagnant when it comes to new releases from other companies – with some exceptions likeFae Tacticson PC, NIS has kept the genre alive on modern hardware as much as possible. The PS2 and PSP were havens for tactical RPGs and the Switch has become that with games like the Mercenaries Saga getting new releases – and now NIS America is reaching into their back catalog to release a pair of mid-’00s gems in the form of Phantom Brave and Soul Nomad.
Phantom Brave was a unique SRPG in its time and with 15+ years since its release, it only stands out even more with its innovative usage of the environment to deal more damage or heal as the battle goes on. Some characters can make use of the ability to lift things off of the ground and use them to deal out either massive damage in a single turn to one enemy or spread that damage out over a greater area and do less damage per-foe. So let’s say a sword is on a stone – you can pick up the sword and use that to take out foes quickly. If foes are spread out over the map, then taking out enemies one by one might be best as it minimizes the chances they have to deal out damage in their turn. This is especially true if a faster character is wielding the weapon and can get more use out of it per-turn than someone else.
The ability to turn objects on the battlefield into ongoing healing items is cool too – and allows things like taking a character summoned to life in a grassy area to be healed up with a shrub. The game’s usage of party summoning using parts of the environment is neat and ties into the core gameplay. If you have a powerhouse character, using a stone to bring them around gives them more power. Using a tree for a healing character helps boost their skills and the more actions that are used for a character’s skillset, the better they’ll do when it comes to using turns wisely and quickly gaining XP.
There’s a lot of depth to Phantom Brave’s combat, but it remains accessible due to how well-crafted the tutorials are and being able to access combat tips at any time. SRPGs can be intimidating, but NIS did a fantastic job with this one to ensure that it was easy to use without having to keep a notebook handy. The genre can be notorious for being tricky to learn and harder to come back to – but the ever-present in-game tips make it much easier to enjoy the action. One great thing about Phantom Brave is that its ability to rotate the camera and usage of circular aiming instead of square grid-based aiming and movement enables the battlefield to be moved around more like a modern 3D game. It’s easier to nail attacks as a result, while also plotting out defense since the environment and overall space you occupy are easier to get a sense of.
In terms of game feel, Phantom Brave is a bit more light-hearted, while Soul Nomad is a more serious game. Soul Nomad has a heavier story with a grander scale in a post-war world, and blends in SRPG combat with a more action-centric approach. The SRPG portions are on the overworld and then things transition to a split-screen battle area where you’ll go back and forth with shots and even get a chance to land counter-attacks. This adds a lot of speed to the SRPG genre and allows for a foe to miss a few shots, but for the player to take them out on the counter-attack. Both games are impressive to play today in large part due to getting it right the first time – and that making it easier to play them in the modern era.
The NIS Classics allow for a fair amount of modernization when compared to the original releases. With Phantom Brave, there are options to smooth out text with anti-aliasing, switch between 4:3 and 16:9 for the viewing area, and switch between the original font and newer fonts for the UI. The newer text is far easier to see and much cleaner – but sticklers for the original text do at least have the option to use it. On the go, the newer interface is much better to work with on the small screen and makes all in-game text easier to read. Soul Nomad is less robust and offers up a stretched widescreen mode alongside a pillarbox mode. There aren’t UI text options with that game either.
While a lot of modern SRPGs include a fast forward option, that isn’t in place here – and with the included games having a snappier pace than most in the genre, it makes sense. Fast forward options make sense in games with a strict formula where one party attacks en masse followed by the other – but for back and forth gameplay, it wouldn’t speed things up by much and seeing enemies attack in real-time in this genre gives you time to strategize your next move. That kind of time is invaluable in a game like this – especially in the later stages as challenge levels ramp up. Not having it here won’t please everyone, but it wouldn’t do any good in either game showcased here, so it’s no big loss.
Visually, both games show their age and don’t get much of an improvement on modern hardware. The art for both games appears to have gone through a bit of an upscaling – which works for the backgrounds, as they look sharper than ever before. The character art for the full sprites, however, tends to look blurry. This is the case whether playing in 4:3 or 16:9, but both games suffer visually compared to what one might expect from a modern hardware release of the games. Setting aside the blurry sprites, both games have held up well thanks to smooth animation and rich, detailed artwork for backgrounds working far better with up-ressed assets.
Both games feature full voiceover work, with Phantom Brave’s being more like a slice of life anime and Soul Nomad’s being more dramatic. There’s not really a “better” between them as each style has its own nuances – but the casts for each game did a fantastic job overall. There’s more humor in Phantom Brave, so that’s going to be more fun to listen to overall. When it comes to soundtracks, both are excellent – but Soul Nomad’s is more diverse with a blend of serious music and dramatic instrumentation that makes the stakes seem greater. It shines even more with a solid set of headphones bringing out the depth of the soundtrack.
Closing Comments:
Overall, Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol. 1 is an excellent collection for tactical RPG fans. The genre can often be pigeon-holed into being full of FFT clones, but both included games here manage to nicely stand out both from that series and NIS America’s own Disgaea. With a variety of tones offered up in each game, they each help scratch the itch for SRPG fans while also working for those wanting a more serious experience in Soul Nomad or who want to kick back with a light-hearted tale with Phantom Brave. Both games are fun to play, but it’s a shame more wasn’t done to help the visuals out as both do suffer from blurry character sprites that clash against the backgrounds that actually did get more work done for modern-day displays. `
