Bringing a company’s back classics to modern systems is a trend in recent years and NIS America is getting in on it with Prinny Presents: NIS Classics Volume 1. The collection brings two classic SRPGs from the PS2 to the Switch and PC and lets fans enjoy them all over again. Phantom Brave and Soul Nomad & The World Eaters are the entries included here and they represent tactical RPG greatness from years past.
Phantom Brave is a more well-known game and has actually been ported to other consoles before and was already on PC at the time of the collection’s launch. Phantom Brave stars a young girl named Marona who has the ability to combine souls with certain objects in a process called confining which is a major part of battles in the game. Confining actually works a lot like NIS’s Disgaea games albeit not tied to a grid.
Marona will need to use Confine to get some allies when battles start but they must be managed carefully since they will leave after a few turns. Something to factor in is that Confining a soul can only be done once and therefore players will need to decide when to do it so Marona doesn’t expend them all at once. Choose what ally to confine carefully or risk being left vulnerable at the worst time.
Of course, more traditional SRPG elements from NIS games are here such as getting more allies, weapons, and customization options. There is a wonderful familiarity here that makes players feel at ease while also giving them something new with Confining. The result is a brilliant battle system that feels truly unique and yet easy to get into at the same time, especially for those who have played Disgaea.
The remastering of Phantom Brave was done beautifully and content from the later versions of the game are included also. This includes the campaigns introduced in the Wii version, complete with its own story. The dialogue and cutscenes are all great, and the remastered visuals are shown off in their beauty here. The only real issue is the camera and cursor that sometimes fight against the player and must be constantly adjusted, especially to ensure players actually move where they are supposed to.
The other game in the collection, Soul Nomad & the World Eaters, is less well known than Phantom Brave and is seeing its first re-release here on Switch and PC. Unlike Phantom Brave, this is not a remaster of the original release, and that feels like a missed opportunity. Soul Nomad’s strength is different from Phantom Brave and Disgaea in that it is an open-ended game with multiple options to choose from.
Soul Nomad & the World Eaters uses a grid-based battle system on 2D maps that has each unit representing a small army, with dozens of unit types to customize the party with. Soul Nomad might be even better than Phantom Brave by virtue of the multiple customizations and gameplay options available to the player. Raiding a town can be done, and squads can be merged, in what is perhaps one of the best takes on the tactical RPG genre.
Characters can be hired at the same level as the Player, and there are multiple routes to take. This gives Soul Nomad an advantage in that there is a lot of replayability in the game along with multiple endings. There is even an evil route that is unlockable and gives a very different storyline than the initial experience.
While Phantom Brave is incredibly user friendly, Soul Nomad & the World Eaters is a game long time players of the genre will appreciate more. NIS missed a golden opportunity to remaster the latter game, but it is still a must-play. Both games in the collection represent different sides of what makes the Tactical Turn-Based Strategy RPG genre great and should be experienced by fans and enjoyed in full
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
Images were taken from Nintendo.com