Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds enters into the beat-’em-up genre as a Playstation Vita title available as a downloadable game content. Taking place in Japan, the game begins with a man named “Phantom” who happens to kidnap the sister of one of the four female warriors. As such, they quickly respond and journey to rescue her. But in the process of doing so, they lose their powers and end up being transported into another dimension. There, the warriors must get their abilities back and continue their goal of rescuing the sister.
Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds plays out as a side-scroller where your characters are traveling along a two-dimensional plain plans as they fight off against a wave of enemies. The controls discussed within the game’s menu option, but it’s also very simple to figure out, especially if you are familiar with fighting games. You use the d-pad to move, face buttons for the corresponding battle commands, and the shoulder buttons to switch between plains. Although the game does not take advantage of the Vita’s touch controls, it’s not that big of a deal in the first place as the controls overall is intuitive and straightforward anyways.
From the start, Phantom breaker: Battle Grounds allow you four characters to choose from (or five if you purchase the add-on content for the Makise Kurisu character who came from the Steins;Gate anime). However, there are more characters for you to access which can be unlocked when you encounter during the main story. As a result, you can end up with 8 characters to choose from.
As you explore the worlds witin Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds, you’ll quickly notice how the graphics pay homage to the retro old-school video games. The environments and character sprites are presented in a 2D cute anime style. Giving that Super Nintendo-like appearance coupled with the 8-bit style music, Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds successfully produces a wonderful and joyful experience. With the audio offering a chip-tune score, the sounds give way to producing a classic gameplay impression.
Adding longevity to the gameplay are the RPG elements. By defeating enemies, you’ll be able to collect the red jewels and money that they leave behind, which serve as experience points. When you finish the level you’re playing, the game will tally up your total and level up your character accordingly. The more your level increases, the more skill points you can acquire. These in turn will afford you the opportunity to purchase either new abilities or increase in stats.
With 10 levels in total, Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds remain to have a variety in both the backgrounds as well as enemies to fight against. Each level are set up with different areas to play through. Despite the over-the-top action contained in this game, the beat-em-up could possibly be a button-mashing affair which ultimately can become quite repetitive to some players. On top of that, if you have too many enemies on screen, it can be hard to keep track of as you are surrounded by their attacks unfairly. It can get annoying consequently, but your special attacks would be the best approach to take in this type of situation. Once you get through the, the boss fight offers enough challenge and excitement for you to compensate for the button-mashing madness.
Since completing the game with one character would take around 2 hours, one may feel short changed at first in terms of content. However, considering that there are different characters available as well as multiple difficulty levels that unlock after each playthrough, the game has extra replay incentive, especially when you get to see a better ending when playing in the difficult setting. Additionally, there is the multiplayer option to team up with 3 other players either via ad-hoc or online which always adds more fun and craziness to the gameplay mix.
There’s quite the content contained in Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds, thus making it a magnificent title to own for the Playstation Vita. The add-on character, Makise Kurisu, is also available as a separate purchase if you wish to have another exciting character to access. While Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds may have a couple of shortcomings, overall, its action-packed gameplay and nice retro presentation will get you coming back for me.
